Lost Sanctuary

Chapter 5

The rest of the week passed in a haze. The group settled back into familiar rhythms; classes continued on; Nina completed assignments and did her reading, and even skyped her parents. On Thursday afternoon, Professor Barrow asked her to come on as her research assistant, and to call her Frances. It had taken every ounce of Nina's control to not wrap the woman in a very tight hug. They were to begin working before the end of the semester, as much as possible working around Nina's exam schedule. Later that evening Nina, James and Roe went to watch Ava play in the summer concert she had been anticipating for months. None of them knew anything about classical music but that didn't stop them from piling loudly into the second row and perusing the program carefully. As the final song came to a rousing close, the three of them stood and whooped and cheered, startling those sat around them. Ava grinned out into the audience as her friends upset the polite applause rippling through the auditorium. Viola in hand she bowed deeply one final time and made her way off stage with the rest of the orchestra.

Out in the foyer, James wrapped his arms around her waist and spun her a foot off the ground before plopping her back down unceremoniously, a smile splitting his face from ear to ear. Roe bent to kiss her on the cheek and congratulated her on a stellar performance. Before Nina could step in to congratulate her, Ava grabbed her hand and pulled her out the doors of the venue. The guys followed them out into the crisp night air as Ava sucked in a breath.

'Just needed some air, I'm all jumpy from the nerves still...' She laughed quietly as James took the instrument case dangling at her side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. After a beat, they headed into the night, eventually going their separate ways. As she meandered through the city, strains of Ava's solo danced on the breeze, filling the night air she took deep into her lungs with every breath. Nina found herself searching every nook she passed for that familiar concavity of green, her memory bereft of its location or any particular guiding landmarks. Eventually her steps brought her to the entrance of her building. She bounded lightly up the stairs to the second floor where the faded doormat welcomed her home. The flat was quiet but for the sounds of video game violence slipping beneath Omar's door, joined by the flickering lights from his monitor.

'How was the concert?' The sounds quieted as Omar paused the game and opened his door, leaning precariously back in his chair.

'Great, really amazing', she smiled to herself at the memory. 'You're back early?'

'They sent me home after it got quiet.' Omar was studying graphic design and illustration at a local art college, but also waited part-time at a restaurant down the street—a job he hated.

'How was your shift?'

He shrugged. 'Nothing interesting to report. Although, that cute girl came in again tonight.'

'And... Did you ask her out?'

'Of course not. That would be super unprofessional.' Nina's eyebrow skyrocketed, her scepticism drawing a sheepish shrug from him. 'Hey, it's hard, okay.'

'Yeah, doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.'

'Oh, shut up. Like you're any better.'

With a snort she turned towards her room. She heard his door close quietly as she dropped her bag on her desk and kicked off her shoes, raising her foot to press her thumb into a small blister on her Achilles. She went about her evening ablutions before falling into bed, where sleep dragged her under a canopy of fluttering verdure.

By the following night, Nina was more than ready to spend a few hours in an alcohol induced daze. The group met at James' place and got suitably drunk before making their way into the city on unsteady feet. Nina had opted for a delicate fuchsia slip, with matching heels fastened with a criss-cross of silk ribbon up her toned calves. Her long braids hung loose to the middle of her back and swung dramatically with her every step. Jess curled an arm through Nina's as they walked down the middle of the quiet side street, cutting across the city. Her black ensemble doing her all kinds of favours as she put one Doc Martin in front of the other. The others variously skipped, twirled and strode ahead.

'Keep up, ladies', Roe called back to Nina and Jess, facing forward all the while.

'You try matching your pace in these shoes', Nina shot back, and Roe tilted their head back and barked a laugh toward the sky. Their eyes glittered as they turned to meet Nina's gaze and she raised her shoulder to her ear in a half shrug. 'Beauty is pain, Roe.'

'And you are beautiful.'

'Are you calling me a pain?' Her mouth fell open in mock horror as Roe raised an eyebrow. The sapphire shimmer Roe had swept across their eyelid caught the light from the streetlamp overhead, accentuating the depthless blue eyes that winked at her from beneath dark lashes. Roe pushed their hands deep into their pockets as they strode on ahead of the straggling pair. Nina shook her head.

'Their such a flirt, I don't know why you put up with it', Jess laughed.

'Neither do I, Jess. Neither do I.'

Every time someone opened the door of the nightclub a low, steady beat poured out of the darkness beyond. A hulking mass of muscle stood, arms crossed, to one side of the door waving them in one-by-one, after giving their ID a perfunctory scan. They descended down a flight of stairs and were met by a wall of oppressively warm air, thick with the mingled breaths of a few hundred bodies. James and Roe made a beeline for the bar; while Sam, Ava, Jess and Nina made a cursory circuit around the venue before settling on the dancefloor nearest the entrance. The night passed in a blur of wandering hands, the near deafening beat of recycled melodies, the pleasant buzz of one gin and tonic after another, and a too easy intimacy.

The pair of hands that settled against the small of her back guided her movements to the steady rhythm that established itself in her core. Nina's fingers curled under the collar of his shirt where the top three buttons lay open, revealing a sliver of tanned skin and the tendril of an inky tattoo. She curled her hand around the back of his neck, running her nails through his short black hair. Their bodies pressed into each other, crushed in the throng of unfamiliar forms. One of his hands slid down to her hip, savouring the feel her silken dress and the supple curves of her figure beneath. When her eyes fluttered open, his gaze was fixed on her full lips as she mouthed the words of the song that lapped against them in waves. For a dazzling moment, time paused, as he bowed his head bringing his mouth so close they shared breath. The kiss that followed stole what was left of it. Nina lost count of the seconds she was lost to the feel of his mouth and his hands. Only when she remembered her need to breathe did she pull away, though the breath she took hitched at the sight of his now swollen mouth and dilated pupils. The night ended in her tangled sheets, with his name dripping from her lips.

Nina chased the beautiful stranger out of her flat before whatever Omar was making for breakfast tempted him to linger. The rest of the weekend was a flurry of errands, assignments, emails, reading, and skype with her father. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Nothing, until she was walking home from her mother's house on the other side of the city on Sunday evening. The sun hung low in the sky casting the crystalline city in iridescent gold. As the sun gradually retreated so did the lingering warmth, shimmering over the tarmac. For the briefest of flashes Nina saw, or thought she saw, something flit through the rippling oasis hovering a foot over the road. Then it was gone. When she found a fox standing in the middle of her path around the next corner, she fought the jump in her stomach. The creatures tail was curled downward, tucked between its legs and its ears lay flat against its head. A growl curled its lips back from its teeth. She started back, eyes widening. Without warning, the fox turned and scampered down the path ahead of her. As she watched it go Nina felt something push her forward and her foot conceded a step. It's lupine eyes turned to gaze back at her, and she saw something like pain ripple there. So, she followed. Nina tried to keep track of the buildings they passed and corners they rounded but the route slipped through her mind, a river flowing over the time-worn riverbed.

The sight toward which they were headed sent a sliver of ice down her spine, as the hairs on her arms raised on end. A curlicue of smoke spiralled into the clear blue sky, rising from the smouldering remains of that elusive grove. People ambled passed the wreckage arm-in-arm, others bobbed their heads to music only they could hear as they strode by, and Nina searched their faces for any glimmer of recognition. She blinked and the fox vanished, leaving her standing alone, gazing into the hollow abyss in the centre of this glittering city.