Copyright © 2019 Marcia Soligo
Cover illustrations by Marina Henry © 2019
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-7339607-1-7
To my husband, Glaubert Queiroz
CHAPTER ONE
Books and Stories
Her way to work was the same as always. Wide streets surrounded by trees, some leaves scattered on the ground and a faint breeze that seemed to always follow her wherever she went. And the sleepiness. The sleepiness was persistent; so was a pain in her right wrist.
Olivia Halin worked at an old bookshop, and she walked there every single day. At that odd store, one would find the latest releases and also dusty, ancient books. The kind that had a very distinguished scent of old pages and stories that had been told too many times. A scent that Olivia didn’t even notice anymore, because she had spent too much time there, drowned in a sea of pages that were now discolored under the ruthlessness of time.
Olivia was seventeen years old, she was tall, and her hair was as brown as a chestnut. Her dark green eyes were big and always alert, maybe because she was trying too hard to avoid surprises. She didn’t want to get caught off guard anymore.
On this early afternoon, Olivia felt as if she were being pushed by that familiar breeze. The day was bright, and the sun was warming her face softly, making the cold breeze quite agreeable. It was the last day of school before the winter break, and she had absolutely nothing special planned for that period. From now on, Olivia would be working full-time at Lucent Bookshop, and that was probably it. Some might find this dull, but for her, knowing exactly what would happen and being in a predictable routine was the best she could ask for.
As she walked along the streets of the City of Leve, a small town full of trees, white houses and unnecessary fences, the delicate breeze became a violent gust of wind. Olivia’s hair flew all around, and the temperature suddenly dropped. The now very cold wind made the girl shiver as it touched her skin. “Maybe there’s a storm coming,” she thought to herself, and that thought was soon followed by the realization that she didn’t have an umbrella, and if she had to venture the rain, she would probably freeze on her way back home. After fighting the strong wind for a couple of blocks, the girl arrived at the bookshop and had trouble closing the door, which kept swinging back because of the incessant blasts of air.
“Odd weather, huh?” said an old man with gray hair, crooked teeth, and huge round glasses, peeking outside through the glass window.
“Yes, Mr. Fildor. I just hope it goes away fast. How are things today? A lot of clients?”
“Just enough, just enough,” answered the man as he walked away from the window and into the maze-like corridors made up of bookshelves.
The store had big front windows that allowed the outside light to come in, and right now Olivia could see the clouds taking over the once-blue sky. But the inside of the bookshop was always quite dark. The light would get blocked by the mountain of books and shelves, and only a few rays of sunshine would find their way deep into the shop, making it feel secluded, somewhat like a cave where Olivia liked to hide. It was as though the place were too small for that many words. The decoration was simple, or almost inexistent; it was limited to three dark red, suede armchairs that were placed at three different spots around the store. They looked old and worn, just like everything else.
Olivia’s days at Lucent Bookshop were pretty much the same. Her job consisted of greeting customers, helping them finding books, giving brief explanations about the titles or suggestions, accepting payments, packing, and finally, handing out the books. It was a job that could easily become boring and uninteresting, making the days into long and dragged hours.
She had found this job unexpectedly. Walking through town by herself one day, she passed this small store and decided to go inside. There, she found Mr. Augusto Fildor, the bookshop owner, and after discussing a bit about Greek civilization and how they contributed to modern society, he offered her a job. “You know books. And I can’t work here anymore. My back hurts, my feet hurt … I need to sleep more and carry fewer stories,” said the old man, smiling kindly.
Working with books was interesting. But Olivia had spent too much time trying to forget how her life was supposed to be, where she should be, and what she should be doing instead. Unfortunate circumstances had brought her here and made her find a job at this particular bookshop. She distanced herself from all of her plans, including her dream to go to college and study paleontology, something she had longed for since she was a little child. A dream she had built while diving into the greatest adventures with her parents. A dream that was just a dream now. Little by little, she distanced herself from everything she wanted to be or do.
Olivia’s parents had died two years ago in a tragic fire. After the accident, Olivia had moved to the City of Leve to live with her grandmother, Mrs. May Halin. About a year ago, the girl started to live, essentially, by herself. Her grandmother wasn’t an ordinary old lady. One wouldn’t find her telling beautiful stories about the fascinating old days to her granddaughter or encouraging anyone to pursue their dreams. Mrs. Halin always managed to be traveling somewhere around the world, and the travels seemed to be more a way to avoid her granddaughter than a way to explore different places. However, Olivia enjoyed the freedom. She liked to live with her grandmother, but she missed her family too much, and she never felt completely comfortable in that house, surrounded by her grandmother’s stuff. When Mrs. Halin was far away, the house got lighter, and life became more enjoyable.
The truth was that the accident scarred Olivia Halin forever, and since then, she felt as if a certain lightness had ceased to exist in everything.
Soon after Olivia arrived at the bookstore, Mr. Fildor left, complaining about his joints and repeating his mantra about his legs and back that hurt so much. She spent the afternoon cleaning some shelves, organizing the self-help books—where someone had made a complete mess—and reading. Since Lucent Bookshop was not a very crowded store, Olivia had plenty of time to read. During this time, all alone and surrounded by mountains of books and thousands of words, her best companions were silence and the universes she created so vividly inside her head. Sometimes, she would get so lost in her wonders that she would actually see new worlds. And she was pretty sure that she had hurt her wrist in one of those alternative worlds. She used to laugh and think that the loneliness was making her slowly mad.
After a whole day of work, the night was dark, and the rain never came. The strange wind ceased as quickly as it had started, leaving hundreds of leaves huddled on the ground in front of the Lucent Bookshop.
“Olie, hello! Can we go?” said a tall, skinny boy with brown hair and brown eyes.
“Not yet…” Olivia said. “There’s a customer back there. But I think he’ll be done soon. Wait for me just a bit.”
The boy nodded and sat with her behind the tall wooden counter. Trevor Meris had been Olivia’s best friend for about two years now, but those years seemed like ages. They seemed like a whole life. They had met when Olivia moved to Leve, and they soon built a beautiful friendship that was crucial to Olivia’s sanity. Trevor was a key factor in Olivia’s recovery from her loss. He stayed by her side, made her laugh and helped her see that life could still be good and full of joy.
Trevor was extremely smart. With him, you wouldn’t find much of a gray area. He would always tell the truth, for he was as sincere as they come. And one would probably find this truth full of sarcasm. The boy was also renowned for his laziness, as he very much loved his naps. But he was also very kind, and he quickly became a brother to Olivia. He always went
to the Lucent Bookshop after his classes—he was already taking some college classes and excelling at them, of course—and then they would walk home together, since they lived two houses away from each other.
“May I help you with something, sir?” asked Olivia, walking toward the back shelves of the store, carrying her selling smile on her face.
“No, thank you. I’ve found what I was looking for. I will take this,” answered the man, staring deeply into Olivia’s eyes.
Olivia looked back at him, studying his face for a moment, and told the man to follow her to the counter. For some reason, his look was one of the scariest things Olivia had ever seen in her life. There was a certain coldness to his stare, his eyes were empty, as if he had no soul. The man was very pale; his hair was a dark blond, very thin and groomed carefully on his head, but none of this made him look any better. He wore an elegant purple suit and had chosen a book about travels to Egypt, with a bony camel on the cover and golden page borders. Olivia gave the man the burgundy bookshop bag, and he shot her a smile, something that looked completely foreign to his face, and left.
Just after the strange man disappeared, Olivia closed the store and left with Trevor. They walked through the same streets as they always did. And even though nothing was different, she felt that something was out of place. A cold shiver ran through her spine every time the not-so-cold breeze touched her skin. On the way home, the leaves on the ground swirled in the wind. And everything seemed a little different. The leaves appeared to be leading the way and also following both of them, slowly forming circles and jumping around in a hypnotic dance.
Olivia barely slept that night. She kept dreaming about that man at the store shape-shifting into a wolf and devouring books all around. She dreamed about the camel on the book’s cover desperately running from the big wolf who bought books about Egypt. She dreamed about the light breeze blowing and whispering in her ears with a warm voice, saying: “Be careful. Look where you’re going. Be careful.”
She woke up after each nightmare and looked around, checking every shadow in her room. Nothing was different.
CHAPTER TWO
Two Moons
One more day of work. It was a crisp Saturday, a beautiful autumn day in the beginning of December and once again the leaves were behaving in a peculiar way. As the wind howled, the leaves danced around as if they wanted to show Olivia where to go. They went up and down in the air and drew shapes on the ground. It was as though they were carefully composing a message that Olivia couldn’t understand, full of symbols that she was not able to figure out.
Olivia spent the whole day working. She sold just a few books, and she was only able to read a little bit. For most of the time, she was just wondering, writing, drawing and revisiting the shelves in the back of the bookshop in the hopes that she would find some clue about the stranger who bought books about Egypt. The man didn’t leave any trace behind, except the impressions that were now haunting Olivia and a receipt of his purchase that didn’t say much. She didn’t know his name, much less who he was. There was no relevant record of his visit, no vestige.
In a sea of mundane activities, a small mystery like this was an interesting addition to Olivia’s calm days. For that reason, she caught herself multiple times creating fantastic conjectures involving the stranger. He could be an evil archaeologist who would go to Egypt to steal treasures hidden inside the pyramids, violating sacred tombs and unleashing a maleficent curse over the world. Or even simpler things, like the fact that he could be a burglar and was planning all the details to steal from Lucent Bookshop. It didn’t matter how hard Olivia tried to redirect her thoughts; they always came back to that creepy man, and when she remembered his empty look, a shiver ran down her spine and fear took control of her heart.
Once more, Trevor showed up at the end of the afternoon, and they walked home together. Olivia’s heart had been racing all day long as if in a hurry for something to happen, or to prevent something happen; a haunting presentiment washed over her, and she almost told Trevor a thousand times how weird she had been feeling since the day before, since that customer visited the bookshop. But every time she considered doing it, something stopped her. Maybe the realization that she had no reason to have all those sensations and that all of this was just the product of an idle mind.
They were calmly walking and laughing at some anecdotes Trevor was telling, things that happened at his classes and some of his new literary findings. Suddenly, everything went dark. In a flash, the purple light of the setting sun was gone, and all that surrounded them was swallowed by shade. They were abruptly consumed by the earth under their feet, and they couldn’t see any sign of light. They were free-falling, of that Olivia was sure. Her hair flew, and she shook her arms aimlessly, looking for something that she could grab onto. Now, all that existed was a knot on her stomach and an overwhelming feeling of desperation.
They fell, and they fell for what felt like long minutes. And their terror was so strong that their screams never came out. They stayed stuck inside their throats, petrified, or like something that just forgot to exist. Olivia and Trevor were so unprepared and surprised that their brains didn’t understand the message to scream whenever there was danger. So, they just silently fell, and fell, and fell.
There was no way to avoid the arrival on the ground. They knew it would happen sometime, and they both eventually collapsed clumsily on the floor after what seemed like they were falling for days. Olivia fell on her face and ate a good amount of dirt, or whatever that was. Soon after, Trevor arrived too, as if he was falling from the sky. He landed on his butt and rolled for a bit.
“What the hell? Where did that come from?” raged Trevor, looking from side to side. Looking up, he massaged his butt, which was probably very hurt by the harsh fall.
Olivia shrugged. She looked around, searching for something, she didn’t know what. They were in a wasteland, and it was late-night; the sky was overflowing with stars, and two moons shone in the sky.
“Trevor … two moons.”
“What, Olie? Was that a hole in the ground? A manhole? What was that? We go through that street every single day and I never saw anything … You know, I’m gonna call someone about that. I could have died or hurt myself. That’s it, we must make a complaint.…”
“I think it was a hole, and I don’t think it was there before. Trev, there are two moons.” Olivia pointed to the sky and looked at Trevor with her eyes wide open in surprise. He finally found her deep gaze, and she repeated, “There are two moons.”
They both stared at the sky for a while in complete silence.
“Olie, I can see some lights there. I think it could be a city of some sort … I think we should go there.”
The girl nodded. They walked toward the lights, not exchanging a word. Talking at this point seemed impossible and almost unbearable. They couldn’t think of anything to say, and the words–and thoughts–were completely shuffled inside their minds. Olivia felt as if a rock had dropped inside her stomach. She wasn’t sure if it was only because of the fall or because she was so frightened. She kept thinking about the moment her scream would finally come out, exploding everybody else’s eardrums.
They followed a pathway that seemed previously marked by other travelers. Some kind of trail made of dirt showing that this was clearly a very used road. A little bit of grass decorated the ground, some bushes and plants that moved shiftily when Olivia and Trevor passed by them. These plants seemed to feel their presence and shrank, protecting themselves. Olivia looked around at everything with suspicion. All the things appeared to be alive and aware of their presence, the trees, the grass, the rocks. They walked down a hill through some trees and finally saw what appeared to be a small village. If it wasn’t for the two moons shining very brightly in the sky, they would probably be lost by now. The bluish moonlight made the path clearer and the walk considerably easier.
It was a small town, and they probably were on its main street. There were a number of stor
es and some restaurants, and the city lights were lit for no one. The buildings were very similar to each other, some of them made of stone, others of small bricks painted red or very dark green. The street was large and stone paved. All was calm, and the place seemed somewhat abandoned. Maybe that was the reason everything felt so strange and heavy. Olivia and Trevor examined the surroundings, very much afraid of what could show up. Olivia didn’t know why, but she was thinking about her nightmares and the vicious wolf she’d seen the night before. She looked around, thinking that at any moment the creature could appear and attack her. Right now, it all seemed real, it all seemed possible, even her wildest wonderings.
“I don’t think we’re close to home anymore, Trev. We need to find a place where someone can explain to us where we are exactly. And I think we should get out of the streets. Something doesn’t feel right here.”
“I agree, Olie. That sounds like a good idea.”
“I believe it’s the only option we have now …”
They kept walking, and every place seemed to be closed. The city was sleeping. Olivia thought about starting to scream and knock on every door, asking for help, crying, until someone finally decided to assist them. But at the same time, she feared who or what could appear. There were two moons in the sky; who could guarantee that humans would live in this place? Or that they would be friendly?
A silhouette appeared houses away from where they were, approaching fast and decisively. As this person got closer, they could distinguish a tall woman, probably in her seventies. She had a long neck, small brown eyes, and a very pronounced nose. Her eyebrows were thin and well-groomed, having the same brownish tone of her hair. She wore some kind of long, dark-blue dress, and she had a neat and big hair bun at the top of her head. She was beautiful, but her face had a scary expression.
The Portals of Tartae- the Land With the Two Moons Page 1