Chapter 2: Friends and Enemies

Alex had just attached the static rope to his figure eight and was preparing to abseil down the cliff when Cassie screamed. She was backing away from their instructor with a look of horror on her face. A cold chill seized his heart as he saw the wide grin on the trainer’s face. Cassie was backing towards the cliff.

“Watch out!” he cried. She glanced imploringly at him then disappeared over the edge. Alex leaned out over the cliff edge. Cassie was a third of the way down. She was gripping the rope with gloves in the wrong position, above the figure eight instead of below it. There was blood on her forehead and she seemed to be stuck, frozen with fear.

Alex abseiled down to Cassie’s position as quickly as he could. He crossed to her right side so he could steady her with his left hand while holding the rope with his right. As he reached her, she looked fearfully up past him. He looked up. The instructor was abseiling down. The wide grin and the hungry eyes of the creature showed on his down-turned face. Alex grabbed her with his left arm to support some of her weight. A pistol appeared in her hand and she fired it upwards. The instructor’s body fell past them bouncing off the cliff and landing with a thump at the base of the escarpment.

“Well, that’s a relief. A bit anti-climactic, but a relief,” said Alex.

“No wait,” replied Cassie, gesturing with her head to right.

Alex glanced to where she was indicating. A student was abseiling towards them, grinning the same mad smile and with the same predatory eyes. “These rabbits have nasty teeth,” it giggled.

“Christ! How many of them are there?” he asked.

“It’s the same one. It just jumped to a different echo.”

“Can you shoot it again?”

“Shooting uses up chi, almost as much as if I let it suck on me. We have to shift to a different scene, but I can’t make myself let go.”

She was white with fear, trembling with panic.

“Grab hold of me and I will make the shift.”

Releasing her hold on the rope, she seized him in a death grip. “Shift us to somewhere without people,” she begged.

His rope slowly slipped through his glove as her extra weight pulled him down. He let go of where he was and fell towards a place he formed in his imagination. His feet touched wet rock and he struggled to maintain his balance as he lowered her to the ground. They were in a small canyon that intersected a larger, deeper canyon. They were on top of the waterfall the small canyon’s steam made as it flowed into the larger canyon. The view was spectacular. He sat next to Cassie and let her hold him.

“Did we escape?” she asked, still trembling.

“I can’t see it.”

“Thank God.”

“What is the deal with that thing?”

“I told you before. It steals your chi, your memories. Most of the time it can only partially enter this realm, in which case it possesses an echo and uses it to attack us.”

“What happens when it fully enters this place?” he asked.

“Judging from the fact I can’t remember it clearly. I think it catches me.”

They stared at the view for a long time.

Alex and Cassie alternated between rides in the amusement park and the water park. They cut in the lines for the rides as the echoes didn’t object. They never had to wait long for a ride. They stole kisses in between the rides. Cassie continually scanned the crowds and remained a bit jumpy. Alex suggested they visit more isolated spots, but she insisted she was fine. He was not so sure that was true.

They took a break from the rides when Cassie insisted Alex try a delicious fish stew that she called moqueca. They topped it off with a lime flavored cocktail called caipirinhas. It packed quite a kick. Cassie had picked up her encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails working as a bartender to pay her way through university.

However he was worried as she seemed intent on working her though her entire collection. Fortunately there was a limit to how intoxicated it was possible to get in this realm; enough to be unsteady on their feet, but not enough to fall down. They sobered up quickly if they stopped drinking and of course they never had a hangover. It felt hypocritical, but he held his tongue and matched her drink for drink.

After lunch they chased each other around the pool. Forfeits for getting caught were paid in kisses. Alex was relieved when Cassie switched to exotic fruit juices, starting with a purple drink called Açaí Juice. The second time Alex let Cassie catch him she showed no sign of wanting to let him go. They made out for a long while. She slipped her hands underneath his bathers and squeezed his behind.

“What about that boyfriend you always bring up when things get amorous?” he asked.

“I’m dead, he’s alive. I wish him a long happy life, but I’ll settle for a happy afterlife,” she answered, removing her bikini top and giving him a passionate kiss.

“Do you feel that?” she asked.

“I certainly do,” he responded, cupping a firm perfectly formed breast.

“No, not that. Everything feels more ... real. There are at least three people sustaining this scene. Somebody else must be here,” she asserted. She pushed away from him. A black one-piece swimsuit and T-shirt appeared on her body protecting her modesty. She scanned the crowd cavorting in and around the pool.

“There!” She pointed at a petite black haired girl in a blue bikini perched on the edge of the pool. The girl, seeing she had been spotted swam over to them.

“Hi, I’m Letty Freeman. I’m sorry I interrupted you. If it makes you feel better, I’ll reciprocate,” she offered, starting to undo her top.

“If you flash my boyfriend God help me...” threatened Cassie, waving her fist at the newcomer.

“Billy will be so disappointed he’s been dumped,” commented Alex.

“Give it a rest,” warned Cassie, punching him in the shoulder.

“What makes you think it was him I was interested in flashing?” Letty asked, “Você é muito bonito.”

“Você não é meu tipo,” replied Cassie.

“Ladies, could we stick to English?” requested Alex,

“How long have you been there?” asked Cassie.

“Are you asking how long have I have been in the amusement park or how long have I been in the Underworld?”

“How long have you been spying on us?”

“I wouldn’t call it spying. It just didn’t seem to be a good time to interrupt.”

“How did you know I spoke Português?”

“Like I don’t know a Brazilian when I see and hear one,” Letty replied, rolling her eyes.

“Where are you from? Your Português is good, but not perfect.”

“I moved about a lot when I was growing up. I was a diplobrat. I travelled from one embassy compound to another, never staying anywhere long.”

“You called this place the Underworld. Why did you call it that?”

“Because that is what it is. What do you call it?”

“Purgatório.”

“That’s your Catholic upbringing speaking.”

“How did you know -”

“Oh please! You have lapsed Catholic written all over you.”

“You seem to know a lot about me for someone I supposedly just met.”

“It’s no great leap to guess a Brazilian is also a Catholic.”

“Former Catholic,” corrected Cassie.

“You can take the girl out of Catholicism but you can’t take the Catholicism out of the girl.”

“Can you two sheath your claws and speak to each other civilly?” asked Alex.

Letty shrugged while Cassie crossed her arms and huffed.

“Do you want to go to this great party?” asked Letty, “It has a terrific choro band.”

“There are plenty of parties I can go to.”

“Do you want go to one you have never been to before?”

“Maybe,” Cassie admitted.

“Focus on me and I’ll shift us there,” instructed Letty.

“Do I get a vote?” asked Alex.

“No,” declared Letty.

“It’s only for a short time,” begged Cassie.

“Fine.”

The music was loud, driving and fast. It had a bright and happy feel to it. The party was in a residence and it was packed. They would be in real trouble if the creature turned up.

Letty worked her charm on Cassie until her hostility melted and soon they were acting like best friends. Alex and Cassie danced. Cassie and Letty danced though Cassie kept Letty at a distance. After a few drinks all three danced together.

Somehow it came out that Cassie was a graphic artist and Letty was a ceramic artist. Alex was unsure who challenged who but he ended up being roped in as the judge in an art duel between the two, despite his protests that he could not possibly be unbiased.

Letty shifted them to a small cobbled street and pointed to the side of a two story building explaining that Cassie would be decorating the left and that she would be decorating the right.

Cassie was wearing a paint splattered grey T-shirt and stained trousers. Letty had on ankle length white cloth wrapped around her hips, chunky wooden beads and wooden combs holding up her hair. Her chest and small breasts were uncovered. Clay coated her forearms and dotted her chest and skirt.

“What the hell are you wearing?” asked Cassie slurring her words.

“Something comfortable. Do you think it’s sexy?” asked Letty, spinning around to show Cassie the outfit.

“I told you not to flash my boyfriend.”

“You know it’s not for him,” asserted Letty with a smile. She winkled at Cassie and turned to her half of the building and clay squares appeared on the wall. “This isn’t how I would do it in real life but it is good enough here.”

Cassie blocked out her basic design with grey spray paint conjuring scaffolding to help reach the higher parts of the wall while Letty covered her side of the building with clay.

“Fuck, she’s fast,” Cassie slurred, blinking at the speed at which clay materialised on the wall. Letty noticed them observing her and gave Cassie a smile and a wink. Unlike Cassie she seemed sober. Fortunately, the effects of alcohol did not last very long in this place.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Alex. It had not escaped his notice that while Cassie was using a spray can, Letty did not need any tools to reshape the reality they found themselves in.

“There is no way I am losing to a potter.”

“Have you done this before?”

“When I was younger.”

“I thought you couldn’t create anything new here?”

“You can assemble different memories into something new, but there are limits. At least for some people,” Cassie explained, glancing over at Letty. A bench with a bucket of water and balls of clay had appeared next to her.

“What is she doing?” Alex asked.

“She said she was doing a bas relief sculpture.”

“I though you said she was a potter?”

Cassie shrugged. “One of the things I regret was not finding the time for my own art when I was alive. Laying out ads and designing websites put food on the table, but is that what I want to be remembered for? Maybe Letty feels the same about pots. Maybe she would rather have been sculpting.”

“Maybe you should ask her instead of imagining stories about her.”

“Later, after I beat her ass.”

Alex took a seat on the opposite side of the street and watched for a while. Cassie was painting a figure seated on a sailboat, while Letty was shaping a standing female figure.

Remembering what Cassie had said about not finding time for her art, he created a guitar and started playing. When he was younger he had wanted to be a musician. He started playing a few favourites as he watched the two women work.