Portals & Realms

Chapter 3 - Premonition

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Dante, Mae and Asra had all sat there for around thirty minutes in the quiet reading room, asking questions to each other. Some were simple, like when Asra asked if they had been approached by anyone on the streets, to which they both answered no, to his relief. Then, some got a little more difficult to give a short response to, like when Dante asked about his life and noticed how he stumbled over some holes that may have been important, and then, the harder, more challenging questions began arising, and so did tensions between everyone, especially between Dante and Mae.
"Did you two see anything particularly strange when you walked into the portal? Like, a face, or felt something touching you perhaps? From... um... past experiences I have had thanks to a friend of mine named Muriel, I had previously seen strange faces and voices when attempting to world hop and visit the group of people he had been seeing for some time," Asra asked, taking a small bite out of a loaf of bread he had brought in for himself and the other two guests. Mae had barely touched hers, and Dante had already downed his in three bites.
"Yes...but I can't quite recall what it was," Dante said and then tried explaining what he saw to the best of his ability, "It was like, it looked like a bird, maybe a crow or something, or a raven. It looked like a blur of red and black, but it was definitely holding something in its hands. Before I could see what it was, the creature suddenly was pushed away from me with a lot of force...and then I woke up on the ground in pain."
"What color was the thing he was holding? Do you recall the shape of it?"
"It was like...a black brown color, like a tarnished nail...and it looked like a little lump, but not circular either. It looked like something was laying down in the creature's hands."
Asra sat back, thinking for a moment. "You said this creature was bird-like? Red and black?"
"Yes and yes."
"Was he surrounded by anything?"
"No, just white empty space, it felt as if I was knocked out or something."
"And you said that he was suddenly pushed away by something you couldn't see? And then you woke up in pain?"
Dante nodded and leaned on the table, head on his arms. "This is so confusing." He groaned and ruffled his hair into a messy...well...mess.
"You either were in a state where random images pop into your mind due to the stress of hopping from the visiting world to my home world, or you had met the Hanged Man."
"The Hanged Man?"
"Yes, he is one of the major Arcana in this world, and he is believed to look exactly how you described. I don't know why he had taken an interest in you however, and I am unable to answer what pushed you away and what caused you pain at the moment," Asra responded, getting a sigh of either worry or relief from Dante. He looked at Mae with a curious look, and then put his hand flat on the table. "What about you Mae?"
"Well, I already know that by your diagnosis on what happened to Dante that it was the Magician who had visited me in my trance-like state. But it wasn't holding anything...it..touched me."
Asra went wide eyed. "The Magician touched you? How so? Did he hurt you?"
Mae shook her head, "yes, he did touch me, but he didn't hurt me." and then continued. "Yeah... at least that's what I remember I could be completely wrong. It placed its paw on my forehead, and then on my neck in that order. It didn't say a word, and only stared at me. After that, he backed up and then crouched down to my level and drew something in the air."
"You were sitting down in your trance state?"
"Yes I was."
"What did it outline in the air?"
"Well, it began outlining what looked to be a dog face, but it had rounded ears. It didn't talk the whole time I was... wherever I was."
Asra nodded, "and how did it end?"
"I was grabbed away from the Magician as something yanked me away by my neck. It reached out as if to grab me, and-" Mae sighed. "And then I woke up."
Asra sighed and looked towards the curtain, "I don't know why the Hanged Man or the Magician would pay you two any mind, worse is that I do not know what had attacked you two as well, though I can only assume it was the tear in reality." He stood up and walked around to the side of the table Mae and Dante sat at. "I will attempt to contact the Magician and get answers as to what he had warned me about, and also why he and the others had their sights on you two at the time. However, I am afraid you two will have to also look for the answers."
Dante sighed and stood up, knowing that the conversation was over and walked past Asra and out of the curtain. Mae hesitated and got up slowly, leaving her bread on the table as if it was too delicate to touch.
"I do have two more questions."
Asra looked at her, "go ahead."
"One, where's Faust?"
Asra looked at her. "Oh Faust! She's in my room. I didn't want to scare Dante with her. Poor thing, being so frightened of snakes..." he looked austraught and then back to Mae. His expression shows mischief, and it looked as if he was reading her mind.
"What's so funny?"
"I know what you're about to ask," he said and raised an eyebrow with an amused grin.
Mae felt her head pound as the stress of the situation was receding, but all this new information and the situation was overwhelming her. "Alright! Fine, you got me. If I am correct, I have plenty of connections here right?"
"Yep, that's correct."
"Asra, as much as I enjoy the thrill of being here, I have to get home soon. We can't stay forever, and we need to find a way home. Tomorrow, can you find him for me? So I can at least say that I've seen everyone... again.." She asked, going along with how he had explained her past here before. I need to find out what he meant by that, but I won't overwhelm him yet.
"Of course! I will attempt to organize that meeting. However, if you are struggling to cope with everything around you along with your appearance, and with your odd memory loss coming with transporting between this "K" and you. Will you be overwhelmed by everyone around you, or will you remain calm and collected?"
Mae sighed and held up a hand, ushering him closer. He leaned down and Mae sighed, "Listen Asra. I get very very emotional very fast. Any teasing will set me off, and I am already going crazy. But we need to get home by tomorrow. We can't be reported as missing or as criminals. We found the waypoint to get here in our highschool at midnight since Addi wanted to go explore it at night and essentially break in."
"I'll do all I can... however, I don't believe that the strange orb I was made aware of briefly is called a waypoint. The Magician mentioned something, or someone, named "portal". So it's safe to assume that the strange thing that may have brought you back is none other than a portal."
"Whatever they are called, look into it for us. We haven't the faintest idea how they work, and you know how to use magic."
Asra nodded and looked back at Dante, who was enamored by a shelf with various bottles of liquid on it, along with a burning candle that was barely a wick now. "Well, I guess I will show you to the guest room! It isn't large, but I did accommodate it to fit many people thanks to past unforeseen events." He waved the two to follow him up the stairs of the shop and to the second story, which had two doors and a small middle room with a few shelves, and a large bookcase. He opened up one of the doors at the far end of the shop and showed it off. "Here is the guest room. Sorry it isn't well decorated, I haven't had any time recently to modify the place," he laughed light-heartedly and left Dante and Mae inside, closing it behind them. The sun was close to going down, and there wasn't much time left for daylight, or any light at all for that matter. Mae went over to the drawers in the corner of the room and opened them. Inside were long sleeved pajamas it seemed...and some other miscellaneous items. Dante was looking at the four bunk beds that were inside the room, with one medium bed against the wall He climbed up to the tallest one laid down, exhausted.
Mae looked up at Dante as she sighed. "You're not gonna change?"
Dante didn't look down at her. "Don't have to, these are practically clean clothes." He said as he took off his shoes and let them plop down to the floor below. "How come these bed sheets are so comfy! Oh my god."
Mae had the same mentality after Dante's perfectly legal and fair argument, and closed the drawers. She slipped off her silk lace shirt, but kept on everything else. She stepped out of her shoes and laid them by the door. Even though she wasn't going to change, or go to bed soon for that matter, she was going to relax. Mae opened up another one of the drawers and found lots of odd, random items laid around. There was a book with a large tear in the cover (it looked quite old as well), some jewelry, and a mask. Mae took it out and held it in her hands, examining it carefully. It looked like an African Wild Dog, it's markings painting flawlessly across the proximity of the mask. It had a small snout protruding from the main exterior, and a string looped across the back. She grabbed the string and pulled it over her head and over her eyes, already feeling anxious about doing it. It felt quite comfortable as she wore it, and as she thought more about it, it seemed like the kind of mask fit for a masquerade.
Mae took it off and held it in her hands, worried about losing it or forgetting where she put it. I think this is what I think it is, meaning that all the events do correlate together in some way I suppose. She went over to a lower bed underneath Dante's and placed it on there, sitting criss cross in her bed and looking out the window at the streets. She saw people moving about, some of them disappeared beyond her line of sight, and others entered the houses lining the streets. The sun cast a heavenly glaze on the slick streets as it continued on its path.
How hard will it be for you to cope with him being real? How soon do you want him over? Her mind went back to Asra's questions as she sat in silence, Dante was also quiet as he slept. How soon? Mae wanted to see him for her own eyes so badly it hurt her heart. She wanted to see if she was really going to be able to see him, or if all of this was really about to blow over and away. She wanted him now, but she wanted him to never come as well. She was scared of it all being over, but she was also scared of it beginning. How hard will it be to cope with him being real? Hard. It would be hella hard for Mae to cope with him being real. She had yet to fully digest the fact that everything she was seeing right now was even remotely close to real, let alone found on the other side of a vent in the girls bathroom. She was still stuck on how magic even existed, and how this was even happening, so coping with all of this would take some serious therapy when she and Dante both got back home. And that's when she realized what Asra had said about "the other Mae". The 'game' personification of myself must've been materialized here and that's the Mae he's referring to. Does he realize we are not the same? Or are we? Was that Mae feeding off of how I acted in reality? Or was it a person specifically based on how I had acted based on in-game choices? Where did game me go when he said I had left to go world hopping? How long has it been since game Mae was here? Is the Mae he's referring to even the game version of me, or is it some illusion he was put under along everyone else? ARG I HATE THIS!
In conclusion: Mae was going to find him before the anxiety fully ate her up.
And Dante and Asra didn't need to know what she was doing.