Chapter 9.
The door slams and the stranger is gone. I stare back at my food, completely dumbfounded. He has the same thing? The same what? Visions? Voices? Abandoning my food I rush out the door. And slam right into Max. Great.
"Oh, Vienna, hey, um, I just wanted to say I'm sorry. For what happened. I mean, I clearly was reading the wrong signs and all but…"
"Max, I don't have time for this I have to go." I move past Max who murmurs something but I don't hear it because I'm out the door. A rush of cold wind slams in my face and grounds me to my spot. I lift my hand to cover my eyes and search the quad for the guy. He isn't here. I circle around, he can't have gone far, and it's only been seconds since he walked out the door but he is nowhere to be seen.
Out of pure desperation to avoid max, I abandon returning to my food, go around the dorm building to the opposite entry and head back up to my room. I half walk, half run my way there. Once I'm safely in the door I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. I sit in my computer chair hugging my knees close to my chest. Today has been a very weird and chaotic day.
I think of the Tarot cards, the writing, the weird mysterious dude, but everything always goes to Max. Max, who is my closest friend, Max, who kissed me, Max, who thought I was interested again. I sift through my memories of the last few months, I haven't given him any sign that I'm interested, at least I don't think I did and he didn't give me any sign either. I think of how our friendship will be after this, if it will even exist. I let a single tear fall on my arm and then decide to just head to bed. I just need to sleep all this off. Maybe I'm already sleeping and I'm just dreaming.
I wake to a loud knock at the door.
"Go away." The knocker is consistent. I grunt and get out of bed and walk to the door, ready to face Max. And I'm surprised to find that it's not Max, just the mystery guy. He's leaning against the door with a lazy smile. He is wearing black, tight fitted jeans, combat boots and a grey sweater, it matches his dark, almost black hair and blue eyes.
"Well, about time gorgeous," he lets himself in and surveys my room, while I just stand at the door with my eyes wide. He looks back at me once he's finished surveying my room. "Practical enough I guess." He says with a smirk. "Aren't you going to shut the door? Or do you want to scream for help first." I slowly shut the door. And stand in the corner with my arms across my chest. "Do you make a habit of standing there like that? Or just around me? And you don't talk much do you?" he is still smirking.
"Why are you here?" I ask, very aware of how soft my voice is. Just then I notice that he is now surveying me, like one might do to see if someone is hurt, or to memorise how someone looks.
"Well, I like helping damsels in distress, and you…"
"I'm not a damsel in distress, I just want to know who you are and why you're here." I say
He raises an eyebrow.
"Well, as I said yesterday," he walks over to my computer desk, picks up some pencils and anything else he can find, criticizing everything else while he is there.
"I know who you are, I've been watching and I know what you can do," he gives me a side-glance and returns to eyeing off the paperweight, "And I know your boyfriend is still having trouble with it and so are you. You can't find answers."
Involuntarily I push myself back to the wall as far as I can go, trying to get away from him. I don't know why but he makes me nervous.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." But even as I say it, he looks at me knowingly.
"Yes you do, the visions, the words and the behaviour. I know it all." He turns to face me with his hands on his hips. "Come here." He beckons me forward.
I shrink back further, if that's even possible. "I'm not going near you, I don't even know you."
He gives a small, knowing smile. "Oh but you do, come here, I want to show you something." For some reason, I feel a need to see what he wants. I walk forward slightly and slowly until I reach him. He reaches up, and I flinch. I don't know why I'm so scared.
"Relax, I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help." He continues to lift his hand, he grabs my shoulder and then he's gone. I suck in my breath as a vision claims me.
I'm in an empty house. It's the house I've seen before, the one with the woman, the child and the man. The one with the book. The mystery guy is here too. How is he here?
"How are you here?" I stare at him. I've never spoken to someone in my vision.
"Because I took you here, I'm bringing on your visions." My visions, how?
"I can do this because I've been here too. I've had visions. I learned to control them, to bring them on and turn them off." The way he answers my questions that are in my mind unnerves me. I look around the house, it's exactly how it was with the people here. It's not burnt, or in ashes. It's completely intact. This room is different to the last. This one has blue carpets, embedded with the same lace pattern, the walls here are white. I see the pillars that stand beside the library, and then I see the place where the safe sits. It's hardly visible this time, like it's been cloaked or something. The guy is watching me intently and we both here a whisper.
"Occulta et ipse vivet vinctum"
He glances up to the roof and looks around the room. Like the voice surprised him. He doesn't know about the voice.
"What was that?" he asks me.
"I have no idea." He looks back at me and then the visions fades and we are back in my dorm room and he is no longer clasping my shoulder.
"How did you do that? Who are you?"
"I told you, I learned a way to bring on visions, and I'll tell you, in good time. But for now, keep your secrets to yourself, no one will understand." He says and he stares intently at me, "That includes your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend" I sigh. To which he gives a surprised expression.
"Still, no one needs to know, no one cares and if they do, you shouldn't have told him anyway. Chances are if anyone is interested, they want to kill you. I learned that long ago." What?
"How do you know that? Why are you here? You're obviously not a student and I haven't seen you around here before. You haven't given me your name either and you easily hide yourself. So your either wanted, or just very secretive." He smirks at me again. He has a habit of smirking.
"Quiet the observer aren't you? But I'm guessing you aren't that observative in your visions as you are about the people in real life. I'm guessing you didn't see the details imprinted on the family crests along the wall of the house in your vision."
There were family crests on the walls? I shake my head. And he sighs. "You need to pay attention, you didn't see them because your trying to remember the layout of the house, the bigger details, not the small ones, once you start concentrating on trying to find information, it just comes to you. Do you want to try again?" he asks politely.
Hell yeah I do.
He reaches up again and then the room changes, we are back in the vision.
"Now, don't concentrate on everything you know, the book, the pillars or even the family. Try to concentrate on how you need more information about yourself, about how you want to know what happened, who they were, who you are, and why you have the visions. Think about those." I concentrate hard and nothing really changes. But after a few seconds, the walls shimmer, new furniture appears in the big room. I look to see if I can find the crests that he was talking about. I see them. They are a vertical pieces of tapestry with a crest I'm not really paying attention to, I'm more interested in the name above it. 'Nesahla'
So this must be the Nesahla home before it watch destroyed. But why would my visions take me here? All of a sudden something shimmers into view. I glance to a bookshelf and notice on the 4th shelf from the floor, there is a slight crack behind a set of books. I just know it's the safe. I walk over and quickly throw the books on the floor. All too soon we are propelled back into our own bodies and are greeted by a knocking at the door. I know who it is. I look to the mystery guy and shake my head so he is quiet. If we don't talk, Max will just leave. The knocking continues for a few more moments and then stops. I hear a sigh and footsteps getting quieter and quieter. I wait a few more moments before I let out the breath I was holding. I walk backwards, when I feel the bed behind my knees I sit down slowly.
"What was all that in the vision?" I ask
"It's the details, the details you need to know. It's why you have these visions, so you can find out the information planted within them."
This is all so confusing. I close my eyes for a moment before I look back up and stare eye to eye with the unnamed guy.
"Wait, so if you can trigger visions, like go back into yours, then you have been to that house before. You know who they are." He looks at me squarely.
"Yes, I do. I know about the Nesahla family. I know what happened to them. I know about the book. I know because I started the same way as you. With visions about the book, writing things in my sleep."
"Then you can tell me what it all means!" I stand up.
"No I can't." He shoves his hands back in his pockets.
"Why? How?"
"Because I need you to know what it all means." What? So he is saying he doesn't know what it means, but I can?
"Anyway, I've gotta go, I have things to do, and you have things to research" he smirks at me as he walks to the door and opens it.
"Hey, I still don't know your name."
"That's because I still haven't given it to you" he says without turning around. I watch him go and then shut my door. This is so frustrating.