Life is fascinating to me. It intrigues me because you can never know everything there is to know about it, that insufficiency of knowledge concerns me, it’s inadequate, meagre. There's so much to know about the universe and yet we are aware of so little, I’ll ask you as I have asked many of my brothers before me, and my brothers who will live on after me, does that scare you? Does it intimidate you? The knowledge that you can never truly have because you can never truly understand it, you can have so much knowledge, but so little at the same time. I dwell in my mind, with the fact that I have that knowledge, I was granted such power, yet... I can never understand why I have it, or if I even desire it. The things I know, knew, and will know are all one to me now. And I have the article, this book to thank for this. But if such power were to become vulnerable to the hands of an unholy force, or the fact that man will manipulate such power to bring carnage to the world. That, my friend, is what scares me. It shakes me to my core and contributes to my perturbation. That’s why I want out. I need out, I have to get out, I absolutely must leave this place.
00:00
I sit down at my desk, a distant familiar place, and I work. I work because I want answers, a man’s greatest weakness is himself, and I want to rise above such a pitiful burden. I am not alone in this strange world that I live in, quite frankly, I’m never alone, I had liberated the people of this place from their own minds, and they now respect me and worship me, for my goodness to them, but now? They are confined within the boundaries of my own.
Today would be a special day for me, I had more company than what I was accustomed to.
I wrote down notes on my journal as I usually did, pondering on the knowledge that I have, had and will have. The power that I have in my grasp overwhelms me, I look to my side, there lies the book, the accursed book that had apprehended me in my own thoughts, it had granted me so much, yet taken even more. It has a way of playing the mind, feeding on the human desire to understand and know. The man who I had acquired the book from had an arsenal of these corrupted trinkets, I was too naive to see it then, but I see it more vividly now, and I'll never forgive myself for allowing myself to succumb to such evil. But the past cannot be altered, I won’t alter it, not just yet. In my endless days of work and comprehension, a young girl comes to me, a girl who shares my eyes and my curious demeanour, the face of a person who wants to know, but doesn’t know what. I see her wondering, traversing through the endlessness of my mind, desperate for answers I know I shan’t provide. If she knew what I knew, she’d be no better than me. But I know deep inside that she will be the person to liberate me, as I liberated them, she tells me stories, she tells me about how she’s travelled across the world to see me, to find me, so we could be together again, and we could reunite. Did you know that she steps foot on the Square Mile today? Another distant familiar place of mine, it is a beautiful memory that I despise. Her countenance is burnt into my mind, constantly spinning like a broken record player, she looks for me, and I know it, I know because I have always known, I expect these visions because I have been expecting her, everything I wanted was granted to me in my past, my present and my future, because I play destiny like a violin and I create beautiful rhythms with it. Rhythms that only I can interpret and understand, nobody will ever appreciate my intent, because they don’t occupy my mind, the most powerful mind in existence. I call for my assistant, a loyal entity, and a true honest individual of the subconscious.
“Do you know of the youthful child who lives in my head? She tells me endless stories about her and her companions, I would like to see her,”
She looks at me with perplexity, trying to evaluate the weight of my speech, as I said before, only I can understand what I speak of, because it reaches complexity beyond comprehension.
“We will be expecting her, I would like you to bring her to the Citadel upon arrival to this place, I have no doubt that she can save us,” the assistant bows her head and leaves the room, the sound of her footsteps echoing in my study. Young girl, I have been waiting since the start of time for you, and I will be waiting forever before you arrive, the concept of time here is shattered and is substituted with more conventional values in the overworld, that’s why you hold such merit to my life, I would like to meet you soon, you WILL meet me soon, it’s your destiny…
(...)
The hustle and bustle of the big city was overwhelming to say the least for everyone, apart from Madeleine, who was quite used to London from all the trips she had taken to the place. Everywhere Lucia turned, there was a building that pierced the evening sky, and cars moving along the separate roads, blaring horns ringing through her head. She missed the tranquillity of her old neighbourhood, but she was certainly fascinated by the change in atmosphere.
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“Well, how are we going to get to that plaza then?” Jake asked, gazing at the cityscape in awe.
“I guess we should ask around, maybe get a taxi or something,” Cynthia started, “I’m sure that the address isn’t too far from here,”
“Where are we going to get the money for a taxi?” Lucia asked, looking around at the ongoing cars to see if she could spot one, “I have some money, £50 I was given, maybe that’ll be enough?” Aiden mentioned, fishing around his pockets and checking his wallet. There it was. A £50 note that he held around their faces.
“Put that back before you lose it,” Jake sighed, Aiden stuffed it back in his wallet, not before giving everyone a triumphant grin. Madeleine and Magnus were busy asking people for directions to a taxi stand, which they were all pointed towards the same direction. As they traversed through the streets, they could hear music from the multiple stores and markets which glowed, with the lustre of many colours, from flaxen to indigo. Lucia had never seen a place so congested, she almost feared getting lost under the sheer number of civilians that were strolling through the shopping centre.
“I see it!” Magnus shouted, pointing into the distance, the group could see a line of taxis that were lined up on the far road, “Come on, let’s go- wait, where’s Jake and Cynthia?” He looked around, catching a glimpse of them, in one of the designer stores, trying on hats and taking selfies, he waved at them, to get their attention, to no avail. “I’ll get them,” Aiden sighed, “You should go on and grab that taxi before it leaves,” Magnus, Lucia and Madeleine nodded and made their way to the taxi stands, where they stopped one taxi and got into it. The driver helped them put the luggage into the boot.
“Where to lads?” The driver asked in a thick British accent, looking back at them with a wink, “We’re waiting for more people to come, before we go anywhere,” Lucia reminded,
“Ah, I see, how much more people will be coming then?”
“3 more,”
The driver looked around the cab to check if he had the capacity to hold an added 3 people, he eventually shrugged, “Meh, that’s fine, I think we’d be good to go,”
There was a knock on the window, Aiden, Cynthia and Jake entered the taxi, out of breath. “You didn’t need to run, I wasn’t going to go anywhere,” The driver laughed.
“Oh, that’s good, that’s fine,” Cynthia said, still puffing, the taxi looked large enough to fit a dozen people, they only had 6.
“Where to?” The driver asked once again tapping on the wheel.
“7231 Cedarwood St, SDE75 9UN,” Madeleine said, reciting one of the documents she had in her pockets. The driver gave a brief nod, tapping in the address into a navigation app, and setting up his taximeter.
“We’ll get there in 30 minutes, it’s near the outskirts of the city,” he said, starting the taxi up and setting off to their destination.
“I'll take it that you’re going to the annual Christmastide festival?” The driver started, “Nobody really visits those parts for any other reason,”
“What’s that? I can’t say I’ve heard of it before,” Lucia said, yawning.
“It’s one of the biggest festivals in the city, I might even dare to say in the country, it’s a Christmas festival, nothing more, nothing less, but there are so much activities and so much culture behind it, it became a prominent touristic spot for many people,” he explained, “it’s good for businesspeople like me who make a profit from the ‘inconvenient’ location of the plaza,” Aiden scanned the icy landscape, acknowledging that there was more snow here than in any other region, it slowly drifted through the sky, sticking to the windows, the trees and grass around these areas were much different to the ones he’d seen in the train, they were covered in frost and white and they stood before them in mightier numbers. “It’s very snowy around these parts, you know?” He spoke his mind.
“Couldn't agree more, but I couldn’t tell you why either, it’s just like that for some odd reason, prolly the reason why it hosts the Christmastide festival, because it certainly looks the part, eh?”
Madeleine and Cynthia nodded,
“It's really beautiful actually, I’ve never seen scenery like this before,” Cynthia added, “You can say that again!” Madeleine smiled.
“If you’re not here for the festival... Why’d you want to go there? If you don’t mind me asking,” The driver asked, Lucia handed him an image of the shop that they were going to, he stopped the car and took a look at it. “That is by FAR the sketchiest thing I have ever seen in my life,” he muttered, “That’s what I said too!” Magnus laughed, “It’s a creepy building indeed,”
The driver nodded, “What business do you have hanging around... that thing,”
“We have a gift that was sent to that address, we wanted to collect it,” Lucia said, the driver was still scrutinizing the photo, he looked up from it and turned to face the group,
“Where are you all from?” He asked, scratching his head, “We’re from the US,” was the reply
“So, you came here, all the way from the United States, to collect a gift from the dodgiest store that I've ever seen?” He narrowed his eyes, “Haha, I love it!” He chortled, before starting the car up again and continuing the journey, whistling on as the car drove down the many snowy streets and icy roads in the city.
(...)
“Here we are!”
The taxi pulled up to the plaza, and at once Lucia could tell why it was the so-called ‘perfect place’ to hold a Christmas festival. The ground was covered in a soft layer of white, the clouds lay on the ground instead of hovering in the azure, the reflection from the sun was almost blinding. There were various markets and shops open for business, attracting people, from the left, right and centre.
“That’ll be £15,” the driver said, tapping at his taximeter, Aiden handed him the £50, and got his change back, after saying their thanks and removing their luggage from the boot of the taxi, it left leaving them in the plaza to explore.