ELEVEN
PEOPLE WERE ARGUING around me.Men. They shouted, but one of them shouted louder than anyone else. He sounded furious, almost murderous. He sounded like Rennie.
My head hurt so much that I didn’t have the energy to tell them to be quiet. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Nausea was roiling my stomach. I couldn’t open my eyes. If I opened them, I was sure I would die from the pain. So I drifted back into sleep.
Strange dreams flashed across my mind. But somehow, I knew they weren’t dreams. They were memories. Things I’d forgotten. I was trekking along a path in the Dolomites. Yes, I’d been used to travelling with my parents. They’d taken me everywhere with them. No restrictions. No rules. Only freedom. We didn’t see touristic places, though, but remote locations with poisonous plants, wild creatures, and spiders bigger than my hand. I loved it. Travelling with them and seeing new places always excited me and made me happy.
It was a sunny day, one of those rare days when not a cloud darkened the sky. We’d been hiking up and down mountains for weeks. Mother was walking next to me. Father brought up the rear.
My parents were chasing a creature, an Unnatural, a beast that had attacked a few climbers, but they weren’t sure what the creature was. Both my father and mother were occult agents for the Royal Occult Bureau. It was their job to capture Unnaturals who killed humans, from vampires to ghosts and witches. I was learning how to be an agent during our trips together. I learnt things they wouldn’t teach me at a normal school. We paused in front of a panoramic view. The breeze carried the scent of flowers and wet grass. But Father was nervous, always searching the shadows. His hand twitched over the grip of his gun.
“It’s so beautiful,” I said, dabbing my sweaty forehead with a handkerchief.
“Listen,” Father said, “I’ll take you back to the hotel, and your mother and I will search this part of the forest for the Unnatural. I think it’s going to be too dangerous for you.”
“Nonsense.” Mother rolled her eyes. “Monia is strong and clever enough to stay with us.”
“Laura.” The slant of Father’s lips showed his displeasure. “What we taught her isn’t enough. We’ve been searching for this creature for days. It’s clever, elusive, and I’m worried. There’s a strange smell in the air.”
I cleared my throat, not liking that they were talking about me as if I weren’t there. “May I say something?”
Both of them whipped their heads towards me, matching frowns on their faces.
“I wish to stay with you,” I said, tugging at the straps of my rucksack. “Perhaps the creature isn’t clever or elusive. It simply isn’t here. This place is too beautiful to spend the day in a hotel room, and I can take care of myself.” Those proved to be my last famous words. I spun around to face the forest and started up the path. It winded through white spruce trees and tall birches that formed a green tunnel around me.
“... she isn’t a child,” Mother said.
“She needs to learn how to fight an Unnatural.” Father had a point, but in the few years during which I followed my parents, nothing had ever happened.
As I stepped into the shadows, the cold seeped into me. Behind me, my parents kept arguing in hushed tones. A sense of oppression choked me, and I paused to loosen the collar of my shirt. The moment I put a hand on a tree bank to rest, an animal that looked like an eel came out of the ground. Its sharp teeth dribbled with drool. The long, sleek body coiled around me, shutting up my scream. My ribs cracked. A burning pain struck my wrist when the beast closed its toothy mouth around it. My entire arm was burning. My bones were breaking. I couldn’t breathe.
Father and Mother wrestled against the beast, punching, stabbing, and kicking it, but the pain blinded me, and I couldn’t see clearly what was happening. The monster’s powerful grip loosened until sweet air rushed back into my lungs. I fell to the ground, my body limp and sore.
“Monia.” Mother took my face, her features contorted by worry and tears clinging to her lashes. “You’ll be all right.”
But I wasn’t all right. I was broken, scared, and scarred for life.
Even after my body healed from the wounds, my mind wouldn’t. The attack had ruined me. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I didn’t want to leave the house. I didn’t want to travel with my parents. I didn’t want to be an occult agent any longer. I didn’t want to see anyone.
That was when my parents told me that an occult agent could remove the bad memories, make me forget, so I’d get better. At first, I wasn’t sure. Forgetting everything sounded good, but what if the fear lingered? I wanted to be normal again.
Besides, recovering the memories was possible but extremely dangerous. My mind could be permanently damaged. My heart might stop from the stress and pain.
But I wanted to stop the nightmares and the constant, all-consuming fear of being attacked. Tired and in pain, I agreed to be cleansed. Every trace of the Royal Occult Bureau and the Unnaturals was deleted from my mind.
After the cleansing, I started to live again. The fear disappeared with the memories.
My parents kept me in the house as much as possible, worried about me. All those years I’d blamed them for doing what I’d told them to do. I’d agreed to have my memories removed. It’d been my choice, and I understood why my parents were overprotective. Guilt was a bitter taste burning the back of my mouth. A lump swelled in my throat. Hurt, remorse, and shame formed a powerful combination.
Oliver and Rennie were occult agents. Their grey suits and strong bodies gave them away. Oliver had forced my memories to surface again. Now I understood why my parents had sent me away. Sandro was an Unnatural, but I couldn’t tell which species. My knowledge was limited. They’d sent me away because they were worried I might be hurt again or remember everything if I became too close to Sandro. Rennie had been right. He couldn’t tell me anything. If he had, he would have risked causing my memories to resurface, hurting me, and destroying my brain.
But I remembered now. Everything.
I opened my eyes, panting. The room was quiet, no loud voices. Every inch of my body was in pain, and the light from the gas lamps hurt my eyes. But I wasn’t in my cabin. The room was too wide. It had a soaring ceiling with frescoes of flowers and animals. Little roses were painted on the wall, crawling up towards the domed ceiling. Where was I? I sat up, waiting for my head to stop spinning. The white nightgown I was wearing had long sleeves that covered my bandaged hands. Even my leg was bandaged. I flexed my fingers. Pain shot up my arms.
After putting my feet on the marble floor, I tried to stand up. When my legs didn’t tremble, I took a slow step towards the diamond window, walking past a polished nightstand and dresser. My unbridled hair fell in waves to my waist as I slogged onwards.
There wasn’t a cobbled street below the window, but a narrow canal where murky water flowed. The opposing building was so close I could touch it if I stretched out my arm. Narrow tripartite windows, decorated with complicated motifs, opened to the view. There was only one city so beautiful. Venice. TheSS Florentiahad arrived in Venice. Where was Rennie?
