Chapter Fifty One

All too soon it was Miralys' birthday and they still had no news of Menolly other than that she'd left the island.

Miralys didn't feel up to much celebrating and after doing chores around the house to help her stressed parents

She took Cinnamon for a long ride to think about what she wanted to do with her life.  She'd never really felt drawn to any particular job and as she rode along her thoughts kept drifting back to her sister's disappearance and how worried her parents were.   

With all their worry over Menolly, no-one in the family really wanted a big party to celebrate Miralys' birthday, especially since Joshua had never got over his issues with strangers, but he and Tamara didn't want Miralys to feel completely forgotten so they invited Tamara's niece, Stacia, and Stacia's father, Gary, over for a small family party

Outside in the garden, the men discussed where Menolly might have gone and what she had intended in leaving the way she had.

"I know she was obsessed with music, but there's a theatre here, she could have got a start in being a musician there, she didn't have to disappear like that!"

"From what Stacia's mentioned I'm afraid your Menolly was as interested in being famous as she was in music and our little town just isn't that famous"

Inside, the women were sat on the sofa discussing the same thing.  Miralys felt sick at the thought her sister wouldn't be there for her birthday and was torn between worrying about what had happened to her and feeling angry at Menolly for spoiling the end of her teenage years and her birthday, she'd not even been able to go to Prom since the school had cancelled it after hearing about Menolly's disappearance.

Until of course it was time for the birthday cake when they all gathered in the kitchen and Miralys blew out the candles, wishing as she did so that somehow Menolly would be found and would come home eventually

After all the cake had been eaten, Miralys went onto the internet to look for jobs, seeing a recruitment page for the police force, it suddenly occured to her that joining the police might give her the resources and knowledge to find Menolly, or at least find out what had happened to her...

Decision made and acted upon, she went out to find her mother and tell her

"I've applied to join the police, I've got an interview on Monday and if I pass the tests I'll join straight away.  I'm going to try and find out where Menolly's gone and get her home if I can"

"Are you sure you know what you're doing baby?  Don't you think the police are looking already?"

"I'm sure they are, but I've got the extra motivation and... well... I remember when Aunt Sofia brought us here and what she told us about what happened back in Hidden Springs...  I don't think Menolly ever really believed it, she was a lot younger and after she hit her teenage years she seemed to want to disbelieve you on principle.  I want to try and find her before the vampires do"

"Just be careful Mira, I don't want to lose you too"

The next day was graduation, Miralys and her parents attended the Town hall with the rest of her year to receive their results and Miralys was awarded Class Valedictorian and voted most likely to become a sports star.

After all the speeches were over, Joshua and Tamara took Miralys out to the local restaurant for a celebratory meal 

On Monday, Miralys got into her mother's car (which Tamara rarely used, preferring to ride one of the horses) and drove to her interview.  The police force was also based at the Town Hall and she was put through lots of tests to see if she was fit enough and intelligent enough.  

Eventually, at the end of the day, the Police Chief, Aquarius Ocean, told her she would be accepted but he wanted a private chat with her away from the office...

Aquarius took her to one of the local parks and grilled her over a game of chess as to her reasons for wanting to join the police force.

"I know your sister's missing and I'm pretty sure your decision to join the police force isn't unrelated to that, so, why join up?  Do you not trust us to do our job?"

"No!  Not at all, I, I just couldn't sit around and do nothing while my sister's missing and..."

"Go on, "and" what?"

"I don't know what my parents have told you about our family history, but we moved here after some powerful vampires took against our family.  My mother's father was a member of a powerful vampire family himself, but married a human and somehow they attracted the attention of others, but not in a good way.  Almost all my family were killed in one night and my aunt sacrificed herself in a spell to get those of us who remained away.  

I don't know if any vampires who follow those ones have found Menolly, I hope not, but I need to find her before they do if I can, and... if they have found her... we need to know so we're warned and we can get away again before they find the rest of us or we endanger everyone else on the island by remaining"

"Very well then, I'll sign off your application and you may do work on your sister's case.  However, you are not to take any independent action, I'm partnering you with my stepson Fabio who has also just joined and I want you to tell him anything you find out.  He'll pass it on to me and I will decide what action if any is to be taken.  You can talk to anyone in the town you like but that's as far as I want you to go without clearing it with me first.  Understood?"

With Aquarius' words ringing in her ears, Miralys went to find any of her sister's school friends she could and tracked down the Sperie triplets at the beach.

Adabella told her that before her disappearance, Menolly had become obsessed with a number of artists whose music was all about rebellion and had talked incessantly at school (when she was there) about how cool it would be to go to a big city like Bridgeport to seek her fortune.

After gathering all the information she could, Miralys ran home, she'd found years ago that running, or riding Cinnamon, helped her to think.

Once she got home she went onto the internet and began researching the artists Adabella had mentioned and also the music scene in Bridgeport.  Once she felt she'd found as much as she could that night she emailed her findings to Fabio.

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Pet Spam

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Town News

• Ryanne Roman has married Sebastian Striker and he has taken her surname.
• Bryce Roman has married Meriwether Stacy and the two of them have moved in together.
• Quhyn Sperie has aged to YA and got a job in the science career.
• Quetzal Sperie has aged to YA and got a job in the athletics career.
• Fabio Sabo had aged to YA and got a job in the law enforcement career.
• Nathaniel McKinley and Quhyn are dating.
• Glimmer Sabo and Ryan Crist have dated and then split up.
• Isadora Marlin has aged to YA and got a job in the acting career.
• Tempest Ocean has dated both Stacia Fields-Vamp and Adamina Sperie.