They left the house not long after that, fed, washed and dressed to face a new day in the big city. The weather seemed promising enough, but Freddie knew better than to trust the London climate. His small umbrella lay tucked inside his bag, among his other possessions.
He hailed a cab and gave the driver Daniel's old address in Lewisham. About an hour later they were knocking on the door of what used to be Daniel’s house.
Serena kept tapping her foot nervously. It was no small a thing to meet your granddad for the first time. A series of questions rang through her head. What would he be like? Would he recognise her? What would he think of her?
Interrupting her inner quiz time, the door opened after Freddie’s second knock to reveal a young Asian woman.
‘Yes?’
They both were tong-tied for a single moment; having expected to see someone rather different looking at the door.
‘Hi, isn’t this the residence of David Adams?’ Freddie asked, sounding confused.
‘Who?’ the woman spoke again with her strong Asian accent.
‘David Adams,’ Freddie repeated. ‘We were told he lives here.’
‘Ah, Adams,’ the woman seemed to recall. ‘He no live here for two years. He move out of London with son and daughter in law, and sell house to us.’
‘Do you happen to know where he moved to?’
‘Sorry, I don’t know,’ the woman gave a curt reply, and just like that closed the door in their face and went back inside.
Shocked as much of her rudeness as of the fact that David no longer lived there, Freddie turned away from the door and began going down the stairs again without looking at the young girl next to him. Serena followed, frowning.
‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know,’ Freddie said. ‘I haven’t kept tabs on them for a long time now; there’s been no need. Did you know they’d moved house?’ he now turned to her.
‘Uncle Damien might have mentioned it, but it must have been one of those things I wasn’t really paying attention to. What do we do now?’
‘Not to worry; I’m sure someone at the Order would know. It’s their job to keep track of all Dreamers, and they wouldn’t let them out of sight. We’re just gonna have to go and ask the right people. We will find them, Serena, I promise.’
She looked into his eyes and found there at least some of the assurance she really needed right now. This day had not started out well, and had continued even worse. But hope dwelled behind Freddie’s kind eyes, hope that things were not as bad as they might seem; hope that he would look after her. He made her feel safe, almost as safe as she felt with her dad.
Right then, she remembered something else.
‘The portal,’ she said, stopping just outside Freddie’s car.
‘What? Oh, right, the portal. Why didn’t I think of that? We should go and check it out. The portal should be there, where you first woke up. If you can see it, you can use it to go back.’
‘Can we go and check now, please?’
Freddie had to take a moment and think about it.
‘It might prove tricky. I had to bribe a security guard to let me in the first time around. Don’t know if he’ll let me in again, but we can try. Let’s just hope it’ll be him on shift and not someone else.’
They got in the car and drove towards Central London. The building in question just happened to be the highest one in the city, a recently built skyscraper they called The Shard. Getting to the terrace Serena had appeared would not be easy, but Freddie had managed it once already, so they had hope.
Lucky for them, Freddie saw the same security guard he had paid to gain entrance the first time, and with some convincing, not to mention bribing, they were allowed to go up again.
When they finally got to the top floor and made it to the terrace, Freddie led Serena to the spot where he’d found her, instructing her on what to look for. To her dismay, Serena could not see any image of her bedroom hovering in the air anywhere around her.
‘Are you sure this is the right place?’ she asked, fear and despair causing a small lump to develop in her throat. She was trying hard not to panic and feel like she couldn’t handle this; after all, she was an adult now. But with everything that was going wrong, it made her wish that her dad was here. He would surely know what to do.
‘Hey,’ Freddie came next to her and tried to ease her fears. ‘Don’t worry; we’ll figure it out. We’ll find a way to send you back home, I promise.’
At the mention of the word home Serena could no longer hold back her tears. She turned to the only person who was there at that moment, and rested her head on his broad chest. This day had gone from bad, to worse. It seemed like there was a conspiracy to keep her from going back home and she was scared, not just for herself, but for her parents, too. Who knew how worried they would be right now.
She felt Freddie’s strong arms wrap around her delicate frame and envelop her in a tight embrace. It felt nice; just like when her dad used to comfort her whenever she would cry. Despite the worry, she could not help but feel good in these arms, safe. At least she wasn’t alone. She had a feeling she could really trust in this boy; he promised he was a friend and that he would take care of her. And she believed him.
But as she was beginning to learn, this world and its people were so very different from her Endërland and the life that she knew. Hurt and disappointment were just around the corner.
Drake was glad to finally be in bed; it had not been the best of days. He’d grown too old for the lost child trick and papa was not pleased with what they were making these days. He kept swearing all the time and talked about how useless Drake was and how he should have gone for a girl instead. Drake didn’t know what that meant.
Mama wouldn’t even talk to him. Recently she seemed to always be unhappy and looked at Drake as if he had done something wrong. Drake didn’t know what he had done wrong. He did everything that papa asked him to do, just like always; why weren’t they happy?
The only person who did not seem to be angry with him was Bessie. He’d brought her a little something this time too; he always did. His parents never knew. It wasn’t much; he always gave papa the biggest share, but he had made a pact with his Bessie. He always gave her a little something from his earnings, and in turn she told him a story every night.
He refused to go to sleep without her stories. They were all so beautiful, so magical. His favourites were the ones about Hercules, the Greek hero who was strong and brave, and who had killed all those ugly monsters and beasts. When he grew up, he wanted to be just like him, kill great lions and many-headed hydras with his bare hands.
‘Are you all tucked in and ready, my little devil?’ Bessie asked, sitting on the bed beside him. The question was unnecessary, since she had done the tucking herself, but it served as a prelude to the night’s story.
Drake nodded with his head, but not with his usual enthusiasm. Happy as he was that he was about to hear a new story, he couldn’t help but feel sad that papa and mama didn’t seem too pleased with him. Bessie noticed this.
‘Is something the matter, little one?’
‘I don’t think mama likes me very much, Bessie,’ the boy said with a voice and sadness that did not belong in the face of an eight-year-old.
‘Now just why would you think something like that, child? Mrs. Bagley is always buying you nice clothes and taking you to nice places whenever she goes. If she didn’t like you, she would let you stay home with poor old Bessie.’
‘She only buys me the nice clothes, so she can take me to places where I can steal for her,’ argued Drake. ‘But she never does anything with me. She doesn’t play with me like you do, she doesn’t talk to me, she doesn’t even smile at me like you do. Sometimes I wish you would be my mama.’
‘Hush now, little one. It does not do to talk like that. Mrs. Bagley is a very busy woman and does not have time to play with you; she’s got poor old Bessie for that. Now, do you want to hear tonight’s story or not?’
Afraid that Bessie w
ould leave without telling him a story, Drake stopped talking and once again nodded with his head.
‘Just not the one with the Erinyes,’ he instructed, before she began. ‘I don’t like them; they scare me.’
‘They shouldn’t scare you, child; they never go after good little children who are obedient and love their mama and papa. They only go after the bad children.’
‘I want another story with Hercules,’ Drake begged, doing his cutest puppy face, which he knew his nanny could never resist. Bessie smiled, dimmed the light in the lamp for a more dramatic atmosphere and began with another story of the old Greek hero and the mischievous gods.
Before being hired by the Bagleys, she’d worked as a nanny for a middle-class widower with two young daughters. He would always read them stories from old Greek mythology and Bessie had memorised all of them. Good thing she did, too, as she was getting good value for every single one of them.
When it seemed little Drake had finally fallen asleep, Bessie got up, put the lamp out and lay on her old mattress, down on the floor next to the boy. She’d learned how to put him to sleep quickly and easily, and in this manner she had managed to stretch a single story for days or even weeks sometimes. As long as she kept the stories coming, the boy would keep the goods coming, too. She just hoped the boy wouldn’t grow too old, too fast; that and that the Bagleys would never find out. They would both be in trouble if they did, she and the boy.