Chapter 2 - Some Like It Wet

~ Nicolette ~

Mango juice, beef with broccoli, and mashed potatoes—those three were my order right after I sat inside a restaurant right across my apartment. It was my food for the night, being that I didn’t want to stay at home and cook. This has been my routine ever since I left my family’s house to live on my own. I love this restaurant; its interiors were the best and the food great, plus the new environment gave me time to ponder more on what happened to me yesterday evening.

Even though I considered it just a dream, the memory of that unusual place was still fresh in my head. Every bit of it, from the colors of the water and the sky, to the smell of the place, to the feeling of being there.

It was indescribable. It was with no explanation.

First thing in the morning, after a restless sleep, I switched my laptop on and started researching for anything I could find regarding the weird place.

I used the keywords silvery and chimera to filter down my search.

Silvery, because the land was inundated with hints of silver and chimera, because in one of my examinations of the throne hall, there was a center tapestry that showed an animal that looked like a chimera, with four horns on its head and six folded golden wings.

I knew it wasn’t my best shot, but I had nothing else to use. I was just as clueless as a newborn babe.

But, well...guess what? After a few searches, those two keywords didn’t yield good results. Useless snippets of some fictional book on the internet were what I got and some CGI drawings on an art website which I, a virtuoso in drawing and painting myself, would call masterpieces. Ultimately, it left me feeling unsatisfied with more questions piling up in my head than answers.

Which led me to escape in this lovely restaurant for a breather.

“Anything else you want, Miss Holland?” the waitress asked, cutting my attention from my laptop screen.

Even while dining, I still brought the thing with me. I was that persistent not to give up on my search, even with a pounding headache.

“No, everything is good, Shea. Thanks,” I answered whilst giving her a smile.

She returned the gesture and spun around with the tray in her hand. “Enjoy your food.”

My eyes drifted to the said food at the back of my laptop. I figured I should start eating before my attention and appetite leaves me, so I started devouring my order.

After a few minutes, though, my cellphone rang and vibrated on top of the table. I picked it up, checked the caller, and smiled.

“Yes, Bernard?” I answered after pressing the touchscreen button.

The other line answered, informing me of my due papers; papers that wrote about the artifacts my team and I found during an excavation in a Malta church backyard.

“Yeah, I’ll be reviewing the report when I get home.”

Bernard was my secretary. He was good at his job and very dedicated to it. If it wasn’t for him and his call now, I would have forgotten about the papers that needed my attention, too.

“Yes, yes. I’ll email it back to you with my signature,” I reassured him once he half-ranted through the line. “Bye.”

After putting the phone down, I decided to collect my things, including the laptop and notepad I had spread across the dining table. My plate was half-finished and I left it as is when I stood up and turned towards the exit door.

“Charge it on my account,” I said to Shea along the way. I saw her nod, understanding my instruction.

When I reached my building, I immediately pressed the elevator button. It pinged when it arrived on the ground floor.

Everything was normal when I stepped inside, but the moment I leaned back against the wall mirror, I felt something amiss. I wasn't claustrophobic, so I couldn't really decide if it was just it, but the tingling on my back was so intense I had to pull myself away from the wall, my sling bag with the laptop inside hitting the floor.

“What’s happening?” I asked myself when the air around me got heavier.

I stared at the wall mirror where I was pressed earlier and immediately, my eyes widened.

“Oh, for crying out loud!” I groaned when my surroundings turned black.

This was exactly what I experienced last night.

*****

“Shit! Dammit. Dammit! Mirror’s a bitch! Mirror’s a bitch! Put this in your head, Nikki!” I admonished myself, quickly straightening up as I realized I was transported again to this unknown place.

How do I know that?

Well, obviously, I am not inside the elevator anymore. Where I stood, the surroundings were spacious. There was a large fountain on my left side jetting out silvery water while on my right, empty kiosks could be seen. I stood on a ground with cobblestones while above my head, the seamless unending sea of stars roofed me.

It was once again night, but at least I wasn’t in that eerie place I was dumped in yesterday. At least now, I am in what looked like a plaza surrounded by odd but civilized houses.

“Mirror’s a bitch...” I commented again, snapping my eyes shut and hoping for the best that I’d be transported back to my apartment. I wasn't that sure, but based on three recent episodes, my unexplained travels were all connected to mirrors, so you couldn't really blame me for cursing at the poor thing.

“Skasi!” ("Hey!")

My ears sharpened and my eyes snapped open when I heard a shout.

Shit.

“Oh God, not this again!” I complained as my vision showed two buff men wearing the same armors as last night. One man was pointing his finger towards me while the other unsheathed his sword. Yeah, I may do taekwondo when I was still in college, but I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance against blades.

This time, I didn’t wait for them to advance. I sprinted in the other direction and ran. Ran like a madwoman on winter boots being hunted by an anaconda.

I heard them shout again, something raw and powerful, but like I understood them in the first place.

I jumped over barrels, pushed myself further past a well and a thick bush. I wasn't athletic and even not a runner, but I was so hell-bent on trying to escape, not wanting to be dragged into that throne hall again and await their king’s decision.

I passed by streets and alleys that my feet had brought me. Streets and alleys that lacked any soul. They were too deserted for my liking. Too empty in a night that boasted a worthy-to-watch sky.

Which, for me, was strange.

It was either bedtime for the people who lived here or they were hiding from something.

Something that out in the corner of my eye, I may have just found.

Shoot.

I jerked back, paused, and shoved myself against a cement wall hiding when I heard a roar coming from one of the tallest roofs; the place where I exactly caught a bright golden color.

Slowly, I took a peek. My mouth instantly dropped after seeing the vision some distance away.

A chimera?!

Sure the tapestry in the throne hall must have been bluffing, but here I was staring straight ahead at a magnificent creature which I thought was just a creation of man’s mind.

Its lion head was proudly stretched, looking far into the distance. There was a thick mane of golden brown and orange that grew around its neck. I may be crazy to admit it, but my fingertips itched to pet it.

Next were its silvery gold scales protruding off its body. It was certainly the best armor I have seen.

In the defensive, sharp claws, muscled limbs, and a tail that housed a scorpion stinger were visible. And not to mention its golden wings—all six of them—together with those four long horns the tapestry had shown. The chimera was everything that embodied the word dangerous.

It was the total definition of badassery.

No wonder the townsfolk here decided to hide in their houses.

But badassery wasn’t what I was looking for. I was aiming for safe and sound, and a promise that my life be prolonged until ninety.

I attempted to step back, on tiptoes I should say, and turned my attention into another alleyway that showed escape from both the soldiers and from that creature.

Another roar followed from the chimera’s mouth. Then, the sound of the rooftop splintering. I routed my eyes on it once again to see if it had flown off. What I didn’t expect was seeing another creature replacing the lion’s head.

A dragon.

Black as night and as ferocious as its predecessor. Only that it bared its teeth when it snapped in my direction, looking straight at me with those glowing red feline eyes as if it knew I was hiding behind a wall, under the shadows.

As if it knew, I was looking at it too.

My heart felt like it just jumped out of my ribcage.

Shit.

In haste, I broke eye-contact and ran to the alleyway.

Great! Now I have an even bigger problem to face!

I ran and ran, looking at some possible open doors for me to enter and hide. At one point, I had considered banging one of the house doors but refrained. The language barrier I knew would happen turned out to be an obstacle.

But who was I kidding? Under the threat of flesh and bones being chewed by a predator, why wouldn’t I try my chances, right?

So I turned to the first house nearest me. It had a courtyard that was walled with stone. I entered it and hoped for the best.

That hope disappeared all too soon, though.

“Doznik soh kun?” ("Who are you?")

A smooth voice asked just as a glint of a blade appeared near my throat. Then, a silhouette of a man, tall with long jet black hair and wearing strange black clothes, stepped before me.

In this part of the house, large trees had blocked the stars’ light. I couldn’t clearly see the man’s face and I bet, he couldn’t, with mine. We were beyond the sense of seeing, but I felt as if he was accustomed to it, considering the weapon he wielded to stop me.

“Please! Please! I’m harmless, you see!” I rushed to say with trembling breaths. I raised my hands up and stepped back. “Don’t kill me! Please! I just need a place to hide!”

Damn the language barrier now.

For some reason, the man didn’t reply with his foreign words. In what I could gather from the very faint movements of his head, he was cocking it to the side. Then, his brows flinched and he stepped forward, pressing the tip of the slender sword millimeters closer to my throat.

“Please!” I gasped. “Please!”

For the first time since I was thrown into this weird place, a tear escaped my eye. Hopeless. As fucking pathetic as it sounds, I truly felt hopeless.

Then he raised his sword up.

I swear he’d hit me right through my eye, but he didn’t.

The blade passed my head, missing me just inches away, and then it ran along my right side. To my surprise, using it, he shoved me towards one of the stacked barrels that he just appeared from.

“Run Daskdaum!” ("Your Highness!") I heard two voices shout together with their quick footsteps. I had no doubt they were my pursuers, so I decided to make myself smaller, kneeling and pressing myself more against the barrels.

“You ran like mad dogs on such a late night? Why so?” my uhm, savior, said in his foreign language. Either intended or not, I noticed his tall frame shift to the side, probably to cover me even more.

I heard a metal clank and then the soldier’s voice followed, “It’s the woman from yesterday, sire! The woman in the gossips! She is wearing weird clothes just like they said!”

To my stunned surprise, the man chuckled. Although it was without humor, it was so sweetly disturbing that I had to angle my head up to see a little of his smug profile. “Drunk, are we?” he asked in his mother tongue again, and then raised his sword in their direction. I wished I understood what he was saying.

My little imagination told me he was placing the tip of the blade on one of the soldier’s throat just like what he did to me earlier.

“No. No, Your Highness, we aren’t!” one of the soldier’s answered, and by the tremble in his voice, I swear he was afraid too, just like I was earlier.

Not like I wasn't afraid anymore, but still, at least, the fact that this unknown man saved me made me feel a little at ease.

“Then go and find this woman you speak of. When you do, show her to me.”

“Yes, Your Highness. Right away, Your Highness!”

They conversed further, which had my mind drawing question marks again. What the fuck were they talking about?

The next thing I knew, the soldiers’ boots were faint on my ears. I took a relieved breath, realizing they left.

“Uhm... tha—thank you,” I said as I pushed myself up.

“Sento doznik soh kun?” ("Woman, who are you?")

Those unfamiliar words again.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand you." I shook my head and my hands in an attempt to communicate with him.

He sighed and then returned his sword to its scabbard. I stepped out of the barrels and into the light, looking at the sky just to make sure the creature wasn’t following me. Fortunately, it wasn’t.

But that didn't mean I was in the clear.

In a heartbeat, his hand shot straight into my head, grabbed a fistful of my hair, and yanked it down.

“Ahhh! I yelped, pain shooting up my scalp. On instinct, I glared at him, my hands immediately clawing at his elbow.

I hoped to stop him, but each time I pulled his arm down, his hold on my hair tightened. I surrendered right there.

His free hand cupped my jaw, angling my head up even more to meet his examination. Then he stepped forward into the light.

“Let me go!” I shouted, looking straight into his arctic, emotionless eyes—pale violet ones that I swear had splinters of gold. It was beautiful, mesmerizing. The man was beautiful too, but ogling at him wasn’t my priority as of the moment.

“Ahh!” I cried again when he squeezed my jaw. “You’re...hurting me!”

His face was unreadable, but I saw a brief twitch in the corner of his mouth, the tensing of his jaw, and noticed some kind of battle in his orbs before he released me.

My knees buckled and I fell to the ground, breathing hard. ‘Mirror! Mirror! I need to find a goddamn mirror!’ my mind shouted, recollecting the incident last night in the throne hall where I bumped into a wall mirror and was sent back into my apartment.

It was a sound theory and the only sane theory that might help me conserve my own life if I was right.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him sank, joining me on the ground. He reached for my elbow, but I didn’t give him the chance. I bolted away in the next second.

“Stupid woman,” I heard him say clearly, in straight English language. What the fuck?

It stunned me, of course, but I was too determined to escape from him that I didn’t linger on the discovery.

Facing where I was going, I quickly realized I made a mistake. It may have been dark, but the silver component of the man-made stream blocking my path was clear.

It was already too late to turn back and so, with a good yelp, I plunged into the water. Water that wouldn’t drown me, but most likely drench my clothes. I, however, didn’t expect the response I’d get after falling.

It actually sent me back to my apartment. For real. Sprawled right in front of the ancient mirror.

Surprisingly, my clothes were dry, but I was panting like crazy.

“Oh my god, what is happening to me?” I stood up from the floor and hastily dialed a number on my bedroom landline phone.

Two rings followed and after the third ring, my intended recipient answered.

“Uhm, hello Professor Malorie?”

“Ms. Holland? Why are you calling on such a late night?” he asked.

Shit, it was already eleven-thirty in the evening as my eyes snapped at my digital clock.

I tried to calm my breathing before I answered again, “Yes, I—I’d like to add one more artifact in the museum.”

“Oh, really?” he answered, sounding ecstatic right away.

“Yeah, it’s a...a mirror. From Malta.”

“That’s great news then.”

“Yes, I’ll f—fax you the details tonight. Could you probably get the mirror by morning?”

I looked at the cursed thing hanging proudly on my wall and frowned at it.

“Yes, I’d love to do that for you,” he agreed.

I was beyond relieved.

“Thanks.”

Then I dropped the call and sat down at the edge of the bed.

“Whatever you are doing to me, I’m done. I’ll send you to a place where you can’t make a victim out of me."