The Metropolis Series #3: Quinn and Cassandra

I CALLED PHILIP for the second time that day. I couldn’t believe the words that came out of my mouth.

“I think I’ve found it,” I said. “I think I’ve found the other half of the Author’s library card.”

Philip coughed on the other line. He would try to speak only to cough again. It took him a while to recover from it.

“Sorry, coughed on my drink,” he said, clearing his throat. “You can’t be serious, right? You found it at your house? In a kitchen cabinet?”

“That surprised me, too,” I replied. I held the crusty old piece of paper in my hands, reading its contents over and over. “I’m not sure if it’s the missing piece, but I’m convinced it is.”

“Can you send it over?” Philip asked. “I can compare it with the photocopy I have.”

“Sure thing,” I said.

I took a photo of the supposed missing half and sent it to Philip.

“Hello, did you see it?” I asked him.

“Hang on, it’s loading,” he muttered. “Oh, there it is.”

He didn’t speak for a couple of seconds, and when he finally did, the words could barely come out of his mouth. He was babbling so much with excitement that he might as well have won the lottery.

“No way,” he said. “It looks legit. And it fits pretty well with my piece, too. I—I gotta tell Mr. Simon about this. He’ll be thrilled! I—I’ll call you back.”

“Take care,” I said.

And Philip ended the call.

Afterward, I endured the longest two hours I ever had in my life. I took my phone with me around the house so that I could stare at the screen and refresh my call logs. I wondered what Mr. Simon would say about the piece of paper I’d found. Were we one step closer to finding the Author? I kept repeating the idea in my head, assuring myself that I wasn’t dreaming, but I still couldn’t believe it.

I might have just found a piece of the Author. In my own house. Who would have thought?

Philip still hadn’t called by dinner time, so I brought my phone with me to the table. Mom got mad so I placed it on the coffee table in the living room instead. It was still within sight, so I couldn’t stop myself from sneaking glances at it.

A part of me was starting to worry. Philip was holding potentially vital information. What if something had happened to him?

No, Quinn, shut up. He was fine and would call soon.

“Quintana,” Mom said. “You’re not eating.”

I blinked and looked down at my plate. Mom was right; I had barely touched my food.

“Sorry,” I said, taking a spoonful of rice.

“Is something bothering you?” Dad asked me.

“No,” I said, swallowing. I snuck another glance at my phone and then immediately told myself to stop doing that. It wouldn’t be long until my parents would suspect that something was up.

I think the reason why I was able to last dinner that night was because of the evening news. It reported horrible events (tragedy didn’t rest, even during the holidays) that my parents would eventually discuss. They no longer talked about how little I ate and how I couldn’t stay still in my seat. The commercial breaks were hard, though. There were no headlines about gruesome crimes and the plunging economy to grab my parents’ attention.

I was washing the dishes when my phone finally rang. I quickly rinsed the last plate, placed it on the dish rack, and ran toward the coffee table.

“Quintana, don’t run,” Mom said from the kitchen.

I should have listened to her. Our house wasn’t the most ideal place for running, so I ended up bumping my foot into one of the dining chairs.

“Whoa, you all right there, kiddo?” Dad asked as I limped toward the coffee table.

“Yes, I’m fine,” I said, rubbing my foot and grabbing my phone. “I’ll just take this.”

I then disappeared into my bedroom and glanced at the caller ID. Indeed, it was Philip.

I picked up his call. “Hello?”

“Quinn, oh my God,” Philip exclaimed. “I just got back from the Archives and…” He took a deep breath. “It’s real, Quinn. We finally have a lead to the Author!”

I placed a hand over my mouth. I couldn’t believe it. At that moment, all of my troubles seemed to have lifted from my shoulders. The Author was back. She could fix things. I didn’t know if I was going to laugh or cry.

“That’s… that’s amazing!” I exclaimed. It was now my turn to win the lottery. I could barely process any words to say.

“So what do we do now?” I then asked. “What did Mr. Simon say?”

“He’s ecstatic,” Philip said. “Elated, really. But we shouldn’t let our guard down. The Girl Beyond Bounds is still on the loose, and we can’t let her steal this information from us.”

I nodded shakily. The thought of Cassandra finding the Author… No. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.

“Of course,” I affirmed. “We should all be extra careful.”

“We can hope for better news to come,” Philip beamed. “Mr. Simon has already contacted your friend, Julio.”

Hearing Julio’s name on the other line slightly shifted the mood. I suddenly felt bad for not keeping in touch with him. I knew I was mad, but whatever. We had big news that day. We had found the Author. It was probably the best Christmas gift we could ever receive.

Besides, somewhere deep down, I was starting to miss the guy.

“He’s arranging a team to visit the address on the library card,” Philip continued. “I’ll get back to you once I hear something big.”

It took a few good seconds for everything to sink in. He mentioned that Julio was going to visit the address on the library card. Was he excited? Was he scared?

“Yeah,” I eventually said. “That would be great.”

“Of course,” Philip agreed. “Hope to talk to you very soon.”

“Same here. Thanks, Philip.”

“No, thank you.”

Then the call ended.

At first, I just stood there, playing the conversation over and over in my head. Then, the next thing I knew I was jumping for joy, dancing around my bedroom. I felt like I could fly; I could see the ceiling opening up to a vast expanse of blue. I could reach the stars. I could reach anything.

But the ceiling didn’t open, and my room could only contain so much joy. So, I stepped out and strode down the living room and burst through the screen door, ignoring the looks my parents might be giving me. They probably called me, but I didn’t hear them. I felt the breeze in my hair and on my skin. I looked past the string of lights on the pergola and gazed at the night sky. As the crescent moon smiled at me. Things were finally beginning to look up.

Then, Oliver disrupted the little celebration in my head. He was in the garden, barking at the bushes. I approached him and turned to where he was looking.

“What is it, Oliver?” I asked him.

I was expecting to find some poor animal hiding in the bushes: maybe a bird, a rat, or even the occasional squirrel.

But it wasn’t any of that.

Gingerly, I peered into the bushes and pulled out the artifact in question: a torn paper airplane.

Oliver was still barking as I sat under the pergola and unfolded the airplane. I shushed him, but that only made me aware of my heart beating loudly in my chest. I wished it would stop, but it didn’t.

In the dim lights of my family’s parols, I read the writings on the airplane. The penmanship was sloppy, but I had no trouble reading the message:

Hey Quinn,

How are you? You lucky thing. How the hell did you find the other half of that library card? Anyway, the Spanish House will investigate and visit the address. We’re one step closer to salvation all because of you, and I don’t know how much I can thank you.

I don’t know if this will reach you, but if it does, I just want you to know that I am keeping my word. When you get back, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the Girl. And you can get mad at me as much as you want after that. All I ask is that you take the time to hear me out.

But I’ll be honest. This won’t be easy for me at all.

I hope to bring good news the next time I write to you. Merry Christmas and stay safe. I’ll see you soon.

—Julio

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry a little reading it. It was pathetic, I know, but it didn’t get to the point where my sobs would disrupt my neighbors. I got misty-eyed, sure, but it was easily remedied with a wipe of my sleeve and a deep breath of fresh air.

I knew it would be wrong for me to leave him hanging. We’d been through a lot together. Besides, with good news on the horizon, I should take the time to celebrate it with him.

I went back to my room and pulled out a sheet of paper from my desk drawer. I grabbed a pen and left it hovering over the blank sheet.

I didn’t know what to say to him at first, but after minutes of agonizing ambivalence, I figured it out:

Julio,

I’m sorry about how I reacted after we visited the Archives. I was scared and in shock, but I’m willing to listen to you. I’m still a little mad, though, but I couldn’t blame you if you had your reasons.

I don’t wanna rain on our parade too much. You’re right, maybe I am lucky. I thought that finding the other half would be impossible, but here it was all along. I still couldn’t believe it.

Be careful out there. Say hi to the Author for me if you get to meet her, but hmm… what do you say to a high and mighty being? What would she even look like?

Anyway, I’ll be waiting for your reply. Hope you enjoyed the holidays.

—Quinn

Then, I went back to the pergola and sent the airplane high in the sky. I watched it disappear in the darkness, amazed by how far it could go. I guess I would never find out how they worked, but it didn’t seem to matter.

I spent the rest of the night reading Julio’s letter, staring at the other half of the Author’s library card, then reading Julio’s letter again. I couldn’t sleep that night and for good reasons. I made up scenarios in my head, imagining all the possible happy endings to this twisted tale. I was in my own secret haven living all the fantasies I could ever ask for.

And I didn’t want to leave.

In the days between Christmas and New Year’s, a certain emptiness emerged. Maybe it was because my family didn’t prepare for the end of the year as vivaciously as they did for Christmas. It was like those three hundred and sixty-five days were a party, and in the last few minutes, we just sat around, waiting for it to be over.

That was exactly what I did for the next few days, but it wasn’t the fireworks I was waiting for. Most of my lull time had been spent staring at my phone waiting for Philip to call, or looking up at the sky for a paper airplane from Julio. Ate Gianna had noticed how I stayed under the pergola more often. She would take out the trash every evening and tease me for looking sawi sa love life, unlucky with love. I would reply by saying that I liked the breeze outdoors, and every time I did so, she wouldn’t believe me.

Sometimes, I would try to distract myself. With Christmas preparations out of the way, I had time to binge the anime box set Deus Ex Machina had given me. I plugged in my laptop and got comfy on my bed as I loaded part one into the disk drive. It was a nice way to pass time, but I couldn’t help but cringe at the main character. She once walked up to the boy she liked and confessed out of the blue, and that was when I decided to eject the disk and shut down my laptop. She reminded me too much of myself.

Nevertheless, my routine continued. I walked Oliver around the neighborhood every morning, played Frisbee with him when he was in the mood for it, and came home to my PC to play online games with strangers. It would be after the bursts of activity that the emptiness would crawl back in, and questions would start clouding my brain:

What was taking so long?

Why hadn’t Philip called yet?

Where was Julio?

Did he find the Author yet?

Did something bad happen?

The paper I found was fake. The Author could never be found.

She had abandoned us. We, her precious creations, had all been left to rot. We would cower at the mercy of the Girl Beyond Bounds for the rest of our petty existence…

The night had come when I stopped staring at my phone and hanging out in the pergola. Ate Gianna probably noticed the change in my routine, so she approached me while I was moping on the sofa.

“Quinn, come out,” she said. “It’s nice outside.”

“I’m staying here,” I replied, absentmindedly staring at the TV.

Ate Gianna shrugged in response and went to her room. That was when my eyes drew themselves to the window, and for a minute, I was hopeful. Maybe I would find an airplane flying toward me, and I would have to run to the garden to catch it.

But the airplane never came.

I thought that maybe it was time to take action. The longer I waited for something to happen, the closer my thoughts spiraled into oblivion. I got up from the sofa and brought my phone to my room.

I scrolled through my contacts and called Philip.

“Any news on the Author?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Philip said. “The last I heard, they were making sure of certain things. I wonder what that means. Anyway, I’ll get back to you once this is all figured out.”

“Okay. Thanks, Philip.”

It wasn’t the answer I wanted to hear, but at least it was something. In one way or another, I was no longer in the dark, and it was nice going to bed that way. I was not as scared, not as noxious. Once again, I was excited about the things to come.

When the sun met my eyes the next day, I was hopeful. My anticipation had turned into patience, and I was determined to keep myself busy until the big news arrived. I ate breakfast with my parents, put on my walking shoes, and took Oliver around the neighborhood. The morning was cold, and our surroundings were quiet. Aside from a few other people going on their daily runs, Oliver and I were mostly alone.

“I’m excited, Oliver,” I told him. “Nervous, but excited. Once we find the Author, we should celebrate. What do you wanna do?”

Oliver replied with a bark and a wag of his tail.

As we approached the park, things got strange. The road ahead became blurry, so I adjusted my specs and squinted my eyes. It didn’t do me any good. I took it as a sign to go home; I shouldn’t be walking around with my vision impaired. So I tugged on Oliver’s leash and turned around, hoping my sense of direction was good enough to take me back. However, that was when the dark spots came, and shortness of breath followed.

My instincts screamed at me to cry for help. The neighbors’ houses surrounded us, so someone, anyone, was bound to hear me, but no sound came out when I opened my mouth. I clutched my chest and sank to my knees. Oliver began to bark frantically, and that was the last thing I heard.

▶︎▶︎

I had the weirdest dream.

At first, there was nothing but darkness. It was quiet, and I was all alone. I was only aware of the cold, hard ground against my bare skin as I stared at the emptiness around me. Slowly, I got up, wrapping my arms around my chest to keep myself warm, but it was no use.

“H—Hello?” I called to the void.

Then, my eyes opened to an expanse of white. No one was there to see me, but I felt exposed and conscious of my nakedness.

However, my fears soon materialized. In the distance, it appeared that someone else had made it to those abysmal planes with me.

But when I looked a little closer, she didn’t appear quite right.

She was void of any color, and jagged lines made up every curve and edge of her body. With much apprehension, I approached her, and that was when I heard her speak.

“Will I be pretty?” her sweet voice asked.

I didn’t know who she was talking to. Her eyes were distant, and there was no one else around.

“Will I be smart?” she then asked. “Will I have friends?”

Did someone reply to her? I didn’t hear anything. Instead, a gust of wind swirled all around me, making me shiver even more. My arms could only cover so much, and while I curled up on the ground, the girl before me stood still, unbothered. She only looked down at her hands, and she found something that wasn’t there before.

Color.

It spread to her arms, her shoulders, and finally to the rest of her. She shook off the jagged lines that once made up her body, and when her face flushed with color, she looked at me for the first time.

My heart stopped. It was me.

Confused, I stared right back at her, mesmerized by the dead look in her eyes. What did she think of when she saw me? Was she as shocked as I was?

But it was then I caught a glimpse of my hands, the color draining out of my fingers.

The girl only stood there and watched. She looked so full, so alive, a stark contrast to the hollowness that began to consume my body. I turned away from her and ran, going as far as my feet would carry me. I closed my eyes, hoping to escape, but that was when the visions began to play in my head. I saw the girl attending classes at St. John’s, sharing snacks with Harumi, hanging around with Deus Ex Machina, going on car rides with Julio…

Then, the visions faded, and so did I.