Where You Belong - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Unfortunately, performing the task at hand wouldn’t be as simple as they would have thought. They had been wandering the streets, without any luck for quite some time and Julia was getting exhausted. They hadn’t rested ever since they broke out of prison.

Looking at his watch, Xan realized that the sun should have come up a couple of hours ago. Something was seriously wrong, but he didn’t mention anything to Julia. He could see how all of this was breaking her already fragile remains of control. She was ready to fall to pieces, if anything else happened to her.

‘I can’t look into those eyes, they’re full of pain, full of suffering.’

They walked slowly, Julia was still shaking from shock, but Xan wasn’t going to rush her. They stopped in front of a sports shop.

‘Julia, are you ok? You need to rest,’ he gave her hand an encouraging squeeze and helped her sit down. ‘I don’t want to do this, but we have to get supplies. Sorry Sweetie.’

He turned and with a wink and a smile, dashed towards the shop. In the corner of his eye he saw how Julia gave him a little wave and that was all the courage he needed to do what had to be done.

Xan had picked all of the clothes for himself in a matter of seconds, but wanted something special for Julia. On the other hand he didn’t want to leave her waiting on her own for too long. Finally he went with a nice tennis set, and even though it was summer, a warm pullover just in case. He was surprised at the range of products in a sports shop and how much of what they needed was there. Just when he was about to leave the shop he noticed something he knew would make Julia very happy. He picked it up and headed for the door.

When he got out he regretted the unnecessary stall. He cursed himself as he saw a dark figure standing over a terrified Julia. Xan ran and without warning used the tent pole he had slung over his shoulder as a club. The wood cracked as the robust man growled in pain. As he rose from the floor, Xan realized it wasn’t a man at all. His face was disfigured and as he growled and got up to face his assailant, Xan noticed he had a sharp set of fangs. It was a vampire!

There was no time to comprehend what was just happening, Xan split the pole into two where he had previously cracked it and prepared himself.
The attack had neither speed, nor technique, but the brute force of the vampire was far too much for Xan to handle. With a mighty swing he threw Xan across a pile of garbage bags onto a parked car. This time, the loud ‘crack’ hadn’t come from the tent pole and Xan candidly hoped it wasn’t one of his ribs. The impact had knocked his breath out, but he wasn’t going to give up. He concentrated, closed his eyes ever so briefly and took a deep breath, but before he could compose himself, he felt a pair of hands close over his throat.

Julia had somehow managed to cower away while they struggled on the hood of the car. She was still in shock but the image of the vampire about to strangle the only thing she ever cared about gave her a whole new strength. What did she see in all of those vampire movies?

Xan tried frantically to free his arms from the painful grip of the vampire, but it was hopeless. The vampire hit him hard with its head and savagely sank its teeth into Xan’s neck. He was helpless, unable to move or do anything to stop the vampire from feeding on him, suddenly his whole body jerked as he felt the creature drain the blood from his body. His vision was becoming blurred when suddenly the pressure on his body disappeared. Somehow he managed to roll over, but as he pushed on the vampire, it simply crumbled in his arms. As it fell off the hood and hit the pavement, it immediately turned to dust. Xan’s body gave way, but Julia dropped the wooden pole she had used to ‘stake’ the vampire’s heart and caught him before he could join the vampire on the floor.

‘He’ll be ok, he must be ok, please, please, be ok. Why was I so slow? Why didn’t I do it earlier? Why?’ Julia sobbed over Xan’s limp body, ‘Julia, you always mess everything up, can’t you do anything right?’

But all her inner anxiety eased when she felt a warm puff of air on her back. He was still breathing! She prayed to the goddess Artemis to give her the power to heal him…

Xan woke up to a beautiful tune a distant voice was humming. As he came to he realized it was Julia. It was a sad and solemn melody, but Xan saw the happiness on Julia’s face. She was sitting a couple of meters away, smiling in his direction. Xan also noticed that she was wearing the tennis shirt and shorts he had picked for her.

‘I must be dreaming…’ he thought. The image was so beautiful that it couldn’t have been real.

‘Xan, you’re ok!’ Julia screamed as she ran and threw her arms around him. They hugged each other to their heart’s content, letting all the anxiety and pain of the last encounter slowly fade to nothingness. They were together again and that was all that mattered.

‘Julia, I’m so sorry,’ Xan explained after they finally let go, ‘if I came any later it could have…’ he shuddered at the thought.

Julia put a finger to his lips. ‘L-lets not t-talk about it ok?’ she seemed to be having very similar thoughts about her own arrival.

‘No, I’m really, really sorry,’ he said earnestly, then added, ‘I promise I’ll never leave you alone again!’

Julia looked at him and blushed, ‘R-Really?’

‘Yeah, really,’ Xan smiled.

‘He’s so sweet, I must be dreaming.’

But there was nothing dream-like in the way he then kissed her. She could feel her body melting, but felt so safe in Xan’s embrace that she simply let go and let him hold her as the rest of the world faded away. When they broke apart, both just stood there in an awkward silence.

‘Was that too much? Did I go too far?’ Xan thought.

‘Oh my, oh my, oh my, that was the nicest thing in the world,’ Julia was beaming inside, ‘now, say something Julia, say something, anything!’

‘What do you say after you kiss someone for that long? Or are you supposed to do something? Is she waiting for me to do it? But what is ‘it’?’

Desperate to do something and not just stand there like a totem pole, Xan instinctively ran a hand over his neck, expecting to feel the wound, but found nothing. He was sore, but there was no sign of his injury.

Julia seemed to notice this and frowned slightly.

‘Um, I, I prepared s-something to eat,’ she muttered shyly in an attempt to hide her disappointment, ‘but… I’m n-not good at using t-these things,’ she pointed at the camping cooker and cans Xan remembered taking at the shop.

‘What? What did I do?’ he thought confusedly, ‘Oh… oh my, is she thinking?’

‘You healed me,’ he said. It came out a little blunter than he expected and tried to compensate, ‘thank you.’

‘NOT better!’ he told himself.

He decided he would show her just how much he was thankful for her treatment. She had now gone on to look disgustedly at, what she though, was a meal unworthy of someone she loved. Overcoming a pain in his side he didn’t notice before that Julia must have missed or been unable to heal, he moved over to her and gently scooped her up in his arms.

Surprised, but smiling nonetheless, Julia enjoyed the sensation of being completely ‘in the hands’ of another. He carried her over to the cooker, where he gently sat her down and smiled. Whatever doubts she may have had until then about his not liking her ‘gift’ disappeared.

‘You got to be Nurse Julia for the night, now it’s my turn to take care of you,’ they both smiled this time.

This would be the first time Xan would make use of those brief moments with his mother, where he’s put on her makeup before her performances. He used all of the ‘special things’ he found in the shop to carefully clean Julia’s face and tie her hair back in a cute ponytail. After half an hour, he took out a mirror from his back pocket and showed it to her. She hesitated, and then looked into the mirror.

‘This can’t be me, I’m ugly and unattractive and…’

‘And this isn’t even half as beautiful as you look in my eyes,’ he whispered in her ear and gave her a soft kiss, ‘thanks for taking care of me.’

Julia cuddled up in Xan’s arms and soon after she fell asleep, smiling. Xan thought that she probably hadn’t slept since the vampire attacked them. He sat there for hours, just watching her breathe in and out, occasionally looking around to spot any danger. Surprisingly, not a single person passed through the park all day.

Xan wondered where all of the people had gone, then about the vampire, then vampires were running in all directions. They were screaming, ‘we’ve killed all the people,’ they laughed and danced, then they looked at Xan and said, ‘but don’t worry, we’re not going to kill you, you aren’t people!’ Xan woke up with a start.

‘That was a weird dream,’ he thought, but couldn’t lie to himself, ‘what if we really aren’t people? People can’t heal injuries and make animals appear out of nowhere.’

Another problem troubled him. They were out of prison for two days now, the world didn’t look like it was about to return to normal and they still had no means of getting to England.

He smoothed Julia’s hair, and gazed at her adorable face. It still felt like it was all a dream. Suddenly Julia started mumbling in her sleep, she screamed into the quiet of the park and threw her arms in all directions. Xan struggled to keep a hold on her.

‘No, please! Let go of me, it hurts please, please stop…’

Julia continued shouting and screaming for a couple of seconds, then, as quickly as it had started, the dream faded. She woke up with tears in her eyes.

‘I-I…’

‘It’s ok Julia, it’s ok. It was a dream, you’re safe now.’

‘H-he came into my r-room and, and…’

‘It was only a dream, it wasn’t real. I’d never let anyone hurt you. I promise,’ and he meant it, but it hadn’t escaped Xan what the dream was probably really about.

‘I k-know…” Julia sobbed into his shoulder, ‘I just…’

‘Is there anything I can do?’

‘Just stay close to me…’ Julia couldn’t believe the words even came out of her mouth, let alone so clearly.

‘Gladly,’ Xan smiled, ‘that’s the only thing I ever want to do anyways!’

‘You,’ Julia pouted, ‘you’re making me blush on purpose!’ but there wasn’t too much authority in her voice.

They both laughed and rolled around in the grass together. After a while they were sitting next to each other again, dirty, but in a great mood.

‘Look at you! We spent hours trying to clean you up and look what you do to yourself!’ Xan joked.

‘O-oh, I-I’m sorry…’ Julia mumbled.

‘No, no, no! I’m only joking. I don’t mind a bit. You’re just as beautiful with grass in your hair.’

‘G-grass? W-where…’ Julia started ruffling her hair.

Xan could only smile at her innocence. ‘Julia, you’re so cute when you worry,’ he hugged her, ‘you know, there’s nothing in this world I’d want more than just sit here and continue doing this,’ he said in complete honesty.

‘I know,’ Julia whispered, ‘but?’

‘But we have to get going. If the man was right, things are going to get worse and I’d really like to get this over with as soon as possible,’ he doubted this was something that could be ‘over and done with as soon as possible’ but he wasn’t about to worry Julia now that she was in a happy mood.

‘M-me too,’ she nodded.

They gathered and packed their supplies and even though Xan insisted Julia didn’t have to carry anything, she clung to a small bag, gave him a puppy-eye look and pouted her lips until he gave in.

‘You know I couldn’t deny you anything, when you give me that look, it’s so adorable!’ Xan laughed.

With that settled they made their way back into the centre. The city was in ruin. There were signs of combat on every corner and little was left that would remotely resemble the magnificent city it once was.

They continued to wander the deserted streets, the lack of bodies now just as scary as that of people.

‘Where is everyone?’ Xan voiced his thoughts, ‘and if there was fighting, where are the bodies?’

The question of where everyone was was answered as soon as they reached the docks. The whole harbour area was completely packed with, what seemed to them, the whole population of San Francisco.

‘Oh my God!’ Xan stared, ‘there’s no way we can get a ticket. Just look at the amount of people trying to get out of here.’

‘W-we don’t have any m-money anyways.’

‘Yeah, well usually you can get on board in trade for some work, but in this,’ he frowned, ‘let’s just try, we have nothing to lose.’

‘Y-Yeah ok.’

‘Julia….’ he paused, “don’t trust anyone and stick close to me ok?’

Julia nodded and immediately clung to Xan’s hand.

It took them nearly an hour just to get through the overcrowded square to a huge banner labelled: ‘Tickets’. They were far from surprised when they were told that all of the tickets to England were gone.

They saw the last two being sold to a man and his wife after somewhat of an auction occurred with hundreds of people screaming out their offers.

Just when they wanted to turn around and leave, hell broke loose. People started pushing in all directions. Xan and Julia held hands tightly but they were separated as mass hysteria overwhelmed the crowd.

The last thing Xan saw of Julia was her look of terror as she was swept away towards the market square. He had no idea what to do and what happened to scare everyone so much. Grown men were screaming, women fainting and most people just ran around like a stampede. Suddenly, Xan stumbled over a fallen lamppost. People started stamping over him and one leg knocked the wind right out of him. The continuous stampeding figures battered Xan as they tried to run away from what Xan now saw as a great fire in one of the corners of the square.

‘Where’s Julia? I have to find her, oh my God, what if something happens to her…’

He tried getting up, but every time another set of feet knocked him back down.

Meanwhile, Julia was being shoved and pushed further and further away from the only piece of security she had. Now she was in panic mode and much like the crowd, didn’t realize that all of the exits from the square were now on fire as well. It was a trap!

Xan was now desperate to get up. Anything could have happened to Julia by now, and his situation wasn’t any better. He focused and pictured a hawk in his mind. A bright green light flashed up in the sky and the creature replied to his summoning. Xan concentrated again communicating with the hawk.

‘Lend me your eyes!’ he commanded.

Suddenly he could see the whole square literally from birds-eye view. The hawk’s great eyesight allowed him to focus on and comprehend the position of the danger, but he still couldn’t see Julia.

‘Come to me!’ Xan ordered desperately.

He was now looking with his own eyes at a tiny speck in the sky that zoomed towards him. People jumped out of the way as the hawk landed on Xan’s hand.

He stood up.

‘Find Julia!’

Something he had never experienced happened to him the moment the bird left to fulfil its task. His vision split up so that he could see exactly what the hawk could and also his own vision. At first he was confused but in a couple of seconds he was navigating both himself and the creature as if he had done it all of his life…

Julia was now only meters away from the fire. People who weren’t looking ahead to see that they were surrounded continued to push her closer and closer, away from the other fire behind them. There was nothing she could do, the fire neared and neared.

‘Xan!!’ She screamed.

Even in the whole racket, Xan recognized that voice immediately. He ran as fast as he could, pushing people aside with the hawk showing him the closest route to Julia.

‘Julia…’ he shouted, ‘I’m coming.’

The voice spurred hope in Julia’s battered frame and she closed her eyes in concentration.

‘Scutum!’ She muttered the Latin word for shield and with a blinding flash the people around her were thrown away. A silver sphere surrounded her for a couple of seconds, tossing people aside before vanishing as fast as it came. She tripped and the last thing she could see was the pavement. Darkness clouded her vision and she could already feel the fire closing in on her.

Xan could now see Julia and he screamed as he saw her fall to the ground next to another woman lying close by. Xan sprinted towards them and pulled them out. Only moments later a wooden arch, collapsed to where they had been.

Xan lay them down nearby as the people finally organized themselves and tried to put out the fires. Many people cried, many wandered around looking for their friends and relatives and many just sat on the pavement in disbelief. Julia was unconscious and Xan sat with his head in his hands, cursing himself for not being able to do anything sooner.

A man tapped on his shoulder, it was the man who bought the last two tickets. He was holding the woman Xan pulled out of the fire in his hands.

‘I saw what you did. I saw you risk your life to save her. Thank you so much, I was too scared to do anything.’

Xan turned, his eyes full of tears now.

‘J-Julia…’ His head dropped again.

‘Is that the girl you saved? I am so sorry. Is there anything I can do?’

He didn’t reply. His world had collapsed on him.

‘X-Xan?’ a whisper roused him.

‘Julia!’ he exclaimed, ‘thank God you’re ok…’

The two strangers watched as Xan and Julia hugged each other and both tried to comfort the other.

‘I saw you looking for a ticket to England,’ the man said, ‘you can take ours. It’s the least we can do.’

Xan and Julia stared at them in disbelief.

‘Just take them and if you ever need anything, here’s my card. We’ll never forget this. Now go. The ship sails in an hour.’