For the past nine days I've been walking nonstop, trying to retrace the monk's steps through the streets. Hoping I will see him or a sliver of him again.
All in vain, he has vanished.
School is even more boring than usual, I can barely sit still through the lessons. I glance up at the analog clock so frequently that I sometimes hallucinate its arms melting into an X shape.
THE ORDER OF THE CRUX.
I take the coin out of my pocket and reread the writing a thousandth time. It seems like an invitation - "Here, girl, this is our secret society and we are inviting you to join us in this very posh and cryptic way… Come find us!"
But I couldn't find them… searching on the internet didn't give me any answers either. "The Crux" had several different meanings, but nowhere did it mention the address to the magical order that sent me the coin.
I even held the coin in my hand and meditated upon it before sleep, hoping I would see the way to their headquarters in my dreams.
It didn't work.
So I keep roaming the streets, looking for the monk. If I don't find him, I will go insane. That I am sure of.
"I need magic, I need magic, I need magic…" I am mumbling to myself nonstop. I feel like I've already become addicted to something I have only tasted once.
And there is one more thing that bothers me.
I almost forgot to tell you that every night, since meeting the monk, I've been having dreams of flying and crashing. Dreams of the sky falling down, dark pieces of fabric flying everywhere, I see fire, people running, screams, tears and a huge, burning symbol in the sky shaped like the head of Poseidon's trident.
Ш
It is dark and enormous in the sky, overshadowing the sun itself, looking down on Earth coldly - like an estranged father.
It's a familiar symbol, buried somewhere very deep in my soul, but I can't remember where.
I rest my back against an old building.
The sun is setting… again. If someone wants to help me out or at least give me a hint where to go, now is the time, because I am very close to giving up.
I sigh and push myself away from the wall. That's when I see my neighbor Gocha, our town's biggest gossip. I know it will be in vain, but I still try my luck.
I run up to him and tug the sleeve of his sweater.
"Gocha, have you, by any chance, seen a monk passing by this neighborhood recently?"
Gocha squints his eyes, he can't recognise me at first.
"Ahh, it's you, Nia! Hello to you too, kiddo. A monk? Why the hell do you want to find a monk?"
"I need to talk to him. He walked here nine days ago, he is tall, wearing all black robes, hair tied back."
"No idea. What are you up to, huh? I see mischief in your eyes."
More like despair.
I let out a loud sigh and am going to say goodbye to him when he drops a crazy question on me, forever changing my life.
"Wait, have you tried looking for him in a church?"
I nearly break my neck when I snap it toward him at lightning speed.
"What did you say?"
"Monks hang out in churches and monasteries, kid. There's one in this neighborhood, maybe you'll find him there."
I run.
____
I catch my breath at the entrance of the church. The building isn't as grandiose as I imagined. It is a tiny, cute church with beautiful windows. I doubt I will find the magical monk there but it is still worth a try.
I enter and stand in the dark corner. I'm nervous. I always feel intimidated in churches. I never know where to stand, how to act or what face to make.
The priest, a short, frail man with snow-white hair is delivering a sermon in a monotone voice. There are ten to fifteen people attending in total. Mostly older women and children.
One little girl is restless. She is running around, crashing into chairs and disrupting the prayer. I wonder where her parents are and why they aren't telling her off.
When my eyes finally get used to the dark lighting, I see a tall altar boy standing behind the priest. He has a nasty, long scar cutting across his face. Starting from his cheekbone, coming down diagonally to his lips, splitting his mouth in two in the corner.
But if we ignore the scar, his face is quite beautiful. At least it used to be before someone slashed him with a freaking sword. I really want to know what happened to him, I'm sure everyone is pestering him about it, he probably has to retell the story of how his face got disfigured every single day.
Poor guy.
I take several steps closer to the altar. The old priest shoots me a glance and continues reciting the prayer.
Now that I can see better, it is obvious that the altar boy is nervous about something. He is taking deep breaths to steady himself and his pale fingers are clutching his orthodox tunic, all the blood drained from them.
I take a step closer.
Wait, no. He isn't just nervous, he is TERRIFIED. His eyes are darting around the room nonstop, until his gaze lands on something behind me. I immediately turn my head, he is watching the little girl who is running around the church.
I nearly pee myself from fright when I see her face.
Her eyes are completely white and she is looking at me, pointing and laughing without a sound. In the other hand she is holding my stolen silver coin from days before, the one the monk gave me for the bus fare. She shakes it in front of her face with a satisfied grin.
I'm reminded of the boy who stole it… Is it possible they are the same evil entity? They definitely aren't little kids. They aren't even human. Some evil beings are disguising themselves as kids and no one can see them except me. Not even the terrified altar boy can see her, he isn't looking directly at her. He probably feels some evil power lurking in the church, but doesn't know exactly where.
The same happened with the monk in the street, no one else saw him but me. That's why people didn't pay attention to him.
I can see things others don't!
Wait, am I… am I special?
My ego does a backflip. I always knew I was special and was annoyed that it wasn't validated before.
Until now.
I have powers, I am chosen, magic is real and I possess it!
Even the evil kid can't dampen my mood now.
Suddenly someone crashes into me from behind, knocking me to the ground. It is the altar boy with the scar. He steps over me and continues running. I think he doesn't even realize what he did.
He, for some reason, is running away in the middle of the sermon. Even the priest stops praying and total silence descends on the room.
The wooden doors bang open, shut, and then open again. The little girl is after him. The doors open the third time when I crash into them and run outside. Someone shouts after me that I am a rude and mannerless girl for disrupting the sermon. It is an unfair comment but I let it slide.
My mind is on the running pair.
The boy is so fast, he is basically flying through the streets. I can barely see his silhouette. The little "girl's" blonde head is not far behind. I don't know how I am going to catch up. I run for several seconds and nearly collapse on the pavement, next to the bus stop. And then I have a crazy idea when I see a bus coming towards me.
I chase them down with a bus.
I can track them from the window. To other people's eyes it must look like the boy is running away from nothing, but I know a demon is after him.
The girl's facial features melt into some unrecognisable mess. It is the scariest thing I've ever seen. She knows I am observing her from the bus, so she sometimes turns her head towards me and makes creepy faces.
The boy turns a corner to a deserted, narrow street. The she-devil follows. I curse under my breath and jump off the bus on the next stop, looking for the street they disappeared into.
When I get there, they're already gone. I walk around, looking for some clues. There's some garbage on the ground, mostly ripped up newspaper and dirty cigarette butts.
I walk around aimlessly for a while, planning my next move. I consider returning to the church and getting the altar boy's home address from the priest to make sure he made it home safe.
I hear someone scream.
It must be the boy.
I follow his desperate shouts which lead me to an old apartment building. The gloomy entrance hall is lit with a dim, yellow light.
I make out the boy's silhouette inside, kneeling on the floor, praying his heart out and shouting at the devil to get out, frantically spraying, what I suspect to be, holy water from his silver flask.
The flask has a familiar X symbol on it.
Splashing the holy water isn't working, because the boy has no idea where the demon is standing. He is flailing his arms like a madman, trying to hit the devil with the water. But the girl is flexible and fast, dodging the liquid like an olympic champion.
"She's there," I point at the corner of the hall, "Exactly next to the stairs."
The boy finally notices me, he screams even louder and throws a large amount of holy water directly in my face.
"Idiot, I'm helping you! Why would you waste that!"
"Sorry… I…"
The demon takes the chance and descends upon the boy, her face twisted in determination. I move without thinking and kick her mid-air, shocking myself with my own agility. The demon crashes back into the wall.
She coughs up some dark smoke from her lungs and screams at me in fury.
"What just happened? What is it?" Shouts the boy.
The demon is contemplating what to do next. After several seconds, she gets up and tries to escape through the door. I try to grab her, but she dodges. When she brushes past me, I feel a searing pain in my arm and the stench of my burned coat.
I look back at her. The demon stops running and turns around, her white eyes are on me again, but this time all emotion is drained from her face, she looks like a creepy clay figure, the evil that used to animate her appears to have abandoned her.
The figure suddenly shudders and melts into a puddle of black liquid, seeping into the ground and finally disappearing from our world.
I lean on the wall with a loud sigh.
The boy slowly stands up, looking very lost.
I take off my coat and observe my burned skin. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but my favorite coat is ruined, it has a huge gaping hole on the left arm.
The boy is observing me with an unreadable expression.
"Did it burn you? You should never touch them. They burn…" He says calmly and then suddenly grabs his hair and lets out a groan.
"Ahh, what did it want from me?! Why was it chasing me down?! I'm just a mere student! I'm just…" He is pulling his hair in every direction.
"You can't see them, can you?" I ask him, wanting to clarify my theory.
"Me? No. I just feel them and the darkness they bring. I'm a junior rank Sensitive, a.k.a a "Yellow Duckling…" Wait a minute, who the hell are YOU?!"
"Me?"
"Yeah, you!"
"Someone who just saved your ass."
It comes out harsher than I intended. I open my mouth to say something but suddenly the closest apartment door bangs open and a very angry woman looks out. Her face is comically red and she is holding a tiny barking poodle in her arm.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?! WHAT WAS THAT TERRIBLE SCREAMING?! ARE YOU KIDS DOING AN EXORCISM OVER THERE?!"
How does she know?
The boy apologises profusely and even bows his head so low that he nearly hits his nose onto the dirty floor.
I feel like I am stuck somewhere between a comedy skit and a horror movie episode.
"And you, girl! Why aren't YOU apologising to ME?!" She suddenly turns to me.
"Excuse me?"
There is something about my face that gets on people's nerves. I somehow frequently irritate them just by standing there.
Maybe I always look bored and uninterested in their eyes, or maybe I just have a bad aura, I'm not sure.
"Apologize!" She waves her finger at me. The poodle growls.
"No! I didn't do anything! I saved the day! I… Goodbye!" I turn around and leave the building. The boy runs after me.
"Wait, strange girl! So, who are you? Tell me!"
"I was at the sermon! You knocked me over and ran out. The evil being followed you and I followed both of you."
"So, why were you at the sermon? How did you know the demon was going to be there?"
"I had no idea the demon, or whoever it is, was gonna be there. I was looking for a tall, magical monk."
The boy stops in his tracks and looks me up and down suspiciously.
"Very tall, kind, dark eyes, probably in his fifties, black hair tied back…" I start to describe him.
"I might know where to find him, but first, can you please tell me who you are and how you possess the very rare gift of Seeing? Which order do you belong to?"
"Order? I'm just a 17-year-old girl, trying to find the monk. This "Seeing" as you call it, just opened up to me nine days ago."
"Fascinating… It is indeed supposed to open up at 17. Did you have a birthday recently, by any chance?" He asks.
"Yeah… ten days ago actually."
"That's it. Your talents are starting to activate. So you had no idea you were gifted?"
"No, it suddenly started, I guess."
"Very peculiar…" The boy isn't in a hurry to disclose the monk's whereabouts.
"So, umm, boy, I'm not an outsider or anything, I was invited to your order, see?" I take out the silver coin with "The Order Of the Crux" written on it.
The boy looks at the coin and becomes even more suspicious of me.
"Yeah, it seems legit, but I'm kind of sceptical because, you see, women aren't allowed in our order."
My heart sinks.
"What? That's impossible… I… That's so stupid!"
"Don't worry, women's orders exist too, just not in this country…"
"Not in this country? What am I supposed to do?! Relocate?!"
"Well, yeah, I guess…"
"But your order invited me!" I wave the coin in front of his face "I saw the same X symbol on your flask! Don't play dumb now!"
The boy sighs loudly.
"Okay, I will take you to my order and they will decide what to do with you. Satisfied?"
"YES!" My spirits immediately lift. I will see the monk again!
I skip happily behind the boy. He frequently throws looks at me, either making sure that I am following, or hoping that I'm not.
"So, you are saying, there is a secret society for people who have these talents and they are fighting uh… evil beings?" I ask him.
"As a matter of fact… yes."
"So, why did the demon leave? Did my kick scare her that much?" I say proudly.
"No idea. Maybe it felt overpowered. Since you can see them, it doesn't have the advantage of being invisible anymore. Thank you by the way, for saving me…" He adds as a matter of fact.
"You're welcome. So the holy water really harms them, then? Like in those vampire movies?"
"Yes and no. It wards them off but doesn't permanently damage them. Actually I've only encountered them once, three years ago. It's quite rare for them to crawl out of hell and come after people directly. It was really on a mission, and was definitely being ordered by someone, some higher evil being…" The boy shudders.
"You seem pretty shaken."
"I AM! I'm Sensitive, I told you! I feel every ounce of evil when I'm in its presence. It felt like it was stabbing my heart! Lately I'm trying to learn how to control my sensitivity. Like, dial it down a bit. That's why I felt its presence in the church in the first place. I ran because I needed to get to the order as fast as possible, I knew Father Seraphim would save me."
"Father Seraphim?.."
"Yes, that's the name of the monk you met on the street."
"How do you know that? I never mentioned I met him on the street."
The boy shrugs.
"Life is strange, strange girl, life is strange…"
"I'm Nia." I hold out my hand to him.
"My name is Manuchar, but you can call me Manu after we become friends," he lightly shakes my hand and quickly drops it.
I think he just made a joke so I laugh loudly.
"So I'm not allowed to call you Manu right now, because we are not friends?"
"Yeah, exactly, sorry," he says seriously.
He looks like he really is sorry. As if someone else beside himself set the rule and he doesn't have any say in it.
What a strange guy, I think to myself.
We continue our journey toward the Order Of the Crux, oblivious to the fact that we are being watched.