Empathy

by Ryan A. Span

  Part 8

  Gina’s body rested on a pile of soft leaves. Golden sunlight played through the lush, green forest canopy above her. There was no wind, however, not a leaf moving out of place. Gina noticed the strange silence, completely barren of animal life. The air itself had a familiar dreamlike quality to it.

  Gina eyed her surroundings for a minute, then sat up and said, “Again?”

  This time there was no one there. No Gabriel, no one else, just her. Her feet made no sound when she came upright, looking around the fuzzy forest glade. The ground seemed solid enough to walk on, but the dirt and leaves never sunk or crumpled, just motionlessly supported her weight in stark opposition to the laws of physics. It was more like a photograph of a place, not a real location at all.

  As she reached the edge of the glade, faint sounds piqued her interest. Water. Soft, rolling murmur of ocean waves. She made her way down the incline towards the sound, and when she reached the bottom, the forest fell away on both sides.

  Gina was on a beach. Again, the sand refused to take footprints, but at least here was something moving. The ocean was blue, alive and beautiful.

  A woman stood ankle-deep in the water. The surf lapped calmly at her feet, and she stood staring out across the sea, her arms at her sides and her hands balled into fists. Great red wounds were torn into her body, but there were no bones or organs inside. The only thing that came out was blood, slowly trickling down her legs to mingle with the waves.

  The woman was stark naked, Gina realised, and so was she. She felt a sudden burning moment of self-consciousness, but then it was torn away as recognition hit Gina like a sledgehammer.

  “I’ve always loved this place,” the woman said in a husky, knowing voice that Gina knew all too well.

  Gina opened and closed her mouth a few times, stammered, “Onu?”

  “Gina.” Onounu waved goodbye to the ocean, then turned to Gina with a warm smile and hugged her fiercely. The wounds on her body were gone, disappeared, without so much as a stain remaining. “I was hoping you’d call.”

  “But you can’t be here,” Gina argued weakly, lost in the surreality. “You’re in Shanghai...”

  Onounu shook her head. “No need to worry about that now. I’m here to help you, that’s all that matters.”

  “What’s going on? What is this place?”

  “Difficult to explain. It’s a recording I made, just in case. I wanted to make sure I could reach you if I... couldn’t talk to you in person.”

  “Couldn’t what? What do you mean?” Disentangling herself from Onounu’s arms, Gina stepped back and looked at the woman in front of her, and a terrible sense of dread squeezed tight around her heart. “You... You...”

  “I know. I’m dead. That’s the bad news.”

  Tears fogged Gina’s eyes from the horrible sense of loss that nearly overwhelmed her. She sank back into Onounu’s embrace, clinging to the image of her friend for comfort. “Oh my God...”

  Onounu stroked Gina’s hair and said, “Hush, girl. You’ll have plenty of time to grieve for me later. Listen to me, I can’t keep you here for long and we need to talk.” She took Gina’s hands and squeezed them gently. “Hang in there, just for a while, okay?”

  Gina looked up at her, saw the pleading in Onounu’s otherworldly brown eyes, and knew that she couldn’t afford fall apart now. It took strength she didn’t know she had, but somehow she willed herself back together.

  “Okay,” she said at last, forcing herself to pay attention. “I’m listening.”

  Taking Gina’s hand, Onounu led her across the beach to a high, narrow wooden house, its bright blue paint flaking slowly in the wind. Gina’s eyes stung at the sight of it, but she kept walking. The doorway was open. Its shattered door lay outside on the gallery. Gina followed Onu inside, looked at her bare feet walking across the broken glass without discomfort. She spotted an old brick of a phone in the corner of the main hallway, and it seemed to be playing back a tape without sound.

  “This is where we died,” Onu said tranquilly.

  “How?”

  “Bullets, mostly.” She smiled at her own gallows humour. “He was there.”

  Gina knew instantly who she meant by ‘he’. The well of dark emotions inside her stirred, and she choked, “It’s my fault. I got you into this.” The words just made her want to cry. “I’m so sorry.”

  A sharp squeeze of her shoulder brought Gina back to attention, and she found herself staring in confusion into Onounu’s businesslike expression. “Let’s face facts, Gina. You may not have known what you were bringing, but I had my suspicions. We were doomed the second I let you cross my doorstep. Don’t have any illusions about that. You’re my friend, you needed help, and I’d do it all again. Guilt profits no one. Right now, I need you to know what happened.”

  Onounu closed her eyes, and suddenly her forehead split open to reveal a third eye, white and blind and wise beyond comprehension. Motion sickness overcame Gina, and she bent over retching, until a hand dragged her back upright and she found herself staring into Gabriel’s face.

  She sat on her knees in front of him, holding her bruised ribs. Gabriel radiated sympathy as he squatted down to face her up close. His gentle fingers stroked the hair from her eyes and the blood from her lips.

  “I’m sorry my men treated you so badly,” he said. “They were under the impression that you’d know where I can find someone. A girl by the name of Gina. She’s travelling with a man, brown hair, average height, average build. Goes by the alias ‘Simon’.”

  “No,” said Onounu’s voice, struggling to speak through her swollen lips. Everything hurt.

  Gabriel stared into her. She resisted it with every ounce of her strength, and his eyes widened in surprise as he found himself stopped unexpectedly for a moment. Then -- gently, with respect -- he pushed down her will to strip her bare. And found his answers. He couldn’t look away from her, utterly crestfallen. The disappointment in his eyes seemed to lash at her very core, hurting her far more than any beating could’ve done. He looked down, saying, “You really don’t know, do you?”

  She shook her head. In that moment, her heart nearly burst with pity and love for this man, and she would have done anything for him. Anything. She knew she’d lost, and she didn’t care.

  Sound of glass shattering. One of the men in Onounu’s vision went down in a spray of blood, machine gun bullets tearing through the air in a hurricane of death. Gabriel let out an unmanly sound of surprise and dove for cover, cursing under his breath, pulling Onounu with him. He seemed chagrined by the whole situation, that someone managed to get the drop on him.

  “Shit,” he said. “Didn’t feel them coming. Time to get the hell out of here, gentlemen. Bring the women along, I don’t want anything happening to them.”

  Another rip of gunfire. The bullets simply blew through the walls as if they weren’t there, and the upturned table in front of Onounu exploded in a shower of deadly splinters. Time seemed to slow down as they pierced into her, her body thrown backwards by the force of their impact. The next thing she knew, Gabriel knelt over her with pity in his eyes, half-obscured by a red smear of blood over her eyes.

  A cold voice boomed from outside, “This is the Federal Police. Surrender now. We won’t ask again.”

  “You never asked in the first fuckin’ place,” Gabriel growled under his breath while he waved his remaining men out the back door. To Onu, he sighed, “Things never go according to plan, do they?” With her last remaining strength, she managed to touch his knee, and he nodded. “I’ll give her your love.”

  Gina became herself again as the vision went black, found herself back in the house alone with Onounu. The terrible emotions left her breathing hard and ready to break down crying.

  “He broke me, just like that,” Onounu whispered. Shame and horror carved dark lines in her face. “Not with torture. Not with hate or malice. Gently.”

  There was nothing Gina could say. Nothing she could do to make it be
tter. So she stayed quiet and bit back her tears. At length Onounu collected herself and resumed her determined look. She continued, “I needed to warn you, so I made this before I died. You’re going to come up against him, Gina. I wasn’t strong enough. You’re going to have to be stronger.”

  Sudden despair filled Gina at the thought. “You’re joking. How could I be? You were stronger than me, you always were.”

  “I’ve been working on something to help you. After you showed me that artifact in your head, I thought you might need it. Come on outside, listen.”

  They went out onto the beach together, and Gina felt the soft rustle of the waves wash over her. But that was all she could hear. She started to look around, wondering what Onu meant, and then she really heard the ocean for the first time.

  A soft melody played in the rush of the water, each wave a different instrument. Together they played something Gina knew she’d heard before, like shreds of a song that she’d once listened to but couldn’t quite remember. It refused to take a solid form in her mind.

  “Remember the tune,” Onu said. “It’ll help you.”

  “What does it do?”

  She giggled, “That’d be telling.” But when Gina threw her a look, her twinkling eyes gave in, and she amended, “You’ll know when you need it. Trust me. I don’t have time to explain.” She glanced over her shoulder at a point far down the beach, stared at it for a while. Then, “I’ve got to go now. Mashei’s waiting for me.”

  “No!” Gina reacted violently. “Stay. I need you with me.”

  “I wish I could, girl, but it’s not up to me.”

  “Please,” Gina whined, her voice cracking, and clung tight to Onu’s hands. “I don’t want you to be gone.”

  The smile on Onounu’s face was the most heartbreaking thing Gina had ever seen. She said, “We’ll be fine, Gina. Let me go.”

  The long, slender hand fell from Gina’s grasp, and Onounu expelled a heavy sigh before she set off down the beach. Gina stayed behind.

  “Onu?” Gina said softly after only a few steps.

  Onounu turned. “Yes, Gina?”

  “One last thing...” She hugged her elbows and studied Onounu’s face as she asked, “Why am I naked?”

  “Oh. Um.” Onu flashed a mischievous and slightly guilty smile. “I always wanted to see. You know, just once before I kicked off.” She shrugged, blushing. “Sorry.”

  Gina couldn’t resist a smile. That was Onounu, all right.

  “See you around,” she said.

  “I’d be worried if you do,” murmured Onounu. “Goodbye.”

       Drowsiness overcame her as she watched Onounu’s tall, stately figure recede into the distance.