The City of Two Halves

✽Chapter 17✽

In the next 72 hours everything changes, Grace had a dream that night and based on the clarity it was to happen very soon.

Her dream starts with being surrounded by large pointed crystals almost identical to the one set in the amulet, they spread out far into the horizon and hiding amongst the crystals is a man in a black overcoat, the man in the black overcoat. She makes her way to the man, carefully stepping over crystals to avoid cuts and when she finally gets close enough to him she sees his hands and boot covered in thick red liquid, blood.

Grace stumbles back and falls into a crystal, closing her eyes on impact when she opens them, Crawdad is sitting in front of her, a chess board between them.

She studies the pieces, Grace was never any good at chess but she knew this game was not in her favour. Grace moved her queen and Crawdad moved his bishop, they kept this up for a while until she lost focus and looked around the room, it was a plain stone brick-walled room with 4 windows on each wall. She stood up and walked over to a window, looking out on a valley with colourful plants and a few too many trees, she was in a tower surrounded by a glowing pool of water.

Grace must have looked at the water for too long because she had fallen out of the window into the strange glowing water, the bottom of the moat was covered in jewels, coins and gold, treasure. Her lungs filled with water as she swam up to the surface and when she looked up at the tower she saw it was on fire.

Orange and yellow flames licked the edge of the water creating steam when they touched and the darkest smoke she'd ever seen bellowed out the windows, a hand grabbed Grace's leg and pulled her underwater, it was Crawdad.

Her lungs once again filled with water and she struggled to breathe as she sat upright in her bed.

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Ashton's favourite meal of the day is a midnight snack, the refrigerator light illuminated his face as he surveyed the choices of leftover takeaway, and he settled on Chinese from last night, closing the fridge door he saw Grace walk into the living room. "Grace?" he said, she almost jumped and she seemed to be breathing heavily,

"Are you alright?" she shakes her head,

"Would some spring rolls make it better?" She nods and sits down at the dining room table.

After reheating the food Ashton sits down across from her and they eat silently before she says, "I can feel your eyes on me," she looks up into his already staring eyes, 

"Are the spring rolls warm enough?"She stares at him for a while before saying,

"They are adequate,"

"Just checking frozen spring rolls are dangerous,"

"Dangerous?"

"Have you ever eaten a frozen spring roll?" he asks,

"No," she says slowly,

"Well I have, and let me tell you, not a good idea," He shows Grace his front teeth, one is ever so slightly chipped,

"What possessed you to do that?"

"I think it was just a normal poltergeist,"

She stares at him in disbelief,

"You're kidding,"

"I don't kid," She glares at him, "Okay, I don't kid often."

She smiles and thanks him for the spring roll before walking back to her room.

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The rest of the day is uneventful but Grace's dream is still fresh in her mind and so she spends the day replaying the chess game until she finds a way to win. By 6 pm she decides to leave the house and look for the crystal or at least ask about it.

Dorian, Ashton and Cerena surf the internet in search of any connections to the amulet in Polfast using Dorian's map to keep track of the locations, and the clocks ticks by.

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By the time the same man had followed Grace into 17 different shops she was sure he was tailing her, he wore a green blazer with black pants and his face was obstructed by a mask.

She didn't know what to do but kept doubting herself so Grace decided to go to the most random shops she could think of, and if she saw the man in all of them then she'd do something about it. After walking into a butcher,  clothes shop, pet food store and one of the seven fast food restaurants on that street she seemed to have lost him, looking behind her the olive green blazer was nowhere to be found and not looking where she was going, Grace crashed straight into a wall.

Except, it wasn't a wall, she looked up at the man she had crashed into and her stomach dropped, he was blind in his left eye with second-degree burns covering most of what she could see above the mask. "Hello Mrs Carroway, would you like to take a walk?" he said sounding almost strained and very gravelly, and before Grace could scream out or push away she felt a chilling blade resting on her stomach, "Of course," she smiled.

They walked silently for a while and he led her down lots of alleyways until they entered a park under a bridge and into a tunnel, "You aren't scared?" he asks,

"I suppose I am, but you should be more scared than I,"

"Why? You're not going to kill me,"

"I won't but Dorian will," she smirks at him,

"That's the whole point."

He pushes the blade into her side and she drops to the floor.

✽✽✽

Dorian was getting worried, Grace had told him she'd be back by 6:30 pm and it was 7 pm, Ashton was telling Cerena some outrageous idea about smashing the gem to find out what was inside when he excused himself to call her. The first time it went to voicemail same with the second and on the last ring on the third she picked up, "Hello?" he said.

She was breathing heavily and with a tiny hoarse voice she said, "Help me," Dorian's heart rate spiked and he started walking to the door, grabbing his car keys on the way, "Where?" Ashton and Cerena had looked up.

"I- I don't know, a park somewhere-" she groans, "Under a bridge, look for a tunnel,"

He closed the door behind him and ran down the stairs,

"Okay, stay with me, I'm on my way."

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