I felt the calluses on my fingers rubbing against the slippery steering wheel, the cartilage so numb by the lack of blood circulation that not even the icy whistle of the wind entering through the four half-open windows outside could help.
My eyes stared at the water reaching my knees, and, once again, I raised my head carefully “fearing some concussion with the probable accident “and tried to see the outside. It was still dark, but I could swear that the numbers on the panel marked 6:35 a.m. before it went out completely.The delay for the sun rise was just one of my countless and tiny concerns. There was also the main one: How and why was I inside an almost completely submerged car?The rearview mirror reflected an image that did not seem familiar to me. A slightly rounded face of pale color, full lips and eyes of drooping eyelids, protecting large spheres of iris in whiskey brown color.My long hair of an intense black caused shadows around my shoulders “shadows that I could swear were moving and increasing like a curious viewer to see ahead “provoking me moments of sudden panic, in which I turned only to find the emptiness, then returned my gaze to my feet freezing by the cold water and remained studying the numbness of my fingers.As if responding to a distant call, my ears snapped with a buzz. I was finally able to move my hands, guiding them to my head. My fingers got stuck in my hair, touching, recognizing, and a crease formed on my forehead when I stared at that image in the mirror. Something didn't seem right with that body. Something didn't seem right to me.Releasing the air in small inches, I tested pulling one of the legs. Water splashed and rumbled in my ears, louder than I expected that small doses of droplets would sound. Again that caution made me turn my head back, looking for a threat.You're safe, I repeated while pulling the other leg. My pants weighed and stuck to my skin, but that didn't come close to the most worrying thing for me. Who exactly am I? I asked in a dry murmur, looking for the answer in each support or small alcove of the car.I believed that if I was in a car that was mine, there would be some document or certificate, and I almost screamed with relief when I pulled the sunshade and a wallet fell on my lap.I took out the first photo ID, and there was the same girl who looked at me in the mirror. I went down and looked up to be sure, and I had it. My name, as the document said, was Elena Flamel, born in San Diego, California, a few months to turn nineteen.With my brow still furrowed, I left the document in the passenger seat and returned my gaze to the rearview mirror, trying to see the outside. Ignoring the strange coldness in the way he watched me, I did a second self-examination looking for possible injuries.I was intact, with the exception of a small abdominal pain, but completely safe and sound from an accident that threw my car into a lake, or something like that.My still frozen fingers protested when I opened the car door and jumped into the water, soaking all the Jeans material that was not initially wet and considerably moistening the ends of the hair that went up to the waist.Before reaching the edge of the stream that produced small waves by running smoothly around me, I thought if it would not have been a good idea to check the back seats thoroughly.Who knows what I could have found at least in search of a sweater, because out there, with the wind of the quiet cold dawn and with wet clothes... It seemed insane to wear only a shirt and pants.I trembled so much when I stood up, that the noise snapped in my ears, scaring me all the time. I cracked my teeth, feeling a slight discomfort in my jaw, and folded my arms around me, protecting myself in the way it suited me as I turned in the same place, performing a tactical reconnaissance.I'm not able to say how part of me was still so cautious and stupidly calm in a desperate situation, but I kept breathing slowly, controlling every impulse that begged me to run and scream. I looked at the car still stuck in the water, and drew a line to the top, where I found a small bridge.It wasn't surprising that I had fallen from there. Anyone with a little alcohol in their blood would have lost control on a bridge without walls. I didn't admit the terrible truth that I wasn't drunk.On the contrary. My sobriety was greater even for someone who had just had an accident. I even tried to find a way to climb to the bridge, but it was protected by dry land and unstable soil.Climbing was not on my list of priorities, and it seemed more difficult than you see in movies, so I turned on my heels and ventured down the dirt trail, whose ground of loose stones and creeping plants extended to an aberturå to the silent forest ahead.It was stupid. I knew that. Entering a forest alone, right after an accident, is not something very smart to do. Add also the darkness so referring to the night and terror, far from an imminent dawn, and the title of stupidity has a new owner.My steps were purposely high. I believed that this would be a way to scare away any animal lurking. And it seemed to work for a while. Branches scrambled in the distance, creatures fleeing my way.The treacherous creeping plants made me stumble from time to time, and this distracted me from the highest branches, where thorns waited to kiss my face in a painful passage. My cheeks burned when something made me turn my head suddenly to the left.I thought I heard a noise, a song, and then silence. It was fast enough for me to know its importance. Come to me, it seems to say. I blinked several times, trying to decipher the sound, although I didn't listen to it anymore. It was like a jovial and old voice, the call of a lover and a mother, fast and slow. Dark.My legs moved on their own and I found myself running down the trail, suffocating the creeping plants with my sneakers heavy by the water. The forest never seemed to have an end, and I was almost surrendering to fatigue when another sound made me stop.This wasn't a song, and it didn't look like a call. The ground shuddered as the sound approached. Closer and closer, threatening, horrible. An unpleasant image ran in my head. Fangs, paws and evil hovered over a creature whose face I was unable to see. Run, run, come to me.I didn't need to hear a second command, I started running through the trees closest than they should, and I got into every passage of rocks blocking the way. Branches exploded behind me, crushed by something heavier than I could handle, bigger than I imagined.The ground itself seemed to move under my feet, throwing me forward with staggers. The trees united even more as I passed by, as if the creature in my wake had awakened the forest. As if the trees themselves blackened by the night were trying to protect me.I slipped on a moist part of the ground and leaned on a tree, squeezing one of my hands on my stomach. My forehead scratched against the bark of the trunk, and chills ran through my skin with the sound, still so loud and close that I could say that the animal was exactly a few steps away from catching me.I swallowed the burning in my throat, and tripped again, turning around. It seemed like I was running in circles, stuck in the same place. I did not dare to wait for the creature to appear to guide me a path, I left ahead, sighing an alleluia when the path had opened for another fendå in the rocks. I believed that crossing it would find an escape route. I was sure I just needed to cross. And I did.Ice ran through my veins, forcing me to let out a scream by the shock on my body warmed by the race. Hair and pieces of my clothes shook by the breath of air that hit me immediately, and a second later, there was no dark or any forest.I was on a hill, looking at what seemed to be an extensive river that extended to the horizon, bathing the setting sun in a deeply dark shade of reddish-brown, sliding between a rocky ravine.The gorge did not seem to have a beginning or even an end, snaking through the rocks below the intense light green carpet of the vegetation on its slope. My chest was filled with relief, but my head screamed against the inconveniences.That seemed damn wrong. It was beautiful, profane, and gloomy... Like a trap for anyone who dared to jump from that cliff, causing a free fall to the merciless stones below. I confess to having considered the fall, judging by the sequence of sounds that reached me the next moment.I didn't take more than three steps on the green and
“What did you call me? “I asked, too busy trying not to moan from the pain in my open wounds to try to sound less aggressive.The man got up from his knees, and again I felt that lethal power around, that time disturbing me, leaving my mind enuverted. Maybe I was suffering from a shock with so much blood running between my hands that I brought to my abdomen, or maybe it was really because of him. That somehow that feeling of increasing danger in my blood was caused by his presence.Maybe he noticed this, because he made an effort to smile, made an effort to look pleasant and not very threatening. Perfectly white Teeth appeared between the beautiful lips, and I found myself almost opening a smile also by pure instinct or obeying a command that he didn't even have to verbalize. I ended up stopping in the middle of the act with a wide eye, and I realized that there was really power exhaling from that man. Enough power to convince me that he was not dangerous, and this seemed to awaken ea
I turned around, coming face to face “literally face “with the armor he wore. I had to take a step back, cursing while massaging my sore nose, so I could face the stranger. Even with a step taken, he was too close, and my whole body was disturbed. Could he feel my thoughts taking me to glimpses of the body that was under that armor? I cursed again, cursing the thought. What the hell was going on there?“Do you really want to make me believe that I have some kind of kingdom with animals of that kind roaming freely around the world?”“Not any kind of kingdom “he shrugged. “And you are, without a doubt, the queen of our world.”I laughed, even without any humor.“Nice joke, partner. That's enough. I want to go back. “I hit lightly on the chest of your armor, trying to sound friendly, and my whole body shuddered at the brief contact. Bufei, turning around to continue going to where I was sure it had been the place where the portal opened.”“It's closed now.”“Then open it! “I screamed.“I
"In our... world... Her name has always been Arianna. "Said Vraxlon, looking over his shoulder as a rock deformity gracefully descended on the side of that cliff, where the only sound beyond our voices was the tinir of his sword trapped on the side of the body, above all that steel of the armor. “I think that after five centuries being remembered of him, you ended up clinging, even though you had.”Unlike him, I was practically slipping and sliding over the rocks, silently cursing him for choosing to go down to the river by the most difficult and steep path. All the curses ended up getting stuck in my head as I struggled not to stumble and fall on the hard and smooth stone wall. My ankles twisted at every hole I fell or every stumbled stone, no matter how great my effort was to follow the great man in front of me, trying at all costs not to put myself in danger for the third time in a short space of hours."What about my kingdom in this world? Is it really as great as you made it seem
For a moment, I dared to wonder if Vraxlon's brute force did not resemble any spiritual force I had, because I still felt that thing lurking over my shoulders and waiting for an order to attack. I ended up wondering who could be strong enough to take me to the ruins for five centuries, and it was an almost impossible mission not to shudder out of fear.Fear. I was afraid. And I felt pain in that fragile and human body as I was taken to walk and jump between the stones. And I certainly felt sad for having accepted so easily to get into that unknown world in search of answers. So, how could I even be someone like him? How could I fight on an equal footing with someone like him, whose arrogance and brutality were so many that they didn't even deign to recognize any threat in the three-headed monster that attacked me. As if Vraxlon were the very creature to be feared. Or... as if I were the creature to fear.As we moved away from the cliff and walked along the rocky slope of that insipid
I might not remember that life, or any other, but I wouldn't be as naive as he thought. I felt my intuition falter between trusting and doubting, and I decided to learn his game, I decided to let myself be taken and learn what was needed, so that when the time came, I could choose my own game. I just hoped he wouldn't have the power to read minds, or I'd be in bad shape."This is our impasse, Your Majesty," he said lowering his tone of voice, and I wondered if the creatures inside the river would be reporting the whole conversation to anyone. "You've never returned as vulnerable as you are now.”Vulnerable, not weak. Because whoever went inside the river, I already knew too much about my lack of powers. I was smart to be careful with the following words, looking all the time into the waters, hoping to see some creature beyond the shadows of the night.Before talking again, it gave me a knot in my stomach to think about what that curious and attentively hearing monster that followed us
A scream sounded, a dark voice and even colder than the one the nun had used. A scream that called by my name, the name of that ancient soul and belonging to another world. And I followed that voice, desperately trying to find it again, to reach it in the middle of the darkness and the noises that ran through that madness that my head had become. The dream dissipated, the darkness retracted, and a caress was made against my face somewhere far away.Open your eyes. Now!I obeyed.Vraxlon watched me, holding my forearms so tightly that when he let go, I had to avoid moaning in pain. I observed beyond him, we were no longer sailing, although we were still inside the boat. I had to swallow dry twice until I found my voice, until I felt that my mind and soul were interconnected again.“Are we there? "I whispered with a hoarse voice, because I didn't want him to speak first.I didn't want you to ask, because I wouldn't have answers and I didn't know why I had almost urinated in fear in that
My dog, it seemed, was another one of those monstrous creatures of the worst nightmares of an emotional writer. A dog the height of a mountain, with three angry heads on the black and hairy neck, with legs larger than two cars and a rabö that did not equal any size I could resemble. The amber eyes like those of a panther watched me, and the muzzle of the middle head sniffed, inspiring my smell. Whatever made sense, the huge teeth appeared in the three wide mouths, and Cerberus growled like a hungry creature, getting so close that I almost peed."Oh, no! No way! "I grumbled, trying to deviate from the immense language that stretched towards me, greater than any dimension of languages in the world. I managed to deviate from the first tongue, only to bump into the other one that extended and hit my whole body with a puff of putrid breath and dense saliva, as the three heads of the dogs nodded in consent as to my identity. Maybe they could see my soul shining like Vraxlon. I doubted very