Alchemy Of Abyss

Chapter Four~5

Back in Nadine and Camellia's room.

Nadine was talking on the phone with Lena while walking back and forth. She told her to cancel all her meetings even after she told her how her father was furious that she had suddenly left Alexandria.

A loud knock on the room door startled Nadine a little. At first, she called for Camellia to open, not even realizing she was alone.

She called her name again and checked the bathroom and the balcony. "Where is she?" she ended the call with Lena, and the door knocked again. "Yes! Coming." She opened the door fast and looked at the person standing before her. He smiled weirdly at her.

"Good morning, miss Camellia told us to inform you she is waiting for you at this address," he said and gave her a piece of paper with the address of the famous guest house in Aswan.

Nadine looked at the paper. "Did she tell you anything—" she raised her eyes; the man was gone. "—else... what?" she looked around; the long hall was empty.

She put the paper in her pocket and closed the door, then called Camellia's phone while putting on her sneakers. Camellia didn't pick up. It was odd, yet Nadine went to the address either way.

The address was close to the hotel. Nadine walked to get there. She asked someone walking beside her if she was going in the right direction; he told her that the guest house was at the end of the road they were in. She thanked him and kept walking.

She stopped across one of the finest buildings in the entire city, the famous guest house El-Karam. It was enormous and colorful, an accurate representation of the richness of the Nubian culture. A traditional café beside the house; was built with the same design. Nadine went to the café first and called for the waiter. Everyone eyed her, suddenly freaking her out a bit.

"I'm... looking for Camellia," she said to the waiter, who eyed her as well.

He told her to have a seat and went outside for a moment before coming back to her and told her she must go to the guest house, she tried to ask him why, but he only said, "You should go now, miss."

Nadine felt uneasy yet her body moved on its own and walked to the guest house's main door. The house seemed quiet and lifeless encounter with its colorful walls and joyful graffiti.

She got hesitant to go inside, but did, anyway. She opened the house's main door; painted bright pink with a blue-colored door handle. Despite that, the weather was hot; inside the house was filled with cold refreshing breezes and a freshly made coffee smell.

"Hello..." no one replied. Footsteps sounded, she followed it, and the more steps she took the more the coffee smell became stronger. The smell led her to the main balcony. She stepped inside and stood alone on the balcony, confused. She tried to call Camellia's phone again, but she didn't answer.

She went inside to look for anyone in every room. "Where is she?" Nadine said to herself. She shouted Camellia's name a lot with no answer. She kept walking in the house and found a big brown door at the end of the second-floor hall.

The door looked completely different from any other door in the house. It looked like it was from another era, a vintage mahogany brown door with many engraved hieroglyphic writings.

Nadine put her hand on it; she felt a little spark. She moved her hand away swiftly, then looked at her palm, frowning to find it glowing slightly with minor blue strings. She shook her hand, then grabbed the handle to open the mystery door.

It slowly opened to reveal a gigantic library filled with thousands of books. Row after row neatly lined up with their spines facing outward. The door opened to a metal railing and stairs; she went down and took a deep look at the enormous room.

A fresh coffee smell filled the room. It had one door under the stairs with a burgundy couch across from it. The center wall was a glass one that showed the view of the Nile. Across the wall were two burgundy Barcelona chairs.

She looked at the door beneath the stairs; a powerful light came from beneath it. She took a couple of steps toward it. She tried to open the door; it made a strong creak sound and cracked. She tried to open it fully but stopped when she heard the soothing sound of a woman murmuring a familiar melody to her.

She looked through the open part; the strong bright light hit her eyes and made her cringe hard. She couldn't see anything. She attempted to open the door to find out exactly what was behind it, but a sudden shouting stopped her; it was the waiter shouting in fear.

She left the door, and it closed right after she went running to see what was going on. She went outside the house to find four police vehicles and two police officers talking to the waiter. "That's her!" the waiter pointed at Nadine in fear.

"Get her," one officer told the soldier to get Nadine into the vehicle. Nadine tried to talk to the officer to understand what was going on, but he refused. The soldier dragged her without letting her look back or even talk.