Centum Malediction

Chapter 3-9

Tuesday, September 21st. 2010

The trip back to the hotel was uneventful. The streets were significantly less crowded as the night progressed. It took Alexander almost two hours to find his way back to the hotel without Faerina guiding him. He was worried that he would be lost forever and the sores from his injuries were weighing down on him. When he finally made it back to his hotel room he collapsed in bed too exhausted to even change out of his uniform.

Sleep came quick, but it was restless as his mind attempted to process everything that happened. He dreamt he was back in the geothermal plant. The silvery beast gripped him and he began to age. His hair fell out until he was a bald old man and everything faded. He saw before him Century City in ruins. Only a few buildings were left standing, the rest were reduced to rubble.

One building caught his attention. A church that looked like it was built long ago. It was a huge structure with a large clock above the massive doorways. The clock was broken. The minute hand was missing entirely. The walls were stained black as if covered in charcoal.

Alexander tried making his way to the church but his elderly body slowed his progress significantly. The heat from the sun blasted him until his flesh melted away like butter and he was nothing more than a skeleton. Somehow he continued on through the pain and torment until he saw the church. Satori stood near the altar.

"Welcome back." She smiled. Her voice was heavenly. It transformed the desolate wasteland into a field of white roses. Alexander felt his body returned to him as if healed by Satori's presence. "Don't worry."

Satori's voice was soothing. Alexander closed his eyes allowed himself to be carried away by it. When he opened them again he saw another girl standing right in front of him obscuring his view of Satori. She was holding something, a dagger, and with a quick thrust she stabbed Alexander's heart.

Alexander slowly awakened from the dream. It was still night time. He could still feel a pain where he was stabbed. It felt so real. He tried to recall the dream but it was fading fast. The girl who stabbed him was not recognizable at all. There were no descriptive features he could recall. It was as if she were faceless. Alexander only remembered a strange connection he felt to her. It was as if there was a line from his heart to hers that created a feeling of euphoria. The line was cut when she stabbed him causing pain greater than the physical injury.

It had been such a long day and there was so much he had learned. It was difficult to process it all. Everything he knew was shattered, broken into a thousand pieces. In a way he felt arrogant, he believed in something so strongly before without even realizing it. Now he knew that belief wasn't real. Nothing was real.

Without even realizing it Alexander began to cry. He wasn't sure why. If anything he should be happy as the world wasn't the cold hard place that his professor insisted it was. There was magic. If magic existed surely life had meaning. If life had meaning there was no reason to cry. Yet, tears escaped him regardless. Everything was different now.

A creak interrupted his thoughts as the door to the bathroom slowly opened. Satori stood there gazing at him shyly. Alexander wiped his tears away immediately after seeing her. His mind was calm as his gaze met hers.

"Everything okay Satori?" He asked her. She shook her head quickly but remained standing in the doorway. It took a moment for Alexander's eyes to adjust to the darkness, when they did he could see her expression. She was horrified.

"What happened? Were there more bugs?" Alexander leapt from his bed running to her side. She shook her head once more. She turned back and faced her empty room through the bathroom.

"Is there something in there?" Without her speaking it was hard to understand what had her so afraid. She shook her head for a third time and walked passed him to his bed. Alexander watched her perplexed until she crawled into the bed.