Chapter 5
It was good to be back. Though it had only been a day, it felt like months since I had stepped foot on familiar ground. I glanced at Von and noticed he seemed different. He seemed uncomfortable and his posture was stiff and tense, the opposite of how he was in his world. And I wondered if it was because we were here, so far away from his world or because of the possible danger we might encounter.
“I am sorry if coming here is making you nervous. I know it is safer for me to stay in your world, but...”
He turned to me and gave me a reassuring smile. “I am fine. I am just not used to this place.”
“Is this your first time here?”
“I have been here before and also lived here for about a year when I was young, but I am afraid I never got used to your world.”
“Speaking of yours and my world. Where is yours, exactly? I mean, is your world in another country like Switzerland or something? Are we even on the same planet?”
He chuckled. “No, it is nothing like that. Many centuries ago, before my father's or even his father's time, your race and mine lived together peacefully until one day, a conflict arose. A war ensued. It lasted for years and when it was finally over, both sides were very bitter and angry. Our king at that time decided it was for the best if we separated ourselves from yours until both sides were ready to live peacefully together once again. He created a pocket of our world from yours.”
“A pocket?”
“Let us say the earth was one long flat line. Somewhere in the middle of that line, we took two points and folded it until the two points meets. Your world lives within that line, never knowing that there was a folded piece of that line missing. And, we live in that folded piece.”
“So, we are both on Earth and your people some how hid a piece of the earth to live in.”
“Yes, though it is more complicated than what I just explained.”
“It must take a lot of magic to pull that off. How are you keeping your world hidden?”
“We have these opals that we have placed around our world to keep us from being discovered.”
“Opals?”
“The simple way to describe them is stored magic.”
“Like a battery? Wait—it is more complicated than that.”
He smiled. “Yes, when you start working with magic, it will help to clarify things.”
When we got to the hospital, I found it strange that no one stopped us. It was midnight, way past visiting hours, and no one questioned us as to why we were here.
“Are you doing this?” I whispered to him.
“Doing what?” he whispered back.
“We are walking in this hospital without anyone stopping us. Visiting hours ended hours ago,” I said then looked around before adding, “no-body is even looking in our direction. It is as if we are invisible.”
“I placed a small spell on us to prevent them from seeing us. They also can not hear us.”
“Really,” I whispered then cleared my throat and started talking normally. “That is amazing; you should teach me this spell.”
“You do not need it.”
“Why not?”
“You have your magic.”
Before I could ask him what he meant by that, we were at my uncle's door. I was about to open it when he stopped me.
“What's wrong?”
“There should be guards posted at his door.”
He pushed me behind him and whispered something under his breath that I couldn't hear and placed his palm on the door. “I do not feel anything magical. Stay by the door just in case. I will call you when it is safe.”
He pulled out a small crystal, about palm size, and whispered again. Slowly the crystal began to glow. Cautiously, he opened the door. When nothing happened he went in. Using the glow of the crystal to light his way, we were able to see my uncle on the bed. Von made a quick tour around the room and the bathroom. When all was clear, he motioned me in. I went straight to the bedside and held my uncle's hand. Slowly he woke by my touch.
“Cass what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be home?”
“I want to see you, Uncle Ned, to make sure that you are all right.”
“I'm perfectly fine as I told you over the phone. There is nothing for you to worry about.” He then noticed that there was someone else in the room. “Who is this person with you?”
I turned to see Von looking around the room with his nose up in the air as if sniffing for something. He seemed tense and ready for action.
“Von is everything all right?”
“Something is wrong,” he said without taking his attention away from what he was doing. “There should be scouts outside guarding and a protection spell in the room.”
“Relax, no one is here except us.”
“Cass, what is he talking about?” My uncle asked, looking very confused at the strange conversation we were having.
“It's nothing, Uncle Ned. You should—” I stopped mid-sentence when I felt a chill running down my spine and the hairs at the back of my neck stood on ends. A small high-pitched sound was coming from the door.
“What's going on?” Uncle Ned asked. There was concern in his voice as he looked from me to Von.
“I will tell you later. Right now, we need to leave,” I said urgently and helped him off the bed. All at once, the window next to the bed shattered and the door burst open as several creatures came through. I screamed then moved my uncle and myself back until we bumped into Von. We were back to back facing the creatures on all sides. I was shocked to realize that these things were from my dream. They had shiny green coating on their bodies and their eyes glowed red in the dim light. Their pointy ears moved at every sound made in the room. They were hunched over and their arms and legs were thin with claws as hands. Their face resembled a bat and their bodies looked like two round balls, one on top of the other, with thin legs and arms protruding out.
“Urichs.”
“What!”
“They are Urichs. Be careful; their claws are poisonous. You can die from just one small scratch.”
“How are we going to get out of here?”
“I have an idea, but it will only last for a few seconds. You and your uncle have to be ready to move. Head for the door and run as fast as you can. No matter what happens, do not stop for anything. Are you ready?”
“Yes.”
“Cover your ears now.”
There was a loud vibrating sound like a tuning fork striking and the sound it made was bouncing all over the walls. The creatures screeched even louder and pulled back, trying to get away form the sound. Von pushed us to the door to get us moving and we ran down the hallway to the stairwell. We went down the first flight of stairs before we heard the high-pitched noises from above us.
“We need to get out of the stairs now,” he yelled over the noise.
But it was too late. One of the urichs jumped from above and was about to land on top of me when Uncle Ned pushed me away. The creature clawed at his chest before Von could kill it and move us down the stairs. No sooner did we get to the second flight of stairs, when several of the urichs jumped from above and landed right in front of us. We were cornered. Quickly, Von took out his crystal again and whispered under his breath. A burst of flame shot out from the crystal. He moved it from side to side as I watched the creatures jump back and cowered in fear. He blew on the flame and it shot forward, consuming the urichs that dared to get too close. Von kept blowing on the flame at them until we were halfway down the third flight of stairs. He then stopped, raised his arms while holding the crystal with both hands, and said a few quick words that I couldn't understand. Within seconds, the flame shot up and covered the entire space above us, making a blanket of fire that blocked the urichs from attacking us further. He moved us out of the stairwell and into the hallway. Everything was quiet, empty, and strangely calm considering what we had just stepped out from.
“I do not know how long the spell will last. We have to get out of here. We will—”
br />
“Uncle Ned!” I screamed. “Please don't,” I begged. “Get up. You have to get up,” I said as I shook him. “We have to go.”
Von was by my side. He touched the claw marks made by the urichs on my uncle's chest. He then cursed under his breath, and I knew then that there was nothing he could do.
Cass, I am sorry,” he said softly to me.
I started to cry.
“We have to go.” He said a few seconds later.
“No!”
“Cass, I—”
“I'm not going to leave him here.”
“We have to.”
“He's all I have,” I said before pulling away and lay my head on my uncle's chest hoping to hear a faint beat of his heart, hoping to feel the rise and fall of his chest. “Come back to me,” I prayed. But no matter how hard I wished, hoped, and begged he did not move. He was so still, so lifeless. How could that possibly be? It couldn't be him, not my uncle.
He turned me around and shook me lightly as if that would help clear me of my grief. “Cess, we must go.” He said to me urgently.
“I don't want to.”
He put both hands on my cheeks and tilted my head up to look at him. “You have me, Cassiea. You are not alone. You have me by your side.” He leaned down and kissed me before wrapping me in his arms. “We have to go.”
I shook my head. “I can't.” I pleaded with him to understand. “I can't leave him alone like this.”
He tilted my head to look at him. I stared at those mesmerizing cobalt-blue eyes. “We can not take him with us. We must leave him here.”
I obediently nodded in agreement. He helped me to my feet before stepping into the room closest to the hallway window and came out with a chair. Before I could ask, he threw the chair at the window, breaking the glass, then stretched out his hand to me and said, “We will leave through here.”
I took one last look back at my uncle before taking Von's hand. Mixed emotions of despair, sadness, grief and pain played havoc inside my heart. He had always been strong and invincible to me. Even as the years passed and I had noticed how much he had aged, it was still hard to believe that he was gone, to never be around, to never see his face, his smile, the sound of his voice, and his laughter. How could he be dead? It couldn't be true. I could still feel the warmth of his skin on my hand; maybe...just maybe...there was some hope, some miracle...
I felt a tug on my arm and I turned to face Von with a desperate plead on my face. “I don't know how to say good-bye.”
I could see the helplessness in his expression and it pains me to know that grief is the one thing that could never be cured.
“I am sorry.” He said before guiding me to the window.
Within seconds we were in the air falling fast to the ground. He whispered under his breath and slowly we started to float down until our feet softly touched the ground. Immediately, I was pushed to the side and fell hard to the ground. I did not realize that someone, or actually, something, was waiting for us. Von had seen him or it and moved me away. He took a knife to his side that was meant for me. I screamed, as the creature lunged for me as Von went down. When the creature was about to strike, I placed my hands up, a poor attempt to block the blow, and a burst of light came through my hands. The creature stepped back screaming with intense pain as the light surrounded him before he burst into flames. The fire engulfed him before it sucked back into itself and both the creature and the fire disappeared. Silence descended where we lay. I stared in disbelief at what I had just done. Slowly I got up and quickly moved to Von's side. He did not look good. He was pale, sweating, and in pain. I saw that he was holding his left side with his hand trying to stop the flow of blood.
“We need to go back in and have them take care of you,” I said while trying to pull him up.
“We cannot go back in there. We have to move and hide somewhere.”
“You're bleeding. You may die if we don't get this taken care of.”
“Look inside my bag for a packet.”
I opened the small pouch that he had strapped around his waist and I took out the packet he was referring to. When I opened it, there was a leaf sprinkled with white powder. He took the leaf from me and placed the powder side down on his wound. He winced at the pain.
“This will help a little until we are back at the campsite.” He went on before I could protest. “We cannot go back to the hospital. The urichs would be free from the spell by now and I do not have the energy to fight them. Plus, there will be more moricks coming.”
I looked around as I said, “Where can we go?”
He also looked. “Over there.” He nodded to the construction site a couple of blocks away.
I helped him up and supported him as we walked to our hiding place. I was worried. His breathing was uneven and shallow. He was getting weaker by the minute. I could tell that he was focusing all of his concentration into putting one foot in front of the other. A couple of times he would have fallen if I wasn’t holding on to him. I could tell he needed, wanted rest but he kept moving; determined to get to safety. When we were at the construction site, he stopped and looked around the area. The first and second floor was too exposed he told me before pointing with his chin to the third floor. We quickly got into an elevator that was constructed for the purpose of carrying workers and small materials easily through each floors. When we were on the third floor, we walked around a bit before he spotted a small room with no windows and only one door to go in or out.
“Go lock the door while I secure this room,” he said as he let go of me and slowly walked with unsteady feet to the center of the room. There he stopped and took out his crystal. He whispered something under his breath before he went down to the ground.
“Von!”
“I am all right. Help me to the wall,” he said.
I helped him to the nearest wall, settled myself next to him and moved him until his head was resting on my lap.
“If anything happens to me, promise me you will not leave this room and wait for Shuron.”
“Don’t say that. You will be fine. I will go and find some help.”
“No.” He said as he grabbed my arm. “It is not safe out there. I have already sent word out to Shuron of what happened. He will find us.”
“How did—When did—” Never mind. Von must have done some magic to let Shuron know that we were in danger. “So he knows where we are?”
He shook his head. “I was unable to do so, but do not worry. He will track us down.”
“I hope he find us soon. You need help.”
“I will be fine. I just need to rest for a while,” he said before closing his eyes.
His face was pale and his whole body was so still that if I hadn't seen his chest rising and falling, I would have thought he was dead. I closed my eyes trying to hold back my tears. Images of my uncle flooded my mind. Memories of him collided, rattled and jumbled inside my head. The first time I met him, my graduation, my birthdays, his birthdays, the camping trips, the anniversary of my parent’s death, him in the hospital and him lying on the floor lifeless. I opened my eyes and blinked several times to stop the tears.
Uncle Ned was well liked by everyone. He wasn’t shy, but a quiet person who kept to himself. He preferred to listen to others as they talked than to be the one who does the talking. He rarely mentioned of his life before we met years ago. And he often evaded my questions on that subject. When I was young, while my parents were still alive, he would often come to visit us. And stayed for one or two days before he left again on his ‘wild adventure,’ as my dad would say. I was too young to remember him. It was only from my fathers stories of him that I had a little glimpse of who he was. Since Uncle Ned was a child, he had always been a loner and loved to wander. When he turned eighteen, he packed up his bag and went off traveling. First in the U.S. Then the world.
When he was able to, my uncle would send postcards to my dad of the places he had been to. My dad would show them to me and we would pull up a map
and search for these places and then find anything we could about the land, the people and their culture. I had asked him once why my uncle moved around so much. Dad would strung his shoulders and said he had always been that way. Even as a kid my uncle could never stay still. As I learned more about these places he visited, I began to realize why he traveled so much. Uncle Ned loved to see the world and what it had to offer. He loved to experience new things, meet new people and find new discoveries. He was a person who loved to learn about different cultures and their different ideas. He was an adventurer and a traveler who searched for the history of life in others but, ironically, had no roots of his own. That was how I remembered him and that was how I saw him as. A traveler passing by to go on to the next adventure.
For the first couple of weeks of living together, I was so afraid that he was going to leave me and I would be alone again. I didn't know how he knew about my feelings, but one night he sat me down and said to me that he didn’t know what to do with me. And even though he didn't know how to take care of someone other than himself, he would never give up trying. He was never going to leave me and he was never going to regret staying. From that moment on, I felt like I could breathe again and that I was able to relax. I wished I could say that we lived peacefully from then on. We had our differences and we had our arguments. And through it all, he had kept his word and never gave up. Tears were streaming down my face as I thought of him and the last image of him lying on the floor. I wiped my tears away and forced myself to stop crying. Now was not the time to mourn him even though I wanted to. Von and I were still in danger and I needed to stay focused. Later, I thought to myself, later when we were safe, I would then mourn his death.