The Lost Girl (Complete)

Chapter Two - The Lost Journal

Peering into the black hole, Celestia tightened her lips and ducked back out of the mysterious bedroom to locate a flashlight.

"Please have some answers," She whispered, kneeling down to slowly work herself through the doorway.

It was slow going as she kept the light lowered to the floor in case there were any exposed nails or damaged wood. Surprisingly, the surface was cushioned carpet, smooth and soft against her fingertips.

Her hand eventually hit the edge of a step, her eyes widening as she tried to take in the small but unexpectedly arranged nook. The carpet continued up the length of the stairs where a two-person bean bag sat alone and dusty – considering the fact that the top half was bright pink, Celestia surmised that this special space must have also belonged to the owner of the untouched bedroom.

Able to stretch up, she knee-walked onto the platform and settled herself into the chair, her light skimming the area. Starting with the floor, she was disappointed to note that the only thing left was a pile of wadded up paper although the walls revealed much more.

Celestia's breath caught as she took in the photographs, dozens of them, all focussing on the same ten people. Nine teenage boys and one petite girl whose features looked vaguely familiar. It was almost too much to take in especially when she realised that one of the boys had played more than a passing role in her life for the past six years.

There, looking almost the same even though he could have only been about sixteen, was her high school mathematics teacher, Mr Dakota Lee. Mr Lee to his students and Kota to his colleagues.

"What on earth?" She whispered, pushing herself closer until her nose was nearly pressed to one of the few photos featuring the whole group together. "This just can't be right."

It wasn't beyond the realm of possibilities that he lived in the area but to see evidence that he'd grown up within walking distance and had a very real and personal connection to the girl who had once lived with her mother.

Frantically searching around for something, anything else, Celestia almost froze when she spotted the corner of a book poking out from underneath the chair. Surely it had been hidden for a reason!

Carefully cradling it in one hand, she looked over the pictures once more before crawling back towards the bedroom, the small cupboard hidden on one side barely receiving more than a blink.

Excitement was bubbling through her system. She had so many questions and with each new discovery the questions continued to pile up.

Honestly, she thought, what could have happened that there had been no mention, even in passing, of the blonde haired, green-eyed ghost who had apparently haunted the house.

Darting out into the hallway, Celestia switched off the light and slipped into her own sparse bedroom where she through on the overhead light and sprawled across the bed, the book already open.

Diary of Sang Sorenson – Rewritten into English by Nathan Griffin

Normally my little Peanut would keep her thoughts private by translating them into her own secret language but she has decided to let me try and decipher them. Here goes nothing, I guess.

... ... ...

Stretching, her mind in chaos, Celestia finally closed the battered old notebook and looked around the room, her eyes trying to imagine it as it would have been all those years ago. Dirty, clothes thrown everywhere as Marie tried to hide the bottles of alcohol and the clothes that she had stolen from her half-sister.

She could barely believe what she had read throughout the night, all of her preconceptions about the Sorenson family had been torn to shreds as she forced herself to take in every gritty, horrifying detail of what her grandfather, grandmother and mother had forced the teenage Sang to endure.

There had been a few hopeful moments when she thought that perhaps it was a work of fiction or a gross exaggeration but there was too much emotion, too many small pieces which supported the bleak, lonely tale.

There had once been a Sang Sorenson, a young, innocent child who had wanted nothing more than to be loved but instead, she had been hated because of things outside of her control. Despised and punished for being the result of a disgusting union between Celestia's grandfather and his own cousin.

Sang's life had been filled with pain and abuse until the family had moved to Sunnyvale Court and she had encountered nine unlikely heroes. Boys of an age to her who had belonged to a mysterious Academy, and who had swooped in to save her.

The story was incomplete of course, the last entry written just before Sang's seventeenth birthday. She had confessed that everything had gotten too hard at home with the death of her step-mother and the evolution of her relationship with the boys.

Celestia was still reeling from that – her aunt had willingly entered into poly relationship. There were nothing to indicate that she had engaged sexually with the boys up until that point but it was expected that eventually the ten of them would be dealing with that level of intimacy as well.

Blinking sluggishly at the sunlight beginning to pour from between the open curtains, Celestia decided that she was just too tired to think it over rationally. It had been less than 24 hours since she had buried her mother and in that time there had been the shocking discovery of an unknown aunt and a family history which made her feel ashamed of ever defending any of her mother's actions.

She sighed and pushed underneath the covers, the book carefully placed on the pillow next to her. It seemed to silently scream at her.

What was she going to do now? What if she had family out there? An aunt, uncles, cousins.

She laid her fingers over it, a silent promise that she would do everything she could to find Sang and finally put to rest all of the confusion swirling within her heart.

Celestia was going to find out exactly who she was and if there could possibly be a place for herself somewhere.