Solitary Read online

  Even though it wasn't a scary apparition, neither a very menacing one, it had the power to freeze her for a second, at least until she forced herself to behave like the grownup and rational person she was supposed to be and start to walk again toward her door.

  The cat didn't move.

  She was one step far from the entrance when it stood on its four legs, arched its back, raised its fur and started hissing, making her move back abruptly, rather surprised than afraid that it would attack. As soon as she stepped back, the animal sat down again quietly as if nothing had happened.

  Amanda tried to advance again, and there was a repeat of the same scene, even though this time she was prepared for the reaction of the cat and she just stood where she was. The cat, in turn, kept hissing all of its disapproval. It was clear it didn't want her to go in, as irrational as the idea that a cat had decided to prevent her from going back home could sound. Anyway it didn't try to leap at her or attack her in any way. That was something.

  She took another step back, and when the cat sat down for the second time she did the same, bending her knees and sitting on the balls of her feet. «So, what will we do?» she asked as if she really expected an answer.

  In a sense, the answer came.

  The cat stood, without any hostile behavior this time. It looked up at her with those eyes so similar to gems mounted in its skull, then slightly moved away from the door, walking catlike to the street leading to the center of the city, only to stop after a few steps and turn around to look at her again, waiting.

  Unsure, Amanda stood and tried to take a step towards her house. Immediately the cat started hissing again.

  «Fine, fine», she said, coming to a halt. «I won't go home. So what do you want me to do?»

  The cat moved some more steps along the road, then again it turned around and looked at her.

  «Do you want me to follow you?» she asked in a tone which made clear how unsure she was.

  For a split second it seemed to her that, in spite of all odds, the cat had nodded. Then she saw it move again for a short path, before turning for the third time.

  Having nothing left to lose, she moved in its direction.

  It started walking again. Slowly at first – turning its head back every few steps as if to check she was still following – then, once it was sure she wouldn't stop, at a faster pace, moving through the streets as if it had a precise destination in mind, and only checking her whereabouts every once in a while.

  She kept following it.

  She kept walking behind the cat in a city that looked strangely lifeless, wondering several times whether it was really happening or it was just another dream.

  Only rarely they crossed someone else in the street, and usually these people didn't give any consideration to her feline guide, and even less to her.

  Partly the absence of people could be justified by the fact that they were in one of the city areas which were less crowded at night, having nothing that could lead people there at that time – still that couldn't explain the almost complete lack of life, as if it had been somehow sucked away in a black hole of sorts.

  Due to that situation, the encounter she made a bit later was even more upsetting. Suddenly she found herself looking at long queues of people coming from side streets to the one the cat was following, preceding both her and it along the way. Even under normal conditions, the scene would have been quite unreal, but that feeling was utterly amplified by the silence shrouding the whole event. In the presence of such a crowd she should have heard a background hum, the sum of fragments of conversations, sound of footsteps, rustle of clothes. Instead the silence was so deep that she could clearly hear the beating of her heart, as if someone had muted the whole area.

  Even when she got closer, no one seemed to notice her. She looked around for some familiar face, someone to ask explanations to – actually she could have talked to anyone there, but something in her seemed to shrink back from that idea as if thinking it was unhealthy – but found none. Then she looked down to try and find the cat, which apparently was maneuvering to keep close to her so that she couldn't lose it, or get lost, and saw the back of a dwarf who was unmistakable even from behind.

  She was filled by a mixed feeling of relief and worry. Forgetting the cat, she flung forward, crouching so much that she almost hit the road with her knees, and leaned one hand on the shoulder of her friend.

  «Shim! Shim, what's happening?» she asked. No answer came.

  The dwarf didn't turn to look at her, didn't seem to notice she was talking to him, didn't even try to shake her hand off. He just kept walking as if nothing had happened.

  Amanda slowly fell forward, kneeling on the ground, amazed and tortured. What was happening? How?

  Something brushed the hands she had left resting on her knees, tickling them. Too confused to do anything else, she turned to look, while a weak meow announced her what she would see.

  Their gazes crossed. So close, those emerald eyes were even more charming, it seemed that a whole world had been put in them somehow, and suddenly Amanda felt stronger, more confident, as if, in a way that required no words or gestures, the cat was encouraging her, assuring her that everything would be fine if she just listened to it.

  Slowly, Amanda stood up. She still didn't understand the situation, but she knew there was only one way to learn about it. She had to find out where all those people where going and why they were behaving as if the world around them didn't exist.

  She let them pass by. She didn't think that mingling with them could be dangerous, still she'd rather not to, and just follow them to their unknown destination. Once they all had gone past her, the cat started following, and she did the same.

  It didn't take long before they reached a building in the historical center that Amanda didn't know, and started to go inside one by one.

  The cat stood, waiting.

  Amanda did the same.

  She was going to wait for everyone to get inside, then she would find out why they were there at all.

  From her hiding place, Grace saw a long queue of people entering the clinic and proceeding down the stairs. She thought for a second that it was good that she had hidden next to the bookshelf rather than going downstairs, but she also wondered why so many people were going there at such an unlikely hour.

  Some of them had lights, but most were just walking straight and carefully, making use of someone else's light or going towards an eerie glow that had started to come from downstairs after a while. Judging from the timing, someone must have activated it, whatever it was, after reaching the basement. For sure it wasn't there to light the way. It was too weak for that. It could barely be classified as a guiding light.

  The weird procession went on quick and neat until the last of the people had gone down the stairs. Grace wondered how it was possible that some many people could find a place in the basement of the clinic, unless it was much larger than the rest of the building. At present, though, she didn't really care. It was clear that her little trip had to be delayed.

  She left her hiding place and walked toward the door, trying to be as silent as possible. She didn't think she could really be heard by the people downstairs, but she didn't want to take the risk anyway. She took out her light crystal again, clenching it in her hand so that as few light as possible came out, and proceeded slowly, keeping her head turned back to make sure that no one came suddenly upstairs again. She bumped into someone coming from the opposite direction and let go a small shriek, quickly stifling it. The crystal slipped out of her hand and fell to the floor, suddenly lighting up the whole room and allowing her to see who was the new intruder of the evening. She was amazed to see it was someone she knew, that she had even met less than thirty-six hour earlier.

  «Are you OK? Can you hear me?» Amanda asked her. Grace thought it was a very odd question. She was expecting a "What are you doing here?" maybe, or a "How did you get in?" The weird question took her off guard and she could only answer a stutte
ring, «I can, shouldn't I?»

  For a second Amanda felt relieved, just enough time to realize that being in front of the only person around who seemed to be in control of herself wasn't automatically a good thing.

  She slowly backed away.

  Grace, in turn, was busy thinking of a way to pull herself out of that awkward situation, and didn't even notice her moving. She decided she would try to look natural, hoping that she could make her presence seem normal. «Were you going downstairs?» she asked in a neutral tone.

  «Downstairs?» Amanda retorted, uncertain.

  «With the others», Grace added.

  «What for?»

  «How do you think I could know?» Grace exploded, unable to restrain herself. That kind of games really didn't fit her.

  «Don't... don't you send them there?»

  Grace relaxed a bit. «No. You?»

  Amanda shook her head. «Maybe we should start again.»

  «Good idea.»

  «Why are you here?»

  «You first.»

  «Fine». Amanda didn't see any good reason to stretch that further, it didn't really matter who explained the situation first, as long as it was made clear. «I met some people... they were all coming this way, it looked as if they were... charmed. I wanted to find out what was going on, so I followed them». It wasn't exactly the whole truth, but it could suffice. She didn't think it was good to start talking about dreams and cats, especially because the cat itself was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

  Grace nodded as she spoke. She hadn't really cared about the attitude of the people coming in, so Amanda's description was as good as any other as far as she was concerned. They really weren't acting too normally, now that she thought of it.

  «Yes, I saw them», she remarked.

  «And they went downstairs.»

  Grace nodded without emphasis. She didn't think it was any of her business. At present she was mostly interested in not being sued, and it didn't seem that woman was going to sue her, or that she even could.

  «Didn't you think of going and check what was happening?»

  «Actually I thought I should go as far as possible from here.»

  «But those people might be in danger.»

  «That's the point. Do I look like a paladin in a shiny armor? Or even just a police officer?»

  «No. And I think you are not in the conditions to call one, are you?»

  Grace sent her a gaze of intense loathing for a second, without replying. Then she changed subject. «Anyway who told you they are in danger? It might be the meeting of some sect, or a private party, not our business anyway.»

  «No, I know some of those people and they weren't behaving like going at a party... or like they were doing anything in their right mind. I told you that something brought them here... they're controlled.»

  «They're controlled». Grace turned that sentence in her head, realizing that maybe that was the answer she had been looking for. Was there any more logical way to steal her patients than controlling them through magic or using some weird mental power? All things considered, investigating further on the matter might not be that bad an idea.

  «Amanda... I can call you Amanda, can't I?» The other woman shrugged. That was the least of her worries at the moment. «You know, Amanda, I think you're right, we should go and see what's happening».

  «Quite a sudden change of heart», she replied. Grace ignored her.

  «Let's go», she said, going down the stairs after recovering her crystal from the floor.

  Amanda followed. She still didn't like that woman. Maybe she would have preferred that she had gone as she had said she wanted to, but it was too late to complain.

  They went down two flights of stairs and finally reached a large, ancient-looking room, which seemed to constitute the whole of the basement.

  Curtains embellished the walls, and a large, heavy-looking, stone disc was propped against one of them. Apparently its natural collocation was in the middle of the floor, where an empty space of exactly the same size and shape could be seen, so that it was like a large missing tile.

  There wasn't anyone there.

  The glow that Grace first and then Amanda had been able to see, came from a milky-white disc vertically suspended in mid-air, right in the middle of the room.

  «What's that?» Grace asked as she was trying to understand why the place was deserted.

  «It's a portal», Amanda answered. In the meantime, she had knelt at the border of the empty space in the floor and was looking at the symbols carved around the glowing halo.

  «I see it's a portal, but what is a portal doing in the basement of a clinic? Why should anyone build one here?»

  Amanda was about to ask for an explanation about that mention of a clinic, since so far she had had no idea of what that building was, but she chose to answer the question instead.

  «I don't think they built it here, I think it was already there. It looks like one of the ancient portals.»

  «Let me see!» Grace said, getting closer, suddenly interested. «I believed there weren't any left».

  «So did I. It seems we were wrong». She stood, climbed down the small step and walked toward the center of the space.

  «What are you doing?»

  «I'm going to see what's on the other side.»

  «Do you have a life insurance?»

  «No. What does it matter now?»

  «It you always act like this, I can see why you don't. I can't imagine someone who would accept to give one to you.»

  Amanda chose to let the conversation drop. She wasn't interested in arguing with that woman.

  She shrugged and went into the light.

  Left alone, Grace looked around, as if the answer to her questions could be somewhere on the walls. Then she exploded, «Oh, damn it!» and she went through the portal herself.

  CHAPTER 8

  Amanda rematerialized in a damp and dark place, and for a second she couldn't see anything. The light of the portal wasn't enough to allow her to look around, it only allowed to catch undefined glimpses of what was there.

  Soon after, Grace joined her, bringing her light crystal along, and allowing her to see the walls of a cave, covered in mold and lichens.

  «What kind of place is this?» the newcomer asked, whispering without wanting to.

  Amanda didn't answer. What kind of place it was seemed much too obvious, and about what place it actually was, it was as obvious that she couldn't know it any better than Grace.

  Aside from the halo of the portal, there was nothing else than rock everywhere they could look. The ceiling wasn't too high, and examining the cave carefully it was clear that it was a kind of niche in the wall of a corridor going into two opposite directions. Noises came from one of the branches, too distorted by the echoes to identify them clearly.

  Amanda started moving carefully in that direction, followed by her less than happy companion.

  They advanced in the corridor for maybe a hundred meters, then stopped when they noticed that it reached a quite larger room, lighted by a large number of big crystals. The floor sloped down until it disappeared completely into a large and deep well, surrounded by pulleys mounted on solid supports, and by people using them to bring up some buckets full of dirt, stone shards and debris, as if they were digging to unearth something.

  Amanda's blood chilled in her veins when she was able to see what barely peeked out from the middle of the well: a smooth and dark pyramidal shape that could only be the obelisk of her dream. It wasn't really emerging from the rock, at least not on its own accord, but it couldn't be denied that all those people were actively working to bring it to the light.

  Grace, whose attention hadn't been caught at all by the black stone, which meant nothing for her, was instead watching with some interest the surroundings of the well. There was a large number of people working around it, still it was a much lesser number than that of those she had seen entering the clinic, which meant that most of them must be digging
underground. Aside from the ones alive, there were dead bodies scattered here and there. Not the kind of animated dead related to her profession. Actual dead, plain and simple corpses that must have been the victims of some unfortunate accident on the job and that no one had bothered to bury, or even just move from the place in which they had fallen. As far as she could see from that distance, most were recent dead. Here and there, however, there were also mummified bodies and some heaps of bones that would barely be enough to assemble a full skeleton.

  Everyone there, except the two of them obviously, was working in the uttermost silence, exchanging no remarks, letting go no sound that wasn't caused by their tools. They worked like mindless automatons.

  Someone else in her place could have said they acted like zombies, but she knew real zombies all too well, and they had nothing to do with that.

  Then she noticed that, on the opposite side of the cave, at the brim of the well, there was someone who was quite different in his attitude from the rest of the people. His gaze wasn't fixed at a random spot in front of him, his movements weren't mechanical and repetitive, and most of all he wasn't working. Rather he seemed to be surveying the work of the others, like some kind of job director.

  He wasn't someone she had ever seen before, or at least she couldn't remember him, and looked like a completely ordinary man, the kind of person you didn't give a second glance to when you met them in a store or along the street. He was wearing a tracksuit, not unlike hers, a sleeveless padded jacket, in which pockets his hand were buried deep, and a miner helmet on his head. He was the only one wearing an helmet, as well as the one who most unlikely needed one.

  He was watching him intently when she realized that something had changed, even though she wouldn't have been able to tell what. As if he had been able to feel her gaze, the man turned in her direction and squinted his eyes to gaze into the partial darkness of the corridor.