The Mortal Fringe (4 page)

A corridor so familiar that I
almost call it home. It's wet, full of dark water and thick and
deep mud. At the horizon of the endless path, a shadow. Balancing
on the slippery trap underneath me, I try to make my way to the
other end of the hall. There are broken windows on the walls, some
of them are half closed, and the others are just torn apart. As I
get closer to the shapeless shadow I start to feel cold. The closer
I get to the now shaping figure, the colder the aisle becomes. I am
freezing, I can hardly move. I am an inch away from the motionless
body in front of me. I rise my hand to touch it, I need to see her
face.

The grey body starts to turn, and
when she is about to face me, I see the face of fear, of horror. A
faceless body with only two green orbs staring at me. I fall on my
back, scared.

I am on the wet mud again, the
dream of the last few months is back. My back is wet and there's
something in my chest that makes it impossible for me to breathe.
Slowly, I drown with the rain. I can't move, I can't shout out for
help. The only thing I can do is hope for it to finish. I hope I
die soon.

I wake up sweating again, I have not
even been sleeping for an hour. Jay is snoring so loudly that it is
impossible to relax. I look at my night table, it's about to be
three in the morning. The book from the library is right next to
the alarm clock and I take it, hoping that a quick look at its
useless pages, will push the dream away. When the cover flips over,
Jay's four magical words suddenly come back to me.

I open my computer and Google the
quotation's Author. Barbra Harris, and for some reason my fingers
shake a little bit as I type the name.

There is nothing but one
result.

Hiding behind myth:
Immortals

CHAPTER 6

As I walk through the corridors of the
university I can't avoid thinking about last night's dream. The
windows along the way, all closed now, and the long, almost
endless, aisles become part of my own reality. I wish I could avoid
thinking about it, or stop relating everything I witness in my
dreams to what I see when I'm awake, but everything looks the same,
too real to be ignored.

I walk shyly across the long way
connecting the two buildings of the university when she crosses the
door at the other end. She is coming towards me, with that
freshness that she brings to me. She walks right by my side for a
second, and that small lapse of time makes something move inside of
me. I only hope I did no put up one of those stupid faces. It would
be too embarrassing.

Before I get to the door I hit someone
and I fall down. I look from the floor up, nothing. Then I look to
my side and I see Ms. Adkins on the ground. I did not see her
coming, at all. I am terrified of what I have just done. I stand up
immediately and run towards her. I help her get up, she has a big
bruise on her arm, and apparently she hit the pointy end of a bench
when she fell down.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry" I
apologize, never having been more embarrassed in my
life.

"Don't worry dear, I'm a tough
woman."

It seems to be true, the bruise on her
arm is hardly bleeding, only a hint of blood shows up, but it is so
thick that it certainly seems to be nothing but a healing bruise
already. Ms. Adkins smiles back at me and starts walking
again.

"Just try to focus on where you put
your feet, rather than where Ms. Mears does."

I blush again. She smiles and I feel
that she is trying to make me forget about the incident, but I just
feel more embarrassed than before. I didn't know that it was so
clear from the outside.

"I wasn't…" I try to deny what she
said, but before I can go on with my explanation, my ancient
mythology teacher is gone.

I spend the rest of the afternoon in
the library. I want some time for my own after what happened, and
if possible, I want total silence, which is something that I will
clearly not have back in the residence. I try to do as much work as
I can, but my mind floats by, and I end up doing nothing but
looking around the place and study every single person that walks
in.

"The Immortal boy shows
up!"

I look up, it's Ingrid.

"Hi" I say with a hint of my
voice.

"May I sit with you?"

I take a quick look, all the tables
are empty, but mine. I move to a side and make room for the chair
she is already holding to fit next to me.

"I hate Library
afternoons."

We go on working without saying much
to each other.

Barcelona at nightfall is part of a
dream, it must be. The lights start to go on as I walk back home. I
feel surrounded by something greater than nature: the structure of
this huge city makes me feel small. It is just different from any
other place I have ever been to.

There are more suitcases on the front
door when I get to the residence. A red headed girl, about my age,
is having trouble getting all her luggage in. If this had happened
the day I arrived, I would most likely had gone to my room and
pretended I had not seen her. Human interaction was, and remains,
terrifying for me.

"Do you need help?" Luckily for both
of us, I'm better at this now.

She looks up at me, her face is red
and sweaty and the constant gasping works as a clear answer. I
smile at her and take one of the suitcases. She walks right in
front of me to guide me to her room. I like her smell, it's
different from what young women use to wear, I have never smelled
that scent before.

She takes the elevator and stops in
the same floor as I would normally do. We walk for a few meters and
she stops at room 201. I laugh, and she does the same when I tell
her that my room is right next to hers.

"My name is Jessica" she shakes my
hand and thanks me for helping her.

"I'm Alex."

She smiles back at me.

"Nice meeting you, Alex" The sweet
voice pronounces my name in a charming way. I must be too tired,
everything looks genuinely weird today.

Ever since last night's dream, I
haven't been quite myself. I still have the vivid image of the
faceless body on my mind, and every time I close my eyes I see
it.

I arrive in my room. Jay is on his bed
reading something and listening to some music. He puts the book to
a side and waves at me.

"Hey, roommate!"

"Hello Jay" I leave my bag on the
floor and throw myself on the bed. I am really exhausted
today.

Jay keeps looking at me, it feels
awkward.

"Are you ok buddy?"

"Just tired" I answer with my face
against the pillow, which hardly allows the voice to leave my
mouth. "Don't call me buddy, never liked it", I mean it, Richard
tried to use that with me and we almost ended up punching each
other.

"Sure" he laughs.

It's a long while until he talks to me
again, I feel bad for having said that to him but I'd rather do it
now than having him call me names for the rest of the semester.
After all, I have to live with him and I want a good
relation.

"Damn I forgot!"

"What?"

"You got mail. It's on the check-in
desk, they could not leave it here, so the receptionist kept
it."

I put on my clothes again and leave
the room in less than five minutes. When I walk past Jessica's door
I hear the soft melody of a violin. It does not bother me, nor any
other person living in this floor.

When I get to the front desk the old
woman is already holding the package on her hands and pointing it
to me. She is smiling, as happy and nice as always. She says
something in Spanish, but I can't hear her properly. I am more
interested about what I am holding right now.

I start ripping of the wrapping paper
as I walk back to the room. The book is thicker than what I had
anticipated. Jay is waiting for me in the same position I left him,
and when I get back he stands up to see what it is that I have on
my hands.

"It's a book I bought for the
essay."

He takes a glimpse of it, and frowns
his forehead.

"Doesn't look to good, if you ask
me."

"Well, it only needs to help me pass
the subject."

I lie on my bed and open it up. I will
read a little before going to bed. Just for myself, it usually
helps me clear my mind of anything I might be thinking about. That
way, I might avoid dreaming. Even if it is just for one night, I
would do anything for that.

Preface:

A door by three shadows
opened,

By three shadows shall be
covered

Jay murmurs something I can't
hear.

"Sorry, what?"

"I said, what a waste of money. That
sentence is just dull."

I don't understand.

"What sentence?" I ask putting the
book down for a second.

Jay looks at me as if he had done
something really wrong. His eyebrows rise and then shut together in
an expression that he tries to hide.

"Dude, the one you just read" He says in
the end, bringing so much confusion to me that I simple ignore the
remark.

CHAPTER 7

Everything written in the book seems
impossible to prove or believe. I have not closed my eyes in the
entire night, the reading is as fluent as it can get, and I only
want to know more. I remember things very vividly from what I have
read so far. I can't hide the emotion it brings to think that such
things could indeed be possible. Naively thinking, as a constant
dreamer, be it about dreams or nightmares, such possibility
enhances the way I understand the world.

I turn again to a little paragraph at
the very beginning that has been stuck in my mind since the first
moment I came by it. There's something in it that triggers my mind,
transporting me to a place where everything has a meaning and a
reason to be. A place that has nothing to do with the world we live
in, or at least the world I have been trapped in for quite a long
time.

No piece of information, be it big
or small, has ever been so well hided through time. What the world
knows as legend and myth is basically a euphemism to keep history
from the people. It is not coincidence that there have only been so
many discoveries from ancient times, for what it's been discovered
is only what the Immortals wanted us to find.

Every piece of history tells us a
story that can change the course of humanity in a matter of
seconds. That is why the vast amount of remains that would lead to
certain discoveries have been either destroyed by their own
creators, or hidden from time. However, there are a few clues that
lead to understand reality that proof the existence of beings of
different nature in our world.

It is indeed a curious matter that
after thousands of years we can still remember the names of the so
called Greek Gods, or ancient mythology Gods, and hardly memorize
the names of the people we share a work shift with, or an office.
That, is Immortality, and the creators of Immortality are still
living amongst us, watching our evolution into a more specialized
species.

From all topics I could have been
given, this is probably the most interesting and by far difficult
to discuss. Why would Ms Adkins choose me to work on it, I wonder?
I can't take the thought away from my mind that she gave me the
piece of paper on purpose.

As the sun rises again behind the top
buildings of Barcelona I get off my bed and get ready for another
day of aisle exploring and probably high hoping for another
accidental meeting with Elizabeth. I still don't feel sure about
myself when it comes to her. I know I am not good enough for
anyone, that's the way I've come to feel about myself. Depressing,
I know, but after all this time this is the one reality I have
chosen to be my own.

I read a bit before going inside, not
too much, I don't want to be late. There's a tiny summary of each
section, which is great if you have no idea of what it is about,
which exactly my case is.

The Immortal nature:

Beings of almost needless breath
and no thirst or hunger, with dense blood through their body. Every
Immortal being shares the same natural features, for they come from
the same natural condition: Immortals don't only enjoy the gift of
eternal life, but also the ability of mind interpretation,
teleportation, and others

Appearance is highly regarded in
the Immortal community and it is quite normal for them to dress in
colourful clothes and use strange accessorizes that provide them
with a distinctive image, and look, that is distinctive from common
mortals.

As it has always been pointed out,
the eyes are the window to the soul, and in the Immortal world the
soul is the most regarded part of the body. The silver soul of an
Immortal being is hidden by the intense green light of the
eyes.

Immortals compose a society of cold
minded beings that are drawn to each other for power and the
assurance of eternal life.