by Andre Pisco
"We've been so stressed from side to side that I didn’t even remember it. Before going to Drexus my father shared with me that three gyms on this continent had been attacked by reapers. The cases were archived as coincidences but I’m beginning to think they were getting ready or looking for something." Neil started. From the outside, he kept a cordial voice that ran all the way down, but on the inside, he was shaking with nervousness. He had his hands in his pockets and couldn’t stop himself from moving them, trying to calm down. “My father visited two of them. Both said the same. They went in through the main door, attacked whoever they saw, causing death and destruction while laughing and then just left as if they had had enough fun...”
"Or maybe they realized that what they were looking for was not there," Lucian added.
"Probably. Were there reports of Christopher?" Alec asked.
"Ah... I don’t think so. No." Neil said, stumbling over his words. A metaphoric rope around his neck that pressed ever closer.
"Hm. Let's leave this conversation for another day. We better have dinner before it gets cold. We also need to rest our minds. It can’t be just our bodies," Lucian said. He rubbed his neck, even though there was nothing there.
"I'm ready," said Lucy, who had opened the door without anyone noticing, "and hungry."
"Hi, Lucy. Now that you're talking about it, I'd like eat something now. Go on, I'm going to wake James. Apparently, he sleeps like a princess." Alec said, unaware that Lucy's laughter that came back was filled with fear and a trickle of sweat ran down her forehead, impossible to see in the shade. Even Neil almost choked.
Footsteps covered the awful silence. The night had come and with it came his faithful companions; a small rain that hit the roof, a wind that roared such a lion imposing fear, and a scent of garbage catching in alleys where no one dared to step through the half-open windows of other rooms. Alec waited until his friends were down the stairs before he went into the room where James slept like a baby, clinging to the sheets and an extra cushion, with a thin trace of saliva running from his mouth. He snarled like an adult, loud enough that no other noise would wake him. He had fallen asleep with his face leaning to the right side and with his legs one on each side occupying the entire bed. He would wait for them without stopping, almost falling out of bed twice in less than a minute.
"James, wake up. It's time to have dinner," Alec said, touching him slowly on the shoulder.
"No, please. No more. That's enough!" He let out, the muffled words as they went against the cushion, "I can’t take it anymore."
His eyes were still closed. A nightmare tormenting his sleep, making him a puppet of fear to which he couldn’t escape. The memory of a long past event that was still embedded not only in the mind but also in the body. Alec's touch seemed to have awakened the infamous memory as if at the feel of the pressure on his skin he had remembered the moments chained between the frame walls where the doctor's laughter echoed.
"James, James, it's me. We're safe." Alec said, more than once, shaking him by the shoulder.
Still, James was too lost in his own dream. He didn’t wake up, and the way his body writhed was sinking into him. A sense of inertia swept through Alec, finding himself unable to help his friend, being a mere spectator of what was happening to him. He wanted to use his foot and wake him, but he was afraid that waking him so abruptly would make it worse. His mother had said that interrupting someone’s deep sleep could cause some disruption, leaving them lost in limbo. It didn’t leave his head that he needed help. He looked around, consumed with the thirst for help, looking for anything that could help him. His eyes wandered around the room and landed on a varnished desk of old wood where a handful of flowers lay in the water of a vase.
He picked it up, removed the dying flowers, and threw the water into James's face. He woke with a start, wiping his face with his hands and looking disgusted as his tongue tasted it.
"What is this? Are you crazy? Do you want to die?" James asked, exalting himself. He got up from the bed and raised his fist, glistening and preparing for an attack.
"James, calm down! You were having a nightmare. Everyone is waiting for us for dinner." Alec said, also putting himself in combat position, one foot in front of the other, and hands ready for the flames to cover them, "I tried to wake you normally but it didn’t work."
"And you threw this disgusting water on me? This isn’t even water still."
"It was the only solution!" Alec said, trying to explain to before they exploded with the room.
"Anyway. You are an idiot. Am I supposed to go to dinner in this outfit?" James said, adjusting it, wondering how he was going to hide the moisture in parts of the fabric.
"You know I can just dry you, right?" Alec said in a half-joking tone.
"For someone so annoying even you are useful sometimes," James answered and came forward, holding two of the wet parts with two fingers.
"James, we had to talk about Cristopher out there. We were not the first gym he attacked. We thought he used the others to practice or didn’t find what he wanted. He will not give up... It's not over yet." Alec said, as two small flames dried James's suit, and also warmed his face.
"He who comes. Let's get revenge for what he put us through! He does not think that being strong is enough to stop us."
"We? Good to know you already see us as a team. You're right. None of us will give up. We are together in this, now and until the end," Alec told him. He finished the job and told James he was ready.
"Ah... It came out. Don’t think we're friends or anything. Let's go,” James replied, fumbling, trying to close the missing buttons of the suit, changing them several times.
They ended up going together for dinner. They were all seated, including Grant and, this time, Alice. She had a letter sealed beside her, covered in a thin layer of dust, and wrapped in a thread, almost invisible, that had its end at the foot of the opening, resembling a gift.
"Glad they arrived." Eva told them, "Sit down. Alice has found something that seems to be important. It was hidden among some stuff in one of those places full of antiquities I told you about.”
Alice handed Eva the letter, and taking extreme care, pulling the thread slowly, letting it unfold itself, opened it. She took out a gray paper from there, the already yellowish creased corners with a vinegar scent. She blew to the side and the dust showed in front of the candles that lit the hall. From her pocket, she took out a pair of round glasses, the bottom of a bottle marked with fingerprints. She wiped them with her purple velvet sleeve and put them on her face. She read it to the end before uttering a word. In the middle, some "hm" and "I see" escape her, but no more than that.
"Interesting," she said finally, "It does not give us an answer, but it speaks of a man who may know the answer."
"Who?" Neil asked, interrupting her.
A forced smile appeared on her face, straightening her cheeks and curving her eyebrows. She cleared her throat before continuing.
"One Mr. Geronimo. It says here, at least of the parts that don’t have a black spot, that he ran away as soon as he knew what they planned to do to the world of yesterday. It does not say what, just that it was a regression. He also said that he had a group on his side whose plan was to find a way to reverse the effects." She said, keeping her voice quiet throughout the speech, never letting surprise or indignation creep up her throat.
"Does it refer to the chips?" Lomi asked, this time in a more haughty way than usual.
"Possible. But let's not jump to conclusions. Alice will continue to work on this. There are 2 or 3 more, see what we find and then know where they are going." Eva finished. She lifted the glass and shook them, signaling that it was time for a toast.
"Before that, tell us where he might be?" Lucian asked, interrupting the festivities to Eva's dismay. She bit her lower lip and put the letter back in the line of her eyes.
"It has an address, but this site no longer exists. It's old and it's just ruins now." She responded by trying to end the conver
sation as quickly as possible.
"I want to see this!" James said, standing up, almost knocking over his chair. He reached out and waited for Eva it to pass him. There was a moment of silence. No one moved. A heavy mood circulated around the table. Grant's eyes were filled with fury, almost jumping out of his sockets, but he didn’t. Alice had her hand on his leg, and at the same time, with her head, told him not to commit any stupidity.
"You should not talk to the governess like that," Lomi said. A delicate yet imperative voice. It was neither an order nor a threat, but it had a certain respect.
"Oh, I..." James began, looking around, seeing all the faces staring at him, "I was excited."
"I understand boy. This is also your business." Eva said and got up, handing the paper over to him, "Be careful. The paper is heavier and stronger than ours, but we don’t want to damage it, do we?"
James nodded before picking it up and sitting down. He began to read, his eyes following the letters, changing lines and continuing. Alec even told Neil that he had never seen him so focused on anything.
"Are you sure this is not fake?" James asked, the words sliding from his mouth like a serpent on rough ground, "We should look for this man. Find the truth. We need an advantage against Cristopher!" He said, tapping his fist on the table.
"Enough! You do this again and you'll see what happens to you," Grant shouted, losing his temper. As he spoke a number of people in the group spat out their food.
Neil raised his hand to his forehead and whispered: "Less to eat."
"All of you calm down!" Eva ordered, getting up so fast that some of the wine in the glass fell, slipping to the floor, the red mingling with the brown, "Grant, sit down and calm down. James, I understand you, but we can’t risk leaving you alone. Not again and not for now. We keep the plan. After Lyuna, you can see."
James sighed with closed eyes and calmed down. He apologized and said he understood, even though he didn’t think it was the right thing to do. The dinner happened without further tribulations. The dishes were different from those of the lunch, but the exotic novelties were kept. The scent of rosemary stood out above the rest, including the orange sauce, which covered the slices of meat on the table.
Eva was the first to apologize and get up from the table. She was explicit in saying that she needed to deal with some matters of the city and that she didn’t want to be disturbed unless it was for an extremely important reason. Grant followed, still clenching his fist and protruding veins around his neck, with Alice staring at him as if carrying the weight of his shoulders. His shoulders were down, a distant look, and he stood a few feet away from her.
"Why the distance between them?" Neil asked. While he waited for the answer he decided to fill his glass with lemonade.
"Oh... Let's just say Grant is a little... volatile," Molly replied, looking at Lomi as she said it, almost as if she needed his permission to do so.
"Does he hit you? And nobody does anything?" Lucy questioned them. Her power grew within her, spreading through her veins as the anger also showed in her clenched teeth and hands at the edge of the table, pressing her.
"He's much better than before..." Lomi replied. The sadness in his voice was remarkable, even though he seemed to be stuck in bureaucracies, "He... He's the son of someone important. We can do no more than reprimand him. The parents sent him here so that he could be tamed." He continued, making quotation marks in the air, "but we are not allowed to do more than call attention to him."
"So he does what he wants? And leave? He who touches you in front of me to see what happens to you! "James said at once.
"Thank you," Lucy whispered, smiling at him, "He's not going with us to Lyuna, is he? What about Alice?"
"We tried to get Alice to go. We're serious!" Molly replied, gesturing with her arms, struggling so that the dramatic theater was enough for them to believe her, "But he asked her to stay. We couldn’t say no to him. Orders are orders." As soon as she finished speaking, she bowed her head, ashamed at the situation. He didn’t agree with her, but he had never been confronted by being complacent.
"At least they know they're making a mistake." Lucy said and got up from the table, "I'm going to sleep. Good night, guys.”
Her footsteps in the corridor echoed in the gloomy mood from the foyer to the hall. They seemed larger, like a giant walking in the dead of night, without direction. They lasted for a few seconds until they were soft and finally disappeared.
"We better go, too." Alec remarked, "Tomorrow we're going to visit the city."
"Do you need someone to show you?" Lomi asked in his most cordial tone.
"No need. Thank you." Alec returned. He was not satisfied with the course of the conversation, but he knew that it was not the time to cause a disruption between the group and the government that had welcomed them.
The meal ended there. The young men went to their rooms, complaining of how cold and scary the palace was at night. The shadows on the walls that moved with the moon and the wind that beat on the fogged roof as if it were denied entry but continued to try. Alec's fire was used to give utility to fireplaces that were once mere props in rooms without personality. The flames were splattering inside the four walls, and the faint scent of scallion spread all over the second floor.
"I don’t like being here," Lucian confessed, this time with his eyes on the sleeping city. Darkness shrouded the buildings, from the smallest to the highest, hidden among dim lights and under the few stars in the sky.
"Me neither. I feel like they are not telling us everything and every time I think Eva has less control than she tries to show." Alec replied. He slipped inside the bed, holding only the white T-shirt, and covered himself with the sheets.
"Do you think there's anyone above her?" Lucian questioned him, looking over his shoulder at him.
"I think so. I have no idea who, but I don’t think she has a hand on everything. Maybe the future will reveal it." Alec answered.
In return, he obtained a melody sung by Lucian, who was leaning on the whole atmosphere of mystery that the night brings and enveloped him with slow breathing, snapping of fingers and perfect harmony. Alec finally fell asleep with his friend humming.
Chapter XXVI
The remaining days were spent visiting the city. Lunch and dinner were at the usual place. Every day the dishes were different, though the silence during meals became a certainty rather than a mere possibility. No one spoke. The fear of a phrase becoming a rolling stone capable of bursting into everyone's face grew with the intensity of each look.
The nights had been received by a small shower, bringing with it a soft breeze. Enough to raise the hairs on the arms but not to cause torment in the conversations.
It was notorious that everyone there knew each other. They exchanged happy chats and talked about their lives in the wide streets. The market day seemed to be an exception to the rule, not to normalcy. There were no jerks. People would turn around with a smile and apologize. The sun shone on them, and the puddles left the night before disappeared before midday. Between people working, others going into stores waiting for the news and the young men running from one place to another, Alec felt at home. A safe and comfortable version of your home. Longing filled his chest, squeezing hard. The memory of Tommy, Mimi, and the rest of his friends filled his head, as did the loving memory of his parents when they knew he was a wizard. It was his father's wish that this should be so, and luck had not failed him. It was also one of the few good memories his father had left him, were it not the majority to be at the house entrance staggering through the door inside, shouting at the gods to have betrayed and abandoned them. Perhaps he was glad to know that gods don’t exist and that we are condemned to a life of happiness and misfortune in which we depend only on our own actions or, if it were to be, he would be irritated, as was usual, by someone confronting him with the choices of life that they took him there.
However, the bonanza had its end and at the beginning of the third day, everything change
d. The youths were awakened by explosions after explosions. An incessant line of them that seemed to have no end. Then followed the cries filled with despair and the cries of discouragement that kept repeating itself in their heads. Alec got up immediately and peered out the window. Hell had risen to the earth and Christopher was leading the perpetrators. He hovered in the sky, accompanied by three air-powered soldiers, and smiled. The young man could swear that his eyes were red, or maybe that was just the flames. Most of the buildings were burning and people were running around, not knowing where to go. They stumbled over each other, trampling those who fell, disoriented, focusing only on the survival of their family. They lost humanity trying to survive. Alec couldn’t believe it. He had seen dozens of fights, perhaps even hundreds of them, in his city, but he had never before seen a city collapse in the face of megalomaniacal laughter as background music like a sea of fire spilled over what was still left.
"What's going on, Alec?" Lucian asked him. He got up and got dressed in an instant, already prepared to go help.
"He... Lucian, he... swept the city. All... Completely," Alec answered, his voice trembling, as did his hands, which he strove so hard to put in front of him so Lucian would not see them.
"WHAT? What do you mean by that? He who? What's going on?" Lucian asked, not breathing before he lost his breath.
"Christopher. He’s here," Alec said, without pausing.
Lucian was about to answer when someone knocked on the door. James and Neil were shouting outside.
"Let's help the people. Fast. Come on! "Neil shouted, masking his fear with the courage and adrenaline of the moment.
"Let's knock over a few of them. It's time for revenge!" James added, thirsting for vengeance, "It's one for me, one for the teachers, one for Max."
Alec didn’t move. Paralyzed, he was still staring out the window, wondering if misery would follow him wherever he went. A burning man ran down Main Street, screaming in pain, throwing himself to the ground and rolling until he finally stopped opening his mouth. The body fell apart and only ashes remained, becoming only dust glued to the soles of the shoes of those who fled. Some of the citizens tried to repay the fight but fell short. They didn’t equate to the soldiers, already corrupted by the darkness, taking pleasure in the pain of others and not taking shelter to avoid it as the good ones did. The city wall was in shards. Stones had been destroyed at night with no one to deal with them. It was this kind of power that faced them and they couldn’t even think about what was beyond that. Alec's eyes also flushed from looking at the lost faces in the flames.