Half-reflex, half-will power and with Grigori making sure I wasn’t going to fall on my face, I hobbled into the huge stilted house. Bind or no Bind, there was no way I would let him lug me again like a burlap sack.
The house was made entirely of wood, the roof being the only thing made of terracotta tiles that had been slowly crumbling with time. There were no windows as far as I could see. But some of the several sliding doors were left open to let the cool air in.
At the first sight of wooden floor, Vincent ineffectually elbowed the guy who had been holding him upright for the last ten minutes and slumped down to catch his breath.
“Why’d you tell him?” he murmured staring down so that his face was concealed by his dark hair.
“What?” I blurted out, cut short from my train of thought.
He slammed a fist against the floor. “Why’d you tell him about that?! Do you know what kind of trouble you’ve gotten yourself into?”
Steeling my face, I averted my gaze from him. “I just did what’s necessary.”
Yes. So everyone in the universe thought of me as some kind of magical device that could miraculously solve their immortal problems. If being Alessandra Clandestine’s stand-in was what it would take for us to be able to stay in Halja, so be it. I wasn’t the weak stupid girl he had rescued from a pool party anymore. I could very well take care of myself. And him. But only because he was my master.
No amount of explanation would make him see. If it was just me, I had the Helcium. I could run around under Pilgrim Reaper’s nose without him having a single clue about it. But there’s no freaking way I would let him rot in that prison back in Halo.
The door slid open and there stood Bel—the store-owner who gave me an apple just this morning. Rolling her droopy eyes in a worn-out sort of way, she inclined her chin toward the room.
The receiving area was spacious, more like a mess hall with a long dinner table. It wasn’t fancy or anything. Just an average slab of worn out wood. But I could imagine lots of people sitting there, eating and drinking and laughing together. There wasn’t anything on the walls. No portraits or pictures. The only ornament in the room was the big fish tank in a corner. As we passed by, the colorful fish scattered and hid behind the corals.
“Belial,” Levi gave the woman a nod.
“Levi,” she grunted curtly, not bothering to hide the distaste in her voice. “Come inside.”
With his stern eyes narrowing, Levi stared at the doorsill as if trying to decide if it would shoot lasers if he so much as stepped in. Instead, he just cleared his throat and said, “Sathariel requests that these… outsiders be tended to. Meanwhile, I must take my leave for… an urgent matter.”
“Suit yourself,” Bel nearly smiled.
Without further chitchat, Levi spun on his heels, his cloak flitting after him as he stormed his way out of the house. There was no denying that if it would come to eviction, he would be the number one contender who would vote us out of this island. But that would be a problem for later.
“Take the boy and the Elemental to the sickroom. I’ll look at them first,” Bel told Levi’s men. She trained her brown eyes on me, sweeping from head to toe. “As for the girl, show her to the other room.”
As Vincent was being led to the opposite hallway, he tried to put up a fight again. He never learned. It was a good thing he was much too tired to try anything fatal. For the first time in his life, the Prince of Darkness was powerless. And he knew that too. I could see it in his eyes as he glanced back at me.
“Get off! Get off me!” he kept screaming. “Aramis! We have to get out of here!”
I stood there like a statue, staring at my own feet, my hands shaking. “Everything’s g-going to be fine,” I promised him but even I had a hard time believing what I just said. “Look after him,” I told Byron Flynn.
All I got was a nod.
My feet felt heavy as we walked away from them. Vincent’s voice soon faded. In the back of my head I could see him. I could still hear him. But I kept my head down. If this plan went wrong, it was all on me.
The guard opened the door for me and let me into a small room. It had a single bed near the window and a mother of pearl lamp on the side table. Save for a small craft table, a cabinet and a shelf, there was nothing else to see. All in all, the room was overly minimalistic. Neat too.
As I stepped in, the door slid behind me. A few seconds later, the guy outside cleared his throat loudly so as to remind me that he was still there. So I guessed I would probably be stuck here for a while.
“Stop thinking. Calm down,” I told myself, flopping on the edge of the bed.
Two seconds later, I was hyperventilating. Then I found myself pacing back and forth the narrow walking space. Not knowing put a million possibilities in my head. I barely got through the third and I thought I was turning nuts. I wanted to pull my hair, to hit something. If only I had the energy.
Why did I ever let them take Vincent away? They were strangers! People from Hell! For all I knew, they were feasting on his guts right now. I couldn’t take it anymore. I tried to open the door. It didn’t move. I tried knocking. There was no answer.
“Uh… Mister?!” I shouted, pressing my face against the door as if that would help. “Please let me out. I have to see my master!”
Still, no one answered. Forcefully, I took in a few deep breaths. I had to relax. He just… being treated. In the infirmary. Nothing to get all paranoid about. Everything was going to be alright.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale…
Before I knew it, I was banging on the door like crazy while screaming my head off. “Let me out!!! Let me out of here! Don’t eat them! Vincent! Byron Flynn!!!”
I went on and on until my throat hurt and my hands were numb from slamming on the door. In the end, I sagged onto the floor, breathless resorting to pulling my knees close and burying my face on them.
It was totally my fault. Why couldn’t everything just be normal? Like any other girl whose problems ranged from zits to getting prom dates? Who knew being dead was way too complicated? I was tired. So tired but I couldn’t rest. It was like I had been thrown into this unending race I knew I wasn’t going to win.
“Wake up,” a voice said, followed by the sound of windows being opened.
The glaring rays of the sun passed through the embroidered lace curtains and I had to blink rapidly to let my eyes adjust to the lighting. With a start, I tried to stand up, only to find out that I couldn’t feel my legs. I must’ve fallen asleep sitting on the floor. For how long?
Luci gathered the curtains and pulled it to the side, her long wavy hair gleaming against the sunlight. “Good morning,” she greeted, smiling for all the world like she was about to sell me encyclopedia.
“Morning… Oh, shoot!” I clapped a hand on my forehead. Guardedly, I strained to move my legs. “What are you doing here?”
“Well…” she paused to think. “This happens to be my bedroom.”
“Oh… Where’s Vincent?” I demanded.
“Breakfast is ready in the mess hall,” she answered, avoiding my question. “We always eat together in this house. You should get ready or we wouldn’t have anything left.”
With a muffled groan, I pushed myself up and held onto the wall for support. “Where’s Vincent?” I repeated, louder this time.
There was a thoughtful pause before she could say, “Still in the infirmary. Other than that, I know nothing else. It’s Belial you should talk to if you have questions. She’s the best healer in Halja. She never left your companion’s side the whole night. His name is Vincent, right?”
Impassively, I nodded.
She nodded too and went on. “I heard he’s your master.”
“He told you that?” There was some hint of disdain in my voice that I failed to hide.
“Well… no. The Elemental did.” Her tone was apologetic, somewhat disappointed. “Your master, he wouldn’t speak to me. In fact, he refused to say a word to anyone. I can only assume how difficult it must be in his company.”
In any other average day, I would have just agreed and said, “You have no idea.” But for some reason, I came up with something like, “You’ve assumed so much for such a short while,” more or less.
“Oh…” She trailed into silence, looking a bit embarrassed.
That gesture made her look more like Apple. My forehead mechanically furrowed. I couldn’t read her intentions at all. Either she was a really good actress or just a super-expressive girl.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, her cheeks getting redder.
“Is Luci really your name?”
Discreetly, she threw me a hesitant look while fumbling with the oversized sleeves of her silk robe. “N-no,” she admitted.
Shoot! I backed away, my eyes automatically spotting the open door. I had to find Vincent. We had to get away from here. From her. It was a trap.
“You’re Apple.”
I was about to run for the door when she said, “No,” her doll-like face a mask of confusion. “My real name is… Forget it. Just call me Luci. Everybody does. It makes people… less scared.”
“You… you’re not Apple?” I said again like as if doing so would ease my suspicions.
“No,” she answered. “Who is Apple?”
Letting out a deep breath, I straightened the creases on my dress and shook my head. “I just thought… you look like someone I knew.”
The mess hall was jam-packed by the time we arrived. Children ran around in beelines. Adults and elderly sat on the benches. Chatter, the smell of freshly baked bread and the noise of cutlery filled the spacious room. But as soon as we stepped in, the racket mellowed down into a rumble of whispers. All eyes were on me, making me aware of my torn up Nysmic dress, the grime on my hands, the fact that I hadn’t combed my hair for two days. It was way worse than the first day of school.
There was a rueful smile on Luci’s face as she said, “Alright. The show is over. Please go back to doing what you are doing,” as she pulled me toward a corner where no one was sitting. Except for Bel. She was at the very end of the table, forking at her eggs.
As we slid beside her, I noticed she was swigging from a mug containing something that suspiciously smelled of booze.
“Seriously, Belial?” Luci glared at the older woman. “At this time in the morning?”
Bel just sighed. “Gimme’ a break, Luci,” she groaned. “I barely slept last night.”
“Can I see my master now?” I butted in.
Shaking her head, Luci scooped scrambled eggs into her plate. “That’s all she talks about, Bel. I think you should let her visit Vincent.”
Vincent, huh? She said it like she had known him for a decade. “Please.”
Belial crammed grits into her mouth and slowly chewed. It took like an hour before she swallowed and answered, “No,” blinking twice. “I just succeeded in putting that stubborn son of a gun to sleep a few hours ago and I ain’t having you two screamin’ like lunatics inside my sickbay again. Boy’s a handful, I tell you.”
I swallowed. The smell of scrambled eggs and toast made my mouth watery. But for some reason, I couldn’t make myself eat. “Is he… going to be okay?”
The woman eyed at me in the middle of sipping from her mug. “Depends on how you define okay. If he didn’t get treated right away, he’d be fireflies by now. Looked like he’d been battered to death. It’s one big miracle he even got here in one piece.”
My fingers tightened around my fork. “Is there anything I can do to help him?”
“Really? You’re looking pretty healthy yourself. Considering you looked like a wraith on crack just last afternoon. What do they feed you kids outside Hell?” she mumbled to the mug, blowing the foam on top of her drink. Not sure if it was a compliment or an insult. “Such a downer you can’t use Transference. We’ll just have to wait until he recovers. Like a normal human. That’s just the natural order of things here. Mighty immortals can’t do nothin’ about it.”
Just like that, she stood up, pushing the stool with the back of her legs as she did. It scraped noisily against the wooden floor, making everyone pause to throw glares at our direction. They heard the woman, alright. Laughing, she picked up her mug and raised it as if proposing a toast.
“Anyone of you got a problem?” she asked in a honeyed tone, her expression suddenly shifting into something close to sinister. The whole room fell very silent. “No? That’s what I thought.”
My jaw fell from its hinges as I watched her reel her way to the infirmary. I had a hunch that Bel wasn’t much of a people person.
“That’s our Bel. But she really is the best healer,” Luci forced out an awkward chuckle. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to convince me or herself. “Eat up. I’ll give you a tour of the place. Abum tells me you’ll be staying with us for a while.”
Oddly, I found the house’s bathroom at the backyard. Bamboo trees were strewn along the seven-foot high wooden fences, their branches like a canopy over the shallow pool. Emphasis on the shallow. More like a tub. Drowned girl speaking here. If the water was up to my neck, I wasn’t going in even if Luci pointed a shotgun into my right eye.
A steady stream of clear water flowed from a large bamboo pipe. As the pool overflowed, the excess water drained into some sort of drainage going outside the yard. From where I stood, I could see the treetops in Sathariel’s orchidarium. The smell of flowers permeated the air so it must be close.
“The water’s a little cold,” Luci mentioned from behind me.
I almost forgot I wasn’t alone. Turned out, it was a common bath. Uneasily, I tugged the towel wrapped around my body. My nape felt warm. I had never taken a bath with anyone before. Not since I was four.
Hurriedly, I tiptoed to the edge of the pool, dropping my towel before literally throwing myself into the water. The cold sent jolts all over my body. Gasping, I surfaced as fast as I could, barely realizing that the water just barely reached my chest. My first reaction was to bend my knees until I was submerged up to my nose.
Looking a lot less embarrassed than me, Luci took the stairs down the pool, removing her towel. Her body was just like mine when I had my first period. Small. Slender. But in the chest department, she must be a cup B.
“Take your time, Aramis,” she said.
I wondered how she could stay calm about all this. Honestly, I was freaking out. Narrowing my eyes, I turned my back on her and scrubbed myself as fast as I could. “No thanks. I-it’s freezing in here.”
“They don’t usually turn the heaters on until the evening.”
“Oh,” I murmured, my nape prickling. I had this feeling that I was being checked out. It was creepier than I thought. I couldn’t point out which scared me more. The pool or the fact that I was naked.
Three. Two. One… Awkward silence.
“Uhm, you don’t have to be shy,” Luci commented after a minute. I had this feeling that she wanted very much to start a conversation but didn’t know just how to start it. “You have a nice body… Except for your chest, which will most likely develop in a few more years. Don’t worry.”
Totally awkward.
“Luci,” I breathed out, a burn making its way up my cheeks. Way to go to state the obvious. “I’m immortal. Like you. I’ll never grow old. Or change. Just like you.”
“Oh…”
The fawn oversized poncho Luci made me wear was a bit comforting. It didn’t show much of my upper body deficit. What a relief. Felt weird though. Like a hospital gown. And it got me worrying that if I moved too much, someone would see my butt. The woven sandals were a discovery, on the other hand. They were much lighter, much comfier than they looked.
“There,” Luci pointed ahead as she sauntered beside the hulking Grigori.
Not too far away, I saw the upper half of a towering lighthouse jutting out of the thick isle of trees. We had been walking for about half an hour now, taking the small road that went further down from the town’s entry point. We winded up into a rocky trail that went across a brook. Instead of getting his sandals wet, Grigori bounded on top of the slippery rocks.
Grumbling inwardly, I followed him. Some jagged tips virtually poked through my soles. Choosing the right stone to jump onto was the hard part.
“Don’t step on the ones with moss on them,” Grigori reminded me. “They’re really slippery—“
Coincidentally, my left foot got caught in between two stones. As I tried to yank it free, my other left foot slid off the boulder I was standing on. I landed on my butt with a splash.
“Too late,” I muttered bitterly.
“Here,” he leaned forward, offering me a hand. “Be more careful, Aramis. Immortals don’t heal as fast in Halja.”
“Thanks,” I reached out for his arm and pulled myself up. With an apologetic smile, I began wringing the bottom of my clothes. “I remember being a lot less uncoordinated than this. But I guess immortals don’t get extra dexterity stats in Halja either, do we?”
With a low chuckle, he shook his head. “Unfortunately.”
“Quit fooling around, you two,” Luci trilled as she skipped past us. “We’re almost there.”
Five minutes later, we arrived in front of the lighthouse. It loomed over us in stark gray. Unpolished block of stones raised its massive foundation, patches moss making themselves comfortable on its gritty surfaces. As high as a twenty-storey building, it stuck like a sore thumb inside the forest.
Luci led the way to a small door at the back of the structure, gesturing us to follow.
“Darn it!” Grigori exclaimed, rubbing the top of his head after accidentally bumping it on the top of the doorframe. “Levi should absolutely have this door fixed.”
Several flights of stairs crisscrossed overhead, making it look like it was impossible to reach the top. As we made our way up, it seemed endless. By the time we got to the highest tier, my robe was already dry and my knees, shaking like crazy. I was so tired I could drop dead. But it wasn’t just the tiring climb that made me gasp. It was the view in front of me.
From where I stood, I could pretty much see the whole of the island. Overall, it was an odd triangle shape. Under the bright morning sky, the sea glittered, washing against the black sand of the beach just beneath us. Palm trees swayed with the salty breeze. I felt it move my hair, brush ever gently against my skin.
Holding onto the railing, I took the view in. How could this be Hell? This place was paradise.
Suddenly, an earsplitting noise blared from above our heads. It startled me but not Luci and Grigori. They just shielded their eyes with their hands and gazed up at the clear sky. I copied them and saw something passing by the island’s airspace.
Was that a bird? No. It was…
“A plane,” I blurted out in disbelief. “That is a plane.”
Luci giggled. “I know. Planes actually pass by here. Did you really think Halja is actually under earth?”
“Actually, yeah. It says so—whether literal or figuratively—in virtually every reference on earth,” I answered, still following the plane with my eyes as if it was the first time I had seen one. “Wait. Are we still even on earth?”
“But of course,” she replied without any effort to hide her enjoyment. So I was clueless about Halja. It wasn’t even funny. “Although, it says so in virtually every reference on earth that this place doesn’t exist. The Caribbean Islands is practically our neighbor but it isn’t like we can actually go there. Even if we try, we cannot leave this island. Technically, we are somewhere between Miami and Puerto Rico.”
I shook my head, my thoughts in a chaotic whir. “This is Hell. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It makes perfect sense, Aramis.” She said it in a way that annoyed me in the most indirect way. Like she was implying that I should’ve figured everything out by now and the fact that I hadn’t just proved how dense I was. But nicely. “Why else would it be called the Devil’s Triangle?”
Being a believer of myths and fictitious stuff, my dad told me about this a million times before. But I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You mean…”
“That’s right, Little Miss,” Grigori said, placing a massive but gentle hand on my shoulder. “Welcome to Bermuda Triangle.”
~~~~~~~~~
*comes into view panting* So I figured I can't upload twice a week because it's typhoon season yet again. hey! Before you pitch your rotten tomatoes, I can't do anything about the blackouts and internet disconnections. I mean, sometimes houses get struck by lightning or washed out by floods by I can't do anything about that either. So I decided I could upload every 5 days. Sorry people. I know I let you down too much. *sighs* Next one's gonna be on Thursday. PS. Dedicated to the person above. Thanks for the support :)