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Drama Suspense

Seth stared at Conan standing in the corner of his office, mumbling to himself.ย 

Conan walked over to the desk Seth stood in front of and straightened out a stack of papers.

โ€œIโ€™m sending you on this new project because I know that you are capable of completing it.โ€ Conan started, his voice scratchy and intimidating as ever.ย ย 

โ€œYour job is unique, yes. But crucial. And we both know that.โ€

Seth nodded and sucked in a sharp breath, the nerves rising in his throat.ย 

Conan handed him the papers and Sethโ€™s eyes jumped around the pages, names and places heโ€™d never heard of jumping out at him.

โ€œThis little girl needs our help and Iโ€™ve decided to bend the rules a bit considering she didn't write the letter. Either way, when I see someone in need I would think to send my top-notch guy.โ€ย 

Seth could feel his heart jump at Conanโ€™s words. Bending the rules? He had turned down people before? What was special about the girl?ย 

โ€œSo,โ€ Conan started again, cutting into Sethโ€™s thoughts. โ€œSheโ€™ll be a little tricky to get to cooperate. But I know I can count on you Sethโ€ย 

Seth skimmed over the papers, trying to find something that could help him figure out why the girl was so special.

โ€œYou best be getting to work then,โ€ Conan said.ย 

Seth gripped onto the papers and didn't take his eyes off of them as he walked out of the office. He flipped through the pages looking for the letter and felt his heart speed up when he found it. Scribbled in loopy handwriting was the illegal note that should've been disposed of as soon as it reached the grounds. Conan made it specific that he didn't offer help to anyone who didn't personally ask for it.ย 

Seth sped up his pace and put the letter face down on top of the stack. He hurried outside and found a car waiting for Seth to take him out of the Forges that protected The Bind. Seth, once safely in the backseat flipped over the letter and read it over.ย 

Iโ€™m not quite sure who this note will go to. My friend told me she wrote a note similar to this and left it out and her troubles were solved. At least that's what she thinks happened. Her memory is getting quite foggy these days. Anyway, back to the reason Iโ€™m writing this. My neighbor's little girl, Celena, is struggling. Her parents and siblings were murdered in front of her and I hate to see a child struggle. She says sheโ€™s fine, says she got over it, but I know something is wrong. Her name is Celena. Not sure who this note got to, but could you do something? Please help this little girl. This is the only option I have left to help her.ย 

Sincerely, a neighbor who wants this little girl to be happy again

Seth pried his eyes away from the note and leaned back in his seat.ย 

His mind swirled with questions and thoughts as he tried to grasp onto what he had just read. Seth closed his eyes and resisted the urge to crumple up the note and rip it to shreds. Why did Conan let it slide? The neighbor clearly states in the note, that Celena says she's fine. It says it right there in the neighbors handwriting that Celena doesn't want help. What was in it for Conan? We don't get points unless we follow the rules. Did he know her?ย 

Seth felt the car pull to a stop after his eleventh time reading and looking through the papers.ย 

He folded up the letter and stuck it in his pocket, stuffing the rest of the notes in the compartment under the seat.ย 

As Seth began walking on the bumpy sidewalks he had an unsettling feeling that someone was watching him. A shiver went up his spine but he clenched his fist and forced his nerves out of his head.ย 

He turned on to a new street and was overwhelmed by the smell of gunpowder and metal.ย 

Seth gagged and blinked a few times before forcing his eyes wide open.ย 

His hazel eyes immediately identified the broken down house in the center of the cul de sac as the one he was looking for.ย 

Seth walked closer to the house and stood in front of it for a few minutes, taking in every small, disgusting detail.ย 

He straightened out his black coat and sucked in a breath, stumbling through the door.ย 

Sethโ€™s eyes darted around as he stepped into the house, the smells and scenes making his stomach churn and the world start to spin.ย 

His eyes shot up to the sound of footsteps above him.ย 

He leaned on the wall of the foyer, trying to focus.ย 

Once he could see clearly, Seth listened for the footsteps again.ย 

He climbed up the rickety stairs stepping over chunks of the ceiling and could feel his heart racing.ย 

He felt for the letter in his pocket and his attention was drawn to a door on the far right of the hall.ย 

Seth took a deep breath and went with his instincts to the right door. He rested a calloused hand on the cold, smooth handle and pushed it open.ย 

Sethโ€™s eyes darted around the room until falling on a little girl in the middle.ย 

The girl turned around and her entire face formed into a petrified look of fear.ย 

Her pale pink eyes grew wide as she sat up, her book falling to the ground.ย 

โ€œYou must be Celena?โ€ Seth asked.ย 

Celena nodded, wringing her pale, snow-white hands together.ย 

โ€œWho are you?โ€ย 

โ€œMy nameโ€™s Seth.โ€

โ€œWhat do you want?โ€ย 

โ€œI-uh-Iโ€™m here to help you.โ€ย 

Celena tilted her head and looked Seth up and down. She fiddled with her long, braided, white hair hanging over her shoulders.ย 

โ€œDid Ms. Delilah send you?โ€ Celena asked.ย 

โ€œIs that your neighbor?โ€ย 

โ€œYes.โ€

โ€œThen yes.โ€ย 

Celena sighed and slumped back onto her bed.ย ย 

โ€œI don't need your help.โ€ย 

โ€œYou don't even know how Iโ€™m going to help you. Maybe it would be beneficial?โ€ย 

Celena shrugged and Seth could see the exhaustion in the little girl's eyes. She was tired. She was hurting. She was losing hope.ย 

โ€œI really think you should just leave. I need some time alone.โ€ Celena whispered.ย 

Seth waited for a second to see if she would say anything else before opening the door.

He heard a sniffle and Celenaโ€™s small voice behind him.

โ€œCould you uh, tell Ms. Delilah you helped me? Itโ€™ll make her feel better since sheโ€™s always worrying.โ€ย 

Seth nodded and shuffled out of Celenaโ€™s room, not sure what to do.ย 

Celena didnโ€™t seem like she would resist help. She just seemed so hopeless. Exhausted.ย 

Seth felt like he could breathe again as he stepped outside, the somewhat clean air filling him up.ย 

He took the path to the house next to Celenaโ€™s and knocked on the door.

It swung open to a tall thin woman with a confused look on her face.ย 

Seth started to explain and she nodded cutting him off.ย 

โ€œYou got my letter?โ€ She beamed at Sethโ€™s nod.

โ€œIโ€™m Delilah, and Iโ€™m so glad you could help little Celena. She really is struggling.โ€ย 

Seth could feel a lump of guilt rising in his throat as Delilah thanked him.

ย โ€œCome in, won't you? I can make some sandwiches and explain a little more about Celena.โ€ย 

Seth could feel the curiosity in him building up and he couldnโ€™t resist nodding and stepping inside Delilahโ€™s roomy house.ย 

Delilah hurried into the kitchen, leaving Seth by himself in the foyer.ย 

He looked around, the house structured exactly the same as Celenaโ€™s except still standing and in one piece.

ย The living room was littered with little glass antiques, leaving a lingering musty smell around the house.ย 

Delilah came bustling back into the room with a plate filled with pastries in her hand. She set it down on the table and waved him over to one of the cushioned chairs. Seth nodded his thanks and scooted in his chair before waiting for Delilah to start.ย 

Delilah smoothed down her black hair that was perfectly curled to neatly rest on her shoulders, and let out a sigh.

โ€œWell, I uh guess we should start from the beginning. Celena and her family moved in next door about four years ago, all the way from Angola. Adelina and Mateus, Celenaโ€™s parents, spoke a good amount of English. That little girl though.โ€ Delilah stopped and laughed quietly. โ€œShe was a bubbly little girl, always smiling. I volunteered to teach Celena how to speak English until Adelina and Mateus finished their job hunt. So Celena started spending her afternoons in my living room, jumping around and calling out words in Portuguese. After months of teaching her, she had learned a lot of English, but she had a few words she just didnโ€™t like in English. She preferred the Portuguese version of them. Her favorite word she always told me, was Nuvem. She would watch the Nuvenโ€™s from her home in Angola. She would call me out of the kitchen to show me her forts. She would use a blue and white blanket and drape it over two chairs in the living room. Celena would bring me under the fort and tell me to lay down. She would point up at the white circles on the blanket and say, โ€œnuvens. Watch the nuvens.โ€ She would pretend they were clouds like the ones she would watch at the beach. Celena could spend hours under there, watching the nuvens.โ€ย 

Delilah cleared her throat and took a bite out of one of the sandwiches.ย 

โ€œA few weeks ago a terrorist group that calls themselves the Myriad came and murdered Adelina and Mateus.โ€ Delilah slammed her hand on the table, tears rolling down her cheeks. โ€œThey went to thousands of houses around town murdering and causing destruction, just to scare people. Celenaโ€™s only here now because she was with me. We were out shopping for her motherโ€™s birthday. And I-uh I guess you know the rest.โ€ย 

Seth watched as Delilah wiped the tears off her cheeks and smiled weakly.

โ€œThat's horrible.โ€ Seth managed.ย 

How was Celena still in that house?ย 

โ€œThank you for taking the time to tell me. It must be hard.โ€ย 

Delilah nodded and stood up out of her chair.ย 

โ€œI don't mean to kick you out, but I have a load of work to do today.โ€ย 

Seth nodded and stood up and walked out the door, Delilah's house filled with a suffocating silence that made it seem like the walls were caving in.

He felt like screaming. Screaming for the entire world to hear.ย 

Seth walked up the street trying to wrap his mind around the story. He stopped halfway up the hill and turned back around to see Celena, running up the hill behind him.ย 

She stopped and took a shaky breath.ย 

โ€œI um, I was wondering if we could make a deal?โ€ย 

Seth did a double-take, โ€œwhat kind of deal?โ€ย 

โ€œWell, if you let me look at the letter Ms. Delilah sent you, Iโ€™ll let you erase my past. Iโ€™m not sure I want to remember.โ€ย 

โ€œI never told you about the letter, or erasing your past. How do you know that?โ€ย 

Celena shrugged, โ€œI just put the pieces together.โ€

โ€œBut you didnโ€™t have those pieces in the first place?โ€ Seth pressed.ย 

โ€œIt doesnโ€™t matter. I need to see the letter.โ€ย 

Seth sighed and pulled the letter out of his pocket. โ€œFine, but you have to promise that youโ€™ll cooperate and listen to what I tell you.โ€ย 

Celena swallowed hard and nodded, her small hand reaching out for the letter. She grabbed the letter out of his hand, her pink eyes darting around the page.ย 

Seth watched as Celenaโ€™s pale hands started to shake as she handed the letter back to Seth. Seth looked her up and down, and raised an eyebrow.ย 

โ€œAre you ok?โ€ย 

Celena covered her eyes and shook her head.

โ€œYou have to stop them!โ€ย 

โ€œWhat do you mean?โ€ย 

Sethโ€™s heart picked up as Celena stood there and shook violently.ย 

โ€œTheyโ€™re coming for me.โ€ She shouted again.ย 

โ€œWhoโ€™s coming for you?โ€

ย Celena moved one of her hands away from her face, heavy tears rolling down her cheeks.ย 

โ€œYou have to stop them.โ€ย 

Seth felt like grabbing Celena and shaking her.ย 

โ€œStop who?!โ€ย 

โ€œThey know where I live, Seth. They know who you are.โ€ย 

โ€œI barely know you!โ€ย 

Sethโ€™s eyes darted around like he could feel eyes watching him from some, one-sided mirror. โ€œWho is โ€œthey'' Celena?โ€ Seth asked, pleading for answers.ย 

Celena stood there, frozen in place.

โ€œPlease Seth, you have to help me.โ€ย 

Her voice grew quieter and quieter as she repeated the words.ย 

Her small, fragile body started to fade and Sethโ€™s eyes widened in fear.ย 

He stood there feeling helpless as he called out her name.

Celena managed one last thing to come out of her pale, faded lips before she completely faded away.ย 

โ€œYou have to find me, Seth.โ€ย 

January 09, 2021 02:27

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77 comments

Maya W.
18:42 Jan 09, 2021

Hi Luna! Good work here. I enjoyed the development of Celena, and I know that writing bilingual characters is really difficult, so there's definitely room for improvement, but it's still really well done. Celena is a cool spelling, too. I've only ever seen Selena, Celina, Silena, or Selina. Celina is much more common in Portuguese, though. All in all, great work! I have a new story out, would you mind reading it?

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Thanks for the feedback!! Glad you liked it! I'll definitely check out your new story!

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Hi Maya! This is kinda random, but I was wondering if you have any tips on writing better bilingual characters?

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I really like this story so much Luna! I think that this is one of your best! You should feel very proud of this story Luna! :)

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Thank you!!! That means a lot, I wasn't sure about even finishing this one, so I'm so happy that you liked it!!!๐Ÿ™‚

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21:59 Jan 09, 2021

I NEED A PART 2. NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! This piece flowed like a raging river and had me hooked till the end! I agree with Laila, (Haripriya), this is one of your best yet!!!

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Hope Reynolds
21:35 Jan 09, 2021

Great story!! The way you portray action and dialogue is minimalistic, but fresh. Awesome. And the story is interesting. Including the run up the road and interesting twist where she somehow knows. There were two things I might "critique": I feel like I notice just reluctance at the beginning of the story, and then when he wants to scream at the injustice, it seems to lack emotional character background or feel sudden or out of character. Also, the very last part of the ending -- you have to find me and she either faints or dies or disappear...

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Thank you!! I appreciate the feedback and looking back on it, I agree:) I plan on making a part 2 once I have an idea for it:)

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Hope Reynolds
20:58 Jan 10, 2021

Great job!!

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Hope Reynolds
01:16 Jan 11, 2021

oops, I was trying to delete the extra comment, but I accidentally deleted your emoji! thanks for checking out my stories, too!

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Thats ok:) And yeah! They were really great reads!!

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Hope Reynolds
17:28 Jan 12, 2021

Thank you, I really appreciate that!!

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Woohoo! I got it out!! First off, before I say anything else, thank you all so much for 500 kps!!! Your support and feedback means so much to me and reedsy has helped me so much to grow as a writer! Now on to the notes!!! 1. I didn't think I was going to finish this one, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about it. I feel like it's similar to my stories but also different...idk 2. I feel like I write very very similar stories and it's getting boring:( 3. This one actually took a really big turn in a whole different direction thank what I wa...

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Echo Sundar
16:22 Jan 15, 2021

Wow. Luna, I just wanted to say I read your bio. It was really eye-opening. And really well written. It makes me think about why I'm on reedsy why I write. t was just. I don't know amazing like I said eye-opening. Wow. I'm going to be thinking about that for a while.

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Thanks Rachel:) I'm glad people could understand and relate. I'm hanging around for today to see if I like the prompts and then taking maybe the week off, just to refresh myself a bit:)

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Echo Sundar
16:54 Jan 15, 2021

You have a very good philosophy. But I look forward to reading your work once you come back :)

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Thank you<3 I look forward to reading more of yours as well!

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Katie May
17:58 Jan 13, 2021

Hey Luna! This is such a wonderful story. I really enjoyed it. Keep doing what your doing! *HUGS*

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Aw thank you Katelyn!!<3

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Katie May
18:03 Jan 13, 2021

How do you come up with such amazing ideas?! :)))

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Katie May
18:03 Jan 13, 2021

How do you come up with such amazing ideas?! :)))

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You're so sweetttttttt:))))) Thank youuuuuu. (I actually have a rly hard time thinking up ideasXD)

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Katie May
18:11 Jan 13, 2021

(XD) Awww. Thankkss! <3

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๐Ÿฑ saw ur poll :D

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yayyyyy so excited someone responded!!!

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:D i know, it's feels really bad when you put up a poll and no one responds...

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actually, you and celeste were the only ones that did the poll without me asking I even had to tell sapphire :/

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aw thats sad:( I rly like doing your polls:)

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Echo Sundar
20:09 Jan 11, 2021

Oh my gosh. This story was so amazing!! The first part hooked me, I wanted to know Celina and more of her story I wanted to know how it played out. I neeeeeed I sequel! This is soo good!!

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Than youuuuuu!!!! I'll try to write a sequel, but I've learned I'm quite slow at sequelsXD Trying to write a Blue Flames part 2 this week and I've been procrastinating a lotXD Glad you liked itttt!!!!

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Echo Sundar
20:25 Jan 11, 2021

Pls tell me when you write a sequel! I need to read it!

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Haha, will do!

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TJ Squared
20:33 May 22, 2021

woah, that ending tho....................geez! Super suspenseful and a very interesting read!

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thanks!! and Loneeeeeeeee thank you so much for reading all these storiesssssssssss and I cant believe you did it in one day XD It means a lot that you would take time out of ur day to read and comment on a bunch of my stories<33

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TJ Squared
04:14 May 23, 2021

you're super duper very extremely welcome XDDD I love doing it and it was kinda fun :) I've got a few more to do, but I shall do them soon lol

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16:48 Jan 13, 2021

Also you will appear in my story (Idk when I'm still getting the plotline sorted out) so do you mind.... Hair: Skin: Clothes: Eye colour: Personality: Weakness: Power: Gemstone -

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this is fantasy, right? Or does it have to be realistic? And thanks for including me!!!

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17:00 Jan 13, 2021

fantasyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy XD and are you okay with playing a villainous role or do ya want a more...heroic role? Your choice XD

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Nah, I'm good being a villain, but I'm fine wherever you want me:) It is your story after all. Ok, let me think about the looks for a liiitle bit, hope that's ok? I wanna get them rightXD

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17:03 Jan 13, 2021

YES TAKE AS MUCH TIME AS YOU NEED :DDD

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yay, tyyyy!!!

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16:47 Jan 13, 2021

Amethyst KEEPS GETTING DOWNVOTED. Like the more we upvote her, the more she gets downvoted. UGHHH THIS IS BECOMING WAYY TO COMMON. Me and Luke ran out of comments to upvote :((( do you mind upvoting her?

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NOOOOO DUMB DOWNVOTERSSSS Yea, I'll do that now!!!

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17:01 Jan 13, 2021

THANKS!!!

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17:05 Jan 13, 2021

MISSION HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED XD YESSSS

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okiiii I'm back, I'm out of comments to upvote for now. I'll look back tonight and see if there are any more!!!

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17:29 Jan 13, 2021

hahahaahh you're amazing!!!!

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