- Chapter Sixteen -

Descending the headland was easy. A gradual slope of hard rock and compact soil awaited Evanna and her feathered friend, and together they proceeded to quickly leave the open, exposed hilltop and reach a safe, concealed shelter.

In other words, Evanna was itching to get back home. She had a mother to gently appease, and an entire universe of new principles and dangers to properly absorb. For now, with the frightening prospect of facing another attack still overhead, she remained vigilant and wary, despite the late hour when she should’ve already been at peace under the bed sheets.

They reached the base of the beach and felt that seeking any vestiges of human company was futile. No bags were left unattended, no shoes were left unfilled, no clothes were left behind. It was entirely wiped clean of life.

Shivering at the thought of what chaos had set foot here, Evanna didn’t linger. She easily found herself a way back to the main road, and for once it was a relief to feel hard asphalt beneath her shoes rather than water or sand or vegetation. Maybe it was the cold her wet body kept attracting. Maybe it was another desperate round of attempts to prove Narnem’s facts as incorrect fabrications. After all, this couldn’t possibly be the bird world; look at where she was standing! Look at the urban areas she was about to return to. It couldn’t be what the falcon had described. It just couldn’t be...  

A bag of miracles had indeed been saved for tonight, because Evanna managed to fish out a wad of soaked dollar bills from her pockets. They were hard with the weight of extra water, and she gingerly used her fingernails to separate the many layers, praying that an empty taxi would somehow end up crossing her path.

“It’s a car,” she described offhandedly to Narnem, who stood erect at her feet. “You know what they are, right? They’ve got wheels? Metallic bodies? Sometimes they are yellow but sometimes at this hour it’s quite rare to-”

She was cut off by a sharp hiss bursting from a set of swerving tires. She scrambled to the side, feeling Narnem brush past her leg as he hit the skies, and squinted through the blinding headlights to see a red Jeep Cherokee pull to a neat halt.

Window mechanics whined. Evanna didn’t move.

Her heart was a stampede. It was the second time in two days that she almost became roadkill.

“You look like you could need a ride.” It wasn’t the voice of a rapist, or a lascivious teen cruising along on the prowl at such an hour. Chubby at the face but discernibly amiable in his smile, the man behind the wheel appeared in his early fifties, because certainly more than premature wrinkles etched across his complexion. He bore a pair of light spectacles, his body casual in a formal black tuxedo. Completely out of place was the white baseball cap slung on his forehead, which failed to conceal tufts of graying hair. On the passenger seat was heavy baggage; a suitcase balancing another with asymmetric poise.

-I will follow in pursuit.- Narnem; overhead and out of the picture. -If there is any danger, I will respond accordingly-

Evanna didn’t need to know how brutal her falcon protector could be. Though eagles were a lot small and weaker than full grown male humans, he could still do some serious damage if things got sour.

She nodded in response to the man, and hopped onto the pedestal just underneath the passenger seat. Her palm shone brightly; even in the dark the Yterlos could still be evident, and she made a mental note that it was imperative to conceal it at all costs. Who knows what trouble it may bring?

“My clothes are a little wet, sir…” She winced at the understatement, and hoped hell wouldn’t make her pay for any damage this could cause.

“Don’t worry about it!” he boomed, adjusting the rear-view mirror. He tapped the dashboard affectionately. “This girl’s an oldie, but she’s still a tough one. Jump in.”

Feeling slightly ambivalent towards his jovial personality, Evanna entered the vehicle. Sharp pines of cinnamon rocked her nostrils. Discs and cassettes filled the front passenger seat. Strings of seashells hung down from the rearview mirror. She bounced a little on the leather seat as she slammed the door a bit too roughly.

Her hands dove into her pockets; wet, clammy, and utterly uncomfortable.

The man gunned the engine and started down the road.

“What would keep someone like you out here at this hour, young lady?” His tone wasn’t harsh and excoriating, or heavily suspicious, but one conversational with light curiosity. And Evanna had to concur with his query: who in the right mind would be hanging around such a desolate location at this time?

Her mind raced. Probably best not to spend the entire journey home explaining the true logistics of the universe, which might lead to slowing down the car to less than ten miles per hour, leaving Narnem befuddled.

“I…I was…umm…w…was…” She hoped the man would take her stammering as a biological reaction to the cold. Shivering, that’s what it was called again. She prayed he wouldn’t read too much into it.

“A party out with my friends. On the beach. And then….there was this dare. Yeah…and they wanted to see how long I could hold my breath. Underwater, of course.”

Could work, except for the fact that she had forgotten one important component: where were her “friends” now?

The man seemed to have spotted the same hole, and leapt to examine it. “And now they’re…”

She heard his voice trail with a shiver waltzing her spine. “They’re…umm. Well, the party was almost over. Oh, and you see, we were just supposed to keep our heads underwater, but someone pushed me and I got completely soaked, and I just decided to leave early otherwise I might develop a cold or a flu or something…”

The silence between them was premature and only hit three seconds when Evanna decided this couldn’t continue. “I’m really grateful for the ride, by the way. Thanks big time. You’re saving my life…I mean, my mom hates me staying out late.”

His probing act collapsed immediately. “Oh don’t worry about it!” he announced joyfully. It would be interesting to find out what this man was truly smiling about, or if he was really just a powerful optimist by nature. He changed lanes on the highway as quickly as he shifted gears, taking the speed of the vehicle past fifty miles per hour. The wind pounded past the open windows.

Evanna’s heart constricted. She hadn’t told her driver where she wanted to go…

“The thing is, young lady…” the man continued, striking up conversation that he kept with intense exuberance. “…these parties outdoors are great for fresh air and exploring nature, but in my personal opinion they are far too loosely handled and can easily get out of hand without adult supervision. My own son is about your age, and though we have a lovely house where he can host as many parties as he wants – and he has been doing this over the past few years – he decided a couple of days ago to change venues and head out into the open-”

At that point, Evanna’s mind short-circuited. She had heard every word down to the last syllable, but was still reeling from the familiarity.

Fortunately the man didn’t seem to notice, and carried on without any delays or interruptions, allowing her to properly recollect her thoughts.

His ‘own son’? And something about a last minute plan change just day earlier?

Clive. A very close match.

“…and now when you speak of a party and such…peculiar games that guests participate in, I laugh to myself and wonder just what exactly my own son is doing now to entertain his audience. It’s beginning to get rather late now…I think it would be practical to expect him at home in the next hour.”

“Where have you just come from?” Evanna blurted, diverting the conversation. She blatantly eyed the baggage on the front seat, and the man caught her expression in the rear view mirror with a chuckle.

“The airport. Was preparing for a business trip, but at the final moment my flight was cancelled.”

He paused, and it could’ve been Evanna’s imagination, but something close to a steely, grey glint flitted quickly across his eyes. A transient effect that lasted less than second, but even in such brevity, it was enough to make her breath catch.

“Look at what it did! I had packed perfectly for everything. Had expected every possible contingency. Flight delays are no stranger to me; sometimes they go over five hours! But never have I needed to wait overnight; thank goodness I drove. There was no point waiting; the flight got changed to some time tomorrow, and frankly I’d rather wait at home…”

His finishing sentence drew out a stream of steady nods from Evanna, followed by a short burst of sympathetic sighs. But in her mind, she wasn’t put to ease. To her, this story sounded quite exactly like what her own father said eleven years earlier.

A business flight. Requiring him to leave immediately – without any additional explanations.

Similar to this man driving her now. But instead of having the chance to turn back, her father was led all the way to the unforgiving end. Tearing Evanna’s life in half.

But back to this man…his story perfectly fit the picture. The reenactment of the tragedy in her family all over again. Just eleven years later.

Evanna wasn’t sure what to do. It seemed very foolish to suddenly blurt out a modicum of Narnem’s story to someone who couldn’t associate with giant birds and feathers and red scars. Yes, her gut feeling was aching loudly, putting forward that this man could indeed be completely saved if faced with the whole truth. But what if she was just getting her false hopes ridiculously high? What if she was more concerned for Clive’s survival than she thought, and now with the possibility of him dead suddenly quite high, any prospect of company was more than welcomed?

This man may be totally innocent. He may have just been through an unlucky mess at the airport, and nothing more.

Or he could be a survivor of the hellish nightmare Evanna had just been rescued from. Her eyes flew to his hands; they were clasped palm-down on the steering wheel, gently taking her away from the coast.

After all…he had been miraculously close to the beach when she nearly got run over by him. His cordial manners had at once appealed to her – she viewed it as natural optimism. But what if it was something else? What if it was his relief of seeing another human – alive? Walking straight out of a death zone?

Her heart sank. If all this was true, he would’ve seen straight through her phony story of a friendly dare. Would’ve known she had been lying.

Great…start off their encounter by abusing trust itself. How could she possibly dive into the story of the overlapping universes and expect him to genuine believe her? It was absolute chaos now!

“Your…your son…” she babbled, tentatively approaching deeper water. “He…would I happen to know him?”

The man smiled. “I wouldn’t be too surprised. You seem like his age. And to me he seems socially acquainted to many.”

Evanna’s neck prickled. She prayed Narnem wouldn’t berate her for the action she was about to take.

She took a deep breath. “I think Clive may need my help.”