2 A mysterious man

An hour later , Mia couldn't believe her luck , sitting at the back of her mother's car with Erica and Poppy ,on the way to the mall , for the very first time in her life . She knew that her mother very much wanted to leave her back at home but under Stuart 's stern gaze , she wasn't able to . Instead smiling as she had a fish bone stuck in her throat she asked Mia to settle down with Erica and Poppy.

However, fifteen minutes later Mia realised why her mother had agreed with Stuart at home . Erica and Poppy got out of the car but as she was following behind them , Her mother pushed her right back in , locking the car doors .

" I'm warning you " she hissed at Mia bringing her heavily botoxed face right closed up to Mia's " If you so much as dare to get out of the car or put a dent in my car just like Professor Garcia's , you will be locked right back into that pretty little attic of yours without any food ! Do you hear me ? Don't dare to blow up my car , Mia !"

" Fine , whatever " said Mia , she didn't want to be used as an extra chauffeur anyway .

Her mother's eyes narrowed dangerously , Mia knew that she didn't believed her , she never did .Infact no one ever did .

Just like Professor Garcia's car, odd incidents followed behind her . When she was four , she had somehow ended up on outselling the car driving on the road when Mia was running away from Erica and her group of stupid friends . Ofcourse Erica rushed back home to tell her mother what happened and Mia maintained that the car must be running a little too slow on fuel but her reason wasn't well enough to satisfy her mother and she found herself locked in the attic for the entire summer .

When she was six , she had one of her insomnia streak and couldn't sleep at nights and during one of these nights , she saw a very odd looking woman in long line open shrug , no one believed her when she told her family that the woman was jumping on roofs after roofs , as if she was flying up in the air .

Something peculiar always happened to Mia everytime she set foot out of the house, and this was the reason why Her mother never allowed her to leave the house .

However , this time nothing was gonna happen . Mia was certain to be at her best of behaviour . Maybe if she displayed a proper attitude without any trouble following , her mother would let her go out more?

It was a rainy day , with grey clouds looming over the sky , but then again it was always like this in Folks . Her mother liked to complain about the weather every day but yet they never moved away from this place , her mother's dislike for this place was the only thing Mia shared with her . She didn't like the torrential rain, nor did she liked the greenery around the city. , it was much too green to her liking even though she grew up here .

Mia could see the thick fog out of the car window and hear the sloshing of the waterproof boots . Her gaze lingered over the moss covered trees when he came into her sight .

Dressed in white shirt and black pants with suspenders alone made the elderly man look completely different from others but yet he was wearing something even peculiar , it was a classic inverness cape , carrying a black umbrella over his head .

Well , it was weird as for that cape might have been fashionable when they thought about the eighties but now , not so much .

Mia however only looked over to the man once and then started to close the window as it had started to drizzle but before she could the man came , standing right in front of her .

" Good day, young miss " he greeted in a rather jolly mood

" Good day ; Sir ?" Mia greeted him back a bit too hesitantly but the man didn't seemed to mind as he simply smiled .

" Excellent , Excellent " chirped the man and Mia stared at him , she could'nt see what was exactly excellent here .Whether it was the weather or her talking to a complete stranger nothing seemed closed to being excellent .

" Excuse me, Sir, do you need something but I won't be much help to you , as you can see the doors are locked " said Mia , she didn't see how a man with a hunch back grab her out of the car window and make a run for after kidnapping her , meaning he clearly wanted some sort of help .

" Dear , Dear , Young miss " he shook his head " why do you say so ? I believe you will be the greatest help to me and to us " .

Mia frowned as far as she knew there was only her and the old man ; who exactly was this us ? Was this old man deranged ? Maybe she showed what she was thinking on her face because the next second the old man chuckled .

" I'm neither deranged nor I'm mental , just because my words are not for the known , you cannot count me in the fools , young miss " he said .

He must got it all the time if he understood her expression so easily after all Mia too didn't get half of what he was saying .

The old man smiled kindly "young miss , must know that it isn't necesaary that you believe in what others did .Demons,vampires ,witch and wizards these words itself holds a magic , a sudden mystique, a forlorn attraction that draws one towards it .The more you believe the fiercer it grows and the moment you doubt the Magic finally disappears. If only young miss , starts seeing the veil that hids it all maybe , the magic shall unravel for you as well " .

" Sir , what do you -"

" Here , Young miss , your mother will be here in next fifteen minutes , make sure you finish it all , we don't want you to be locked ; all summer now we ?" said the old man hurriedly thrusting a triple ice cream cone .

Mia caught it in her hands , it might have been a perfect thing to make her morning one of the best if only the ice cream didn't come from a man who spoke of spooky things like demons and vampires , speaking as if those things in the fantasy novel existed in reality .

" Sir what do you , wanted to say ...?" her voice faltered as there stood no old man ; whether weird or normal .

" What the ?" Mia gasped as she put her head out of the car window ignoring the lashing rain but she couldn't see the man anymore , don't ask her how she could see in such a hard drizzle , she just could .

The man was gone ; vanished in thin air and if not for the still chilled ice cream cone in her hands , Mia could have called it nothing but her hallucination.