Somewhere only we know

Chapter 6teen :D

My dear star Maria.

Oh simple thing where have you gone? For I am getting old and I need something to rely on. So tell me when you are going to let me in, I am getting tired. I need somewhere to begin.

I walked across an empty land, knew the path like behind my hand. I felt the earth beneath me feet. I sat by the river and it made me complete.

I came across a fallen tree. The branches of it looked at me. Is this the place we used to love? Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

And if you have a minute why don't we go talk about it somewhere only we know? This could be the end of everything, so why don't we go somewhere only we know?

James copied down the English translation of the letter onto a napkin they got from a local late night cafe.

“Read the other paragraph,” he said to Valentino. “The one about the necklace.”

Valentino cleared his throat and did as he was told.

“Okay... here it goes. Maria. You are as pure as crystal. I fashioned a necklace for you out of the finest gold. It was a devotion to my love for you, my passion for the elements, and my desire for geometry. Let the stars be your guide. I hope you find it. Once you do, you'll find me, and we'll find each other.”

“Awww!” Sarah and Michaelle gushed.

“Is that all?” James asked, irritated.

“Yeah,” Valentino said.

“Okay. Then we'd better start looking.” James got up from the cafe's chair.

“Wait!” Michaelle said. “Right now? It's late!”

James turned around and looked at Michaelle with a face so pitiful, she almost wanted to go and embrace him.

“My cousin's there. Please. He's there. We have to save him.”

Sarah's heart melted.

“But James,” Michaelle looked at the man with sad eyes. “How do we know... what if he's...”

Her voice trailed off.

“What if he's what?” James challenged her. Michaelle bit her lip to keep from yelling. Or even crying.

James walked out of the dingy cafe. The girls and Raoule followed.

Valentino turned to the bewildered cafe owner and smiled graciously, giving the old woman some money and thanking her in Italian.

Then he walked out to meet up with them.

“Okay. Where should we look first?” Sarah asked.

“The letter says 'I walked across an empty land, knew the path like behind my hand' or something. What those are like directions for us to follow?” James suggested.

“Empty land...” Michaelle racked her brain. “Empty land... the Colosseum maybe?”

“That's brilliant,” Valentino beamed."The Colosseum. The land of fire, persecution, death,... and rebirth."

“We can start there, I guess. But what does follow the stars mean? It's in the letter.”

“Here,” Sarah reached into her glossy Gucci and dug out her iPad. She clicked on the star finder app she thought she'd never ever for never use.

"Well... fire constellations are Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius. They lie in the east. And that would make sense. Like that legend 'the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.' The sun WOULD be relevant to fire."

"Like Japan.. the land of the rising sun.. right?"

“Alright,” Sarah tilted the iPad eastward. “The key is to look for constellations.”

“There,” Michaelle pointed east. “It's Aries.”

Her cell phone buzzed to life but she clicked it and denied the call.

“Aries,” she continued. “Is my horoscope.”

“That explains things,” Raoule said. James scoffed.

Michaelle gave them a discerning look and rolled her eyes.

“Aries is right above the Colosseum. So is Leo and Sagittarius. They form a huge cluster.”

“And they're directly above the Colosseum,” Michaelle said, bewildered. “Have they always?”

“Always. In Rome, the stars never change,” Valentino winked at Michaelle, who blushed and looked down.

“That's amazing,” Sarah said, starry eyed. "Rome's actually the center of the world, so the hemispheres never really change, actually."

“Well,” James suggested, “shouldn't we get going?”

The rest nodded silently.

As they were driving, Raoule kept trying to convince them that it was too dangerous.

But as usual, James didn't care and told him to grow some balls.

“When I was a little girl, they had this series. Called W.I.T.C.H.,” Michaelle said, staring at the stars above.

“I don't know what happened to it,” she continued. “They canceled it all of a sudden. It had a lot of fans. It was an Italian based fantasy about 5 girls in charge of magical powers. 4 girls were in charge of the four elements and the 5th girl was the leader who united them all. They were trying to overthrow the government of Meridian. In a way I guess it's like... the four scientists who tried to rebel against the Catholic Church. And Galileo was their leader until they got violent.”

“I remember that,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, it was allowed in school until some kid named Chris snitched on us for reading it. And it was banned since.”

“Oh.”

“They used symbols, by the way. I forgot, but they were swirly symbols. No wait. They were the same symbols that were used in the deathly hallows. The square for earth, the triangle for fire, they circle for water, and the symmetrical line for air. Holy shit.”

“We're here.”

Raoule stopped the car grumpily and they got out.

“We can break in,” James suggested. “There wouldn't be any interfering tourists.”

“All right,” Valentino said.

“I'm down,” Sarah smiled.

The Colosseum looked beautiful in the night sky. It had a haunting quality to it, as if it didn't want you to leave. The dark building loomed over them.

And there, as promised, were the stars overhead, shining brighter than ever.

“Damn!” James grunted. “There's a gate!”

Michaelle smirked. “Let me handle this.”

She got out a her hairpin and picked the lock. In a few minutes, the door swung open.

Sarah felt chills down her spine, once the thought came to her that many died here. She clung onto James' strong arms, who looked down on her and smiled.

“Where would Galileo hide a necklace?”

“More like part of a necklace. Remember.. it's scattered all over Rome.”

“We have to split up,” James said. “Sarah and I will go to the Catacombs.”

“You're kidding!” Michaelle squeaked. “The Catacombs are haunted!”

“And you, Valentino, and Raoule can search the grounds.”

“How do we know if it's still actually here?”

“We don't”, said James, getting a flashlight. “But it had to be. We gotta try.”