“Hey, is someone there?”
Shanna and Rachel froze and looked at each other. Someone had just yelled into the house. A woman.
“Hello?”
They both ran to the door together and stopped as they faced two college-aged girls who stood in the open doorway, girls who immediately lit up when they saw Rachel and Shanna. “Hi. Boy, are we glad to see you.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Who are you?” Rachel asked hesitantly as she stared at the two girls, noting the backpacks hoisted on their backs.
“I’m Ligeia,” a tall girl with olive-colored skin announced, stepping forward to offer her hand. She had long black hair that fell past her butt, pulled back in a beautiful French braid. She had green eyes that briefly reminded Rachel of Jade and Jordan, with clothes that matched, right down to the backpack and hiking boots. “Me and my friend Serene…”
“Hi,” an Asian girl smiled cutely, showing off deep dimples as she shifted the pack on her back, before her friend continued.
“We were out hiking for a week before we came back to town late last night. We like to do that sometimes, just commune with nature, get away from everyone else. It’s very peaceful. Good for the soul. Anyway, we saw the city, Anthemoessa, in the distance, otherwise we would have camped for the night, but as it was, we only had a short hike to get back here and frankly, a week of nature can get a little old, if you know what I mean. My I-pod was dead about two days out, so I was missing my tunes as it was. And don’t even get me started on my favorite shows. It’s nice to get away, but not that long because you also have those comforts back home, you know.”
“Um, what my friend’s trying to say,” Serene interrupted, “is that we got back into town last night when a bright light from the mountains engulfed us. It felt strange, but we were not hurt, so we continued to our houses. We realized things weren’t right almost immediately. Little things were off. People we’d usually see were absent. The taverns were silent. Everything was silent. And the cars all seemed to be gone like everyone had vacated the area. But we wanted to get to our homes, to see if our families were still there.” She exchanged a look with Ligeia before looking down at her boots and sighing “They weren’t.”
“What? You didn’t have messages waiting for you or anything?” Rachel demanded.
Ligeia shrugged. “There was an incoherent message waiting for me on the kitchen counter, about how I had to leave immediately and contact my mother at my aunt’s, but…my cell phone’s also dead and hardly any of the phones here work at all, let alone most of the electricity. I got ahold of my aunt at one point, but she couldn’t hear a word I said, like the reception was bad.”
“Only…” Serene looked shyly at Shanna. “I don’t know if you’ve seen any animals since you’ve arrived, but they don’t hear us either. Or see us. And when we try to touch them…it’s like they’re ghosts.”
“Or we’re ghosts. Oh my god. Do you think we’re ghosts? Like we got eaten by coyotes out there when we tried to find our way back home? God, I hate nature. This is what nature does to you.”
“Whoa, calm down,” Rachel laughed, sending Shanna a furtive look. “We’re not ghosts, so you’re not ghosts. Your mother wouldn’t have left you a panicky note if things weren’t wrong, but you’re still alive. You have a pulse, right?” She held back a chuckle as Ligeia put a finger to her neck.
“Yeah…” Serene agreed slowly. “So…you two…?”
“Oh!” Shanna blushed before quickly introducing them.
“And you got caught in that light too? You aren’t from Anthemoessa or you would speak Greek. We heard your English and luckily, we are both fluent in your language or this would be a much more difficult conversation.”
“We met another man here…he also spoke English,” Shanna said. “So I guess with the tourists around here, you must have to keep up.”
Rachel sent Shanna a startled, searching look, but said nothing.
“You saw a man?” Ligeia questioned.
“He…ran away from us,” Rachel stepped in. “He was…far away and probably didn’t know we were there. He’s probably long gone by now.”
“So, you must have been passing through?” Serene looked at the hunters expectantly with her friend.
Shanna and Rachel looked at each other before Rachel nodded. “Yeah. We were at the base of the mountain - on the road, just coming into town. We had a slight…car crash, and were walking in. Then the light hit us and we blacked out until sunrise.”
“It must have hit you guys a lot harder than us,” Serene noted. “But you must have been closer to the source. Do you think that the light was perhaps what made us…ghostly like this? Many of the animals probably weren’t outside, caught in the light, when it struck, and were spared from this.”
“Lucky us,” Ligeia murmured.
“Well, why don’t you guys come on in…to this house we broke into,” Rachel said. “We can all get something to eat and then we can come up with a plan as to our next course of action.”
“But we shouldn’t linger long,” Ligeia countered. “This needs to be fixed now. Perhaps we can try to find the source of that light. Maybe we can reverse its effects. Say, do you think they’re testing some kind of weapon that went wrong or something?”
“Anything’s possible if we can pass through other living creatures,” Shanna said. “But why don’t we pick up some food at least for the trek ahead of us?”
Serene and Ligeia agreed and refilled their canteens with water as Shanna and Rachel laid out some food that wouldn’t spoil.
Serene added several bottle of water to Shanna and Rachel’s itinerary, explaining that it got hot in Anthemoessa very quickly, especially when there was no cover.
“So, should we head blindly toward the mountains then?” Ligeia asked. “It seems that we should have some idea of where we’re traipsing off to. I mean, we may know the general direction of the light, but…we could be searching for days!”
“What else have we got to do?” Serene countered. “We have to do this.” She paused and looked over at Shanna and Rachel. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Rachel glanced curiously between the two girls.
“I almost forgot…something appeared after the flash that wasn’t there before. A building.”
“A building?”
Ligeia nodded. “Yeah. A big eyesore too. To the east of Anthemoessa are some Greek ruins. Great tourist attraction, I tell you. It’s what makes a town like ours, in the middle of nowhere, and you know, off of a beautiful body of water, thrive. You should see some of the crap my mother sells at her store. Sure, there are the area maps and destination guides, but then there are tacky ashtrays of Stonehenge and figurines of Zeus and Hera and Aphrodite too. All kinds of trash that people can bring home to remember their trips. It’s just sad. No one wants a real taste of history anymore. It’s all the surface stuff. Forget that it’s utterly amazing that a more primitive people were so advanced. Beyond a quick look, no one really cares what it was all for or anything. They just want photographs for their scrapbooks and a nice cup of tea at a quaint little café.”
“Okay, Ligeia, enough,” Serene said with a half-laugh. “I’m sure our new friends don’t want to hear your rants all day long. And anyways, they may have been coming here to do the very thing you’re claiming is silly.”
Shanna nodded. “Tourists. Yes. That’s us. It may not be noble, but at least we’re helping the local economy, I suppose.”
Rachel stifled a smirk.
“I’m sorry,” Ligeia apologized. “I can prattle on. And I don’t mean to offend you or anything, because I like to travel just as much as the next person. Just seeing people come through without really seeing…it gets to me sometimes. I need to lighten up a bit.”
“So, this building that appeared overnight?” Rachel reminded them.
“The building appeared just past the ruins,” Serene revealed. “We didn’
t notice it for awhile, so I don’t know if it appeared exactly when the light hit us, but it has to be related. Maybe that’s the source of what happened.”
“It’s worth a try. At least it’s a destination. We won’t be wandering aimlessly looking for the cause of a flash of light.”
“I just wish I knew what caused everyone to leave,” Ligeia said, hugging herself. “It’s really creepy here without the people.”
“I won’t disagree with you there.”
***
“These ruins are amazing,” Rachel breathed as they passed them by. Mostly, there were just stone slabs standing alone, decrepit and eroded, but there were some amazing buildings left all but intact. On their right, they watched a white palace of sorts come and go. It had grand white columns and a wide staircase, reminding Shanna briefly of the mansion back in Lime Bay. But this building felt more like a temple, like something she would have seen built by the Ancient Greeks. And it was. It had certainly seen better days, but it was still pretty amazing to behold. Shanna had had no idea that things like this were out there for people to see.
“They are pretty spectacular,” Ligeia announced proudly. “Living among them, you sort of get used to them, but every so often, they just strike you with a certain amount of awe. Wouldn’t you agree, Serene?”
“Awe, yes.”
Rachel slowed her pace after a moment and let Ligeia and Serene bound ahead, making sure Shanna would also slow so that they could speak to each other in relative privacy.
“You know that this building…may be the scholars’ headquarters,” Rachel whispered. “It makes sense. They were coming here. Somewhere private, with their chamber of horrors.”
“Our friends…”
“Right, but also our enemies. We need to be careful infiltrating this place. And careful means that we can’t do it with these two. We have to come up with something…something that will let us get in there by ourselves.”
Shanna nodded and watched Ligeia and Serene as they walked close together, taking in their surroundings and bursting into conversation every so often. “Okay. I may have an idea.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Uh...uh...guh...” Amelia coughed, liquid draining from her lungs. Then she swiftly vomited. She knew there was more water in her and she would be vomiting again very quickly. She licked her chapped lips and tried to smile bravely, aware that she had an audience.
Water splashed up her legs and over her thighs as she opened her eyes. She had to close her eyes immediately at the bright light, cast directly into her eyes. She groaned. “Hmmm. Awake, I see. Took a while.” A voice came to her from beyond the bright light. She was in a tub of water. Someone’s fist was twined through her hair.
Ah, yes, Amelia remembered. The torture. Having my head held underwater for minutes at a time seems to have caused me to pass out. I knew water should have been my element. I could be going all Aquaman on their asses right about now. No, wait. Aquaman controls the animals, not the water. What a lame power. I’m suddenly quite content. But then again, the torture…
These people knew what they were doing. She was very disoriented. They wouldn’t give her a moment to listen to the wind, as it would tell her of their surroundings with but a little time. And that light in her eyes…everything they did served to dampen her powers…very effectively. If only she could find something to latch onto, something small, then she would not give an inch until she was free. But her tormentors seemed quite aware of that fact and were steadfast in keeping her off balance.
“Feeling more chatty?” the voice asked.
After throwing up two more times, Amelia shifted her feet on the bottom of the tub and gasped at the sharp pain she felt when she put any weight on her right leg. “God.”
“Yes, you were hurt in the blast. A pity, I’m sure. But God doesn’t help your kind, so let’s refrain from requesting that sort of aid, hmm?”
“My kind is human.”
“Still sticking to that story, are we?”
Amelia saw the gesture of a hand to the right of the light and suddenly found her head beneath the water once more.
***
“It could be dangerous?” Rachel laughed as she and Shanna skulked among the bushes around the mysterious building. “Telling them that was your brilliant plan?”
The building was about seven stories high and very nondescript. No windows, just brick as far as the eye could see. Brick so red that it was nearly purple. It looked bruised. Tired.
“Direct, but effective,” Shanna smiled, peering at the single door they’d been able to locate thus far.
“And what if they hadn’t cared if it was dangerous? What then, oh brilliant strategist?”
“They did care,” Shanna recalled. “And from what I hear, hunters are special in that they will do things that others will not. They’re proactive. They remember and they fight. Most people are content to be out of the way when things go down, and to forget what they’ve seen moments later.”
Rachel scoffed. “All right, all right. Any plans for getting inside? Oh, I know! Maybe we should just knock and ask if they’ll release our friends!”
Shanna ignored her and started as the door opened and a man stepped outside, looked about, then dashed toward some bushes. As they watched, he pulled a camouflaged sheet off of a van and climbed inside.
“Okay, we have to go now if we’re going to,” Rachel said, stepping out of the bushes and sprinting across the short open field to the door.
Shanna followed quickly, sending furtive looks over at the van as she made her way to the safety of the building. The man climbed out just as Shanna disappeared behind the door, but it was enough for the man to see her. He dropped the equipment in his arms and made a mad dash for the door. In vain. The hunters had it closed and locked before he was halfway there.
“And that’s that,” Rachel smiled triumphantly at Shanna.
Shanna returned her smile and glanced around. There was a door at the back of the hall they found themselves in, and also a staircase that went up a floor. It was all that same bruised color, but the brick was replaced with plaster walls.
“Did you notice?” Rachel asked.
“Notice what?”
“He saw us.”
Shanna blinked, then nodded happily. “You’re right. He did. So we’re not alone in all this.”
“And we’re not dead. Fifty bucks says it’s these scholars’ fault in the first place.”
Shanna felt reassured and watched Rachel as she took in their surroundings.
“Choices, choices,” Rachel clucked. “Door number one?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Rachel nodded and knelt down before the door. “Hmm. It locks from this side of the door with a key.”
“So that could mean prisoners are inside,” Shanna concluded.
“Yes,” Rachel agreed. “But I think the best course of action, rather than try to pick the lock and perhaps trigger some counter spell, is to unlock it the untraditional way. She began using a small screwdriver from her belt to unfasten the hinges by prying the bolts up and out. It worked out nicely for the current situation and she'd accomplished the task within a few minutes with minimal noise.
“On three?” Rachel asked as she got to her feet.
Shanna nodded as they both stood poised in front of the door. “One.”
“Two.”
Lifting her foot, Shanna grimaced as she kicked her foot against the door at the same time as Rachel to the bellow of her “three.”
The door didn’t exactly go careening from its hinges, but it got the job done. The hinges gave way and they were able to get inside to see a large tank of water atop a platform in the middle of the room.
There was a man looming over the water, his face pale and his mouth slack at their sudden appearance. He made a look over his shoulder at a metal cabinet, but seemed to decide it was best to stay put as the tw
o girls walked forward to greet him.
“Come to claim your friends, I suppose,” the man spat as Shanna stepped up to him, keeping a few feet away nonetheless.
“You suppose right,” Shanna agreed.
“And about time too,” Amelia sighed from the tank of water, where Shanna could see that she was restrained through the glass container. “Help me out?”
Shanna smiled. “Happily.”
Amelia watched the man in the room closely as Rachel and Shanna worked to free the ropes that bound her to the platform, Shanna bounding into the water herself to work at them.
As soon as she was free, Amelia slowly walked from the tank, massaging her wrists and staring at the man with contempt. “Be very glad that you’re supposed to be on my side,” she said coolly as she threw up a hand. A wind was summoned that launched him across the room and into the metal cabinet he’d eyed earlier. As he fell to the ground unconscious, the cabinet doors opened and several shelves of knives and various torture tools were revealed.
“Quaint establishment they’ve got going here,” Rachel commented.
“These are the good guys, right?” Shanna wondered aloud. “Because I’ve seen Hostel…”
They looked at each other for a moment before Amelia broke out into a grin. “I’m so glad to see you guys. Even you, Rachel.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Mmm. Fun. So, the others are upstairs?”
“Yep. Second floor.”
“Okay. Let’s get this stupidity over with.”
Amelia swayed for a moment, before leaning against the wall. “I’m afraid that I’m not really up for much more action, guys. All of the unconsciousness I’ve suffered here seems to have left me a little piqued. I can probably unlock the door no problem though.”
“How many more scholars are there?” Rachel asked.
“Two, I think.”
“One of whom is locked outside. We can take one no problem.”
“I can do it,” Shanna offered. “You tie up this bozo and Amelia can come upstairs to let me in.”
Rachel nodded. “Fine. Just yell if you need me.”
“But what if he has a gun?” Amelia protested.
Shanna shrugged. “Then all the more reason Rachel should stay down here. If we can’t save the others, she can.”