Konella
Hearing loud noises and feeling my body racked with pain, I was barely able to open my eyes and get myself upright to find I was in a room to what seemed to be an old hotel. Curtains were old and torn, the floor was unkempt, the bed I was lying on was musty and smelled of mold. Getting off and dusting my clothes, I realized that the dress I was wearing at the ball was no longer on me. Wearing a light blue blouse and dark blue jeans and my shoes being black boots, I tried remembering what had happened to me during the dance that would have brought me here. My head was swimming in fog that I couldn't recall anything past dancing with that man. Feeling my heart pound remembering it, there was something missing…something that I figured out…but what?
A smell wafted slightly past the door and I turned ready to fight when a man came into the room wearing a yellow hazard suit?
"The subject appears to be awake." His voice muffled by the mask, I glared and lowered myself to leap at him when another man came into the room that wore no hazmat suit but was sucking on a piece of candy. French descent by his features, and the slight aura about him that is most befitting those born in France.
"So I see," a light accent, the man looked at me with piqued curiosity. "So you are the wife of Monsieur Goldsmith, yes? What a surprise to find the man wed to such a charming mademoiselle."
Saying nothing and trying not to show how confused I was, he seemed to already know that I was and walked around the man and took hold of a clipboard I failed to see hanging on the wall. "Konella Brooks, born in the year 1901. Graduated university at the tender age of 19 and began working for the Goldsmith company since 1920. Supposedly turned in the year 1928 and has since been registered as dead until now." He pushed up his glasses and smirked while speaking and he seemed so proud of his findings. "Your test results are a remarkable find mademoiselle, very raw data for me to study. I was of course advised to keep you from harm during any of my testing," waving his hand nonchalantly, my apprehension was sensible.
"What are you talking about?"
"Ah, yes, the amnesia!" Like he discovered something grand, he walked over to a table with small items on it and picked up a bottle and held it up with a grin. "I've been told you suffered a traumatic experience during the change and presumed you didn't make it through the process. I'm positive that this will trigger some of your memories that seem to be hidden away in your mind." Not waiting for me to consent he sprayed something in my face and I coughed when I inhaled. The pungent smell seared my throat but flashes of light hurt my eyes and something of a boy came into my view and hitched my breathing. Not reaching out at first and holding my arms, a certain smell I was familiar with came to me and groped my senses. I felt a little more at ease to what was happening when someone took hold of me from behind and the reverie was gone immediately!
"Wh-" unable to break free and being held by something incredibly stronger than I am, a man from the feel of it, he put his lips on the back of my neck and gently started caressing my skin with his lips. "Stop!" Feeling vulnerable, the man who sprayed me seemed pleased and began leaving the room while I struggled to break free from whoever was molesting me!
"Konella," the man whispered my name in my ear, making my chest tighten. His lips playing with my nape and back up to my ear that I felt my body grow hot and weak under his touch. "Remember what we were, Mon Cherie. You and I have a past with one another that can never be replaced." His hand loosened their grip on me, gently turning me around to face him.
It was the man I danced with at the ball. His blonde hair ever so slightly unkempt with his crisp white suit made his brilliant light green eyes show. Mesmerized by his appearance once more but quickly recalling what was happening I stepped back and watched his features show a sad expression.
"You truly can't remember?"
"I…" gingerly rubbing my arms and feeling a prick of unease, I couldn't help but feel there was something more to him than meets the eye. I know I felt something during the dance but right now my head…it's all a blur. "I don't know my past if that's what you're getting at. Sometimes I think I'm seeing something, but it quickly fades out and I'm left with nothing." Recalling how he spoke of me during the ball, how he knew my name, I faced him head-on. "You mentioned my name before ever introducing myself. Acting the way you do means you have the answers I want." looking at him once more and not realizing I stepped closer to him, I touched his face and slid my fingers through his hair and stared at him.
He didn't even move to my touch and just allowed me to do as I pleased. As I continued touching him and seeing his reactions become submissive, it was strange yet calming at the same time. "When we were dancing I had images flash in my head that made me dizzy. An operatic song being sung, blankets of snow covering the landscape, blank faces of people watching me dance…someone holding me…" trailing off and looking down, he cupped my cheek and had me look back up at him and I felt tears wanting to break through. "Who are you?" My voice cracked. The nagging feeling in the back of my head trying to rip me open was making me feel sick.
He gingerly touched me, withholding himself far more than before as leaning in to tap his forehead to mine. "I'm your husband, mon amour." he answered softly.
It wasn't the answer I expected to hear and somehow just didn't register with me. I don't believe that was the case and I touched his face once more and tried looking into his eyes for the answer I sought. Or maybe just seeking something I can't find myself. What was I wanting from him?
"I'm—" A loud crash interrupted him, he hugged me quickly while glass shattered from the window. Gunshots were being fired from the outside and I could sense the man's discomfort when he heard the ruckus. "We must go," he urgently spoke while taking hold of my hand and running out of the room. I followed blindly while hearing the screams of battle and gunshots echoing the grounds. We rounded several corners before seeing a group of men with the French man and getting their orders to move the container as quickly as possible.
"What is happening?" my blood boiling to fight, he looked calm as he looked at me and held my hand with gentleness it made me stutter in thought.
"Some unpleasant guests arrived to ruin the mood. Karl will handle them while we take off."
I wanted to ask who Karl was but was whisked away through the halls until we were outside to an old courtyard with a helicopter rearing its engine. Being led easily to the helicopter and boarding it, the man looked back and seemed to stare at someone across the field.
My eyes widened to seeing Haji and Saya standing on the other side. Saya looked ragged with her torn clothes and blood splattered on herself. She looked dangerous wielding her katana and showing no sign of letting her guard down. I pulled away from the man loading me into the helicopter and stepped forward on the field to speak with them. The last we saw one another was at the school and I knew not of what transpired since. She seemed so angry at something. Seething as her eyes glowed red with her katana in hand, she charged?
I watched her run across the field like a raging warrior out for blood with Haji behind. Something happened, I could tell at a single glance she wasn't in her right mind. But this isn't the way she would act…something feels off with her.
"AAAHHHH!"
Saya raged with her sword raised and out of pure necessity I stopped her from hurting me with my ability. She stopped instantly, gasping for breath as her glare bore into me to what I was doing to her.
"Saya…why would you attack me?" She didn't respond, rather, acting like a savage beast out for only a fight. She was incoherent of speech? "Haji?" I looked to him and he wasn't even speaking to me much less looking my way. He was looking at the man behind me…something was off about all this and I wanted to speak with them but this didn't feel like I could without one of them fighting with me. "Both of you…why are you like this?" More towards Saya as she kept trying to break free from my grasp, her eyes were rabid with anger and her teeth gnashed together.
"Release her." Haji ordered. There was no mistaking it either, he wasn't asking me, it was an order. He even held his case as though to tell me he would inflict harm.
"Haji…are you threatening me?" His glower the only answer I needed, I realized what protecting his queen truly meant. My grip lessened on Saya and she coughed only once before stabbing her katana into the ground and raised her head to speak.
"He's Diva's chevalier! Why are you just standing there with the enemy rather than coming back to us?!" her eyes almost pleading, I was confused to her proclamation.
"I began to before you started charging your sword at me!" My blood rising, feeling my anger come forth but withholding it desperately, I turned back to the man behind me calling himself my 'husband' and just needed answers.
"Diva's chevalier?" he didn't object, but there was something about him being a chevalier that made sense to me. Like I knew this was the case but didn't understand as to why it felt this way. "…Haji," facing Haji, he stepped forward and the air between us seemed stiff and cold. "You know something about me, don't you?" The way he looked at me made me nervous. I was looking for answers about myself for years traveling with him and came up with nothing until meeting this man at the ball. Answers upon answers are slowly being laid out for me no matter how confused I am, and Haji knows something and won't even tell me?
"Konella…" the man behind me took hold of my shoulders and pressed a gentle kiss on my cheek.
"!"
"He knows nothing about you," he answered. "Your past lies with me. The present you is lost and confused and sheltered because of him." His voice darkened, making me shiver.
Saya approached with her katana in hand again and I felt this urge to take it from her and throw it aside for wielding it in front of him—in front of me! I was ready to defend against her when the man took hold of my hand gently without sensing his movement.
"She is my queen," the man answered, stopping Saya in her tracks.
Both Saya and Haji seemed a little surprised, but neither of them faltered with their intent to hurt him. "My wife who I've chosen and that has chosen me; there is no other way of understanding her the way I do." Changing his wording and seeing the two falter a little, Haji didn't seem all that surprised? Did he know of this? Has he always known something? Haji stepped forward ready to speak out and I gripped the man's hand a little tighter waiting to hear him.
"She is—" a loud boom echoed the area and the building we were in had blown up. Half of it was in smoke while small chiropterans started flooding the area. "Saya!" Haji looked away from me back to Saya and something about that notion didn't hurt as bad as it did before.
Something has changed in me since the dance and meeting with this man. I felt nearly whole being beside him and yet something is still missing. And those words he spoke…calling me queen…those words are meant for Saya and Diva, not me. Yet those words resound closely in my breast.
"We must go mon amore," he guided me a few paces back to make a leap back to the helicopter and Haji's cello case went flying past us and barely managing to dodge from being hit. "Really now," exasperated, he turned back and frowned. "You cannot have what is mine Haji, it just isn't meant to be."
"You will return her, chevalier." He stated angrily with a calm demeanor before the man faced me once more and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand.
"Go inside the helicopter and wait for me mon amore, this will only be a second." I retreated back a few steps and boarded the helicopter. I was shocked to find Haji still wishing for my return even after what he just did…what transpired and the hostility; I'm so utterly confused.
Finding purchase with my feet and hanging on while we took flight into the air, I sat watching the two fight from above. I saw another come into the fray and it was the chairman back at the school who we faced called Phantom. He battled against Saya with fervent strikes while Haji battled the man I was with and something kept nagging me behind my skull of his name.
The French man called him Mr. Goldsmith, but that wasn't the name I needed to hear. With the helicopter getting higher into the air and seeing another carrying a freight, the same one I discovered at the school, my heart pounded when I recalled speaking to Julia about Diva. She was inside the freight only inches away from me and I could feel her presence. The queen's presence was something unexplained. I felt both happy and fearful of Diva. A want and need to be beside her that I never felt with Saya.
Looking back to the battle below and hearing Saya scream out in pain as the Phantom broke her arms, he leapt up into the sky and latched onto one of the helicopters and I looked around the area for signs of Haji and Goldsmith and found them still going at it. The battle seemed to be going nowhere with a clear winner and Haji got distracted with Saya's scream that gave the man an opening to kick him across the ground. He took that chance and looked up towards where I was and wings sprouted from his back, ascending towards me with speed I've never seen even from Haji.
"I've returned," smiling without care that he had blood on his hands and a ruined suit, I reached out gingerly to take hold of him and he took mine and pulled me out and hovered in the sky.
"Why am I not afraid of you," I asked more to myself rather than him, he chuckled and held me tightly while soaring in the sky without care. Though the raging flames of battle and alarming screams would make this scene inadequate to feel so at peace, nothing seemed to have mattered.
"Because you've accepted me with your entire being and I've not once regretted showing you my form." Kissing my forehead, I clutched his clothes and peered at his green eyes.
"Your name…what is your name?"
His gentle features calming, he leaned in close to answer me. "Solomon Goldsmith," whispering his name softly in my ear I felt my head burst.
Images raged through my head like a roaring river. Every dream I've had over the years came flooding into my mind and pieces of images began to meld and fix itself together. The dancing in the snow, the time at the beach, a child's laughter, the person who always called out for me…it was him…it's always been him!
"Solomon…" his name merely a whisper on my lips, it was enough to entice him to kiss me. His enticing kiss tasting like the sea and entwined with the smell of sandalwood and pine, my senses were overloading but I couldn't stop myself feeling him against me.
Everything was coming in too fast for me to process, though the kiss made me hungry for more I pulled away to try and make sense of everything.
"I will never let you go…" brushing his thumb on my lips as he returned to the helicopter, the final look to Haji and Saya burned into my head as they stared at us from below. Everything was a blur of emotions for me that before I could really think what to say or do next I felt my body cave in to darkness and lost consciousness.