School was significantly more arduous for Aiden today, while it may have been from the constant exams, he had had that day - which he did little to no revision for – It was definitely the fact it was the last day of school, and his desire to leave was notable. It had been a long day, even longer than usual thanks to Lucia’s absence, who had an appointment for her injury today. It was lunchtime and he was playing football in the courtyards, despite the temperatures being sub-zero. His nonchalance contributed a lot to his charisma, he’d get the flu sooner or later though, thanks to this fact. After slipping on the icy playing surface, he accidentally punted the ball over the fence, and into the windshield of an ongoing car, the driver of which expressed their vexation by slamming their palm on the car horn. Aiden didn’t notice, he was too busy soothing his back, from the impact of landing on the ice. “Son of a...” He muttered with icy breath, to his surprise, the football was returned to his group even with his uncoordinated shot hitting the car, the driver must have felt generous today. Aiden had lost this interest in playing after that incident, massaging his back, he made his way to the foyer, unheeding the emptiness of the grounds he was treading by. The barrenness of it was suddenly explained when he saw how crowded the foyer was, it was filled with people with different sized coats shivering as they tried to gain warmth from the interior of the building. While he loved crowds, he wasn’t in a particularly jolly enough mood to be bothered by people. However, he knew the perfect place to go, where he wouldn’t be bothered, and would get peace. The school observatory! Students in his school didn’t pay much attention to that room, nor saw much practicality in it, however Aiden loved being in that room. He loved stars and all things astronomical; he would see himself stargazing with his brother on a quiet Saturday night, trying to find constellations. It would be the perfect room to de-stress in, he made his way to up the stairs, until he made it to the top floor, what followed was a long hallway leading to a small door, behind which, the observatory was located. He opened the door, behind it was a small room, no larger than an antechamber, with the walls and roof being a dome of tinted glass, and the floor being made of polished marble, each corner of the room had seats and in the middle of the room was a large telescope, pointing outside directly towards the park outside of school, the Cityline could be seen in the distance, he sat down in one of the seats and laid back taking in the view, he was in a snow globe, looking out into the world, he loved it. He picked up Lucia’s gift and placed it on the telescope. He sighed, in a way, he was jealous of her for having someone compassionate enough to give her gifts in her life, he didn’t have that. Magnus was close, but he wouldn’t go out of his way to get him a gift, yet alone surround it with so much mystery. His frown turned into a faint smile; it was nice to see someone looking out for her atleast, whoever it was. He glanced at his watch, the hands seemed to be frozen in place, he stared at it with a puzzled brow, he blinked a couple times and looked again, the clock continued to tick on as if nothing happened. Strange. He shook the clock and inspected it, nothing out of the ordinary, perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him, he was tired after all, it would make sense. Before his mind could formulate any more questions, the school bell rang; lunch was over. Aiden looked bemused, reading the clock, he thought he had half an hour left, looking back at it, it was 1:30pm, exactly the time lunch ended. He rubbed his eyes and looked once more, 1:30. “What the...” he murmured, grabbing the gift again and opening the door, making his way to his next class.
(...)
Maths class as the last subject of the term, Aiden wondered what the world had against him sometimes, Mr Turner recognised this frustration and went out of his way to ask him more questions than usual, knowing very well that he wouldn’t know how to answer them, however to his dismay, and Aiden’s surprise. Lucia walked in through the door. “Aw darn...” Mr Turner snapped his fingers in disappointment, “Welcome back Lucia, I hope you’re feeling better”
“Slightly.”
“’Slightly’ should be enough to get you through one more lesson hopefully!” He laughed.
“Hopefully.” Lucia sat down in her chair and started to get her things out for work, she was doing more in a minute than Aiden did in half of the entire lesson. With Lucia back in the classroom, Mr Turner halted his interrogation with Aiden, which was very relieving for him. He looked over to her, she did not look back, not even pay him a second of attention. Did he do something wrong? “Hey, hey? Earth to Lucia, Hellooo?” He whispered. Nothing. Scrunching up paper into balls, he threw them in a poignant attempt to get her attention. Still nothing. After a while of more pathetic attempts to be recognised, he slumped back in his chair and crossly folded his arms like a gravelled child. “Aiden, sit up straight, atleast look like you’re paying attention, please?” Mr Turner pleaded “I get paid to teach, not to guarantee phenomenal grades, but I'll feel a little guilty if I feel like my class aren’t giving it their all”.
“My apologies sir,” Aiden said, sitting up with a conciliatory smile, which seemed to smoothen his professor’s tone slightly, both Mr Turner and Lucia were puzzled by his compliancy, everyone in fact showed some sort of confusion. Aiden didn’t like to follow rules that he found to be ‘Inconvenient’ and seeing as his back still ached from the courtyard incident, he would be doing himself a disservice by sitting up straight. He reached in his pocket and put on his reading glasses, Mr Turner looked at him as if he were an alien or any other extra-terrestrial being. “Okay...?” He muttered, turning back to his whiteboard, Aiden starting to do work now, he must’ve thought that if he looked like he was enjoying the lesson, it’d go by faster, time goes by when you’re having fun after all.
He was correct! After what felt like a couple of minutes of work, the final bell of school rung. “Pack your things, you have all worked really hard today, even Aiden somehow, you’re all dismissed, enjoy the holidays!” Everyone cheered “Don’t forget to revise and do your homework though, I’ve set some over the holidays” Mr Turner smirked, all the cheers died down and some even began to boo at him. He enjoyed annoying his pupils, it was a nice consolation prize for having a person like Aiden in his class.
(...)
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Lucia and Aiden walked down the hallways in silence, Aiden still being disheartened about the silent treatment he was getting from his friend. “Hey, Lucia, why aren’t you talking to me?” He sighed; she looked up, not looking at him directly, “I wasn’t in the mood to get in trouble with Mr Turner today” She chuckled,
“Final day of school after all, wouldn’t want to be held back today,”. Aiden let out a sigh of relief, “So you aren’t annoyed at me for any reason whatsoever?” He asked
“Why would I be?" She was facing away from Aiden, but he could still feel the warmth of her smile. “Hey, seeing as it’s the final bell of the school day, can we open the gift now?” He prompted, nudging her elbow, “I have it on me now, if you want to open it here, we were let out slightly early, so maybe we can meet up with Cynthia and Magnus and talk about it on the bus?” Lucia nodded, “Thats a good idea,”.
“I would appreciate a little bit of eye contact though, looking away from me like that makes me feel like I messed up somewhere” He started, “What's up?”. She turned around to face him, she was wearing an eyepatch, and her glasses were replaced with contact lenses, despite the eyepatch covering most of her face, Aiden still noticed some scarring around the corners.
“Oh.”
“Yes, that’s what's up,” She frowned. “You look better in eye contacts” Aiden said, with a cheeky grin, Lucia couldn’t help but smile “Thanks, I was worried you’d think I look stupid,”
“No, no! Of course not!” He said, shaking his head with such force he began to feel lightheaded, “I think that it looks really cool, I’m jealous” Lucia began to laugh. Their talk was interrupted by their other two friends, Cynthia and Magnus appearing from a classroom they just walked past, “Yo Lucia! What’s up,” he called at both, Lucia turned round to face them “Oh yikes, Jake really did a number on you, didn’t he?” Cynthia said, Magnus just gawked at her. Aiden and Lucia nodded with solemnity. “Well, I for one thought it was very cool!” Aiden huffed, “I think that it’s unique! And experimental,”
“That’s valid, I do agree with you, it does look rather... Interesting,” Magnus said, with an approving nod from Cynthia. They continued their journey through the school until they arrived at the bus stop, Lucia was grateful that she wasn’t held back for anything this time around, running to the station in fear that you’d miss the bus is a stressful thing to have to deal with, especially on a day-to-day basis. As they got on board and sat down near the back, like they usually liked to do on a Friday, Aiden reached into his pocket and pulled out the gift, holding it in front of Lucia’s face like a little boy trying to get his mother’s attention. “Oh right,” Lucia said, “Well, I don’t really want to open it here, I’m afraid I may accidentally lose something,”
“That’s completely fine, you can all come over to my place to open it there, I keep it clean, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally dropping anything”. Lucia shrugged “Works for me”.
(...)
They all sat down on the carpet in Magnus’s bedroom, Aiden looking visibly stressed with anticipation. “Okay, can we open it now?” Aiden sighed, Magnus’s house was homely and welcoming, quite unlike her home. His mother was hospitable and offered them biscuits and hot chocolate with a warm, friendly smile. Mrs. Altan was an excellent provider of congenial company and was so willing to let them stay at his house under such short notice, Lucia couldn’t show any more gratitude. “Give me the gift then!” She laughed; Aiden chucked it into her hands, she examined it one last time before tearing the gift-wrap and ribbon, revealing a sleek black box with the single gold symbol “Ω.” ingrained on it. Lucia scratched her head in confusion, she sure wondered what that meant. Gently lifting the lid of the box, it revealed the contents, which was quite a few trinkets and artefacts. Lucia’s eyes fixed on one in particular, it was a notebook, no bigger than her palm, The title was written in a neat cursive, with the name “The Omnibus for The Otherworldly”. The handwriting was oddly familiar.
“What is THAT thing?” Cynthia pointed at a small gold trinket inside the box. The item in question was a small pin, with an image of a sun with a single eye, quite like a cyclops, the eye appeared to be looking at Lucia mockingly, as if she had done something embarrassing. Lucia grabbed the pin, and slotted it on her eyepatch, the symbol sitting in the middle of it. “It makes for a nice decorative item, don’t you think?”
“I guess,” Aiden shrugged, “What else was in the box?”
“Let's see here,” Lucia dug her hands further into the box, despite how small it was, it had a high capacity. “This thing looks smaller on the outside, you know,” she said, she picked up a small vintage twin bell alarm clock. It was jet black the numbers were in roman numerals, written in silver, slowly ticking with a curious melody. Another gift from within was a silver pocket compass with bearings written in fine black ink, the magnetic needle spinning around as Lucia moved it around in her hand “Woah,” Magnus gasped “These are really interesting gifts Lucia,”
“Are there any more gifts in it?” Cynthia asked, completely engrossed. There was one final gift, Lucia went and picked it up. It was a note, one like the one outside the box, with a longer message than the last one.
“The gift has been delivered!
With trinkets and novelties galore
Despite all the wonders before you that glimmer
This is only half of the present, that you can be sure
In a venue, set for the Christmas season it waits
Across vast seas and lands
Within this note, be tickets, mark the date
The discovery forthcoming is worthy of such plans.
Behind the note was 5 Golden V.I.P ferry tickets, with a journey set to London, a place that rung bells to Lucia, though she couldn’t point out why, she turned the note around, it had the address:
7231 Cedarwood St, Calneclare, London SDE75 9UN
A great number of bells rung in Lucia’s head, but her mind was held in fetters by the ever-expanding sentiment swaying the course of mystery and adventure, while the contents remained an enigma to Lucia, a conundrum beyond her comprehension. She could feel a desire to bring such secrets to light emanating from deep within her. She was resolute and animated. And what she had right now? What she had in her grasp physically and mentally...
Was a lead.