Ayira The Princess #3
“Try the bathroom!” She demanded. We fumbled in our steps as we both stumbled towards the hallway bathroom door and gasped when we saw the light glow beneath it. Without hesitation, we both began to bang on it at the exact same time.
BANG
BANG
BANG
We pushed the door open and stumbled into a bright lit room with the walls being all white and the door snapping shut behind us.
The walls were close together with a small bench and a mirror propped against the corner.
There were clothes hanging on hooks and strange music playing as Maggie looked around.
“This is a fitting room,” she whispered.
Her senses were playing out in real time as she looked up like a predator hearing every sound and focusing on it before moving to the next.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what a fitting room was until I heard a voice come walking in, and a small series of knocks.
“Are you doing okay in–––”
“Fine!” Maggie and I croaked before she could get to the third knock. Maggie glared at me while I glared back. The woman stood on the other side of the door for a second before walking off with a suck of her teeth.
“Girl, I can’t stand Atlanta…if they not stealing, it’s always on some gay shit,” she muttered.
“Fa’real,” another responded. Maggie reached for the hanging clothes and motioned for me to put them on.
It was enough for her to wipe herself down while I watched, horrified at the sight.
There were no obvious bite marks on her, so she definitely drank blood from someone else.
When she caught me staring at her, I could see her darkened red eyes bleed back to its natural brown color in a matter of seconds.
“The thought of me eating you disgust me,” she muttered. “Trust me.”
“I didn’t say anything,” I replied in a meekish voice.
“You were thinking it.”
“I did not think you were going to eat me, Maggie. I–––”
“Oh yeah girl, it’s some gay shit,” someone said before a hard knock hit our door. “Nah uh! We not doing that in here! It should only be one female in here at a time!”
“Coming!” Maggie called out before wincing. “I mean, yeah! Coming out! I mean…God I hate Atlanta.” She muttered before adding, “almost done changing into clothes!”
I just finished putting on the denim shorts that were ripped with a t-shirt that had some sort of cartoon on it. It barely covered my stomach but as I whipped my hair back into a braided ponytail, I briefly tested to make sure I still had the ability to produce a flame.
Squeezing my hands, I felt the spark of the flame start before quietly keeping my hands to myself.
Maggie caught it out of the corner of her eye before looking around.
She wore an oversized red t-shirt that said FRVR ATL plastered across the front, and black shorts that you could barely see underneath.
You could see the blood still embedded in her nails but the moment her hair began to seep into its natural white color from the roots on down, it all but confirmed she was nothing like the woman in the desert.
“We need to get back to the school,” she said. “At least to the train station.”
“Okay so how do we do that? You have no shoes,” I pointed. She held up a pair of old sneakers she grabbed from her childhood home before shoving her feed inside. Tying her hair up, she leaned in close with her gaze as sharp as ever.
“We are going to run,” she whispered.
“Run?”
“We’re literally stealing clothes,” she motioned frantically at what we were wearing. “I don’t have a dime on me. Do you?”
“What is a dime?” I asked, knowing very well it was the currency, but she had to know it was ridiculous to even ask me in the first place.
She rolled her eyes before grabbing my hand.
We locked fingers, both of us inhaling at once as we knocked three times.
Nothing. It was just the music from the store and chatter from people nearby.
Maggie sucked her teeth as she quietly slid the metal latch open and peeked through the cracked door.
We slowly pushed it back to see a woman staring at us while she grabbed clothes from a neighboring room.
The music was louder than ever, and another woman walked by with a pile of clothes of her own before slamming the door shut in another room.
“If y'all wearing that, you know you gotta buy it,” the girl said with an attitude as she pointed a hanger at us. I looked to Maggie, squeezing her hand before she let go. I didn’t even bother to look back before taking off.
“Security!?” Someone shouted. “We got two runners!”
“There’s blood in the fitting room!” Another shrieked.
Maggie and I bolted for the entrance of the bright store, moving in and out of racks filled with colorful and sparkly items. I was in awe and almost wanted to stop and look at some of the dresses draped on the wall until she called my name, snapping me back at attention.
“This way!” Maggie shouted. We were out of the massive brightly lit store and turned the corner into a shopping plaza filled with stores, windows, and decor.
“Is this a mall?!” I blurted out with excitement before gasping.” Is this a real mall?!”
“Yes now come on! Marta is just outside!”
“Ohhh! Can we please stop and look at some of the clothes?! What about a food court!?”
“Ayira!?”
I followed her out of the store, still running as we crossed a back street where there were cars parked underneath a leveled lot.
I watched her stop someone to speak briefly before continuing on.
I, on the other hand, looked up at the building wishing we had the time to explore the way I wanted.
Maggie finally slowed down as we entered the lot of what seemed to be a train station directly across from the mall.
“We have to find a way to the school. She said it’s about 9:30 right now and I think the games are just about to start if I can remember the schedule. Good news is, we’re in Atlanta. I’m home.”
“What about your parents?” I asked. “Don’t you want to see them?”
Maggie paused before making a face I couldn’t read.
“I need to see Namir first and the crew. They have to know we’re okay.”
As much as I wanted to run around the city and experience everything, we had a job to do.
Maggie and I came up on the doors that let you inside the train station but neither of us had a way in.
There was hardly anybody around to ask for help when Maggie attempted to ask to use a phone.
We looked like we hadn’t slept in years.
Our hair was a mess, face distressed and our clothes didn’t make any sense, to me anyway.
That’s when I heard the soft meow coming from behind us.
I turned to see a cat sitting on its hind legs with a slow whip of its tail looking at us.
Looking around, nobody seemed to notice the cat except for me but it made me think of home, causing me to instantly smile.
“Oh how I miss my Minka,” I cooed. Just as I was about to go towards it, the cat stood up, turned and walked off. Only to look back at us as if it were waiting for us to follow.
“Maggie?” I hissed.
“Unless you’re about to tell me you have an idea on how to jump this damn gate without the Marta police seeing us…”
She turned to look back, seeing the cat before glaring at me.
“I think we’re supposed to follow it,” I said with a smile.
That continued to walk until he slipped underneath the gate as the barriers opened.
Maggie and I shared the same expression before rushing to pass through just as they closed shut for the next card user.
He stood directly in front of the elevator and waited until the doors opened.
It was pitch black. Nothing like the elevator I saw at Drew Collins in one of the academic buildings.
There was no floor, no walls, nothing. Just darkness and as soon as the cat walked in, he disappeared.
Maggie grabbed my arm without hesitation and we both stepped in, being warped into the air before appearing on what looked like an empty train.
The seats were dark red, and everything on the walls showed a map of the Underground and the multiple stops.
The lights were dim, but it was enough to see with the help of the lights from outside that burst through the windows every few feet.
“This is it,” Maggie said as she began to walk up and down the aisle. “This is our train.”
“It is?” I questioned. “Then why are we not moving?”
“I don’t know… but this is the train that goes to Drew Collins…to Cedar Park. See?”
I walked over to the old map where she pointed her finger at as we both stared.
They showed the map of the Underground being the first station that was now known as Cedar Park.
I felt my heart skip when I saw The Kingdom Station towards the end of the line where the words, The Realm Station were written in tiny print beneath it.
Nobody back home even knew we had our own train station.
It must be for those higher up in the palace because as far as anybody else knew, it was impossible for people to leave.
If they only knew how many levels to this world there is.
“So now what?” I asked as I plopped down in the seat. “What do we do? Just wait until it cuts on?”
“No… This train won’t move until the end of the school term and beginning of the school term.
We have to find another way. As far as anyone knows, this train doesn’t even exist,” Maggie said as she looked around.
She walked towards a side door where she slid it open and gasped.
I jumped up and walked over to where she was so I could see and smiled.
We both stared at each other before she reached inside the small room to look through the boxes of freshly packed uniforms.
“These are brand new,” she said, holding up a blouse. “Probably for orientation and students that came in at the last minute like I did…”
I looked through another box where I saw pants and skirts, socks still in their own individual packs and shoes.