Rakitaki: A Jonas Quartermain Adventure

by Lee Alexander

  Lily clapped her hands to ready herself. “Let’s start with the mythology. That’ll probably take the rest of the day, but we can start on the last bit tomorrow.”

  Jonas sighed, nodded, then followed her as she loaded his arms up with a dozen massive tomes. They returned to the table just in time to see the librarian dropping two boxes on their table. A slice of pizza was in her mouth, dangling. She winked at Lily and returned to the front of the library.

  “Good, pizza’s here,” Lily said. She didn’t comment on the strange behavior from the librarian. They put the books down and dug in to their food. Several slices later, they returned to their studying. They spent the rest of the afternoon going through various books, both colorful and dry, gleaning what they could about glowing hands.

  “I’m stumped,” he finally said. It was the first word they’d shared in hours.

  “Me too,” she sighed.

  “All I can find about glowing things is basically Greek gods being all sexy.”

  She laughed, throwing his stomach in loops.

  “I bet,” she said, still laughing.

  “So, uh, yeah, golden skin, golden hair, golden eyes, that sort of thing. I didn’t really find anything about glowing veins, or glowing blood. I mean, there is the ichor of the gods, but still not the same.”

  “I found basically the same thing. Sexy gods, sexy features, but nothing quite like what you were describing,” she said with a sigh. “Let’s call it a day. I’m feeling a little burnt out.”

  “Yeah,” he said. He grunted as he stood, stiff from sitting in the chair. They cleaned their books up and gave a slice of cold pizza to the librarian on their way out. Close to his dorm, she thanked him for a fun day. Just before she left, she kissed him on the cheek. He wished her well, then mentally beat himself up for the rest of the walk back to his room.

  33

  Jonas groaned, rolled over, then sat up. His dorm room was dark. His dreams had been haunted again. He slowly dressed himself, dreading the coming day. Then he remembered that while he would be stuck staring at dusty tomes, he would be doing it with Lily. He dressed in the dark and opened the door to the hallway. He put a hand up to shield his eyes from the bright lights, and it looked like his veins were glowing a vibrant red.

  “Gah!” He backed away from the hallway, stumbling and falling to his ass. He stared at the back of his hands, trying to see if they were glowing. He looked at the palms of his hands, then flipped them over to examine his veins.

  “I’m losing my mind,” Jonas muttered. He stood, dusted himself off, and left his room for the cafeteria. He wanted coffee to clear his mind; the lack of sleep was starting to get to him. Weak sunlight filtered through the heavy cloud cover above. Fresh snow had fallen overnight. A gentle wind cut mercilessly to the bone with chill temperatures. Jonas gathered his jacket around himself, walking head down into the wind.

  The lights inside the cafeteria blazed with artificial intensity, causing him to squint. He walked half-blind to the coffee station, thankful they still offered it for free to students in the morning. The aroma of the freshly brewed coffee entranced him. He grabbed two paper cups with lids and poured the coffee in, filling one with cream and sugar. He walked to a nearby table and sat, staring at the cups. Then he lifted the still too-hot black coffee to his lips and took a sip.

  He hissed in pain as the coffee mildly burned his mouth. He sat, blinking at the cup for a moment, letting the nectar do its job. Then he was startled as Lily sat next to him, slapping the table with her hands, spilling a few drops from the other cup. She was full of energy.

  “Ooh, is that for me?” She pointed at the mug with the pale coffee.

  “Uh, sure.”

  She took the cup and blew on the liquid.

  She sat, concern on her face. “What’s the matter? Getting divorced?”

  “What? I’m not married,” he said in confusion.

  She waved her hands to clear the metaphorical air. “I’m joking. You look like hell.”

  “Thanks, I feel like it. Haven’t been sleeping,” he said by way of explanation.

  “Still? You slept okay on the plane.” She sipped her coffee.

  “Yeah. Still the weird dreams.”

  “None with, uh, the one guy though, right?” She asked him, looking into his eyes. They were deep-set, almost looking hollowed out. He had dark bags under his eyes, showing the true depth of his fatigue.

  “No, not that I can recall. The Eye of Horus is making nightly appearances now, always watching me. Almost like it’s judging me. I dunno. I’m just exhausted.” He put a hand to his forehead, then slowly drew it down his face. It felt like a way to refresh himself, even if it didn’t do much.

  “Well, drink up. We have more studying to do today. I want to figure this out as badly as you do,” she said with her too-chipper voice.

  He grunted, then tossed back the remaining coffee. He sucked air through his teeth for a moment, his head back and eyes closed.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go.”

  “Now?” She gestured at her cup. “I wanted to drink my coffee first.”

  “Drink it on the way. The longer we take to get started, the longer we’ll be at it.” He followed up with a quiet “and the less I’ll want to do it.”

  “Alright,” she said. They stood, quickly grabbed another cup of coffee, then walked into the wintery landscape beyond the cafeteria. The walk was quick and quiet, save for their footfalls in the snow. The crunch was loud enough to echo off nearby buildings. Lily pressed to his side as they walked and sipped their coffee. Their breath steamed as much as the rapidly cooling coffee.

  The same librarian from the day before greeted them at the door. They replied as cheerily as they could on their way to their table. After shucking several layers, they were ready to work again.

  “What’s the plan for today?” She asked as she stretched her arms above her head.

  “The hard ones,” he started. She snickered quietly, then schooled her expression. “People dying when exposed to sunlight, disappearing from history, and the word ‘rakitaki’.”

  “We’ve got our work cut out for us, then.”

  He sighed, nodded, then indicated for her to lead the way. She took his hand and walked into the stacks. He found himself staring at her hair, bouncing gently as she walked. He was thoroughly entranced by her. So much so, that he nearly ran into her when she abruptly stopped at a shelf.

  “I think we should start here.” She indicated the bookshelf in front of them. “These are folklore and mythology books. I think we can maybe find something about vampirism, death by sunlight, that sort of thing here. I have a few ideas about finding the other stuff, but that’ll be more work.”

  “Okay,” he said hesitantly. She handed him a few books, then shooed him back toward the table.

  “I’m going to work on the other idea. I’ll let you know if I find something.”

  “’Kay,” he said. He trudged back to the table, dumped the books, and nearly spilled his coffee. A drop shot out of the lid of his cup onto the table.

  “Shit, shit, shit!” He swore as he quickly lifted the cup and wiped at the liquid with his sleeve. He looked around, finding the library empty at that hour. He sat and picked up the first book.

  ‘Medical Esoterica’ was emblazoned on the front. He didn’t recognize the publishing house or the authors. He opened the book and started to leaf through. There was an entire section dedicated to myths and rumors of diseases. One such rumor mentioned wolf children, attributed to a village in Germany. Another about feral humans in France. There were several about people taking on the guises of other people throughout America, with sources coming from Native American tribes.

  “Finally,” he muttered as he found a rumor talking about people sucking blood. It was a poorly written account from somewhere near South Africa. The author stated the aging and damage to the original text made it difficult to pinpoint an exact origin. Each story had the author’s reasoning for
including it. He would break down medical symptoms and what the likely cause was. In the vampire section, the author wrote about porphyria. It was a disease that could cause sensitivity to the sun or artificial light, abdominal pain, paranoia, and even red urine. As such, the author said it was likely any ‘vampires’ in history had inherited the disease. An uncommon treatment for the disease was iron supplements, and some figures in history had used blood from animals as a dietary supplement.

  An hour and a half later, with two books in his ‘done’ pile, Lily suddenly returned. His coffee had gone cold, as had hers. She took a sip and made a sour face. Then she put a single book down on the table.

  “How did you manage?” She asked.

  He put his notes down, shoving the books away in the process. “Everything these books describe is refuted by modern science. The closest is a disease called Porphyria.” He quickly explained the symptoms of the disease and the possible treatments.

  “That definitely sounds like vampirism. But that’s why we’re looking at myths. You said it yourself, right? Your hands burst into flames in the car back in Egypt. Do you have that disease?”

  “No,” Jonas said as he shook his head. “What did you find?”

  “A ledger, handwritten from earlier in the university’s history. It’s a sort of index. Took ages to locate it, and the librarian didn’t want to let me move it, but I needed to go over it with you. Come here, check this out.”

  She opened the cover and beckoned him over. He stood and walked to her side. He was acutely aware that his side was pressed to hers. She started running a finger down the lines of cramped but neat handwriting.

  “Let’s see,” she said quietly. “Ah, here it is.”

  The line was short. It read simply ‘Personal Journal, black leather bound, 1946.’

  “Why is that important?”

  “In a different cross-referenced section of another ledger, that one mentioned something about strange events in Egypt. It’s a first-hand account. Better than nothing, right?”

  “Yeah. Trade me, I’ll go find the journal, you beat your head against these books. Maybe you can learn something I missed.”

  “M’kay,” she said. She sat, still drinking her cold coffee, as she pulled the medical texts over to her side. She was already lost in thought. He shrugged and walked toward the front of the library.

  34

  He approached the librarian behind her desk. “Hi, uh, I was hoping to find this book.”

  She read the line he pointed to, then gave him instructions to the book. She made him wait for a moment while she dug around in the desk, then handed him a three-inch long antique bronze key and told him he’d need it to retrieve the journal. She took the ledger back from him and pointed him toward the staircase.

  He ascended to the top floor and walked to a room with an unlabeled door at the back of the building. When he tried it, the door opened easily and quietly. Inside was a small desk and a bookshelf, four feet wide and stretched from floor to ceiling. Each shelf had a protective glass cover with a lock. He opened the fourth shelf from the ground and looked over the books contained inside.

  Each was worn from time and use. Most were bound in leather. Plastic dividers separated the books, and he could faintly hear a fan in the back of the case. Every book had a tag with a number below it and he matched it to the one he’d been told. He gently lifted the book from the case, and checked its title. It simply read ‘Tagebuch’.

  “I think this is it,” he said to himself. He sat down at the desk and opened the book. The first page was handwritten in a language he had a growing familiarity with; German.

  Inside was a title page, handwritten. It said ‘Ein Offiziersbericht der ägyptischen Front’. A name was under it, ‘Wilhelm Peucker’. The page after that was in neat, dense handwriting. The person that had written it had taken great care to make his letters legible. Unfortunately, Jonas couldn’t read a single word. He sighed, returned the book to its home and locked the case. He made the long journey back to the front desk and returned the key.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “Hard to say, it’s all in German,” he replied. “Thanks for letting me look at it.” She nodded and he walked back to the table he was sharing with Lily. He had been gone for fifteen minutes, but she had a bevy of notes.

  He sat down and looked at the pile of notes.

  “What did you find?” He asked her.

  She looked up at him. “What did I find? You were gone for fifteen minutes and came back empty handed, what’s that about?”

  “I found the journal, at least that’s what I think it is. I can’t read German.” “And you left it there?”

  “You know as well as I do that I can’t take that book from that room.”

  “We’ll see about that,” she said as she put her pen down and stood. She took his hand, dragged him to his feet, and led the way back to the front desk.

  “Hey,” Lily said.

  The young woman looked up from the catalogue she was perusing. “Hey."

  “That journal, can we see it again?”

  “Yeah, of course. Here’s the key.” The young woman handed it over and Lily took it. Then she looked to Jonas who sighed.

  “Follow me,” he said as he started up the stairs again. When they got to the room, he let her in then followed. “It’s on the fourth shelf, that one right there with the black leather cover and embossed lettering.”

  She looked at the shelf. “I don’t see embossed lettering and like half of these books have black leather covers.”

  He gently took the key and opened the shelf, then extracted the journal. She took it and sat down at the desk. She was silent for several minutes as she flipped through the pages while he looked over her shoulder.

  “You can read German?”

  “No, I took Spanish as my elective. Not very helpful today. I did find the word ‘Rakitaki’, but I can’t make out the context.” She sighed and closed the journal, then sat back and closed her eyes. “I’m certain this is important, but we can’t read it. Oh,” she said and paused. She raised a finger. “I think I know who can though.”

  “Who can?” Jonas repeated the question, since she hadn’t elaborated. She closed the journal, then the shelf and locked it up. She kept the book under her arm and marched purposefully to the front desk. Jonas trailed behind, wondering what she was about to do.

  “We need to check this book out,” Lily said as she put it on the desk.

  “Absolutely not,” the young woman replied.

  “You know who I am, right?”

  “That doesn’t change–”

  Lily put her hand down on the desk. “I’m taking it directly to Professor Ulbricht.”

  The librarian looked troubled, then clearly lost an internal war. “Fine. Straight to him, since I’m sure you won’t let the library system take care of it.”

  “Thanks!” Lily had already walked around the corner. A moment later, she reappeared with her arms full. One side held the book and her notes, the other a jacket. She was still shrugging her own on. Jonas took the jacket as she thrust it at him. He looked at the bewildered librarian, then followed her out of the library.

  “Hey! What the hell was that?” He asked as he caught up to her.

  “Checking out a book and delivering it to a professor.”

  He shook his head as he drew even with her. “That’s not what I’m talking about. Why did she let you take a controlled book? I mean, it’s not protected from anything, and that book looks at least twenty years old. Probably older.”

  She nodded. “If I am right, this book came from the forties.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  She sighed, then stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Weak sunlight lit her face and washed the snow-covered world in white.

  “I’ve told you about my family. How they’re overbearing, like, a lot.”

  “Yeah…” he said as he trailed off. He wasn’t followin
g.

  “My father regularly donates to the school, specifically to the library. It’s… not a small amount. I have a lot of leeway because of that. I try not to abuse the power, but this time I think I really need to.” She started walking again, pulling her collar tighter around her neck.

  “Your father donates to the library?”

  “No, he donates to the school. After they put it towards the sports programs, he threatened to pull funding entirely. I guess they settled on the library.”

  “Okay, I guess I sort of understand now. But that doesn’t explain where we’re going with that book.”

  “The humanities building. Professor Ulbricht teaches German language and culture studies there. He has office hours there on Sundays.”

  “Who has office hours on Sundays?”

  “Someone who wants a quiet Sunday?” She asked back.

  “Wouldn’t that mean that he has to deal with students on Sundays then?”

  She laughed. “When was the last time you wanted to do school work on a Sunday? For that matter, when was the last time you wanted to go see your professor about school on a Sunday?”

  “Good point,” he conceded.

  They arrived at the building soon after, checking the map in the front hall for his office. Lily paused at a map, then took off, again forcing Jonas to keep up. She wound down hallways, up stairs, across sky-bridges, ever deeper into what seemed to Jonas to be a labyrinth. After going up three flights of stairs and taking an elevator down, they emerged into an underground tunnel. It stretched into the distance, dank, cold, stark, and unrelenting. The cement seemed to absorb light. He felt threatened for some reason by the tunnel.

  They walked for a hundred feet, then a thousand, then what seemed like a mile. Yet every time he looked back the elevator was still just behind them. He looked back and forth, trying to understand the strange paradox he seemed to be suffering. Lily seemed completely unaware of the phenomena. Just as he was about to say something, they turned a corner. He stuck his head back around, and the elevator was only twenty-some feet away.