Beneath the Fountain

8. Happy Endings Don't Exist

Even though I haven't had much for sleep the past few nights, I feel wide awake. Although, I fear that my night life may start to take its toll on me if I keep this up for another night. I can already feel my wariness slowly start to evaporate from my body, and my usually fluid movements start to become rigid and not so graceful. But that's a problem for me to worry about tomorrow and not today.

I've managed to avoid Mr. Daniels for most of the day. Other than a few semi-amiable words exchanged at breakfast and a kiss on the cheek from him in his parting, I haven't seen him because he is attending to business at one of his blacksmiths in our closest neighboring town Selanna, which is only a two hour ride by horse away.

The town I live is called Adreanya. It is so small that many people don't even consider it to be town so it isn't on many maps. It is one of our country's smallest towns- although it is centuries old- and for some reason, it didn't flourish as others had. I suspect that the reason we remain so small is that we live in a very wooded region which also causes us to be a fair distance from other towns.

Some people even believe the woods around us to be cursed by some sort of dark magic, but there is no way for me to know whether or not that's true considering I've never been allowed to set foot in them. I do believe it's possible, though, since the fountain is just at the edge of them.

Anyways, Mr. Daniels won't be back until late tonight when I am supposed to be asleep in my bed, but I'll actually be in a completely different realm. My father must've been smiling down on me today because I don't know how I got so lucky to be granted the absence of my horrid betrothed.

Today has been moving tremendously slow as I anxiously await nightfall so that I can slip away into the shadows. I don't know if the time between breakfast and lunch has ever felt so long before, and the time between lunch and dinner is even more distant. It feels like I could slip an eternity in to this time frame, and I would still have to wait.

Still, it doesn't help that I haven't had much to do with my time. Helena has been kept quite busy by my mother with making arrangements for the upcoming wedding in a month and keeping everything in order, so I haven't seen her since this morning when she put me in the soft pink gown I am wearing. I tried to pass my time by walking through the gardens, but that only seemed to make things worse. Between having nightmarish flashbacks of Mr. Daniels and I's walk through the garden yesterday, or seeing the glowing flowers and Mystery's intriguing self rather than the normal flowers planted in my garden, taking a walk through it only slowed time even more if that was even possible.

So, that is how I ended up spending much of my day here in the library. At first I came here just to find a book that I haven't yet read to get lost in to help pass time, but as soon as I picked one up, my mind flashed to Mystery and the promise that I made to him. I decided that rather than read some fictitious tale, I would try to see if I could find any book that might hold a clue to Mystery's origins, but so far, I've been rewarded with nothing for my hours of searching. Helping Mystery may be harder than I originally thought, but I'm not going to give up because I can't fail him. If I failed, I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that he is still trapped and alone with no idea who he is.

His fate just might be worse than my own.

It's nearing dinner time now which means I'm running out of time to find something today, but on the other hand, I'm also getting closer to seeing Mystery again. I'm conflicted on whether to be excited that the time is drawing near, or upset because I will arrive empty handed. I still have time, though, as I search the labyrinth of the room I'm in. The problem is: I don't even know where to look. Our family's library is huge with shelves that cover entire walls, all filled to the brim with books. The walls are so high that I have to use a ladder to reach the upper shelves of them, and maneuvering that ladder is no easy feat. Spaced throughout the room are even more oak shelves that aren't as tall, but still hold many books nonetheless. At the center of the library sits some forest green cushioned chairs, a few chests, and an old oak table that is piled with even more books that couldn't find their home on a shelf. Normally having such a huge library with a seemingly endless supply of books is a blessing, but right now, it is a curse since it's nearly impossible to find a book that might hold the key to Mystery's story- if there is one even here, that is. The odds of me finding what I want are highly against me, but I won't stop looking until I've seen every book, scroll, and picture there is because then I'll know that I've done everything I could in here.