Installment 26

About 20 minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I opened it and was handed pizza and a bag by someone I didn't know. He didn't seem to be from the pizza place and almost growled when I tried to step out of the door to take the food from him. I quickly grabbed the pizza and bag and went back inside. Sure enough the bag clinked in a satisfying way and I pulled out 4 bottles of corona and a lime. Good on Elena for thinking of everything. Well, almost everything. I still have to pull the lime apart with my fingernails, but the first swig of beer made it well worthwhile.

I opened the pizza box and scoffed down 3 or 4 slices really quickly, before slowing down and savouring the taste. I hadn't eaten since I left Janet and Elena at that pub in Scotland, and not for a day at least before that. I couldn't even tell how long ago that was. It was good pizza. Not too much cheese, and a decent selection of vegetables, rather than just the usual lazy peppers, sweetcorn and onions. Peppers and onions, I could go with, but sweetcorn on pizza never quite worked for me, mostly because it was almost always the kind that came from a tin and tasted more of sugar then of sweetcorn.

I polished off the first beer and opened another, ripping the lime apart get another slice and shoving it into the opening of the bottle, squeezing as much juice as possible into the beer. I decided to save the last couple of slices of pizza for later in case my captors forgot that I needed to eat more than once a week like Elena had before. I looked out the window and saw it was getting dark. With nothing else to do, and no desire to sleep, I drank my way through the other two beers, then sucked the juice out of the remainder of the lime, all the while, I imagined what lay in store for me. Who this strange man, or not man, but being was. What he wanted. What the pendant was. So many questions, but I didn't get the feeling I was going to be asking many of them. I had a horrible feeling I was going to be expected to answer questions, and I was fairly sure I didn't know the answers.

I wondered what he'd look like. Would he even look like a man? Janet and Elena were both pretty attractive, but in the kind of way that you wouldn't necessarily notice them immediately. I wondered if he'd be the same. I wondered if he'd be nice to me like Elena was when she wasn't losing her temper.

I had started to think 'like Janet was' but my brain still couldn't quite work its way round Janet. She was, what? In love with me? How does that make sense? I'd felt bad when I'd woken up and realised that she wasn't Kelly, but she'd orchestrated the whole thing. It was strange. I'd felt so safe with her until then... and I missed the dreams. If I was honest, I'd been disappointed that it was Elena walked through the door, because Janet would give me Kelly back, even if it was only an illusion, I wanted to feel her again.

I lay on the bed, pulled the covers around me and stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. I so wanted sleep. I wanted the comfort of sleep, even if I couldn't get the dreams.

It seemed like hours later. The sky outside had gone dark and the only light in the room came from the small table lamp by the bed. I heard the door handle turn slowly. I didn't move. I thought maybe if I pretended to be asleep, they'd leave me alone.

“Hello Fiona,” I vaguely recognised the voice, but I couldn't quite place it.
I didn't move.
“Fiona, I know you're awake, there's no point pretending.”
I didn't move.
“Seriously, I'm not just trying it on saying that I know you're awake on the off-chance you are. I can actually sense consciousness. Didn't they explain this to you?”
I turned over to look at him.
“That's better.”
“Who are you?”
“I'll ask the questions, thank you,” he paused, as if waiting for objections, but I didn't have the strength, “How are you, Fiona?”
I thought for a moment, trying to come up with something witty to say, but couldn't, “I'm reasonable, I guess.”
“Are you tired?”
“No,” I told him, “I wish I was. I wanted to sleep, but couldn't.”
He nodded. As I'd expected, he was attractive in a very ordinary way.
“I mean, I guess I'm kind of tired, but not sleepy, if that makes sense.”
He nodded again, still saying nothing. He reminded me of the Occupational Health guy I'd been sent to when I'd been off work for 3 weeks once. They just sit back and expect you to tell them everything. Even though I knew I'd been genuinely sick for that 3 weeks, the OH guy's silences made me feel guilty.
“Say something.”
“What would you like me to say?”
“I dunno. Hello?”
“Hello, Fiona.”
“Tell me your name.”
“I don't have a name. Not one you'd understand, anyway.”
“What does that mean?”
“Speech is a mortal thing. I never chose a mortal name because it didn't seem necessary. I so rarely speak to mortals.”
“Should I be honoured?”
“Honoured? Honoured is one way of thinking of it.”
“How would you describe it?”
“You should be... wary.”
“Whatever. I'm sick of being worried and scared and wary or whatever. I tried to turn myself in. They wouldn't take me. I need to get back to London. Maybe they just don't know what's going on in... wherever we are.”
“Where do you think you are?”
“Dunno, Lancashire, I guess.”
He nodded.
"Is that you confirming we're in Lancashire?"
"No."
"Are we in Lancashire?"
"Not exactly."
"What's that mean?"
He just shook his head.
I shrugged, deciding that I'd play his game too. We shared the silence for several long minutes.
Eventually, he cleared his throat and I looked up, expecting him to speak. He didn't; just stared at me.
"What?"
He blinked, but said nothing.
"Look, what do you want to know? Why am I here?"
"You know what I want to know."
"About the pendant?"
"Yes."
"But what about it?"
"You can see it."
"Yes."
"Most people can't."
It sounded strange when he said 'people'; as if he was spitting out the word.
"You mean you can't?"
"I mean most people can't."
"But mortals can?"
"No, Fiona. Most mortals can't see it. Most people can't."
"Right... but I can?"
"So it seems."
"So, what do you want to know?"
"We want to know how it is that you can see the pendant, and we want you to teach us."
"Elena said you could see it."
"She was wrong."
"But she said it's yours."
"It is... in a manner of speaking."
"Let me guess; it's complicated."
He half smiled in a patronising way, "The world is a rich and complicated place. Very little in it is simple."
I really wanted to say something clever in response, but I couldn't think of anything.
"I don't know why I can see the pendant. I just can."
"Not good enough."
I put my hand in my pocket and lightly ran my fingers over the smooth design of the pendant.
"You know that you can't get out of here even if I can't see you, don't you?"
"Why not?"
"The door's locked. The key is outside with Elena. She won't open the door unless I tell her to."
I frowned, thinking that there must be some way to trick him and escape, but unable to come up with a more detailed plan than that.
"So... shall we start?"
"Start what?"
"We need to discuss why you can see the pendant, so I can learn to see it too."
"Ok."
He smiled at me, expectantly. I watched him for a moment, then looked away, feeling awkward.
"So, tell me."
"It's just there, so I can see it."
"Right, but I can't."
"Jesus! I know that. I just don't know why."
"Well, can you see other things?"
I looked at him in disbelief, "Yes. I can see many things. Pretty much all visible things."