Princess of Apocalypse

by Drake Wellington

  “OK”, I gave in. “No nightclub then.”

  “That sucks”, Tatiana uttered “Can we go then?”

  “Sure”, Dimitri said and drew a knife from under his hoodie. Before I could say something, he pulled out his left sleeve, his arm had more scars than there was unharmed skin, and cut himself. A shriek escaped my mouth.

  “Really?” Tatiana exalted. “He won’t die from this little cut and I’ll have it mended in no time later anyway.”

  “Little cut?” my voice was shrill, my eyes were almost popping out of its sockets. What Tatiana considered little, was running in little dark crimson rivers down his arm. My head felt suddenly light-headed and I was sure all colours must have left my face. Blood and me, we’re not on good terms. Surely, I preferred blood staying inside the body.

  Anyway, Dimitri didn’t show the slightest sign of fainting, neither from the blood loss nor the look of the dark red fluid, not even clenching his teeth in pain. He turned to the timber paling behind him and used the blood to paint with index and middle finger a circle of around five feet in diameter. The blood looked almost black against the wall. He spoke a few Latin words and then tipped with his bloody palm into the middle. The blood illuminated in a bluish-white and then… it was as if I was looking through a window into a deserted alley. There were cobblestones and the house on the other side looked Victorian. I couldn’t hide my astonishment.

  “What?” I finally brought out and turned to Dimitri. Tatiana had already put a bandage around his wound. The bandage was filling up with blood.

  I eyed Tatiana with a raised eyebrow. “That’s what you call mending?”

  “I use magic later, but we’ll need this a few more times.”

  Once Tatiana was finished, Dimitri stepped through the window, portal, whatever it was. “Are you coming?” He held out his uninjured hand for me. Automatically, my hand reached out for his, but in the last moment, I could stop my hand that clearly had developed a life of its own. Squeezing my eyes shut and expecting to be painfully torn apart between two worlds, I craned through the opening and stepped through. To my surprise, there was neither pain, nor a tearing my body apart feeling involved. Nothing, except for this smell of horses that hung in the air. I opened my eyes and I was back in this film set from a few days ago. Turning around my own axis I was taking it all in. There was a sign over the nearest house entrance. POHS SEUQITNA S’DET. TED’S ANTIQUES SHOP. Again, someone had managed to print the spelling backwards. The entry looked more like the back door.

  “What movie are they filming here?” I asked.

  “Movie?” Tatiana asked when she came out of the portal.

  “It clearly has something of Jane Austin”, I helped.

  “Elisabeth, this is no movie.” Dimitri pointed at two ladies dressed in a dark dress and white pilgrim cap on their head. “It’s called the Other Place. They are souls, who didn’t move on yet.”

  “They are ghosts?”

  “Spirits. But they see themselves not this way. In difference to ghosts, ghosts are those who have such an attachment to our world that they managed somehow holding on to our dimension, also if it’s only in spiritual form. These people here don’t have such a connection. They can’t haunt earth, but neither can they move on and while being here, they have a physical form.

  “And this is the ghost section for the Jane Austin fans?” I giggled.

  “There is nothing like Jane Austin.” Dimitri was stern, but I saw a tiny glimpse of a smile around his lips. “That’s it, that’s afterlife. Development is limping behind. Simple as that.” At this moment the portal shimmered and then it faded and dissolved as if it had never existed.

  “Great, really something to look forward to”, I commented to the outlook of a life in this other place.

  “Well, better than hell”, Tatiana commented behind me.

  “Some might say, better than heaven too”, Dimitri argued. “Anyway, let’s move on”, he added and walked down the avenue.

  “What’s wrong with heaven?” I whispered to Tatiana, who fell behind, walking next to me, while Dimitri took the lead.

  “He’s just jealous”, she uttered back. “A place he’ll never see.”

  “Why, because of his demon blood?”

  “That and the things he did.” Her voice had a finality that made clear she didn’t want to stress this topic further.

  “Everyone is dressed in 19th century outfit”, I said when we left the alley and hit the main road. There were shops to both sides, black street lanterns — obviously non-electrical — adorned the sidewalks at regular intervals, and trees, carefully trimmed to the right size, carriages drawn by horses, their wheels rattling over the cobblestones. The smell of horse intensified here.

  “We’re not really blending in”, I made my statement clearer.

  Dimitri slowed down until he was at my left side. “There is no need for a disguise. They know we’re not from here. Usually, they ignore us.”

  “Mind your own business”, she added with a smirk.

  “Yeah, I’d gotten a glimpse of the hospitality of this place when I’d cried for help.”

  We passed an elderly gentleman with a cane and top hat, the men would have walked right through me, if I wouldn’t have moved out of his way in time.

  Dimitri shrugged his shoulders. “What do you expect? That they assist in a fight against a demon, a fight they can’t win.”

  Tatiana reached for her boot and brought out a small dagger. I had no idea how she managed to hide it in her outfit. Same as with mine there was simply no space left, where you could have something hidden. “Demons can only be killed by other demons, magic, cursed or consecrated weapons.”

  I had a closer look at her dagger. It was richly engraved. “Like your hair thingy the other day?”

  “Yes. This one is showing magical symbols. Demons have a real problem with it. Without the engraving, it would be not more than a toothpick against a demon.”

  “But Dimitri—“ I started.

  “Dimitri, is part demon.”

  “Oh!” Oh! Izzy, is this all you can say? “So why are you not going to the nearest church, drench a clip of bullets into holy water and use a machine gun instead.”

  “That would work too”, she laughed. “With the exception that a priest needed to consecrate the water first. You would be amazed how few priests really do this nowadays.”

  “Also, I can’t step into a church without going up in flames”, Dimitri said. When he noticed my expression, he added. “Just kidding. But, our kind is not on good terms with the Church. It’s like two teams pursuing the same purpose, but using different means to get there.”

  “To cut a long story short”, Tatiana breathed out. “We’ll have to content with medieval warfare.”

  “Wow.” I stopped in front of a boutique with the most gorgeous dress I’ve ever seen.

  “Yep, just because you’re dead, doesn’t mean your life is over”, Tatiana said.

  “Ladies, please”, Dimitri urged us to move on.

  “Can’t we at least try it on?” I was pleading.

  “That will take forever. Tatiana just spent five hours shopping. Believe you me, I’d enough for one day.”

  “I bought you some stuff too”, she argued. It’s what girlfriends do, I added in thoughts. My stomach twisted.

  “The Other Place is not a tourist zone.”

  “I know, I know”, Tatiana escaped it and bent over to me. “He’s a non-believer when it comes to shopping.”

  “No, it’s because, a human being can’t stay in this place forever.”

  I turned away from the window display. “Is there a police that kicks us out after 24 hours?”

  “No, but you die.”

  “Not immediately.” Tatiana had this soothing voice that made me suspicious. “The human body is not immune to the poison of this world. If you stay here for days, you’ll fade like a flower without water until you die.”

  “Alright, that’s it, I’m out of h
ere.”

  Dimitri pointed into another side alley. “There we go.” He walked down the lane, his knife already in the hand, then started the same procedure. Carefully, not catching a glimpse of the blood, I let my focus shift elsewhere. The sky looked different in this place. There were no clouds, no sun, only greyness. Like London in all those movies, always a place of rainy weather.

  “They’ve rain and snow here”, Tatiana must have guessed my unspoken question. “But forget about sunscreen. The night is starless and you won’t find the moon either.”

  “Voilà, our gate to St Petersburg”, Dimitri stepped away and aped a bow. There was a huge palace on the other side of the portal.”

  Dimitri followed my glance. “The Winter Palace, welcome home.”

  Chapter XII

  The Winter Palace

  Whenever someone had told me about Russia, they gave me the impression of a grey, dark, dreary place. Well, this was far off the mark. I might be the wrong person to judge as I had never ever left sunny California, except for a trip to Disneyworld when I was twelve. Certainly, the palace there was the only one I had seen so far and to be frank, this was nothing in comparison to the Winter Palace.

  The size was breathtaking. Wherever I looked was a palace in its finest. The attention to detail of the artists, who have built this masterpiece, was impossible to translate into words. The setting sun was reflecting in the countless windows and the golden glamour adorning this place. All around it hung the countenance of history.

  Whatever I knew about Russian Royalty I’d learned from the Disney Channel but nothing could have prepared me for that.

  We went straight for the main entrance. There was a sentinel, sitting in a guardhouse.

  “Privjet”, Dimitri greeted the man, shoved in his pants and pulled something out that looked like a small disc hanging from a chain.

  Without a word, the man waved us through, not without to scrutinise me and Tatiana in detail when we passed the entry and walked up the steps to the entrance, that meant, all of us below neckline.

  Dimitri opened the door for us, shoving us quickly inside. While the palace looked from outside like a hundred million dollars, the inside multiplied this by the factor ten. I didn’t know where I should look first. I felt like a princess. Unable to hide my excitement I was spinning around my own axis, my chin raised to the high ceiling to take in all the ornaments and chandeliers and paintings. There was a red carpet that promenaded up an enormous white marble staircase.

  “That’s where the king and queen lived?” I was impressed. Disneyworld was nothing against this. “That’s pure fairy-tale.”

  “The tsar and the tsarina, it was their winter residence,” Dimitri said absent-mindedly. Same as the sentinel outside, he was studying every move I did, with the difference, he was only interested in my face. The feeling was nudging inside me, I could stand naked on top of this staircase and he would not even take a glimpse below my neckline. This rejection made me furious, but I was too impressed to argue with him. After saving my life, twice, he deserves a glimpse. Shocked, I silenced the voice in the back of my head.

  “They had a summer residence too, you’re kidding?”

  He shook his head determined without taking his eyes off me once.

  “A summer residence and one for official representations and matters of the nation such as the birth of their children.”

  “Yep, why should they content with barely one palace? Everyone has three nowadays”, I mocked back.

  Near the entrance was a tourist stand, with brochures and souvenirs. My eyes caught one poster, which looked like a family picture, father, mother, four girls and a son. “Is it them?”

  A sigh of disappointment came off his lips. I hardly deserved this, did I?

  “I told you”, Tatiana whispered under her breath, if to me or Dimitri I wasn’t sure, in fact, I wasn’t sure of anything right then, because my head started spinning. I grabbed for the nearest post to stabilise myself and waited for the spinning to stop, but it only got worse. Next thing I knew, I saw myself lying on the red carpet, all colour had left my face and my eyes were closed. I craned over to see what was the matter and so did Tatiana and Dimitri, the latter softly, shaking my shoulders, concern written all over his face.

  “There you are!”

  I veered around. On top of the stairs was a tall young woman, dressed in the most beautiful garment I could imagine, sparkling jewelleries hanging from her ears and neck. Her face was angelic, her eyes glittering with joy and kindness. She was the perfect imprint of a supermodel. Miss America would have stood no chance against her.

  “Finally”, she said, her voice, musical and austere at the same time. She had deep blue eyes and dark hair that was cascading down her back.

  “Who are you?” My voice sounded strange, different, as if not belonging to myself.

  “Mother and father were so worried.” She descended towards me with quick steps. “Olga thought you would never come. You know how she is? Always the pessimist.”

  “Olga?” Who the hell is Olga?

  She had finally made it to the bottom of the stairs and before I could blink twice, she had embraced me in a hug. Privacy please? Ever heard about that?

  “Ahm”, I made a noise and she released me reluctantly.

  “Who’s Olga and who’re you?”

  “Really Nastya, I missed you terribly, but I’ve must have forgotten about your pranks. Olga is our sister, of course.”

  Of course - What? I shook my head. “There must be a misunderstanding. My name is Elisabeth.”

  “Are you?” She threw me one of those have-you-hit-your-head-and-lost-your-memory glances.

  “Of course, but who are you?”

  “Tatiana.”

  “Another one? Her name is Tatiana too.” I pointed at the one, who just slapped my unconscious self.

  “Wake up!”

  “It’s a common name”, the other Tatiana said. “Never gets out of fashion I suppose.”

  “Am I dead?” The question had just rolled out of my gaping mouth. I was still staring in amazement at the scene in front of me.

  “I suppose not.”

  A sigh of relief came off my lips. “Really, that would have stuffed up my day.”

  “I can imagine. It did the same to me. You’ve no idea how boring it can be some days. Being always surrounded by the same people day in and out. Luckily the tsar escort followed the call of death too. At least some alteration.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be impolite.”

  “Apologies accepted. I liked him more in uniform of the tsar escort, you know? But then, they all look more handsome in the right garment. I should have known that he’s with you. All his brothers in arms are here after all.”

  “Who?”

  “Your boyfriend.”

  “Jake!” She’d my fullest attention.

  “Is that his name? I thought he was called Dimitri?” Her chin jerked in the direction of the boy, who only days ago had been the school’s freak to me, but now my saviour.

  “Dimitri and I are just…” What are we actually? Friends, wasn’t fitting. “It’s complicated, but we’re not…” Isn’t that what they are calling it always in the movies? I never thought using this line one day.

  “Intimate?”

  “Are you crazy”, I blurted out. “Of course not. I told you there is nothing between us.”

  “I hope so, for him that is. I loathed seeing his cute head rolling off his shoulders when papa finds out you’re fraternising with a servant.”

  “I’m most definitely not fraternising”, my voice climbed to a high pitch and the world started turning again.

  Fraternising…

  Fraternising…

  “I’m not fraternising…”

  “I was barely explaining you about all the different palaces; you can hardly consider this fraternising.” I found myself staring into Dimitri’s face. My lifeless body had me back and welcomed me with a pounding headache.

>   “Lucky me”, Tatiana said. “I thought I’d to drag you home.”

  “You slapped me”, I mumbled and tried to get up. Dimitri gave me a helping hand and leaped me up, inspecting my head for any injuries. “Easy, you might have hit your head, when you passed out.”

  My hand went to the quickly forming bruise on the back of my head. “I did.” Then I remembered and my eyes scanned up the staircase, left, right. But she was nowhere to be seen. “Where is the woman?”

  “Who?” Dimitri asked back.

  “She was just here with me?”

  Dimitri and Tatiana exchanged a glance. “We would have noticed if she would be soul walking again”, Tatiana answered his questioning glance.

  “Really, she has just been here with me!”

  “What did she want?” he asked, still scanning me, the worry in his face made my ears turn red. Seeing you in uniform, Mr tsar escort. I couldn’t tell him that, could I? “Nothing.”

  He went behind me, I didn’t dare to turn.

  “I think you’ve must have dreamed”, Tatiana said. Then, I felt Dimitri’s fingers parting my hair, giving me all kinds of goose bumps. His touch shouldn’t have this feeling. My cheeks flushed.

  I nodded quickly and turned away from him. “Whatever, why are we here exactly?”

  “First, we’ve to ask Consul Wayland for permission to visit the Accords.”

  Dimitri said in a matter of fact tone, his concern about my health had vanished. My sudden rejection had done the trick.

  “Then we better don’t let the good man wait.”

  ***

  The good man turned out being in his mid-fifties, who wore his oily black hair combed back like an Italian Mafiosi. Silvery strands broke through the black and the goatee underneath his lips.

  But there the resemblance to the Godfather stopped as he was speaking in a strong British accent. A very furious British accent. “Seriously, you two”, he barked from behind his desk. “Have you two any idea what trouble you’ve caused?”