My Archives: November 2003
Friday, November 21, 2003
Antigone's sleep was broken by the announcement that the train had arrived at Wenceslas train station, and would all passengers leaving the train remember to take all valuables with them. She & Osiris sleepily carried their bags out onto the platform. Osiris swug his huge bag over one shoulder, taking care to conceal the club that was strapped to the inside of his long coat. He looked down at Antigone, who was blinking myopically at the ornate ceiling of the brightly lit station.
He took her hand in his, and they exited the station and emerged at the north end of Wenceslas Square, which was almost ghostly under it's pale dusting of snow. Prague was more beautiful than Antigone had imagined, although it was only lit by yellow streetlights & the buzzing neon glow of the signs above shops & restaurants.
They strolled aimlessly to the southermost point of the Square, when Antigone grabbed Osiris' arm & pulled him towards a narrow alleyway.
"It's this way."
Antigone strode down the alley, followed by a rather bewildered Osiris, and she proceeded to lead him into a seemingly endless & repetitive Labyrinth of alleys & suburban streets. She knew exactly where she was going, as if led by an invisible hand.They eventually stopped at the front of a huge, grandiose building that Osiris wasn't sure was a theatre or a castle, it's walls blackened (by age or fire, he couldn't tell).
As they ascended the steps to the huge front doors, the building seems to loom over them, it's jagged spires seeming to curve forward like huge black jaws, with hundreds of leering gargoyles scrutinising the pair from every angle.
Osiris knocked on the doors, but as one would expect, there was no reply.
"We should look for another entrance, this is definitely the right place," said Antigone, peering into the darkness, as this place was only lit by a distant flickering lamp.
They walked around the perimiter of this sinister edifice, and although they found four different doors, none were answered and all were locked.They sat down on the front steps in silence, both separately racking their brains for an answer or an idea.
Just then, they spotted a small man shuffling towards them. He looked like he was from the Far East, by Antigone's reckoning, and when he came nearer, she could see he had a round, friendly face, and he smiled at them as he reached the bottom step.
"Are you lost?"
Antigone stood up and descended the steps to meet him.
"Not quite, we're trying to get in here," she said, gesturing towards the building behind her.
The man looked puzzled.
"What's your business in there, if you don't mind me asking?"
Osiris disliked this stranger's tone, he prowled down to join Antigone at the foot of the steps, his hand reaching for the hilt of his club, but Antigone held up her hand to stop him, and he sat down again at her feet, glaring.Antigone turned back to the stranger.
"This may sound extremely odd, sir, please sit and I will explain."
The three of them sat on the steps, Antigone in the middle, and she recounted her vision of the woman and the city and the building they were in the shadow of.
Their new acquaintance stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Well, I can help you, a little, I can take you into Chatrani, that's this place, but I cannot guarantee that my companions will be as accepting of your story as I am, as I'm sure you understand, it is pretty far-fetched."
Antigone nodded, "We just have to take that chance".
The man jumped to his feet suddenly.
"Where in the world are my manners!? I haven't even introduced myself properly, my name is Vesper."
He extended a hand to each of them in turn as they gave their own names.
They heard footsteps approaching from an adjacent alleyway, and all three looked round.They saw a figure, deathly pale, with hair almost as white as the snow. Vesper grinned, "So there you are then! Osiris, Antigone, this is Ghost".
As the etherial, almost other-wordly person reached them at the foot of the steps, they saw it was a young woman with a gaunt, but not unfriendly face, who smiled apprehensively at them.
Vesper spoke to the woman, "Ghost, this is Antigone & Osiris, they've asked for help to get into Chatrani."
Ghost looked from Vesper to Antigone, to Osiris, and back to Vesper.
"No offence, but why?"
Antigone was the first to speak, "It is a rather long story, it is a small wonder that your friend Vesper here managed to listen so patiently to it all, but if you see fit, would happily explain everything within the walls of this...Chatrani."
She smiled earnestly at Ghost, and after a time, Ghost smiled back.
"Ok, sure, that seems fair to me."Osiris put an arm around Antigone's shoulders as Ghost led them to the back of the Chatrani.
Ghost knelt down in the snow & grasped at an iron ring that had eluded Antigone & Osiris' eyes when they had circled the building earlier.
She pulled it hard, and a trap door swung open from the ground, and they all descended a long flight of rickety stairs and filed along an even longer corridor.
At the end of the corridor, Antigone & Osiris both stood, agape at the sight they beheld. it was a city, underneath Prague, and seemingly the same size, because although underground, it was lit as though it was midday, and they could see a vast expanse of people & buildings & bridges & stairways.
The four of them walked along a bridge that crossed a vast chasm, people bustling around on a street hundreds of feet below them, the sound of thousands of hidden citizens filling their ears.
Posted by Calliope @ 04:42 PM CST [Link]
Wednesday, November 5, 2003
You are nothing but a tag-along.
Eve doesn’t need you, Marena doesn’t need you. No one needs you, little girl.
She couldn’t get these thoughts out of her head. They had been running through her mind ever since they got here, all four of them. Kaori was beginning to regret ever coming along with them, she knew she would regret it, but she never thought she would this soon. She felt as if she belonged nowhere now, she certainly didn’t want to go back to Prague, not at this point, though it was apparent she would have to take that road eventually.
Kaori shook the thoughts from her head and let the loud music of the club seep into her mind. She would think about this all later, right now she had to find Eve, it was the whole point she left the room in the first place.
She scoped the club carefully, tracing her eyes over every bobbing head. There was no sign of Eve, but it would take a miracle to find her in this mess of people, at least from where Kaori was standing it would. Having no other choice Kaori stepped into the mass of moving bodies. She was pushed and thrown into people like she was a mere rag doll. “Ah, doesn’t this place have, like, a fucking limit of people..” Kaori spoke to herself silently as she pushed her way through. She took her coat off, since it was getting a bit warm with the amount of people in the room.
She stopped and looked around once more for Eve, still no sign. Her concentration was broken as a man bumped into her, knocking Kaori into a wildly dancing drunk woman, who didn’t even realize what happened. Kaori said sorry, though the music was far too loud for the woman to hear it so Kaori just moved on. She stopped looking for Eve at this point and instead made her way toward the bathroom- she needed to get out of this heated mass of people.
Surprisingly the bathroom was rather sparse of people, only a few woman touching up their makeup were in the room. Kaori took a deep breath, since it was almost suffocating in the club. She moved toward the sink, turned the cold water on, and splashed it into her face. She thought to herself, wondering if she should end this escapade and go back to the room where she’d just wait for Eve there, or hang in the bathroom for a little while longer and eventually make the trip back out in the musty club. She wanted to get this over with, so she chose the latter.
Just five more minutes. Five more minutes to herself. Kaori closed her eyes, muting everything around her. She clasped her necklace just as a hand came down on her shoulder.
“Are you all right?” Came the soft voice of a woman, early twenties, Kaori could tell.
Her eyes shot wide open, and as she glared into the mirror just at that moment her eyes flashed an emerald green and she flew back. The woman who grabbed her shoulder was startled and took several steps away from Kaori. Kaori just stood there motionless and only let out a whisper…
“Yes, I’m fine.” It was barely audible, but Kaori had taken seclusion in one of the stalls before the woman could ask her the question again, not that she wanted to, having been shocked from Kaori’s reaction the first time.
Yeah, real nice, idiot, fling yourself into a doorway when someone has the courtesy to ask you how you are. Kaori put her face into her palms, focusing her attention on the necklace around her neck. She knew something was up with it, she wasn’t sure what. She remembered the look on the man’s face at the Chatrani when she got angry, he was staring right into her eyes. Was it possible that the necklace was the secret to the power she had? Was it the one housing the power she unleashed on that man? Does it cause her eyes to flash green when she feels a certain emotion? It all made so much sense, but it was all so hard to fathom.
Five minutes are up, Little girl…
~~~~ Kaori rushed out of the bathroom stall, as well as the bathroom. She wanted desperately to go back to the room and just lay down, sleep, relax, whatever, just anything but stand there and breathe in the sweat of clubbing patrons. She decided that an apology to Eve would just have to wait, Eve wasn’t worth this aggravation.
She followed the same path she took from the room to the bathroom, and the same process was repeated- the constant pushing and bumping that had commenced then happened once again now.
The door to the room was only a few feet away, she would finally be able to rest for once since she got into this city, that is if a rude man didn’t grab her shoulder and pull her back into the crowd where he then began to dance with her, completely ignoring her plea to let her go.
Kaori didn’t fight it, much. She just let out an annoyed sigh and stood there. The man who pulled her in was cute, she gave him that. He had dark hair, tall, nice build. He had to be in his early twenties, lord knows Kaori wouldn’t be caught dead with him if he was any older.
So she succumbed to his forceful gesture and tried to make the best of it for the time being. He put his hand around her waist and made sure it fell on her butt, which she was none too pleased with. She quickly pushed it off and pulled him down to whisper something in his ear…
“I’ll have to know your name before you can touch that, dear…” She spoke exotically, soft, she put sex in her words. She had no intention of letting him get anywhere with her, he was cute, but she wasn’t a slut. She needed some extra cash, so she grabbed a handful of his ass and quickly took the wallet out of his back pocket. He was too drunk, or too stupid to notice.
“So, what might your name be? Hmm?” She asked innocently. As if she couldn’t get anymore flirtatious.
“Mike, what might yours be?” He asked. Clearly he thought he would be getting some tonight. Hardly. And he was drunk, very drunk, she could smell it on him.
“I’m not telling…” Before he could reply Kaori grabbed his pant’s pocket and pulled him to one of the dark corners of the club. She wanted to play with him a little bit more before she dropped him like the idiot he is.
They found a spot that was empty, which was rare, what with the club being packed and all. They both sat down on the soft sofa. There were empty glasses of various alcoholic drinks sprawled about on the table in front of them. Kaori had stopped paying attention to Mike, and only had realized so when he placed one hand on her knee, the other on her face, and then started kissing her. Her eyes widened once he did this, and she pushed him off…
“Easy there cowboy.” She turned around and stared into the crowd of people. She was tired of him now.
“Aw, shit…” Mike said, in a barely audible tone. He was staring into the crowd of people along with Kaori, only he was paying attention to one woman who was staring at him, her expression less than happy.
“Who might that be, Mike?” She asked, but Kaori knew it was his girlfriend, why else would she look at him like that, right after he decided to throw himself on her.
“Uh, no one.” He denied, turning his head back to Kaori.
“Right, it’s your girlfriend Isn’t it? She’s looking right at you, and she obviously Isn’t happy. I doubt she would really much care about two people kissing unless she was with one of them. But nice try, really. She’s coming over now, so I’ll let you deal with her. It’s been fun, bye bye now.” Kaori gave him a smile and walked away. The woman who was walking over to Mike purposely bumped into Kaori and whispered something in her ear…
“I’ll deal with you later.”
Kaori smiled.
“I’ll be in the bathroom.”
~~~~ This should be interesting…
Kaori was back in the bathroom, she had to wait for the girl anyway. She was really in the mood to cuss someone out, so, who better. She walked back over to the mirror, fixing her hair a bit, then leaned against the counter. She eventually just jumped up and sat on the counter, waiting, hoping she hadn’t been stood up, that would ruin all the fun.
Thankfully, she hadn’t been stood up, the same woman walked in a few minutes later and locked the door behind her. She had on a red dress, cut short, her hair was a dark brown with blonde highlights. She placed her purse on the counter and spoke…
“Did you have fun with my boyfriend?” She gave a smirk.
“Why yes, I did, he’s a lot of fun. Certainly a keeper! Oh wait, no, not really.” Kaori said with a smile, it was so much fun just toying around with her.
“Well, I’m glad you had fun, I hope you had enough fun for the night since I’m going to slam your head into a wall.” The smirk was lost, and only an angry expression remained. How predictable.
“Such anger. You really should have someone look at that. I hear there are plenty of therapists around here just dying to treat stupid crack whores like yourself.” Kaori hoped that would get the girl riled up enough, she didn’t want to throw the first punch. Having jumped off the counter now, Kaori stood firmly on the ground, waiting for the woman to react.
“Oh, so funny.” Once the woman finished the sentence she lunged at Kaori and landed a fist to her face. Kaori let her get the hit, it was just a game to her, she had a specific strategy to follow.
“Not so tough now, are you, bitch!” The woman shouted and she went for Kaori again. This time Kaori decided not to let her get the hit, so instead she grabbed the woman’s hand and swung her into one of the stalls. It was a nice defensive move, and an easy one to get on someone who probably never fought a day in their life, not to mention someone who was more than capable of defending themselves.
“Apparently I still am.” Kaori said with a smile as she watched the girl crawl off the floor. Her hair was now a mess, and her dress had been torn.
She lunged at Kaori again, who again took her hand, but this time she put it behind her back and slammed the woman’s face into the counter of the sink. Kaori simply rolled her eyes at the girl’s efforts, she clearly didn’t know what she was up against.
The woman got up on the floor again, this time holding her nose which was bleeding heavily. She stood for another moment to compose herself, but it was useless, Kaori landed a kick to the woman’s side, a punch in the gut, and then planted another kick to the girl’s feet. The girl fell fast and hard and wasn’t going to be getting up for awhile. Kaori walked over and looked down at her, smiling. She was still conscious, but barely.
“Nice try. Hope your boyfriend was worth it. Ta ta!”
~~~~ Kaori walked out of the bathroom and wiped her hands off. She stared into the crowd once more, and decided that this time she would definitely go back to the room and wouldn’t let anything stop her. That is she would have gone back to the room and not given it a second thought had she not finally spotted Eve across the room. How she found her Kaori didn’t know, nor did she care, Eve was there and she would rather get the apology over with before she lost Eve once again to the mass of people.
She dainty walked over to Eve’s position, making it known to Eve that she was coming. Eve’s expression remained the same, she was always impossible to read. It was once said that everyone was an open book, but Kaori always thought Eve was that one exception. Losing her thoughts she finally came up upon Eve who looked at her blankly.
“What?” Along with her expressionless face came her expressionless voice.
“I…Well…Marena thought I should come and apologize. Well, I thought I should to. So, I’m sorry, for everything. For what I said in the room, for following you to London, to being such a burden on you. I’m sorry for even being born….You can stop me anytime now…” Kaori finished off the speech with a solemn sigh.
“Okay.” That was all she said before she took another sip of her drink.
“Okay? That’s all? Just okay?” Kaori couldn’t say she was really surprised with Eve’s response, but she had wanted something more than an okay.
“Yes. That’s all. You apologized I said okay.”
“Fine then, I guess I’m bothering you, have fun.” Kaori turned around and marched back to the room, trying to avoid all the sweaty, drunk people as best she could. She had finally made it to the door, hoping no one would randomly grab her shoulder and force her into a dance, she opened it and quickly closed it behind her.
The room was empty. Kaori looked around and found no one, not Marena, not Dante, no one. She walked over to the bathroom to see if anyone may have been there, but it was empty. She was alone in the room while everyone else had already ventured into overly crowded club.
“Oh, this is fun now…”
Kaori crawled onto the bed once more, much like she did when they first got here, and it didn’t take long for her to venture off into sleep either.
Posted by Transient @ 05:32 PM CST [Link]
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Posted by Transient @ 05:26 PM CST [Link]