Painted: 1.0.3

Chapter 3

The daylight settled down to a tired evening glow, and Kassi lay stretched out on her bed. She had tried to clean up the paint stains on her wall, but they wouldn't come off. She would deal with that later.

The house sat quiet around her, and, even though it was still early, Kassi felt a wave of fatigue come over her mind. Her thoughts of Jame ambled slowly away, and the world slipped into an unthinking darkness.

* * * * *

Kassi woke to the numb, tingling feeling that resulted when one’s cheek was pressed against concrete. Her body was relaxed against the ground, which protested and pushed back against her in odd, uncomfortable places. With some effort, she got her hands underneath her and pushed her achy body up.

She stood in a large, eerily empty courtyard. In the middle of this courtyard was a rather grandiose marble fountain. It spurted a display of silent, slow motion waterworks that sent creeping chills down Kassi's back when she watched them for too long. At the sides of the fountain stood two larger than life statues. These were also carved of marble, and their features were so smooth that Kassi wondered what sort of person could have created something so unsettlingly perfect.

The first statue was of an older man. His back was hunched a little bit, and his smile etched wrinkles into his face as he proudly held out a paintbrush.

The second statue stood a bit taller than the other and in his hand he held an elegant scepter.

The air of the courtyard pushed in on Kassi, and she squirmed under its thick grasp. It had no temperature and felt neither dry nor wet as it hovered around her. Though it was transparent, it toned everything around her to a duller, grayer shade. Kassi clenched her fingers around a bit of the air and stuck her tongue out to taste it. Something had transported her to a different place on Earth, or possibly not on Earth. Could this be the air of a different world? It didn’t feel very different.

Kassi realized, in that moment, that she must've been in a dream, although it almost felt too real for that. She didn't know what to make of it, but she somehow felt she couldn't worry. All anxiety had been stored in a deeper, calmer corner of her brain, and from that place confidence washed over all the unknowns. Maybe it was just a dream.

Around the courtyard was a circle of blocky, grey row houses, each with one large window and a metal door. They weren't exactly inviting. All the same, as nobody was coming out to talk to her, her only option would be to go and talk to them. Kassi moved across the courtyard to the most inviting looking house, which was really no different than the others, but seemed nicer somehow.

Kassi's footsteps surprised her as they landed, for they sounded loud and echoed among the enveloping silence. So, too, did her fist on the hard metal of the door as she knocked, before the courtyard subsided into muffled quiet again.

At last, the door gave a creak, and began to slowly open. Kassi could make out the shadowed figure of a tall, muscular boy who stood in its frame. He watched her for a long moment, until it became apparent to Kassi that he wouldn't make conversation, and so she decided to take it upon herself.

"I think I'm lost," she said timidly. "Could you help me?"

She didn't know why the words came out of her mouth. She should've said, 'I think I'm dreaming,' or, 'who are you,' or, 'hello,' or even, 'is this the land of strange fountains and statues?' but instead she asked for directions.

"I don't think I can help you." His voice came out in a low hiss, startling Kassi momentarily. She clenched her fists, determined not to be afraid.

"Why not?" she said, and was happy when her voice stood strong and clear.

"I think it's best you leave now, whoever you are," he jeered and began to close the door. Kassi put her hand out to stop him.

"No," she said, determined to find some help from this boy. "I really think this is where I'm meant to go."

The boy made no answer. Kassi decided then that she didn't find him very agreeable. Still, there was indeed a strange sort of pull coming from the house. This was the place where she was meant to go in this dream, she was sure of it.

"Alright, fine. Stay there," he said. Then, more to himself than to Kassi, "I'll bring Luk. He'll know what to make of this."

The boy turned and the door shut in Kassi's face again. She crossed her arms and played with a strand of her red hair that had fallen out of her thick ponytail. It took only a couple of seconds for the door to open again, this time all the way.

A second boy now accompanied the first. Though they wore similar, clothing (white, loose shirts and trousers), Kassi immediately sensed their being exact opposites in otherwise appearance and personality. While the first had dark skin and hair, the second was blonde, with lightly tanned skin, and a handsome smile on his lips. This boy—the second one—held out his hand without missing a beat and introduced himself. He was indeed the Luk the first boy had spoken of. Luk then introduced Kassi to the first boy, whose name was apparently Erko.

"She says she's lost," Erko said to Luk.

"I fell asleep in my bed at home and woke up here," Kassi explained. "And I think it must be a dream, but I can't fathom how. And I can't figure where on Earth I am otherwise!"

"Well, I'm ever so sorry," Erko said, not sounding very sorry at all. Luk put a hand on Erko's arm to calm him and turned to Kassi. She noticed that he had light brown eyes that sparkled in a way that almost reminded her of Jame's eyes.

"What did you just say?" Luk whispered to her.

"That I think I'm dreaming."

"No... what you said after that."

"Well, just that I don't know where on Earth I am," Kassi said. "It's an expression," she explained when Erko's face looked blank. Luk, on the other hand, seemed very excited about something or other. He took a deep breath and turned to Erko.

"What?" Erko asked, exasperated when Luk did nothing but look pointedly at Kassi.

Luk sighed. Obviously, Erko wasn't getting whatever Luk was trying to tell him.

"Erko, do you know what the Pictorians call their land?" Luk whispered.

"How should I know?"

"Earth," Luk whispered, his speech tinged with a strange accent that Kassi had only just noticed.

Erko still didn't get it.

"She's from Pictor Terra," Luk hissed and Erko gasped.

Kassi was finding it hard, if not impossible, to follow their conversation.

"If she's from Pictor, that means she must be a rebel," Erko said.

Luk raised his eyebrows. "Or one of her parents was a rebel."

"No," Erko shook his head. "We haven't been around that long."

"We haven't."

There was something apparently quite fascinating in the conversation between the two of them that Kassi couldn't understand, and she watched with utmost intrigue.

"There were rebels before us, you know," Luk said.

Erko's eyes widened and he turned to Kassi again. "Tell us about your parents," he demanded. "Where are they from?"

Kassi nodded skeptically. "I don't know anything about my father. He disappeared before I was ever born. And, well, my mother's name is Sila—Sila Regnum—" Kassi was going to continue, but something about the looks on the boy's faces told her they'd heard what the needed to.

Two pairs of eyes widened on the boy's faces, and their unsteady breath echoed throughout the courtyard.

"It's her," Erko said at last.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand—" Kassi started, but before she could say any more, Erko reached out, grabbed her arm with a firm grip and pulled her inside. The door slammed shut behind them, and the courtyard echoed to silence once more.

Erko practically ran through the maze of corridors inside, his footsteps clinking hard on the marble floor beneath them. His warm hand still held on to Kassi's arm, its grip tightening with every step. He didn't seem to want to let her go. Luk kept the pace on her other side, though he didn't hold on to her so desperately as Erko did.

"Where are we going?" Luk asked Erko, sounding a bit exasperated at his friend's hurriedness.

Erko whirled on Luk as he walked. "We're taking her to The Leader! We've been assuming she wouldn't arrive, but now everything's different."

"But I don't even know—" Kassi could've finished the sentence in a hundred different ways, but Erko cut her off before she could say any more.

"Just be patient. Soon, you'll be able to ask as many questions as you want."

Luk reached out and touched her other arm, the one on his side, and offered a smile.

"I know it's confusing," he said. "But we really aren't the people to give you the answers you need."

Kassi nodded, grateful for his kindness. She was beginning to feel tired, and she could feel her legs slowing. Erko tugged harder, and they turned another corner into an endless, high ceilinged hallway. Kassi's mind whirled further and further into darkness, and she had to blink to keep the hallway in view.

"Come on," Erko said, his voice almost muffled as it echoed through her ears. He tugged harder, and Luk's brow furrowed as he reached out to catch her fall. And that was the last thing Kassi saw before the blackness.