Passages (Alternate Worlds Book 1)

by Taylor Leigh

  There was such a blur of life everywhere; Victoria didn’t know where to look first.

  She watched the crowd as people began to point and stare at their small procession. At first she thought they were pointing to her, or perhaps Tollin, who was waving exuberantly, but to her surprise, they were looking to Andrew, whom she was riding behind. He acknowledged no-one, however many shouted his name.

  Her eyebrows rose. Andrew seemed to have quite a following.

  As much of a celebrity as Andrew seemed to be, Victoria began to fret. All of that could dissolve in an instant if Andrew forgot himself. The further they moved into the city, the wider his eyes became with an almost equine nervousness. His aversion to strangers, crowds and the prospect of being touched was slowly pushing him towards the edge. With her arm wrapped across his chest, she could feel his breathing increasing warningly. Victoria put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze, silently praying he wouldn’t make a scene.

  Luckily, before anything disastrous happened, they stopped at a large inn set up near the centre of town. The inn looked near its full capacity and Victoria felt doubtful there was actually going to be room for them. This thought was echoed by Andrew’s scathing remarks on the place. Still, she dropped to the ground after Andrew and followed him and the others inside.

  The interior of the inn was smoky and smelt strongly of beer and burnt meat. Songs and laughter and loud conversations buzzed from every corner, making her head spin. Thedric waltzed up to the counter and addressed the innkeeper.

  ‘Oi! Bartus! Hope you kept our rooms clear!’

  Bartus, a bristly man, turned round and beamed down at them. ‘Welcome! I was beginning to wonder if you’d show up!’ His face dropped slightly. ‘You’ve got more with you this time than last year.’

  Thedric nodded. ‘Yeah, we’re going to need two extra rooms.’

  Bartus chewed his lip. ‘Afraid I can’t. This year’s been extra busy. So many new people showing up! All the inns are packed! I’m afraid you’ll all have to double up!’

  ‘Oh, god.’ Andrew let out a breath that clearly terrified the innkeeper.

  ‘Don’t see why we just can’t stay at the mayor’s house, like our parents are,’ Thedric grumbled.

  ‘Because last year you got drunk and destroyed almost all of the mayor’s wife’s china and Andrew set fire to his washroom!’ Molly reminded them through clenched teeth.

  ‘It was an experiment!’ Andrew snapped.

  Thedric sighed. ‘Fine, we’ll double up. Guess me and Tollin and Molly and Victoria? Andrew can have his own; nobody wants to sleep with him.’

  ‘Nobody wants to sleep with you,’ Andrew quipped back. ‘You snore like a drunken grunt!’

  Tollin sidled up. ‘Actually,’ he said somewhat awkwardly. ‘I’ve been given my own place. Nice little chateau on the edge of town. Very nice of them to offer it to me. Guess that’s the privileges you get when you rid a village of a sea serpent.’

  Bartus smiled. ‘I remember that! Was only ten years old then!’

  ‘Yeah,’ Tollin drawled. ‘Good times.’

  ‘Great!’ Thedric said. ‘Guess I get my own!’

  Bartus sniffed. He turned round and plucked three keys off of the wall behind him and distributed them out. ‘You’re all on the same floor. Community washroom at the end of the hall. Third floor up. Sorry if there’s noise. Can’t be helped this time of year.’

  Victoria realised Tollin was no longer at their side. He must have melted off into the crowd. It seemed to be a reoccurring trick of his.

  She followed Andrew as they walked up the narrow stairs to the third storey. Molly bade them farewell, mumbling something about Tollin’s vanishing as she went.

  ‘Community toilet,’ Andrew hissed. ‘What are we, living in the Dark Age? Who knows what kind of germs are crawling round in there!’

  Victoria gave his arm a quick squeeze. ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine. Just keep your soap with you.’

  He leant against his door and gave her a sly smile. ‘What makes you think it ever leaves me?’

  She grinned and parted ways once he gave her a tight smile, and left for her own room.

  Victoria turned round in her small space. It was dusty and the bed’s last washing was debatable, but none of that really mattered to her.

  I actually kissed Andrew. The thought hit her with surprising force. Victoria bit her lip with a grin and wrapped her arms round herself. What a thought! How many people could claim that?

  The thought made her take pause. How many people could claim that? She glanced towards the door. There was so much she didn’t know about him. Frighteningly so.

  Outside, the crowd was still loud and promising a late night. Victoria sat down by her window, staring down into the tossing sea of people till she lost track of the time. Seeing the celebrating strangers so cheerful beneath her, it was easy to forget about troubles, like the mystery of Andrew, or Daemons or spores.

  Her eyes felt heavy but with the wild crowd beneath her Victoria didn’t see how she’d ever be able to sleep. The prospect of leaving on her own, however, did not cross her mind, so she watched safely from her window, grin slowly growing on her face at the glowing memory of Andrew’s lips pressed to hers. She couldn’t wait for what the next day might bring.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  It was different this time. Andrew felt that immediately as the control over his limbs started to retreat. It was not simply the uncontrollable shakes this time. This time is was the opposite. Complete loss of movement. Andrew wasn’t one to panic, but he felt fear flutter in his stomach as paralysis threatened.

  His brain was buzzing, as if a swarm of wasps had woken up inside of his skull, and he saw the room round him vibrate crazily. Beneath him, the ground tilted, throwing him forward against his will.

  He was distantly thankful he was in his room when the attack hit and Andrew somehow managed to stumble on deadened legs to his bed, where he collapsed onto his stomach. He let out a groan as he tried to haul himself up farther but his strength was leaving him fast.

  Total paralysis was setting in.

  Then the worst of the worst hit him. His vision started to blur and cloud. Like a fog swimming in or a blackout, it came on in a rush and then Andrew was left in the quiet darkness, unable to move, unable to see.

  He was completely terrified. It was a disturbing experience.

  Not exactly because of what was happening to him, but because of what it meant. Worry ate away at his mind—the only untouched place left to him. What if he remained like this? Blind and still for the rest of his life? How would he survive? How could he?

  He could hear his breathing, amplified in the stillness; his face was pressed against the musty quilt on his bed, filling his lungs with dust. Lor, I can’t move. He desperately fought to slow his breathing down and think. To his dismay, none of his thoughts were positive.

  Damn. Well, I suppose I’ll just suffocate then. Or will it be heart failure? Andrew found it disturbing that he couldn’t concentrate enough to get his mind to settle on any particular thought. Come on, man, think! You’ve lost your body, not your mind. He tried to relax. An entire world is inside of my head. I can survive here, yes, but for how long? A dream state can only last for so long. One eventually needs stimulants…problems, conversation. Stimulants. Hmph, did I really let Victoria kiss me today? Funny, it wasn’t as unpleasant as I thought it would be. Where the hell did that thought come from? Well, I suppose I can bid goodbye any more thoughts of that…What will they do with me? Lock me up in my room, clean me and feed me like an infant? Read to me? Not bloody likely. I know I’ve been a perfect monster all of these years; I suppose this is their chance to get back at me for all I’ve done.

  He mentally growled in frustration at his predicament. How very fitting for him! He’d pushed everyone away and now he’d be at their complete mercy. The thought of the vulnerability was rather horrible.

  He’d known the blindness was coming. It
was in all of the reports on Breakdown cases, but he hadn’t heard of it coming on in one quick rush. He’d assumed it would be a slow, gradual process. This had hit him out of the blue. The paralysis had struck him faster than he’d expected as well. Then again, his condition was more exaggerated than other’s he’d witnessed. It was hardly fair! He hadn’t had any time to prepare. This was what happened for putting things off. Ignoring the inevitable. Damn his fear!

  Another horrible thought rattled its way into his mind: what if nobody found him? He often locked himself in his room for days, demanding no-one disturb him. What if everyone assumed this was one of those times? He could be here for days, face down on his bed, unable to move, with no water or relief. With the festival, everyone would be out and any thoughts of him would easily be pushed aside.

  His breathing came more wildly at the thought, tasting more stale with each inhale. He struggled to make a sound. He couldn’t move his lips or mouth, but he could utter a guttural moan. It went unheard. He inwardly winced at the humiliation. To think, here he was, the man who never wanted help, completely helpless and calling for someone to find him. How ironic. Perhaps death wouldn’t be so bad after all. He wasn’t sure how many more hits his pride could take.

  And then the voices slowly started to scratch their way back into his head. The ones he’d heard when he’d taken to spores. The ones that weren’t real. Andrew gasped for breath, trying to block it out. His mind automatically went on to trying to translate it. The letters Tollin had written down he could make some sense of now. There were words there, phrases he could almost understand.

  The monster in the dark. For some reason the phrase started to run through his mind on repeat. Something was there. He could almost sense it; something he’d never been aware of before, something lurking just beyond the thin veil between his reality and whatever he’d been exposed to while under the influence of the spores. Something massive, something hungry and powerful that only wanted to feed. An almost animalistic terror cracked in his mind at the thought of it. Here he was, trapped in an unmoving blackness, and something was out there, just separated by the thinnest of barriers, hunting for him, wanting him. If that barrier collapsed, Andrew knew it would find him.

  No! It wasn’t real. Andrew struggled to push the voices from his head, fought against the dark entity that was circling just beyond, pulling up a long mental text written by the old bards. He started to recite it in his head till he was mentally screaming. Louder and louder with each word to push the voices from his head.

  The Red from above doth look below and yea the Queen came…

  He wasn’t sure how long he’d been lying there, drifting in and out of weak, broken sleep and frantic recitals when a knocking came to his door and he was jerked from his daze. He felt his heart skip a beat.

  ‘Andrew, are you in there?’

  It was Victoria!

  He tried to let out a cry to let her know he was, but was severely disappointed with the results.

  ‘Are you all right?’ she persisted. ‘Look, I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you’d want to pop downstairs and see the sights?’ Pause. ‘Are you all right in there? I’m coming in.’

  His heart leapt. Oh, thank the stars for her disregard to privacy.

  There was a rattling at the lock and Andrew felt waves of gratitude that the door’s latch was even more flimsy than his own at home. The door swung inward and Andrew heard her gasp. He wondered how he looked to her. Completely ridiculous, he was sure.

  Vaguely he felt her hands wrap round him and pull him farther up onto the bed. She rolled him over as gently as she could and Andrew took an appreciative breath of air that wasn’t staled by fabric pressed to his nose.

  She was fussing over him, predictably, asking if he could move, telling him it was going to be all right. Andrew could hardly make sense of it, but sternly reminded himself to not complain. If anything, he should be grateful it was Victoria, and not some unsavoury character who had found him.

  Andrew forced himself to calm. Victoria was here and she was looking out for him, and thanks to her damn stubbornness she wasn’t going to leave him. It was an oddly comforting thought.

  He distantly felt her fingers running along his cheek and he tried to focus his attention on her touch as another dizzying sensation overtook him. Andrew struggled in the darkness to fight from going unconscious, but it was a losing battle and in the end he had to give in.

  * * * * *

  When it came to something like a giant festival, Molly came to realise that the person one should be with was Tollin. He didn’t just see what was meant to be seen at the festival. He knew each back alley, where every shadow seemed to hold some hidden wonder. All that was strange and wild and dark. Few people had found their way to this section of the city, and those whom had were of a very particular sort.

  Molly passed fortune tellers, leaning over glass crystals and flashing mysterious cards. People were shouting for her to view the rotting corpses of strange creatures caught at sea, and small vendors sold dark, morbid objects of twisted wood and hair, objects of magic and voodoo.

  Tollin ignored all of this, keeping his intense gaze straight ahead as he walked the narrow cobbled street.

  ‘It’s funny,’ Molly said, weaving round a man covered in tattoos, ‘I’ve been coming to this festival as long as I can remember and I’ve never once heard of this place.’

  Tollin pushed through a hanging curtain of beads and shells, struggling as it wrapped itself round him like some living thing. He pulled himself free with some difficulty. ‘That’s because this isn’t a place you can find if you don’t go looking for it! Rather hard to find something if you don’t know where it is.’

  ‘Like the pods.’

  ‘Ah, precisely. Anyhow, I highly doubt Bard would approve of you coming down here. Please don’t ever attempt it on your own. Not exactly the most savoury of characters down this way, if you follow me.’

  Molly watched a middle-aged couple as they entered a dingy looking building labelled House of Fear. She shuddered at their wild shrieks. ‘You don’t have to worry about that. I’m not leaving your side. So, why exactly are we here?’

  ‘Because,’ Tollin said slowly, eyeing the narrow streets on either side of them. ‘I’ve heard rumours of something down here that I think we’ll have to take a look at.’

  He paused at the entrance of one narrow street and stared down into the gloom. At the far end, Victoria could see the yawning mouth of one of the tunnels that ran beneath the main river of the city, the Nraig. This one had clearly been out of use for some time and was certainly not the sort of spot any person would want to find themselves alone on a dark night.

  She grabbed Tollin’s arm as he started down the alley. ‘You’re not actually going down there, are you?’

  Tollin gave her a significant look. ‘Aye! And so are you! You’re not scared, are you?’

  Molly eyed the dingy alley. ‘Of walking down a dark alley into an abandoned tunnel on the far side of the city where no-one could possible find us if something bad happened? Yeah, I’m a bit uneasy.’

  ‘Oh,’ Tollin waved a hand dismissively. ‘You don’t have to worry. I’m with you! I wouldn’t have brought you down here if there wasn’t a reason, now would I? Now come on. Adventure awaits!’

  Reluctantly, Molly took hold of his elbow, which he offered to her, and they both started off down the dark alley. As they neared the tunnel, Molly noticed a small oil lamp illuminating a drab, limp banner with the words Freak Show sloppily painted across it.

  She wrinkled her nose in displeasure. ‘You wanted to come see this?’ Coming to a place to laugh and make fun of other people didn’t seem like Tollin at all. Not unless she completely had misjudged him.

  Tollin’s own expression matched hers, displeased and unhappy. ‘I didn’t say I wanted to. I said I had to.’

  An oily man slunk out of the shadows, making Molly jump. He eyed both of them, as if trying to appraise just h
ow much money they had to spend. ‘Ah, welcome. Let me guess: you two are looking for something different, aye? Something exciting, something weird and wrong? Well,’ his voice dropped to a low growl, ‘you’ve come to the right place. Step inside and you’ll see things you’ve never seen before. Faces so horrible they are unfit to love, people so tall they can touch the tops of trees, a mermaid and werewolf and creatures from space, and most horrible of all, our newest acquisition.’

  Tollin was looking more unhappy by the moment. ‘And what would that be?’ he asked quietly.

  The man held out a gloved hand. ‘Five piece each and you’ll find out.’

  Tollin dug into his pocket and dropped ten coins into the man’s palm. ‘Right,’ he said, barely holding back a sickened tremble in his voice, ‘take us to him, then.’

  The man bowed low and with a flourish, ushered them down the tunnel. Smoky, oily air from the sparsely spaced lamps made the air all the more thick, like some living thing hovering above their heads. From the dark curved walls of the tunnel, Molly could see human shapes, strange and twisted, standing upon stages or behind rusty bars with faded painted signs scrawled across the walls.

  The man shouted out dramatic descriptions of each person as they passed. Molly felt her head begin to swim. She swayed against Tollin. Her lungs were starting to ache for fresh air. Why had Tollin brought her here?

  ‘Can’t we do anything for these people?’ she asked quietly.

  Tollin shook his head curtly. ‘I’m afraid not. Most of these people aren’t here by force. It’s what they do for their livelihood. Even if I somehow stopped this man from what he was doing, I doubt most of these people would leave. Unfortunately, even here on Scottorr, there aren’t many options available for people who aren’t what the status quo would consider “normal”.’