Echo Hemisphere

6: I'm Going to Help You

My hands are still shaking. I don't know this person, this person doesn't know me, and I'm going somewhere in a metal box with her. Dark blurs rush past the see-through parts of the box. The red person in black keeps repeating strange things like, "We are going to a hotel where Kuri'Shii is." I don't know what "a hotel" or "Kuri'Shii" is, but hotel must be a somewhere and Kuri'Shii must be a someone by the way she talks about them.

Di'La lounged in the back of the box as we continued on the long, dark path. She was as unsure of the situation as me while twiddling her thumbs as she watched the blurs speed by. Has she been in one of these before?

"By the way, I'm Allin," the red-and-black person spoke slowly. She did it again! I'm not dumb enough to not know basic speech! Although she's speaking strangely, I'm learning what her words mean by how she uses them. If only I could find out what's going on and why she's taking me to whatever the hotel is.

Her name is Allin. My name is Hanko. We both have names, she's the second person I know who has a name. Does everyone have a name? It must be common to have a name.

Di'La spoke up from the back, "I just realized this. If her name is Allin, then does that mean her first initials are K.M. and 'G.G.'? She must like dark poetry!" She burst out laughing hysterically. "Then my name means beyond! And Hanko means a stamp! I am beyond comprehension and Orth!" She couldn't stop. I didn't get what any of that meant. If any of what she said was supposed to mean anything specific, I didn't know about it.

"Hanko- Hanko, stamp your name on this car!!" Half of the things she ever says is nonsense to me.

I twisted around to see if Di'La was running out of breath or changing colors by any chance. She was, but also crumpled up on her side, twitching from the continuous laughter.

"Hey, what is it? Is something behind us?" Allin asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she glanced at me. I turned to her, pointing to Di'La, who was finally calming down from her hysteria. Alin looked in the small reflective object in front of her, "That's the road behind us, there's nothing there."

What!? Even she doesn't acknowledge Di'La's presence! How can she not hear her howling in the back? Does Di'la really blend in that well with her surroundings to everyone else? Maybe it's just the people I've encountered so far who can't see her. Or maybe I just have to find the right person.

Green Girl and I kept on driving on through the night for a little while longer until we stopped at the hotel. The silence lasted through the rest of the car ride, Green Girl appeared to be memorizing every detail of the back of the car as she twisted backward and forwards in her seat. Pain still lingered in my leg, but keeping my poker face was something so familiar to me from so many years of extensive learning.

We arrived at the parking lot of the hotel. I unfastened our seatbelts and reached into my backpack, "Here, put this on." I tossed Green Girl the blue cosplay cloak I've been saving for a convention. She snatched it in midair, examining it. She scrunched her brow together. She barely understands anything about the world and how it works, but I expected her to at least know how to put on a cloak.

I fastened the cloak around her shoulders. When I looked up at her, her eyes were bright and curious. To be fair, wearing a cloak is pretty fun, especially for the first time. I yanked the hood over her head, "Don't take this off until I say so." She nodded once and watched as I started preparing to get out of the car.

I attempted to stuff her pickaxe into my backpack to make it inconspicuous. But since it was so big, the backpack bulged suspiciously and looked like it was about to tear where the blade's tip met the fabric and the handle couldn't be hidden due to the fact that it was so long. I knew this wouldn't work well. I unpacked the pickaxe and slid it under the driver's seat. I jammed it in as far as possible hoping no one on the outside would notice the worn stick poking out of the bottom of the seat.