Between Two Worlds

Bang! Bang! Bang! I awaken to the sound of someone pounding on a door. Who is that? What do they want? I climb out of bed and slowly pad through my apartment to my front door. I pause a moment at the door and look around. No sign of Altair and whatever man he was talking to. Did I imagine the whole thing? “Whose there?” I call out, turning back to the door.

“It’s me, Kat. Are you going to let me in or what?” the voice asks.

Kat? Who is that? I hesitate, one hand on the doorknob. While some memories came back to me, my apartment, classes, and Altair. Some things are still surrounded by the white fog. Faces have not yet returned; I remember there were people around me, but I don’t remember what any of them look like.

“Rayanna? Are you going to leave me out here all night, or are you going to let me in?”

I decide to chance it and open the door. Outside of my door stands a woman with yellow skin and black hair. A memory hits me like a strong wave and I stumble backward as I recall a piece of conversation.

***************************************

“Are you okay?” asks the girl in front of me.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking. That’s all.” I say not really paying attention to who I am talking to.

“My name is Katrina. Just call me Kat.”

“Rayanna,” I say, looking away from Geylan. That’s when I notice that my life partner is different from any other person I have ever met in my entire life. She looks like a normal human, but she has dark yellow skin and coal black hair.

“Copaie.”

“I’m sorry?” I say, blinking and looking away.

“My race. I’m a Copaie. You must have been wondering because you were staring.”

“Sorry. I wasn’t trying to be rude; I’ve just never seen anything other than humans before.”

She gives me a funny look before saying, “No problem. I’m used to it by now. Usually, the funny looks are because people are casting judgment on me. It’s refreshing that the funny look is because you are seeing a new race. It means you haven’t already made up your mind about me.”

“I take it, people never have anything nice to say?”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” Katrina says.

“So, your name is Katrina?” I ask after a few minutes of silence.

“Yes, but you can call me Kat.”

************************************************

“Are you okay, Rayanna?” Kat asks walking into the apartment. She closes the door behind herself and then fixes me with a concerned look.

“Huh?” I ask. I give my head a slight shake to bring myself back into the present. Kat. I remember her, now. A little more fog has lifted. “Oh, yeah I’m good.”

“I heard you were having a hard time remembering stuff.” She says, the worry evident in her voice.

“I am but when I saw you, I remembered meeting you for the first time.”

“So, are you ready to finish the hunt? Do you feel up to it? We were given an extra day, since your... incident.”

“I think so. I mean, there are still some blank spaces where memories should be, but they seem to be coming back pretty regularly. So, yeah, getting the scavenger hunt done should be a good idea. But before we do that, I have some questions.”

“Okay, go ahead.” Kat says.

“How did I end up in the water? Altair never did tell me that part.”

“You don’t remember? Any of it?”

“No, I don’t. all I know is that I woke up choking and throwing up water beside a lake in the middle of the night. Did I sleepwalk or something?”

“No, you were pushed off of a rocky outcropping, into the water. Gelyan pushed you in.”

“Gelyan? I don’t quite remember her.”

“Carina’s life partner. The girl who was jealous that Altair wants you and not her.”

“Black hair, and green eyes?” I ask.

“Yes. That’s her.”

“Why did she push me in? Did she ever say?”

“She wanted you out of the way.” Kat says shrugging. “Speaking of out of the way... I heard both she and Carina were Cleansed this morning.”

“Cleansed? Why does it sound like that’s a bad thing?”

“Because it is. Cleansed equals death. We had this discussion already. You really don’t remember it?”

“Nope.” Carina. The Ghemin. The experiments. Sweet girl, even if she did get overly excited about things. “Why would they cleanse her?”

“Because her life partner was Cleansed. When one does wrong, both partners are punished. I heard Altair was very angry when he found out Gelyan pushed you on purpose. Ordered the Cleansing, himself.”

“Altair ordered it?”

“Yep.”

“How did I get out of the water? Did you save me?” I ask.

“I sure did. It wasn’t easy, either. Those crazy water plants were determined to devour you. But lucky for both of us, I kicked over a Pulsis Powder lamp and knocked a ton of powder into the water. Apparently, the plants are afraid of the powder, they let go of you and I was able to drag you back to the shore. Altair must have been close by because it wasn’t too much longer until he was there, by your side.”

“I do remember something strange about him. I swear I overheard part of a conversation between him and another guy.”

“Him who?”

“Altair. He was telling the guy something about using me to have children and then isolating me so I would depend on him for everything. I don’t think marrying him is such a good idea.”

“Of course, it’s not. I never intended on letting you go through with the marriage. But there are a few things I needed to figure out that required you to be close to Altair. But never mind that right now, we have got to get out there and find that last clue so we can win this scavenger hunt.”