I held to Leo's non-eyeball-covered arm as we walked along the docks. We headed toward the ported mechanic ship. Everyone leaving seemed to be wearing a bright-colored uniform. Yellow and orange. The ship itself was fitted with violet UV lights on its sides, although these circular lightbulbs were hard to make out under the rippling tide. But there they were, making the water around it a bright shade of purple.
"When would you like to have the wedding ceremony?" Leo asked me, sounding eager to move our relationship forward.
I patted his shoulder and leaned the side of my head on his big bicep. "We'll have to find a mosque first."
"I think I heard of one nearby. Centro islâmico Braga."
I smiled at the Portuguese. "If we're here long enough, you'll become trilingual."
"Maybe?" His high-up cheeks puffed up a little when he smiled a brilliant, white smile.
I felt myself melting into him, and I would have closed my eyes if I wasn't somewhat scared of tripping on the wood-paneled boardwalk. "We should find a job at the mosque."
He nodded. "That's a great idea, although most of their positions are volunteer."
"Maybe where we were in France, but this is Portugal. Things might be different." I sighed. "I wonder if they have any groundskeepers."
"If they can afford UV lights in the garden, they may have some farming positions. You know how it is, Samira; food before flowers."
"I'm okay with that. Remember, I was a farmer too ... with Noelle."
Regret scratched at my chest. We were miraculously engaged, and I ruined the moment by bringing up our brutally murdered friend.
Leo rubbed my shoulder and gave me a comforting side-hug. "What's that blonde girl's name ... Liza? She talked about those monsters. The Apex."
I knew what he was getting at: the Apex killed Noelle. But who else knew about those monsters other than us? With our eyeball markings and our shared nightmares, me, the so-called "head," Leo, the right arm, Nadine, the left leg, Kevin, the right leg, and Liza, the left arm, were alone in this dark world. Meanwhile, we were yet to find the "body" Nadine had mentioned. Where was he? At least, I had Leo. We were alone together.
We came close to the emptying ship. Around five meters from our spot on the boardwalk, we watched a rotund, brown-skinned man step down from the ship, followed by a small girl I recognized in an instant.
"Nadine!"
I ran up to the ramp that came down from the ship onto the dock. Nadine's large, dark eyes brightened when she saw me. She was wearing an oversized white jacket similar to the captain's coat of the short man between us. Her father gave me one look and shouted in a language I didn't understand.
Some burly men in orange and yellow vests got between us. One shoved me back and I nearly fell, but Leo's strong arms caught me from beneath my arms. I let out a shaky breath, confused by the mechanics' reaction to me.
Then, to my surprise and delight, Nadine yelled something in the same language as the captain and dodged the men, squeezing between the ones in shiny vests. Nadine smiled widely at me, her brown skin looking more golden in the yellow light of the torches on the port. With some bags dangling from her arms, all which looked round and colorful, probably stuffed full of clothes, she launched herself at me and gave me a big hug. The sudden affection made me stiffen, but only for a moment. I wasn't expecting this kind of greeting from a girl I had only interacted with once.
She began speaking, but I didn't understand her. The gibberish coming out of her mouth stopped and her eyes widened at me. She must have realized I didn't understand her, because she switched to English, saying, "Sorry, I forgot we're not from the same country."
Leo let go of me and stepped over to the side, smiling at the captain's daughter. "I didn't think we would meet."
"What?" She raised her eyebrows at him, no longer hugging me. Her small hands planted on her hips. For someone so petite, she had impressive curves. "I talked about meeting at this port. We didn't agree on when, sure, but this meeting isn't thanks to magic."
"No, of course not." Leo shook his head and laughed. "There is no magic."
Nadine glanced at Leo's exposed arm, then her eyes moved to my face. She gestured at her eyeball-marked leg — she was only wearing pink shorts, so the skin was exposed — and she said, "We are proof that there is."
Leo cocked his head to the side, seeming to think about that claim. Nadine had a point. However, I liked to think we were experiencing something more Godly than magic. Magic sounded too ... human. Too fictional.
Lightning flashed in the sky above us. A frightening crash of thunder followed.
I took Leo's hand, too scared to have my hands empty. I hated these random storms. The Cloud struck me as scarier when it was trying to electrocute the Earth.
"Do you feel that?" Nadine asked, getting closer to us. By then, the mechanics, sailers, and the captain were running off the beach, going up onto the road more than ten feet higher than the boardwalk and port. I knew they must be desperately seeking shelter. The waves were picking up, too, crashing against the wood and rocking the floor beneath us.
But, I think Nadine was referring to something else. An unusual weight in the air.
"It's heavy," I said.
My breath felt like it might be sucked clean out of my throat. I don't know how.
Leo and Nadine helped me walk toward a set of steps leading up to the road. When did it get so hard to move my legs? I felt like jelly and I wanted to scream, but I couldn't.
Was I on the ground? In a bed of dead grass?
What were those flashes of white against the black sky?
Why did they have wings?