"Those weren't my parents," I informed, and off we went.
✧˖°.✧˖˚▹ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ༺༄ؘ 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 3 ༄ؘ༻ₓ˚ .୧ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୭˚▹ₓ˚.✧˖°.✧
If you ask the right librarian and get the right map, you can find the dot of a small town with the name of Murthorn Marine, which isn't too far from the city - just a 10-hour drive.
The town isn't actually near any marine life like the name of the town suggests, but instead at the end of a long, bumpy road that cannot be found on any map. I know this because for the time that my chaperone and I were on this mission, we were living in Murthorn Marine, and not in the city as I thought. The moment I knew this was when Shaniya drove right past the train station without even considering the stop sign.
"Isn't the train where we're headed?" I asked.
"That's another wrong question," Shaniya told me, "I thought I already informed you that there was a change of plans."
"I thought that we're gonna be working across the city, though."
"Keyword - 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵. You thought wrong."
My stomach fell to the floor of the car as it rattled the moment we took a sharp turn around a small shop, for coffee I suppose. I looked out the window, nervously thinking about my future. Would I be able to eat? Would I be able to brush my teeth? To have fresh water to drink? After all, my chaperone already informed me that she is not someone who is going to take care of me. I thought of more worrisome questions.
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘐 𝘦𝘢𝘵, 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥?
𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘐 𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘎𝘢𝘣𝘦'𝘴 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘸𝘭?
𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘢?
𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳! 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦, 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘋𝘖 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦.
...
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦?!
I tried not to panic when I realized that I didn't have my suitcase.
"My suitcase," I turned to Shaniya, trying not to look nervous. "It's at the train station."
"I purchased some clothes for you," she informed me as she pointed her chin towards the backseat, her eyes still fixed on the road. I turned the way she pointed to find a small, bruised suitcase that looked like it contained some type of illegal drug.
"I was given your measurements, so hopefully they'll fit. If they'll not fit, then you'll have to gain or lose weight or height. The clothes are not that outstanding so that way, you won't attract too much attention."
I said nothing while thinking of my suitcase. I didn't care if Shaniya bought more clothes for me - I needed my toothbrush. And it wasn't here. My suitcase contained very important items such as my favorite books, a journal which contains secret notes about everyone and everything I take everywhere with me, and a magazine about all sorts of recipes. I didn't care about any grubby clothing she bought for me!
"Your reticence is not appreciated," Shaniya told me, breaking my silence. "Speak, Corlorown."
"Are we there yet?" I asked hopefully, although every single person on Earth knew that you should never ask this sort of question to a driver. "How was your day?" I tried instead. Shaniya said nothing as she bit her lip in disappointment. She looked quite upset about something, so I asked another question I thought she might like better. "What does the 𝘒 stand for?"
"Keep quiet," Shaniya told me. "We're going someplace else."
Someplace else was right. Before long, we had passed out of the neighborhood, then out the district, and then out of the city altogether. We then began to drive through a very twisty road that made me grateful that I had eaten little. The air had such a fishy smell that we had to close the windows, which was unusual because rain is supposed to smell good, not fishy. I kept staring out the window and watched as the day grew later and the sky grew darker. Very few cars were on the road, but all of them were in better shape than Shaniya's. I almost fell asleep twice thinking about the people I adored and cared for, and the distance between us growing and growing until the distance was so vast that even the longest-tongued bat could not lick the life that I was leaving behind.
𝘙𝘳𝘳𝘳𝘳𝘳! A new sound rattled me out of my thoughts. The road had become so rough and crackly under the vehicle's wheels as Shaniya took us down a hill so steep that I could not see the bottom of it through the windows.
"We're driving on seashells," my chaperone explained. "This is the last part of the journey. Just seashells and stones."
"What type of nonsense road is that?"
"Wrong question, Corlorown," she replied. "It isn't even a road. This entire valley used to be underwater. However, it was drained some years back. You can see why it would be absolutely impossible to take the train."
A whistle blew right then, but I decided not to say anything. Shaniya still glared at me anyway and frowned out the window. She turned the car to an island that was now just a mountain of stones rising out of the drained valley, and as we approached I could see a group of buildings - faded brick buildings enclosed by a faded brick wall. It was probably a school or the home of a very dull family. It was obvious that the buildings had once been elegant, but many of the windows were shattered and gone, and there were no signs of life.
I was surprised to hear, just as the car passed directly under the bridge, the low, loud clanging of a bell, from a high brick tower that looked just as abandoned as the other buildings and sat on a sad pile of rocks.
Shaniya cleared her throat. "There should be two masks behind you."
"Masks?" I repeated.
"Do not repeat what I say, Corlorown. You are an apprentice, not a mynah bird. There are two masks on the backseat. Get them."
I reached back and my eyes met the eyes of the mask. Poker-faced, we stared at each other for a few seconds before I picked the masks up and stared even more. The two masks, one for an adult and one for a child, were fashioned from shiny silver metal, with a tangle of rubber tubes and filters on the back. On the front were some narrow slits for the eyes and a small ripple for the nose. There was nothing for where a mouth might be, so the masks looked at me silently and spookily, as if they thought this whole journey was a bad idea.
"I absolutely agree," I told them.