Solitary

by Quelli di ZEd

CHAPTER 7

  Amanda had been unable to fall asleep again after the dream. From a rational point of view she thought that it was absurd to be so scared, yet she had a lingering feeling which was beyond the images she had seen, and which almost prevented her from closing her eyes without sending shivers down her spine.

  The actual presence of the cat outside her window for sure hadn't helped.

  She couldn't help noticing the strict similarity between the eyes of the feline watching her from the street and the two green lights that had been in her dream. So she had dreamed the cat, albeit she hadn't seen it. It had been it to lead her away from that awful darkness clenching her. She had to understand if that had been good or bad, though.

  There were but a few doubts left on the fact that the dream hadn't been normal at all. Maybe it had been an attempt from someone – who could this someone be was yet to be seen – to send her a message of some kind. If that was the case, she couldn't really say it had been clear. She could see no actual, or even metaphorical meaning in the scenes she had seen and the sensations she had felt, if not very marginally. The only thing which meaning was quite obvious where the tombstones. Did they mean that in two days her and a lot of other people would be dead? Or was it a more general warning? Anyway, it foretold something bad, there were no doubts about that. The hardest part was understanding whether she should believe what she had seen, whether to consider it a warning or a threat, or even just an attempt to scare her – quite successful by the way. But why? Why scare her? Or anyway why warn her that something was about to happen but give her no hint about how to try and stop it from happening, or even try to help her understand whether it could be stopped at all?

  Those thoughts had been with her for the whole night and the following day, even while she was trying to go through her lesson at the university, which as a consequence had been quite garbled and frequently interrupted.

  In the end she had excused herself with her students and promised them she would explain again the same subject in the next lesson, all the time hoping that there would be a next lesson.

  In the short route home, she had grown even more nervous. The evening shadows had started to darken the city streets, and the light globes left dark corners from which she half expected to see something hostile and monstrous to leap at her at any moment.

  Eventually, looking like a terminal paranoid, she reached the building where she lived, and she was about to let go a sigh she had held all the time, but it stuck in her throat. The cat was there, waiting for her, sitting in front of the door.

  Even though it wasn't a scary apparition, neither a very menacing one, it had the power to freeze her for a second, at least until she forced herself to behave like the grownup and rational person she was supposed to be and start to walk again toward her door.

  The cat didn't move.

  She was one step far from the entrance when it stood on its four legs, arched its back, raised its fur and started hissing, making her move back abruptly, rather surprised than afraid that it would attack. As soon as she stepped back, the animal sat down again quietly as if nothing had happened.

  Amanda tried to advance again, and there was a repeat of the same scene, even though this time she was prepared for the reaction of the cat and she just stood where she was. The cat, in turn, kept hissing all of its disapproval. It was clear it didn't want her to go in, as irrational as the idea that a cat had decided to prevent her from going back home could sound. Anyway it didn't try to leap at her or attack her in any way. That was something.

  She took another step back, and when the cat sat down for the second time she did the same, bending her knees and sitting on the balls of her feet. «So, what will we do?» she asked as if she really expected an answer.

  In a sense, the answer came.

  The cat stood, without any hostile behavior this time. It looked up at her with those eyes so similar to gems mounted in its skull, then slightly moved away from the door, walking catlike to the street leading to the center of the city, only to stop after a few steps and turn around to look at her again, waiting.

  Unsure, Amanda stood and tried to take a step towards her house. Immediately the cat started hissing again.

  «Fine, fine», she said, coming to a halt. «I won't go home. So what do you want me to do?»

  The cat moved some more steps along the road, then again it turned around and looked at her.

  «Do you want me to follow you?» she asked in a tone which made clear how unsure she was.

  For a split second it seemed to her that, in spite of all odds, the cat had nodded. Then she saw it move again for a short path, before turning for the third time.

  Having nothing left to lose, she moved in its direction.

  It started walking again. Slowly at first – turning its head back every few steps as if to check she was still following – then, once it was sure she wouldn't stop, at a faster pace, moving through the streets as if it had a precise destination in mind, and only checking her whereabouts every once in a while.

  She kept following it.

  She kept walking behind the cat in a city that looked strangely lifeless, wondering several times whether it was really happening or it was just another dream.

  Only rarely they crossed someone else in the street, and usually these people didn't give any consideration to her feline guide, and even less to her.

  Partly the absence of people could be justified by the fact that they were in one of the city areas which were less crowded at night, having nothing that could lead people there at that time – still that couldn't explain the almost complete lack of life, as if it had been somehow sucked away in a black hole of sorts.

  Due to that situation, the encounter she made a bit later was even more upsetting. Suddenly she found herself looking at long queues of people coming from side streets to the one the cat was following, preceding both her and it along the way. Even under normal conditions, the scene would have been quite unreal, but that feeling was utterly amplified by the silence shrouding the whole event. In the presence of such a crowd she should have heard a background hum, the sum of fragments of conversations, sound of footsteps, rustle of clothes. Instead the silence was so deep that she could clearly hear the beating of her heart, as if someone had muted the whole area.

  Even when she got closer, no one seemed to notice her. She looked around for some familiar face, someone to ask explanations to – actually she could have talked to anyone there, but something in her seemed to shrink back from that idea as if thinking it was unhealthy – but found none. Then she looked down to try and find the cat, which apparently was maneuvering to keep close to her so that she couldn't lose it, or get lost, and saw the back of a dwarf who was unmistakable even from behind.

  She was filled by a mixed feeling of relief and worry. Forgetting the cat, she flung forward, crouching so much that she almost hit the road with her knees, and leaned one hand on the shoulder of her friend.

  «Shim! Shim, what's happening?» she asked. No answer came.

  The dwarf didn't turn to look at her, didn't seem to notice she was talking to him, didn't even try to shake her hand off. He just kept walking as if nothing had happened.

  Amanda slowly fell forward, kneeling on the ground, amazed and tortured. What was happening? How?

  Something brushed the hands she had left resting on her knees, tickling them. Too confused to do anything else, she turned to look, while a weak meow announced her what she would see.

  Their gazes crossed. So close, those emerald eyes were even more charming, it seemed that a whole world had been put in them somehow, and suddenly Amanda felt stronger, more confident, as if, in a way that required no words or gestures, the cat was encouraging her, assuring her that everything would be fine if she just listened to it.

  Slowly, Amanda stood up. She still didn't understand the situation, but she knew there was only one way to learn about it. She had to find out where all those people where going and why they were behaving
as if the world around them didn't exist.

  She let them pass by. She didn't think that mingling with them could be dangerous, still she'd rather not to, and just follow them to their unknown destination. Once they all had gone past her, the cat started following, and she did the same.

  It didn't take long before they reached a building in the historical center that Amanda didn't know, and started to go inside one by one.

  The cat stood, waiting.

  Amanda did the same.

  She was going to wait for everyone to get inside, then she would find out why they were there at all.

  From her hiding place, Grace saw a long queue of people entering the clinic and proceeding down the stairs. She thought for a second that it was good that she had hidden next to the bookshelf rather than going downstairs, but she also wondered why so many people were going there at such an unlikely hour.

  Some of them had lights, but most were just walking straight and carefully, making use of someone else's light or going towards an eerie glow that had started to come from downstairs after a while. Judging from the timing, someone must have activated it, whatever it was, after reaching the basement. For sure it wasn't there to light the way. It was too weak for that. It could barely be classified as a guiding light.

  The weird procession went on quick and neat until the last of the people had gone down the stairs. Grace wondered how it was possible that some many people could find a place in the basement of the clinic, unless it was much larger than the rest of the building. At present, though, she didn't really care. It was clear that her little trip had to be delayed.

  She left her hiding place and walked toward the door, trying to be as silent as possible. She didn't think she could really be heard by the people downstairs, but she didn't want to take the risk anyway. She took out her light crystal again, clenching it in her hand so that as few light as possible came out, and proceeded slowly, keeping her head turned back to make sure that no one came suddenly upstairs again. She bumped into someone coming from the opposite direction and let go a small shriek, quickly stifling it. The crystal slipped out of her hand and fell to the floor, suddenly lighting up the whole room and allowing her to see who was the new intruder of the evening. She was amazed to see it was someone she knew, that she had even met less than thirty-six hour earlier.

  «Are you OK? Can you hear me?» Amanda asked her. Grace thought it was a very odd question. She was expecting a "What are you doing here?" maybe, or a "How did you get in?" The weird question took her off guard and she could only answer a stuttering, «I can, shouldn't I?»

  For a second Amanda felt relieved, just enough time to realize that being in front of the only person around who seemed to be in control of herself wasn't automatically a good thing.

  She slowly backed away.

  Grace, in turn, was busy thinking of a way to pull herself out of that awkward situation, and didn't even notice her moving. She decided she would try to look natural, hoping that she could make her presence seem normal. «Were you going downstairs?» she asked in a neutral tone.

  «Downstairs?» Amanda retorted, uncertain.

  «With the others», Grace added.

  «What for?»

  «How do you think I could know?» Grace exploded, unable to restrain herself. That kind of games really didn't fit her.

  «Don't... don't you send them there?»

  Grace relaxed a bit. «No. You?»

  Amanda shook her head. «Maybe we should start again.»

  «Good idea.»

  «Why are you here?»

  «You first.»

  «Fine». Amanda didn't see any good reason to stretch that further, it didn't really matter who explained the situation first, as long as it was made clear. «I met some people... they were all coming this way, it looked as if they were... charmed. I wanted to find out what was going on, so I followed them». It wasn't exactly the whole truth, but it could suffice. She didn't think it was good to start talking about dreams and cats, especially because the cat itself was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

  Grace nodded as she spoke. She hadn't really cared about the attitude of the people coming in, so Amanda's description was as good as any other as far as she was concerned. They really weren't acting too normally, now that she thought of it.

  «Yes, I saw them», she remarked.

  «And they went downstairs.»

  Grace nodded without emphasis. She didn't think it was any of her business. At present she was mostly interested in not being sued, and it didn't seem that woman was going to sue her, or that she even could.

  «Didn't you think of going and check what was happening?»

  «Actually I thought I should go as far as possible from here.»

  «But those people might be in danger.»

  «That's the point. Do I look like a paladin in a shiny armor? Or even just a police officer?»

  «No. And I think you are not in the conditions to call one, are you?»

  Grace sent her a gaze of intense loathing for a second, without replying. Then she changed subject. «Anyway who told you they are in danger? It might be the meeting of some sect, or a private party, not our business anyway.»

  «No, I know some of those people and they weren't behaving like going at a party... or like they were doing anything in their right mind. I told you that something brought them here... they're controlled.»

  «They're controlled». Grace turned that sentence in her head, realizing that maybe that was the answer she had been looking for. Was there any more logical way to steal her patients than controlling them through magic or using some weird mental power? All things considered, investigating further on the matter might not be that bad an idea.

  «Amanda... I can call you Amanda, can't I?» The other woman shrugged. That was the least of her worries at the moment. «You know, Amanda, I think you're right, we should go and see what's happening».

  «Quite a sudden change of heart», she replied. Grace ignored her.

  «Let's go», she said, going down the stairs after recovering her crystal from the floor.

  Amanda followed. She still didn't like that woman. Maybe she would have preferred that she had gone as she had said she wanted to, but it was too late to complain.

  They went down two flights of stairs and finally reached a large, ancient-looking room, which seemed to constitute the whole of the basement.

  Curtains embellished the walls, and a large, heavy-looking, stone disc was propped against one of them. Apparently its natural collocation was in the middle of the floor, where an empty space of exactly the same size and shape could be seen, so that it was like a large missing tile.

  There wasn't anyone there.

  The glow that Grace first and then Amanda had been able to see, came from a milky-white disc vertically suspended in mid-air, right in the middle of the room.

  «What's that?» Grace asked as she was trying to understand why the place was deserted.

  «It's a portal», Amanda answered. In the meantime, she had knelt at the border of the empty space in the floor and was looking at the symbols carved around the glowing halo.

  «I see it's a portal, but what is a portal doing in the basement of a clinic? Why should anyone build one here?»

  Amanda was about to ask for an explanation about that mention of a clinic, since so far she had had no idea of what that building was, but she chose to answer the question instead.

  «I don't think they built it here, I think it was already there. It looks like one of the ancient portals.»

  «Let me see!» Grace said, getting closer, suddenly interested. «I believed there weren't any left».

  «So did I. It seems we were wrong». She stood, climbed down the small step and walked toward the center of the space.

  «What are you doing?»

  «I'm going to see what's on the other side.»

  «Do you have a life insurance?»

  «No. What does it matter now?»

  «It you always act lik
e this, I can see why you don't. I can't imagine someone who would accept to give one to you.»

  Amanda chose to let the conversation drop. She wasn't interested in arguing with that woman.

  She shrugged and went into the light.

  Left alone, Grace looked around, as if the answer to her questions could be somewhere on the walls. Then she exploded, «Oh, damn it!» and she went through the portal herself.