Chapter 22

"The history is that you make me want to kiss you every time whenever you look at me like that," he muttered inaudibly.

Liam covered his mouth with the back of his hand, shocked that he almost blurted out those words. He had not expected his thoughts to come out loud from his mouth.

"Did you say something?" Mia asked, luckily she had not heard him, and he sighed with relief. 'Am definitely becoming a pervert because of you, ' he thought. He didn't have an idea of how she would have reacted if she heard him. 'I bet she would have left me like Clyde,' he chuckled.

"Liam? Why are you laughing? Is the history behind the golden feather funny?" she lifted her eyebrows, looking at Liam. Once again, Liam found her facial expression cute.

"No, its not, I just...am happy when you are around me, that's all," he said and received a brief hug from Mia.

"I am happy that you think of me that way, now let's move from the crowd and tell me the story," she said tugging at Liam's arm, happily. The sunset was easy to please.

"Come, I'll first show you the last thing I wanted to show you. We shall view the rest during leisure, I shall tell you about the golden feather later." he walked upstairs with Mia, then to the left, into a narrow and dimly-lit hallway. The walls had an extinct language painted, with fauvished unclear symbols.

They stopped in front of a door to their right and Liam fished out keys from his pocket and clicked the door open. He was so happy that Mia had not hesitated to follow him.

The room was dark and starry where all objects lost their clear edges. He slid his hand and held hers, as they walked hand in hand, and Liam pushed the door shut. They approached a shelf, where Liam took out a flashlight and torched around. The room was untidy, with books all over the floor, shards of glass on the floor, green mould at the corners of the small room and a study table.

They approached the desk, which had a broken mug piece, drawing pins, paper clips, folders with scattered papers and a big filing cabinet. "A study room, seems ancient," she said.

"Yes, this room belonged to Mark Harry, my grandpa whom I told you about. This was the time there were so many mysteries going on in the world."

Liam let go of Mia's hand and perused through the cabinet. He continued, "When Mark Harry was young, about 1 year old, his father had left him and his mother alone to go on a battle, he was a soldier, but that wasn't a normal battle, it was a battle against mythical beings. Here take this," He gave Mia a letter, which looked so crumpled, that to make out its content was hard.

She opened it, and the letter was written;

'To my beloved Lisa,

I love you my queen, the key to my padlock heart. Take care of my precious Mark, I shall be gone for a while, but I promise am coming back...' the other part of the letter was torn. Liam gave her another torn paper.

'Lisa, its getting tough, this creatures are not normal beings, most of us have died. I don't know what they are but they are extraordinary with...' another piece was torn.

"So, the father to Mark Harry was a soldier, but then they were attacked by creatures during that time. This study table was maintained by Lisa because she missed her husband. I guess Mark grew up curious about his father, so he decided to publish a book about the mythical beings. Lisa must have told him all about it because her husband's death pained her. That's what I could draw from my conclusion." Mia said thoughtfully.

Liam stood up in silence staring at her, " Th...that's exactly what happened M...Mia, how'd...w. Am impressed once again." his tone was almost suspicious, which Mia didn't fail to notice, she had to stop talking.

"Oh no Mia, the book is missing. It couldn't disappear, so, someone must have taken it. We need to go now," he clasped Mia's hand but before they reached the door, it was opened and someone got inside, they stepped back, with Liam protectively shielding Mia.

A woman with a black cloak and long black hair stood in front of them, but they could not see her face. "Looking for this?" he lifted up the book. "Now, I have no time, give me the girl, you get the book boy, just step aside and don't waste my precious time." she said menacingly, as she walked towards them.

Liam quickly picked up a big shard of glass, and brandished it in her direction.

The woman stepped back.

Suddenly, a voice from a guard was heard in the hallway, "Anyone there step back or I use the teaser," footsteps of more guards were heard. The woman fearfully ran away into the hallway, but when they decided to follow her, she was gone in the moment, out of sight.

"H..how's that possible, I..what's hap..happening," Liam stammered. Mia had noticed something about the woman, but decided to say something else. "She is a infamous thief in museums, haven't you had of her yet? She stole the book, but she was looking for this instead, she knew I had it, that is why she said she wanted me," Mia took out a broken necklace. She was smart enough and picked up the necklace from the study table before Liam would suspect her of anything, as to why the woman wanted her.

"This is Mark Harry's necklace, why would she want it? And why did you have it?" He asked so confused. "When she came in, I noticed her head tilted beside me, that was when I grabbed it," Mia felt terrible for thinking of lies so fast, but she didn't want Liam to anything about her, surprisingly, she didn't feel the slightest tremor before the woman.

Four guards reached the door and torched at the two of them. "Liam, what are you doing here," one of them asked.

"This girl beside me was running after a thief, and I happened to spot them, so I followed them, didn't you see her? she escaped"he lied through his teeth.

"Get out the two of you, quick, find the woman!" he ordered and they split up, he remained behind and locked the room first.

"She's gone with the book, there's something I still don't understand. Why would an infamous museum thief be interested in a book or necklace instead of priceless stuff," he said to Mia after the guard went.

As they walked Mia answered him "Maybe because the book and necklace weren't well secured, if she found them, perhaps she thought that the book would lead her to something big and valuable. She is going to read the book and know how valuable the golden feather is."

"Liam, its getting late, my mom will be worried," Mia said to evade more questions from him.

"Let me take you home," he escorted her out of the museum until he made sure she had entered the house, he left.