Disclaimers: I own nothing.

My Journey Back Home -- Chapter II

I had decided I would take a ride to the Theatre District. Industrial just didn't seem the right choice. I now went out of the Air Cab Station, to the right. The place seemed…civilized, was it the word? Not as civilized as my old city, though. Would I ever see it again? Will I ever visit it, live in it, once more?

I sighed, and lost in my thoughts, I went down some stairs.

"Hey, watch it!" I gasped. I didn't know I was wandering around so carefree as to bump into someone. He wasn't specially nice, either.

"I'm sorry, sir, I just wasn't-"

"It's alright" I was cut off by his arrogant tone. I was truly surprised. At first he seemed so mean and now…? It was just plain weird.

I looked up since what I saw when I opened my eyes wasn't…the prettiest sight to…see…yeah…but my bad luck missed me and returned to me when I looked up and actually saw something I didn't like either…too much red…man, I mean too much. The strange guy, who appeared to be in his teens, found me staring at him.

"What are you staring at?" He spat.

"Uhh…." I soon found myself blushing and unable to reply, for he did so for me.

"It's…no big deal. I've gotten used to it. Scars like this aren't what you expect to see in a teenager." His tone once again changed of emotion, like only an actor could manage.

"I wasn't staring at your scars. In fact, I've just noticed them." This part was true, but now I found him staring at me and I concluded it was because my accent. I hadn't noticed I spoke with an American accent while he spoke kinda…kinda…oh well. Maybe I could tell it was something near to the likes of the Russian accent.

"Where are you from?" He asked me. Now I was in trouble. Could I ever even dare to say California? No…but I didn't know where I lived all these years either. So, I just said: "I'm just…a wanderer. I have no nation."

"I see…what's your name?" I was getting tired of being asked questions I truly didn't want to answer without getting anything back. So I said, "Who are you?"

We were now walking towards a round entrance at the right. I don't know why, but I just entered, feeling that I was safe. What the hell was I thinking? This guy was so weird, no one would probably trust him so easily, but then again, I did.

"I am Blank, member of Tantalus." I almost laughed at his face at the name of 'Tantalus' and of course, at his own name too…Blank…oh my God! What where his parents thinking when they named him that?

"Tan…Tantalus?"

"What - don't tell me you haven't heard of us…!" He seemed almost crying at the sound of what I said.

"I'm afraid not, sorry." Tantalus…what might it be…?

"Oh well. Not something new. Just so you know, Tantalus is the in-famous theatre group and-" At this time I was hardly holding my great desire to burst out laughing. So, he was indeed an actor. Before he could finish his sentence, though, the doors of the small place - that only consisted of some small desks and as small beds to one side, also some weird-looking thing on the front wall…well - back to the doors. They appeared to be kicked open when a fat guy came in. Did I mention he was ugly, too?

Now…this was scary. Two more guys came in behind the fat one. One was plain ugly but the other…damn, was he hideous! Is it me, or is all people here this weird-looking and ugly, too?

"Who's the chick?" The hideous guy spoke first. Oh God, can this be true? He was wearing…well, this could be classified as nothing at all but he did in fact wear…something…His eyes were scary. Oh well, let's begin from the top…he wore a white hat that looked to be very old. It could be classified as a mix between chef and nail kind of hat. Is that even possible? Well, I did in fact see it on him. His eyes were yellow. Those were scary. Rounded around as if he had a black bandana thief-like from this very old cartoon series I used to watch everyday, just allowing his yellow eyeballs to be seen. He was pale, but had a big, rounded, red nose, that made him look funny, besides scary. He had hair around his chin that circled around his big, scary mouth. On his neck, he wore some thing I didn't know what it was, but it did look like armor. This 'armor' was accompanied by some cloth that was trying to cover something of his chest but failed miserably since all of his chest and arms were left uncovered. May I say once more that it was not a pretty sight? His bellybutton was left uncovered, too, and made me sick just to see it. Rounded, big bellybutton. Was everything about him big, rounded and ugly? Well, every cloud has its silver lining, like a say says, since he at least wore pants, unlike the redhead Blank. The guy's pants where short, leaving a bit of thin legs uncovered until you met with his old shoes, because he didn't wear socks either. His shoes were old-fashioned and had some big belts around his shoes, I don't know what for. Lastly, he had pointy ears and was clearly out of shape. He had in one of his big hands, bigger a hammer that finished to freak me out. What was he doing holding such a gigantic hammer like that? Was it his weapon, or what was it?

Well, changing topics, Blank answered to the question that escaped the short man's ugly mouth, "I have no clue."

"You don't know who she is, yet you brought her to our hideout." It was the big, tall, fat man that spoke now. To this, Blank answered, "Well, she seemed nice."

I was in shock, truly in shock. I'll just say about that man that he was tall, ugly, had bat-like ears and wore some goggles as glasses. His voice was…well, weird.

The last man, who was just as scary and the rest of what I said, as the other two, spoke in a harsh tone, "It's Blank, what did you expect?"

I was beginning to feel like I needed to get out of this place as soon as possible. To feel, no, I needed to get out of there. While I was lost in my pool of thoughts, I heard Blank say, well, yell, furiously at the one who had accused him indirectly of being an idiot.

"Shut up!" He yelled.

"Now, now, you two, behave!" It was the bat-like man, who now seemed to be ready to speak to me. I held my breath, "Who are you?", he demanded to know.

"I-I'm…uuhh…" I hesitated. I hesitated like I hadn't in all my life. Did I really want them strangers to know that I'm Michelle, from someplace I don't know where or when it is, "My name's Lina." I rapidly made up a name, remembering an old story I read long, long ago.

"Lina, eh?" He said, "I'm Baku, Leader of Tantalus, the in-famous theatre troupe and thieving experts!" He seemed to emphasize the thieving part, which I had not heard from Blank earlier. Thieves, huh? Now this was getting interesting…

"Nice to-" I was cut off indecently by Baku, who started saying, "And this is Blank, who you already met, Cinna, the hammer guy, and Marcus, the last one, all members of Tantalus."

"I see. Nice to meet you" I lied, "But I have to go now…I guess…I'll…see you?" I then walked as faster as I could to the door and went outside, thanking God that I could breathe again.

Talking about God…I wondered what religion they might have, if they even had one. Maybe if I could find out what that was, I could find out where I was or at least when, if it was a when.

'What to do now?' I asked myself as I made my way back to the Air Cab Station.