Chapter 2: Meeting New & Old Friends

Next Lily found herself in another taxi which was heading somewhere. When she woke up she asked the taxi driver about what happened. He said, "I found you lying on the middle of road with this piece of paper. There is an address mentioned here so I am taking you there. I assume that this is the address of your home. I don't remember what I was doing but I couldn't leave a young lady on the road during the night." "But why was I lying on the middle of the road? Why don't I remember anything?" asked Lily to the driver." We all are used to this type of amnesia. We believe our memories are deleted by those mysterious creatures. It all started after that cursed night. We are not allowed to talk about that night. It's not felicitous to talk about that cursed night. You should also not ask or talk about it." said the driver. Lily closed her eyes to know what happened with her.

Flashback starts

 She saw everything about that black smoke. She saw that after she was left unconscious the creature put her up in the sky but suddenly a person attacked that smoke with a sword. He wore a long black coat and had a mask on his face. He first attacked the back of that creature and then attacked at the front of the creature. A loud shout of that creature was heard and it died. As it started to vanish into the thin air Lily fell but she was again saved by him. He jumped into the air and held her in his arms and saved her. He gently placed her on the ground. Next he went to the driver who was astonished to see him. He pick out a small blue colour glass bottle from his left pocket of the coat and opened it. He made the driver drink the liquid present in the glass bottle. The driver closed his eyes and then this mysterious person rushed to the jungle. When driver opened his eyes it seemed like he has forgotten everything. He saw Lily lying on the middle of the road and took her to his taxi. 

Flashback ends

Lily opened her eyes, she was thinking about her mystery savoir and his identity. Suddenly a loud sound of break was heard, the taxi stopped. "Your stop has arrived pretty lady. " Said the driver. Lily came out of the taxi and saw the gate of a beautiful white villa. "At least the department did something good" whispered Lily. There was a lock on the gate of the villa. She opened her handbag and took out a key and opened the gate. The villa had two floors, there was a parking area. She noticed that the watchman of the villa was in a deep sleep. She went towards his cabin and knocked at the door but he was still sleeping. She kicked the door hard with her leg and he suddenly woke up, stood up and saluted her. He said "Good morning madam". Lily smiled and said "Good morning Mr Sleepy Head". "Madam I am sorry for sleeping but at this hour of night but nobody comes to this old villa so I just dozed off." the watchman said apologetically.

Lily smiled at him and said "It's fine but don't sleep on duty next time." He nodded and asked "Madam are you the new investigator of Phantasma?" Lily nodded and ordered him "Take my luggage and ask the driver to stay. And yes what's your name?" The watchman said "My name is Robin." He took the luggage and asked the driver to stay. The driver said," Let me help you with the luggage." Robin took his help. As the driver didn't want to be alone, he offered help to Robin. Lily turned to Robin and said "By-the-way Robin my name is Lily, call me Lily madam" Robin nodded.

Lily opened the door of the villa. It was all dark. She struggled to find the switch yet she found it and switched on the lights of the villa. She was astonished by the decoration of the villa. There were elegant sofas and a huge television placed in the living room. There was a huge and beautiful kitchen which was fully equipped with refrigerator , six- ring gas stove , dishwasher , wine refrigerator , pots and pans, plates and silverware, American coffee maker , toaster, blender, ice machine, microwave, etc. The kitchen was linked to the dining area, which was furnished with a spectacularly large table and chairs. She had no time to admire her house as she wanted to go to her office to know what was happening in that city. She quickly placed her luggage and asked Robin to take care of the house when she is out. He whispered to himself "From many years I am doing that only." 

She asked the driver to take her to her office. He agreed and took her in the taxi. As the driver dropped her to office she took his phone number and paid him. When she entered the office she noticed two shadows at the door. She knocked at the door twice. She saw that one of them was slowly coming towards the door to open it. The person who opened the door was a girl. She asked "Who are you miss and what you are doing here at this hour of night?" Lily introduced herself as a new investigator who came to the city. 

The girl allowed Lily inside the office and then closed the door slowly. Lily was again left surprised to see another person sitting inside the office. The other person looked as much surprised as Lily on seeing her. 

The girl turned to Lily and said, "Welcome to our special unit. My name is Natasha and he is Jimmy." She pointed to the man in room and continued. 

"This special unit was established when supernatural things started to happen in Phantasma. We all have some special powers. I have the power of knowledge. I know about all the demons and other magical creatures. Jimmy has the power of.... "

Lily interrupted Natasha and said while looking at Jimmy, "Of seeing and talking to the ghosts and other creatures who hid themselves." Natasha was surprised and said, "Yes you are right. I guess your power is to know what other people are thinking." Lily was going to reply but was interrupted by Jimmy who said, 

"No, Lily's power is to know what happened in the past or what will happen in the future." 

Natasha was again surprised and said, "It seems like you guys know each other. " She turned to Jimmy and said, "Jimmy is she your ex-girlfriend?"

Lily replied "No" in a haste but Jimmy replied "Yes" at the same time. Natasha smiled and said, "Well I guess I got my answers." Lily turned to Natasha and asked her not to misunderstand the relationship between Jimmy and her. She told her that Jimmy was only her friend and classmate.

Natasha agreed to her and said, "Okay, okay cool down I won't misunderstand. You two were only friends and classmates. " Jimmy nodded and said, " Yeah sure we only once or twice kissed and were locked in a cupboard where we had zero distance between us." Lily got annoyed with him and said, "Shut up!!! Natasha he is just kidding nothing like that happened between us. He just like jokes."

Jimmy laughed, turned to Natasha and said, "Yes I am just kidding nothing like that happened between us. But it may happen in future." Annoyed with him Lily again asked him to shut up.

They all shared a laugh. Lily then turned to Natasha and asked about Phantasma.

Natasha said, " This city was a normal city but after one night strange things started to occur here. That night a yellow bright beam of light came from the sky and struck a piece of ground. After this incident strange things started to happen. "

She was interrupted by Lily who asked, "What type of strange things started to happen?"

Natasha replied, "There were several missing reports and also death reports. The cause of the death of these people could not be identified. When people like us came to the department and the head came to know about our powers then they founded this special unit. "Lily nodded. 

Just then she remembered how the head of the department Joe forced her to tell about her powers. He made Lily drank and in drunk state she told Joe about her powers.

The next day Joe told her that he knew about it and Lily got transferred to Phantasma.

Suddenly there was a loud knocking on the door. They all stood still for a moment. There was a loud know at the door again. Natasha walked to open the door.

Lily was again surprised on seeing the person at the door. It was Sara her college friend. She was crying a lot and Natasha tried to calm her.

As she saw Lily, she rushed towards her and hugged her. Lily calmed her down. Sara said, 

"Lily I am so glad so see you here. After the incident at college you know my parents didn't supported me so I came to this city. I didn't know well about this city but when I came here there was no going back. "

Jimmy gave her water to drink as she stopped crying. While she was drinking Jimmy said, "Even I came to know about her after I was transferred here."

Sara continued, "Lily please save my child. She is in danger. I think she went to the dark forest. I don't want her to be killed. She is my only hope. I won't be able to live without her."

Jimmy turned to her with a serious look and asked her not to worry and stay in the office. He promised her that he will bring Cherelle back at any cost.

Three of them then headed towards the dark forest. On the way, Lily asked Natasha about the dark forest. She said, "Strange things started to happen in this forest after that night. A person who went inside the forest never came back. His body was found at the edge of the forest. And now we are going in this dark forest. I don't know what will happen?"

Although they were afraid yet they went inside the forest and started to look for Cherelle. They searched for a long time but found nothing. They went deep into the forest. Many times they were scared by the sound of the animals.

Suddenly Lily saw a board on which it was written in bold letters 

 "Welcome to Sullivian City"

She shouted for Jimmy and Natasha and asked about the board. Both of them were confused as they couldn't see the board.

************************