The day was surprisingly chilly. Danyana could feel the hair on the back of her neck prickle, and could not lose the feeling that someone was following her. She knew that it would be foolish to lead her shadow directly to Mensan and the Window. She crossed through the mob slowly and entered a side street that would not take her to Mensan’s, but to the University library. It seemed to her an innocent enough destination, and she hoped that they would lose interest in her.
The building was of a kind only found in a few places in the world. The walls were several feet thick and indestructible. She entered by the staff entrance, and passed into the main room. It was more crowded than usual, and many books were still not available because one of the wings was being restored and modernized. She was not hard to please, however, and buried herself in books for the entire afternoon. This was something she did whenever she worried. It was her escape into another, better, world.
She would have stayed in it if she could have, but the library closed for the night. She still feared to go outside of its shelter. She did the only thing she could to escape the night guard. The wing was under construction, but she knew that nobody would enter it at night. She ignored the “Closed for Renovation – Authorized Personnel Only” sign and entered a courtyard. It was filled with dead leaves and bare-branched trees. Under one of these sat a bench onto which she lay down. It was cold, and she only had her clothes. She lay on the bench, shivering, and watching the clear sky for hours. Her own fear would not let her sleep anymore. It was with the scary image of the pale moon at its roundest that she finally succumbed to exhaustion.
Her dreams were filled with the screams of tortured souls, repeated over and over. They said nothing, but she knew it was due to her faults and mistakes that they suffered, and would continue to suffer. This was not hell; these people had done nothing wrong. They were innocents she had not saved.
Then her dream changed. The last cries sounded and then all was quiet. A light appeared and she could see a green grassy land. The sky was blue, and it was warm. When she looked closer, she could see millions of tiny flowers. Then the sky opened above her, and its color faded to a steel gray as she slowly woke. A short moment of confusion followed, but she remembered where she was. She shivered, both because of her dreams and because of the cold. The summer had finally ended.
She guessed that the library would be open by then, and entered the building, seeking its warmth. She entered a bathroom. When she placed her hands under the stream of warm water, she looked up. She was surprised to see the dark rings under her eyes. She knew that she could not stay in the library forever. She no longer worried whether she was being followed. She simply knew that she could not live with the uncertainty anymore. She wanted to know how Aerek was doing, and she worried about Iasmin. She would go to Mensan’s and meet with them. It was most likely safe to do so. She checked to make sure she had everything and left the library.
As she approached her destination, she began to walk even faster until, finally, she ran to the building, expecting an end to her nightmare. When she arrived at the door and rang the doorbell, she was greeted only by ominous silence. Her knocks and rings were not answered, but the unlocked door welcomed her into a darkened, sneering apartment. She found the light switch and illuminated the room, in the exact condition it had been when they left two nights before.
Their coffee cups remained on the table. She opened the door which she guessed would lead to the bedroom, but it was empty. So were the bathroom, the office, and the kitchen. She began to tremble. Iasmin and Aerek had not returned here, and Mensan was gone. She felt hopeless. Even though it seemed to be a great intrusion on someone’s privacy, she searched the small apartment again and again. The only sound that she encountered was a soft ticking noise in Vocia’s room. It came from the bedside table, from a mechanical alarm clock.
These clocks do not remain wound for more than a day, yet this one still showed the correct time. Someone had been here and wound it up. Danyana felt she should not linger here longer. While it could mean that Vocia might return, it could also mean that someone else would decide to stop by. She had stayed for far too long anyhow. The only thing she gained was a small hope that she would find Vocia; she had lost all other hope in return for this one.
~.~.~.~.~
She knew nothing of Iasmin or Aerek. If she needed to do so, she would look for Vocia alone, but she still held the image of herself with her two friends as an everlasting trio, and they came first. She would go back to their dorms where they were most likely to be. The shortest way back would lead her right back by the square where they had split up. It was a risk she dreaded, but she dreaded more the thought of waiting longer to see Aerek.