Lemuria: The City of Mysts

Chapter 3: The Lady

Chapter 3: The Lady

Fred couldn’t shake off the feeling that Mr. Roucan had a secret. And the floor… was it just his imagination that the girl in the hologram stared at him? Is it even a hologram? The possibility of having a real forest underneath was preposterous. His musings took him to the academy’s park. Then, he saw the girl. Seated on the grass with her back to him, the breeze playing with her hair, she looked nothing like the vain person called Victoria Roucan. The wind shifted to his direction and he felt the chill of the season. The girl wore the same dress he’d seen her in the forest. Automatically, he shrugged off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders. Her eyes opened and looked at him. Fred stepped back, unsettled. She looked exactly like Victoria.

“Who are you?” the girl asked.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Excuse me?” Her brow furrowed.

“Look, if you don’t want to talk to me, just say it, Victoria. No need to act like you don’t know me.” He turned on his heel, thinking how girls can drive any person crazy.

“But I am not Victoria.” Fred continued to ignore her. A hand tugged his arm, making him stop. “My name is Electra. Thank you for the jacket.” She returned his jacket and walked to the area where the trees were denser.

“Wait!” he blurted out. “Won’t you stay a while?” Inwardly, he kicked himself. Was he out of his mind? This is Victoria’s doppelganger or possibly her twin!

The girl stared at him, trying to decide if bringing him along was a good idea. Eventually, she said: “I can’t stay here. Follow me.”

Electra guided him into a tunnel that was cleverly concealed by the trees in the park. “Have you eaten?” she asked.

“No, I haven’t.”

“You should have. The air here will freeze you to death with only that thin jacket on for protection.”

“Look who’s talking”, he murmured, eyeing her sleeveless dress.

“What was that?”

“What?”

“You were saying something.”

Oops. He gulped. “I – uh… I was asking how long we’ll be in here.”

The girl cast him a sidelong glance. She wasn’t buying it. After several minutes of awkward silence, she answered: “An hour and a half if there’s a cave in.” Fred stopped dead in his tracks. He had been trying to focus his attention from the walls that seemed to close in on him ever since they entered the tunnel. “It rarely happens and when it does, it’s usually my pets who’d caused it”, she assured him. “We’ll be there in thirty minutes. Once we get there, you’ll feel better. I know you’re claustrophobic,” Electra cast him a sidelong glance, “so try not to focus much on this long and narrow passage.”

She’s definitely worse than Victoria, he thought miserably. Fred wondered if Electra had actually heard him earlier and was exacting revenge on him. If that was the case, she was succeeding. He stopped short when he realized that he hadn’t told anyone about his phobia.

“Why are you stopping again?” Electra asked without looking back and was not in the mood to wait for him. “We’re in a labyrinth. If you lose me, you won’t be able to find your way back until I come for you in the evening or, maybe, tomorrow. That is, if you manage to stay alive in this cold.”

“Right.” Fred caught up with her.

Fortunately for him, they didn’t encounter any obstacles. His fear was temporarily forgotten when they arrived in a cavernous area. It shimmered in its icy glory, decorated with stalagmites and stalactites with dangerously gleaming pointed tips.