Questoria, Another dimension

His ragged breath sounded through the empty warehouse; my heart pounded against my chest as I approached cautiously. There was no light; however the soft moonlight that filtered through the dusty small window on the top of the ceiling allowed me to make out certain shapes. There was nothing inside the warehouse, only a small metal door in the center of the floor and a man that was crouched down beside it. The man looked around suspiciously before whispering something towards the metal door. Fortunately, I was near enough to hear what he had whispered yet deep enough in the shadows, to not be noticed. The door closed without a sound after he went down the steps that led deeper into darkness; which was amazing, considering how heavy the mental door might be.

I crept slowly towards the door, wondering where it would take me. My fear of darkness was starting to act up, as my heart rate accelerated; I felt my surroundings shuddering a bit as though there were an earthquake.

“Quesitoria.” I whispered.  Immediately, the door swung gently opened. There were steps leading downwards and there was a gush of cool breeze that sent shivers up my spine as it blew across my face. I knew I should have worn thicker clothing; all I had on was a pair of sneakers, black jeans and a brown shirt.

I took a deep breath, mustered all my courage and I walked warily down the steps. The door closed behind me and immediately I was plunged into total darkness and it was freezing, as though I had stepped into a freezer room!

My knees were trembling badly, from the cold or from the fear of darkness, I do not know - perhaps it was both. My hands did most of the guiding, as I felt the cold stone wall using my left hand. Perhaps, it was at this moment in time that I was finally starting to regret my decision. The stairs seemed never ending and I was starting to panic even more. What if the stairs did not lead to anywhere? Would my search for my younger sister end here? What if I died here? I’d bet no one will ever find me. Suddenly, I realized something – something that made my heart race way faster than it had ever before. The cool breeze was gone, it was just still air. Sure, at least I would not freeze to death. But, this was extremely bad news. Why? The wind had to coming from somewhere, assuring me that there was an escape route and I was going in the right direction. Now, there was no more breeze and thus meant that I had gone the wrong way. I had been too absorbed in my pessimistic thoughts that I had not concentrated on where I was going.

I had no choice but to turn around and head up the stairs again. Now, this was another bad thing, because I also had a phobia of heights, thus hated climbing up stairs. My shaky legs were not helping. One slip and I would fall backwards and who knows where I would end up. My whole body’s muscles started tensing up. It was just too scary for me. I hate the dark, I hate heights and I absolutely hate the unknown. I was like a robot, stiffly and very slowly going up step by step.

All of a sudden, I heard a low whistling-like sound. My heart skipped a beat as my whole body just froze. I listened carefully again, it was coming from my left hand side, a few steps above. It was the sound of wind! I had finally found the source of the wind! I quickly headed towards the source. To my horror, the wind was coming out from just a missing stone gap in the wall. Was I trapped in this dark staircase forever? I was on the verge of losing my mind. I pushed the wall desperately, trying to make a hole big enough for me to squeeze through. I pushed, I clawed, but to no avail.

I felt tears threatening to spill and so I collapsed onto the floor and started sobbing uncontrollably. I was shivering violently, due to the cold, the fear and my crying. Perhaps I would just die here after all. Perhaps I would never see my brother again yet alone my family and friends. Perhaps I had been too rash in going on a search for my missing brother alone. As these thoughts filled my mind, I soon fell asleep on the cold, hard steps.

As I slept, I felt something warm nudge me but I was too cold to bother getting up; I had curled up into a fetus position to keep my body warm. That warm something nudged me again. I ignored it once again and went back into deep slumber.

I dreamt about the day my brother had gone missing.

….

I awoke to find myself lying on something comfortable, similar to that of a bed. As I had been in darkness for so long, my eyes that already adjusted and grown accustomed to the dark. I glanced around, I was in a room. It was very bare, except for a jug of water in the far corner. I got up and headed for the jar of water. I was very thankful to the moonlight, for it was a welcomed change from the total darkness. It was a full moon so was at its brightest too.

I barely took a sip before I heard someone entering the room. It was a man. He spoke in a friendly concerned manner but was using an unfamiliar tongue. I said I did not understand, in English and heaved a sigh of relief as he started speaking English too.

“You are a foreigner? How are you feeling now? You could have caught your death, sleeping in that cold in that form. You’re lucky I found you. No one uses that old stairs anymore. Oh and by the way, I’m Gareth. What were you doing there? What pack are you from?” he questioned in a weird accent.

I was confused. I did not remember going to another country and my country speaks English so why did he refer to me as a foreigner? And what did he mean ‘in that form’? And ‘pack’?

I opened my mouth as if to say something but closed again as I realized I did not where to start. I finally decided on,

“Thank you for saving me. I’m Clover.  But what do you mean? This is England, is it not?”

“No, I’ve never heard of this England that you speak of. This place is called Quesitoria. What pack?” he spoke again.

Quesitoria, it definitely rang a bell. It was the name I whispered before entering the door. Yet, it still did not make sense. Quesitoria is the place name of where I was currently at, yet I was just in the underground of England. And Gareth had not heard of England before. It was utterly strange.

“Pack? What do you mean?” I enquired. 

“Hello, where have you been? Like for example, my pack is Abyss.”

“No, sorry, I still don’t understand. By the way, how can you see? It’s so dark.”

“Oh no. You can’t be. Your manner of speech, your questions, Are you a human?” he paused.  “You are human! What have I done? I’ve only heard of your kind through stories and legends. What have I done?!” his eyes widened in panic.

“Aren’t you a human too? I mean, you look human to me.”

“No, we are only in our human form on each full moon. Legend says that humans and torias have always been mortal enemies. However, during one of their fights, an angel was killed. Thus, the goddess extremely angered, placed a curse on both species. Humans would never be able to see and survive in darkness and Torias, on every full moon, would become what they hated the most – humans. Each species was sent to another dimension so that they would never meet and history could never repeat itself. And yet, here you are a human, in Quesitoria! If someone finds out, I know not what they would do to you!”

I was bewildered. This was an extremely shocking piece of legend which I had never heard of before.

“What exactly is a Toria?” was all I could manage.

“I do not know how to explain in your tongue however, that should not be your concern at the moment. We have to get you out of here before the end of the full moon! Everyone is in their human form now, thus no one would be able to tell that you are not one of us. Now, how exactly do you get back? And what were you doing here in the first place?”

“I am searching for my younger sister. She disappeared one night and I followed a suspect kidnapper to this place. I came through a metal door after whispering ‘Quesitoria’.” I answered.

“Your sister’s kidnapper is in Quesitoria? How can that be? If it is true, then that means there is either another human around here or a toria that has been travelling to the human world!”

“Wait wait, I have a question. Why can you speak English then? Is it not a human language? And why are you helping me?”

“Oh, I see you realized, I was hoping you wouldn’t. It’s rather embarrassing actually. You see, I used to have a fascination with human kind.