27 - A Song//Lea

The Mysterious Hole was Waco's favourite story to tell, probably because he played a small part in it. Ever since he was ten years old and he claimed to have come across it with his friends, he'd put a lot of effort into learning the whole myth by heart.

"Every city has it's a hundred wonders," Waco said.

"Isn't it seven wonders?" Nora questioned. "Of the world?"

"You clearly haven't been in Paradox City long enough," was all she got in the ways of a response. She looked at Lea, who couldn't help but shrugging.

"Paradox City was pretty weird before you got here too," Lea said, feeling a bit lighter.

"If that's all of your questions out of the way," Waco said, pausing for effect. Lea gestured for him to go on and he gave them a megawatt smile, exaggerated to great effect by the flashlight he was holding under his face.

"This is the veritable number one out of all a hundred wonders of Paradox City," Waco said. "The Mysterious Hole!"

"You said this was a ghost story," Nora reminded him.

"Ghost story merely refers to the genre of the work at hand!" he said informatively. "An oral tale told across generations to terrify the life out of each other, no matter the matter at hand, is a ghost story."

Waco paused again, poised for any more interruptions. Once he was satisfied with the silence, he continued.

"On a misty night in Paradox City, a young couple snuck out of their respective homes to...hang out," he said as if Lea and Nora were seven and needed to be protected from the harsh realities of adulthood. "In the dark, hazy atmosphere, no place was more romantic than Paradox Park."

Lea felt the urge to yawn as Waco's slow, exacting tone droned on and on as he set the scene. She guessed Nora would be doing the same, but her new friend was at the edge of her seat, listening to every detail.

It seemed strange that a teenage girl would be so enraptured in a story that was clearly made up to keep people out of the park at night, but with real magic on the table, even Lea felt a bit of a chill as she reconsidered the elements of the story.

"When the boy left to investigate the strange noises, he found a large hole in the ground that he'd never seen before," Waco said dramatically. "It was growing, swirling in the darkness, an impossible phenomenon created when the eight stars of darkness aligned on a misty night."

Lea considered telling him that stars by design couldn't be 'dark', but Nora was so engrossed that she felt bad interrupting.

"He was never seen again," he said with such finality that even Lea was inclined to believe him. Nora, on the other hand, bought into it wholesale.

"What happened next?" she asked with a burning fervour.

"The girl went after him," Waco said enthusiastically, clearly glad to have somebody new to hoodwink. "She had to; he was her first love, after all."

"When she approached the mysterious hole, she called out his name," he said. "Though she was terrified, she knew it was the right thing to do."

"But instead of her boyfriend, a young woman's voice called out," Waco explained, as if he'd come to a game-changing twist. "Her haunting voice spoke out in a language the girl couldn't understand, so she walked closer, still trying to make out the words."

"She was never seen again either," he said.

"That's terrible!" Nora shouted, letting her head fall back into the sofa.

"But that's not all!" Waco said proudly. Lea sighed; this was his favourite part.

"When I was a young boy, I snuck out of the house to test out the legend with my friends," he said. "On a misty night, when my horoscope was really bad, we went to look for the hole."

"And we found it!" he shouted triumphantly.

"No way!" Nora shouted, bolting upward.

"Yes way!" he said. "I'm telling you, The Mysterious Hole is real!"

"You're scaring Nora," Lea said, getting up and pulling back curtains.

As soon as the late afternoon sun had snuck back into every nook and cranny of the living room, the terrifying atmosphere disappeared. Even Waco's imposing form returned to it's usually lanky state.

"Okay, okay," Waco said, grabbing his walker and straightening his back to get up. "That's enough fun for now. My leg's acting up any ways; sofa's too low to sit on it properly."

"You should rest," Lea said instinctively. Waco smiled.

"That's my girl," Waco said. "Wouldn't want you to spend your last weekend of summer vacation sulking. You've got to get back to your usual self; look up some new music. Maybe it'll help you with your song."

"Your song?" Nora sked as Waco walked away.

"I've written a song," Lea said. "Well, a bit. I've wanted to be a songwriter for a while now."

"Can I hear it?" Nora asked. Usually, Lea would have guarded her pet project with her life, but after what had just happened, she felt all she could do was cheer Nora up.

"Sure," Lea said, standing up and taking a deep breath. "I have some instrument and composition sheets, but I can't play anything. Can you read a score?"

"I definitely cannot," Nora said.

"A song's whole meaning can change depending on how you perceive it, so even if I just sing it I'm not sure you'll get it with just my voice," Lea said.

"This feels like stalling," Nora noted. Lea was taken aback, though she knew Nora was right. She took another deep breath and began to sing:

"Can we create a PARADOX

Build a bridge upon an empty world

Even though I'm just a simple girl

I'm more than capable..."

"There," she said once she was done. "What do you think?"

"Your voice is amazing!" Nora said. "You should be a singer."

"I considered it," Lea said, staring out the window. "I always wanted to be a Europop star, so I was really devastated when my dad told me Europop was over before I was even born. After that, I decided I just wanted to write songs for other people, make my dreams come true through theirs."

"Even if I can't make ours come true," she said, her mind wandering off to Paxton.

When Lea looked back to Nora, she noticed that her friend was starting to tear up.

"We'll find Paxton," Lea said confidently, though she had no basis for saying so. "Don't worry."

"It's not that, it is that," Nora said confusingly, looking away. "I know who took him."

"Who?" Lea asked, almost glad that her hunch had paid off.

"My sister."