"That's not a mannequin!" Noraya gasped when she felt the body lying on the pavement was soft to touch. "Oh my god, what in the world does a woman doing in here?" she looked around to see if she could get some help to carry the woman in a warm place.
The woman was unconscious and was wearing a long white dress that's not even enough to keep her warm. Her face was pale, and her lips were turning blue. She felt cold to the touch.
"Miss!" she tried to shake her shoulder. She ran to the entrance building and asked the concierge of the building to help her out in carrying the woman.
"What is she doing here?" the guard asked Noraya. "Do you know her?"
"I just saw her here lying when I came from the grocery store. Just help me put her to a warm place before she dies in this cold." she lifted the woman's body.
The man quickly helped her move the woman inside the building. "She needs to be covered." the guard said when they laid the woman down on the waiting bench in the lobby.
"You better take her to your place to get warmed up." The guard suggested.
She hesitated. "Could we at least call the ambulance. I don't know this person. Maybe she's hurt somewhere?" She said, pausing at the idea of her taking care of another person. She doesn't even have enough money to tend for herself.
The guard looked at the half-dead body in front of them. "She won't last long if she doesn't get warmed up immediately."
She stared at the body for a while, then released an exasperated sigh. "Alright, help me carry her to my suite then." Why in the world was she blessed with a kind heart?
Noraya and the guard carried the woman's body to the fifth floor where her one-bedroom suite is. "It could have been easier for both of us if we just called an ambulance." She told the guard when they struggled to bring the woman inside her cramped apartment.
They put the woman on the sofa in the living room. "Ring the concierge if you need help or if she needs to be brought to the hospital." The guard said before leaving her unit.
"Why did we even bother bringing her here then if she needs to go to the hospital?" She complained. It is not that she did not want to help, but she was skeptical about bringing a stranger inside her house. So many crimes were happening in this world already; she was just cautious.
She took a duvet from her bedroom and covered the woman's body. She increased the temperature in her unit. She stared at the pale face of the woman.
"Hmnn, she's pretty." From a woman's perspective, the woman is such a beauty. Small face, long eyelashes, nicely shaped brows, and lips. Her skin was fair and smooth too.
She made sure the woman was nicely tucked and warm on the sofa before she went to the kitchen and arranged her groceries. She would check on her if her condition improved; otherwise, she would have to call an ambulance. For now, she must make food to warm her stomach.
'Hmmnn, it's warm.' Macrena curled her body more under the warm covering over her body. She doesn't know where she is now, but she feels cozy underneath whatever is over her body. She wrinkled her nose when a smell of something delicious penetrated her nostrils. 'What kind of smell is that?'
She creased her eyebrows. A delicious smell and a warm covering over her body, does that mean that she's in the human world already? Where was she exactly? She tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids still feel heavy.
"Miss, are you awake?" Macrena heard a soft voice. She tried to lift her heavy eyelids once again but to no avail. Her body felt so good underneath the blanket, and her mind was still hazy. Once again, she fell back into a deep sleep.
"Hmmn? Is she dreaming?" Noraya reached the woman's forehead to checked if she has a fever. "Her temperature seems normal now." she heaved a sigh of relief.
All she needs to do now is to wait for the woman to wake up and send her to wherever she came from. She can't be sure if the woman is a good person or not.
That night Noraya locked her bedroom door before she went to sleep. She brought a stranger inside her apartment, and there was no guarantee that the person can be trusted yet. She made sure that the woman on the sofa was comfortable, though.
-----
Macrena creased her brows and focused her eyes on the dark figures beside the river. Her eyes widened when she recognized the shadowy figures secretly huddling in the riverbank. The dark figures were her parents and Lord Mokabe. They were forming a circle and reciting a mantra that she could not understand. She was too far from them to hear what they were saying. She looked around, but she could not recognize where they were. "What are they doing?" She watched closely.
After a minute, a circle of light appeared in front of the three figures performing a ritual. 'Is that a portal?' She quietly took a few steps closer to her parents and Lord Makabe. The three were still busy reciting an incomprehensible language, and then she saw her mother walked closer to the now larger circle of light. Her mother walked inside it until she disappeared. Her father and Lord Mokabe continued reciting their incantation until the circle of light went, and darkness once again fell around them.
Did her mother just went through the portal? After witnessing all that had happened, she tried to call her father. "Father!!" She wanted to ask her father why did her mother go through the portal.
"Father!" Macrena jolted up from her sleep. Confused at what happened, she blinked her eyes a few times. She looked around. Where was she? She's not in the riverbank where she was a few minutes ago. She was in an unfamiliar place. She was sleeping on a sofa, and her body was covered with a thick blanket. There was a low table in the middle of the room and a big black box next to the wall.
She must have arrived in the human world, and she must be dreaming about her parents. In her dreams, she saw her mother walked through the portal. She tried to remember her mother leaving her while she was growing up, but she could not remember any instances her mother left her.
'No one had ever tried to come back in the Akijam from the human world.' She recalled Lord Mokabe's word. Confused about her dreams, she put her feet on the floor and leaned her back on the sofa.
'Did her mother went to the human world? If she did, how did she come back to Akijam?' She knew her mother died in Akijam. 'What did her mother do in the world of the mortal?' She shook her head. It is all just a dream. Maybe she was just exhausted in her travel to this new world she's in now.
She stood up and looked around the house curiously. 'What is this place? Where is she?' Everything looks strange and different from where she grew up. From the decorations in the room to the structure of the house. They are all different. She felt nervous, 'how will I survive in this world?'
She can only have a glimpse of the mortal world in the Gyhon well. She never thought that she could see it in person. In the Akijam, as a god, she can watch the mortal world from the Gyhon well. She was now standing in the land of the mortals and would live like a mortal. Something that she never thought of.
She knew she still has her powers, but she must hide her identity and her skills for the sake of the mortals. The sacred law between the gods and the mortal still applies even if a god is not in the kingdom anymore. Whoever uses their power in the human world to kill a human will be locked forever to the foundation stones in Akijam.
Macrena looked at the distant horizon. The sun was already starting to rise, bathing the city skyline with gold. She looked behind her when she heard the door to the bedroom opened.
Noraya creased her brows in confusion. Standing by the window is a woman in a white dress. For a moment, she forgot about the woman she brought in her apartment yesterday. "You're awake. How are you feeling?" Noraya asked when she collected herself.
"Who are you? How did I get here?" Macrena softly asked. She did not expect to find herself inside a house, cozying underneath a blanket. She expected to find herself lying in the street.
Noraya tilted her head on the side, "I brought you here. You were passed out beside the garbage bin downstairs in the middle of the cold. Do you live in this building?" She was observing Macrena. It seems to Noraya that Macrena can not remember what happened.
"Ah," Macrena nodded her head. "Thank you for looking after me." She looked at her savior. Petite figure, her brown-black eyes are looking at her, observing her face and reactions.
"Where is this place?"
"You mean, this city?" Noraya was confused about why this woman was asking where she was? She gave Macrena a complete look from head to toe. Noraya thought Macrena doesn't look weird to her. Her dress is quite fashionable, and she's not wearing makeup. She looks like an average person on the appearance, but she looked like a lost puppy. "This is Toronto. Where are you from?"
Macrena hesitated. She can not tell her where she came from; besides, this woman will think that she is not in the right mind if she tells her the truth about her. She might send her away. But she could not think of any name of a place. "Ah, I...I got lost, and I don't have a place to go.." she looked at her.
'Yeah, right!' Noraya sighed. Like what she thought. And what's next? After she agrees to let her stay in her place, this woman will disappear together with her belongings. "Then you should go to the police or find your relatives," Noraya suggested.
"I don't have relatives here." She observed the woman. She knew that she does not trust her. However, this woman has already accepted her in her house, might as well take a chance and ask for help. "If you would be kind enough to let me stay here for a few days. You see, I don't know this place and I don't know anybody. Please..." she gave her best to sound pitiful.
Noraya creased her bows. "I don't know about that. How can I be sure that you are not a burglar or a serial killer? I don't easily trust people, you know."
She knew she could not be easily convinced. "I can guarantee you that I am not a bad person." She can only say.
"I am not running a charity. If you need help, you should go to the social welfare office." Noraya sighed and secretly scolded herself for not calling the police or the ambulance yesterday.
Macrena looked down, hopeless. Then, she suddenly lifted her head. "I can work for you in return for my stay here." She suggested, looking hopeful.
Noraya did not try to hide her annoyance. "And what work you will do for me? I don't even have a regular job for myself." Noraya walked to the kitchen and said, "Let's have breakfast, and I will bring you to the police, they will help you there." Noraya thought it is the best that she could do for her.
Macrena sighed and left standing in the middle of the living room, thinking. In the human world, they need money to get what they need and want. That is their most basic essential in their everyday living. Obviously, she doesn't have money with her. She scanned her body. She was still wearing her white simple house dress, and her sandals fell off, probably somewhere as she could not see it around the house. Nothing adorned her lengthy hair, which was usually surrounded by gold chains and her crown. She had the necklace that was given to her by Lord Mokabe before she left Akijam. That's it! She released another heavy sigh.
'What should she do?'