House on the River

Chapter 4 – Road to Nowhere

Leaving the club only moments after their conversation, Kira walked alone through the parking garage, got in her car and waited. Her heart was pounding. Half of her wanted to change her mind, leave the car, go back to her room, beat her head into a pillow, and never come out again to see daylight. The other half needed answers, and would not rest until she got them, no matter what the process or the consequences. One thing she did know was that her torment would not end until this was solved. There was also an even smaller part that had another reason for waiting, one so tiny she could not see it, but that one had no rhyme or reason. One thing was indeed certain, and that was she had to remain calm if she was going to get anywhere. She could not allow him to see the fear in her eyes, or her desperation. It took all her willpower to keep from breaking down into a quivering mess as he approached her vehicle.

“Hurry up and get in,” she said quickly and coldly, as he opened the car door from the passenger side, trying not to look his way.

Silently, they left the parking garage as quickly and as stealthily as possible, without being seen.

With neither of them really knowing what to say to each other, the silence was deafening. They had been on the road about five minutes before she found the courage to speak again. “Where are we going?” Her voice was cold and steady, staring straight ahead at the road in front of her, as she headed north down Alpine Avenue.

“Just keep driving. It doesn’t matter the direction. As long as we are on the road, no one will take notice of us.”

She nodded. This was not exactly comforting. Although she had an unquenched suppressed desire for him, she still feared him above all else. She continued to debate in her head whether or not this whole thing had been a good idea.

“What is this about, anyways?” She asked, in a tone as steady as she could manage. “I mean, what was so important to talk to me about that we had to leave the club driving towards who knows where?”

“I have already explained that to you. And I can tell with a fair degree of certainty that you would not have let me get in the car with you had you truly not known what I was talking about.”

Kira felt her face turn hot. She glanced his way briefly with daggers in her eyes in stunned disbelief. How in the seven hells could he possibly know what she had been going through? The very thought terrified her. Yes, when things couldn’t possibly get worse than they already were, fate came around and kicked her in the head. There was a thirty-second pause, while she tried to retain her composure as best as she could. The tips of her fingers began to shake, as she tried to keep the car steady on the road.

After a moment passed, she found the ability to finally speak. “So you think this is all some sort of spell. Some sort of bad magic, coming from who knows where.” It was the only words she could think of.

“So then you do admit then that I am not making this up. Now we are getting somewhere.”

Kira wanted to reach out across the cockpit of the car and smack him. Smack him for what he and his clan had done to her and her family back on Thra, and smack him for what he was doing to her now. He had tricked her essentially into admitting the problem she had now been fighting for months in two simple sentences. All she could do, however, was keep her eyes on the road. Her heart was pounding in fast steady thumps, so loudly she could hear it.

SkekNa meanwhile, saw her distress. “I know this isn’t easy for you, gelfling, and believe me, I do have better things to do with my time too. But in order to solve this, I need to know everything that you have seen and witnessed.”

Telling SkekNa of her torment between Jen and himself was the very last thing Kira ever wanted to do in this lifetime. “You first.” Her voice was soft and emotionless.

There was a brief pause. SkekNa bit his lip and fidgeted with the rings on his fingers. “Alright, fine. If that’s what it takes, I will tell you. It’s just, well…” He stumbled on his words. “I can’t sleep at night.”

“Is that all? You had me drive you all the way out here to tell me you can’t sleep at night?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s the reason why I can’t sleep at night. Like I said, something is off. I can’t see or touch it, but something is definitely wrong.”

“You’ve already said that twice. What is it exactly that you think is wrong?” Kira was not quite sure if she really wanted to hear his answer to the question.

“Do I really have to explain this to you, gelfling?”

“Yes, unless you can think of another way. You’re the one who dragged me out here all this ways. Now I want to know why.”

SkekNa continued. “I really can’t put it into words. But you are part of it. Yes, you are definitely part of it. I know not if you yourself are behind this, but I have had thoughts recently that never would have occurred to me before. Ever. Do you understand what I mean?” He looked directly at her as he said this.

Kira, against her own willpower, looked back at him briefly. “I can’t believe this. No, I mean, I really can’t believe this. This is impossible.”

“So you do understand.”

Kira only nodded. She could find no words at this moment.

SkekNa shook his head in disbelief as well. Yes, this was impossible, yet it was happening, all the same.

“Are you the one behind it?” He asked her. “Are you the one who concocted this little spell? I do not take kindly to this, you know. There will be consequences for the one who I find involved in this little prank.” He could feel his elbows beginning to shake.

It was at this moment Kira finally found her voice. “Do you honestly think I would be the cause of this? This is nuts, SkekNa. Total insanity. My life has been a living hell, and you honestly think that I would cause this on purpose? You’re right, something is definitely very wrong, there’s a bad force coming from somewhere, but I can sure as hell tell you with 100 percent certainty I am not the one behind it. And as I told you before, I do not respond to threats.”

“I’m not threatening you. Just know, this isn’t fun for me either. These dreams I’ve had, they keep me awake at night. I’m lucky if I get two hours of sleep. It’s you who keeps me awake.”

Kira tried to control her trembling fingers. This was the very last thing she wanted to hear. Yet there it was, laid out before her on the table. “Please do not tell me these things. It really doesn’t help matters.” She wanted to cry or scream. Maybe both.

“Like I said before, I just want to get to the bottom of the matter, find out the cause, and put an end to it. I can surmise you want the same thing, am I right?”

“This is mad. This is insane. Who in the hell would do this to us?” She knew though, he was absolutely right. No way was this a coincidence. At least now, she had something to work with. Someone, or something had done this to both of them. There was no doubt of that. Who or what, and why? What in the world would be someone’s motive to cause her to feel the way she did? Was it for their own sick entertainment, perhaps? Knowing finally she was not the one who was losing her mind was a small comfort, if only temporary. Knowing that SkekNa had been feeling it too was not.

“Yes, you’re right, this is mad, and I want to get to the bottom of it,” SkekNa agreed.

“So where do you suggest we begin?” she asked.

“I need to know everything that has been happening to you. Tell me gelfling - I mean, Kira. When did it start?”

She looked straight ahead towards the road. There was no way this could be true. Yet it was, and the proof was being laid out, right in front of her. “Alright, if you must know, I will tell. I want to get to the bottom of this as much as you do,” she replied, resigning herself to her fate. “I have dreams too. Thoughts. Things that have occurred to me that I never would have conceived otherwise. That’s all you need to know on that matter and I’m not going into any detail. As far as when it began, I really can’t say. A couple of months, maybe.”

“Same here. I can’t really pinpoint it though. I’ve wracked my brain trying to figure this out, and I still came up with nothing. As much as I hated the thought, that’s when I decided coming to you had to be my next option.” He looked away from her as he said this.

“I see. Please understand though, I have no more answers than you, nor do I have the first idea where to look. Trust me on this, I wish I did.”

The longer they discussed this, the further away from the city Kira drove. She could feel her stomach growling, since she had not eaten since three o’clock. It was now one a.m., and they were coming upon a small town that bordered on the city where they lived.

“Are you hungry?” SkekNa asked if her, as if reading her thoughts.

“Actually yes. Why do you ask?”

“I see a little diner up the road there on the left. I think they might be open. I was just wondering if you wanted to stop. I can feel my stomach growling too.”

Having a meal with him seemed a preposterous idea to Kira at the moment, but she really did not want to drive any further out of the city than they already were. Besides, she truly was hungry, and figured she may be able to think more clearly on a full stomach.

“Don’t you think people in there may recognize us?” she asked cautiously. Running into people they actually knew, or worse, having a reporter spot them together could potentially make their problems much worse than they already were. Their faces were easily recognizable to the public.

“Nobody working this late at a place like this is going to give a shit who we are, or where we came from. And I’m not worried about running into any one we know. I doubt any resident of the Random House has even been here before or even knows the name of this place.”

“Let’s go then before I change my mind. I’m starved. As it stands now, there’s nothing now that could make this evening any more bizarre.”

“I can’t agree more,” replied SkekNa. It was the truth for both of them.

SkekNa did not bother to hold the door for her as they entered the diner. Such customs were foreign to him, and even if he were familiar, his self-absorbed mind probably would not have given it a second thought. Still, as she walked in front of him, he looked her up and down from head to toe, taking in her essence. No, he told himself. He must not be distracted by her enchantment. There was a task at hand, and he could not lose his focus on getting the answers he needed. That, after all, was indeed the reason he had approached her in the first place, wasn’t it?

To Kira’s relief, nobody seemed to take notice of them. They waited to be seated, and then were given a table in the corner by the window. She looked over her menu, thinking to herself that even though she felt physically hungry, she was not sure that she would be able to eat and keep it down. Her stomach was entangled in knots. She finally decided on a dinner salad and with some Italian dressing and an iced tea. Na Na decided on chicken liver and some fried cheese sticks.

“Do you know what you’re having?” He asked her, trying to ease the tension.

“Yes, I think so,” Kira replied. She felt her stomach ease up slightly, but not enough to where she felt she could relax.

The waitress approached them to take their order. They told her what they wanted, and resumed their conversation.

“You probably are already of aware of this Kira, but I must reiterate no one is to know about this little problem. It would be good for neither of us.”

“I really do not think you have to remind me of that, SkekNa. I mean, I wasn’t thinking of writing an article about it in our weekly newspaper.” She said this cynically, with a hint of a smile, referring to her part time job as a journalist for the Random House’s weekly paper, the Random Times. Room, board and food were always free, but many of the residents often retained full or part time jobs to get a little extra cash on the side.

“I’m sure you’re not. I just want you to know that my clan is not very fond you, and they would be fond of this little problem even less. This is not something I want getting out. After all, we feared and hated your kind so much we tried to cleanse our world of your race, and we succeeded at that, all except for two.”

Kira’s almost relaxed demeanor tensed up, and her expression turned to ice, as she glared at him with daggers in her eyes. “I’m well aware of that too, thank you. Like I said, I really do not need to be reminded.” She did nothing to hide the pained anger from her face.

“I do not mean to upset you, and I’m sure you’re well aware of the situation. I’m bringing that up because I want you to know what’s at stake here. My clan cannot find out about this. I honestly do not know what they would do - to me or you.”

Kira blinked purposely, clasped her hands in front of her face and let out a big sigh through her nose. Yes, she was more than well aware of the circumstances.

“Look gelfling, I told you I would do you no harm, and I meant it. I’m just saying we must be careful.”

Kira nodded her head, attempting to hide the sorrow in her eyes for the loved ones she had lost to the Skeksis’ fear and hatred. Spell or no spell, she honestly did not know how it was possible that she felt the way she did.

Just as she was about to respond, the waitress arrived with their food. As hungry as she was, Kira picked at her food, eating in slow, deliberate bites. Though table manners were not something Na Na was accustomed to, he found himself entirely nervous eating around her. Why this was, he didn’t know, but then again, there was much going on as of late that could not be explained.

“How is your food? Was it cooked alright?” Na Na asked her, once again trying to ease the tension.

“It’s a salad. You don’t cook salads.”

“I see,” He responded. He did not know what else to say.

Kira took another bite, swallowed carefully, looked at him, and then began to sum up their situation. “So I guess it’s obvious we have a little problem, and we don’t have to say it, we both already know what it is. Where do we go from here? I mean, it’s not as if we can go asking around who knows about it, or who or what may have caused it.”

“I don’t really know. Tonight my goal was to find out what you knew. I have suspected for a while you were as aware of it as I was, but I really wasn’t sure if that part was just in my own head. I know now that it’s not.” He looked at her intently as he said this.

Kira felt her face turn red. She hated how she felt about him. She hated it with all her being. The fact that he now knew about it filled her with self-disgust.

Na Na continued, “Just keep your eyes open. Report to me anything strange you might come across that might be related. I will do the same for you.”

“This is all so strange. Never in my wildest imagination will I ever understand. None of this makes sense. I still cannot fathom who would be behind this, or why, but I will do as you say. I just want this all to end. I want my life back to normal, whatever that is.”

“Good. At least we’ve gotten that far. Whenever you’re finished, we can pay our bill. It’s getting late, and we should get back before morning hits. You can drop me off by the post office box half a block down from the entry. Nobody should be around there this time of night.”

“I think I’m done,” replied Kira, looking at her half eaten salad. “You’re right, we should get going.”

They each paid their bills separately, and got in the car. It was about an hour’s drive back. There was very little conversation on the way home. Na Na would glance her way every now and then, watching her drive out of the corner of his eye, wondering why he had hated her and her kind so much before, when all along he realized he had nothing to fear. They were finally approaching the high rise in which they resided. Kira dropped him off a half a block away, just like he had told her. Before getting out of the car, he said one last thing. “Again Kira, if you find out anything, or see something unusual, please let me know. I promise I will do the same for you.”

“Alright. I will. Good night.”

He looked back at her a moment longer, staring her straight in the eyes, and then exited the car and went back to his room.

In spite of both of them being mentally exhausted, neither of them was able to get a winksleep the rest of the night.