Beatrice's adventures

Beatrice and her best friend were traveling together for a couple of days trying to find answers about the prophecy that was bestowed upon them by the abandoned lake. It felt like they weren’t getting anywhere through their wandering, but still, she followed her instincts in such times.

They were walking towards a new city as she disguised herself as a human being so she wouldn’t get people running away from her. They tried planning up a strategy to figure out more clues about her past and what the prophecy wanted to tell them.

‚ So what do we have so far?’ said Beatrice as she got lost in thoughts.

‚Hoot, hoot!’ answered her feathered companion.

‚ Oh right, we’ve got that strange portal appearing in the middle of the storm and showing me the word CASE. But the problem is we don’t have any other clues. I try to remember my past and nothing comes out. Ughh!’ said Beatrice as she growled in frustration.

They came closer to a small, yet beautiful city, where antique buildings their rooftops were shining with pride, which to her surprise was barely populated by humans. Beatrice strolled from corner to corner in hope of finding familiar places, but all she could find was a restaurant that looked like one of those she used to dream about.

Few customers were randomly enjoying their meals and cheering on their drinks while a young waitress kept herself constantly busy taking out empty plates and cleansing the tables. Beatrice looked around for something or someone that would remind her of glimpses of her past life. She saw a strange man who was wearing a rather fancy tuxedo gazing aimlessly into the room. She wanted to approach him in any way to chat with him but was abruptly stopped by a severely wrinkled old woman that came to her walking with a bit of difficulty.

‚ I wouldn’t waste my time with this lad, my dear.’ stated the woman as she tried fixing her waist bag.

‚ Excuse me? How did you know I wanted that?’ replied Beatrice hesitantly.

‚ Oh, so you say I’m just a useless old hag that can’t observe things like you, young ones, do?’ scoffed the woman still struggling to attach her bag to her shoulder as she couldn’t reach it.

‚ No, wait, you are misunderstanding. Are you reading minds?!’ Beatrice explained herself.

‚ Hmpf, you could say so if you want to think that. This man has been visiting our bistro for a couple of weeks and wouldn’t order a thing. He just waits and dumbly glances around. That doesn’t help my business.’ she complained to Beatrice.

‚ Do you know his name or anything about him? Also, how is this place called anyway? I don’t know how you run this old place, but at least you should put up a name outside. Took me ages to find it.’ voiced Beatrice as she lost her patience.

‚ Calm down, miss, I don’t want any trouble. The guards just got us warned thanks to some drunken fools that started to get at each other. So, sit yourself down and listen to me.’ The woman tried to reconcile with our little angry poltergeist.

‚Fine, fine. Just tell me anything about this place and your freaky little pal.’ Beatrice answered back as she plumped herself onto a chair.

The woman explained the history of her beloved restaurant and how all sorts of bizarre events started to happen since that man came to her place. She complained once again about how he ruined her because those events would scare away most of her clients.

‚Then let me talk to him. I think it will be a win-win situation. Don’t you think? I will probably get my clues and you get your fame back.’ suggested Beatrice with confidence.

The woman gave the idea profound thinking. Beatrice waited and waited for an answer as she impatiently shifted one leg over another.

‚AHA!’ exclaimed the old woman.

Beatrice got startled at the loud sound coming from the woman that made her jump out of her chair and climb onto the table from behind her.

‚ God! You scared me, old hag! What got into you?!’ finally stated Beatrice as she tried to calm her ghostly breathing.

‚Alright, alright. I will let you speak with this fool as long as you do it quietly. I still have clients and I’ll kick you out of this place instantly if something happens.’ stated the woman firmly.

‚ Fine! Just stay out of my way!’ Beatrice replied as she left the table she hid on and stood up with determination to find out more clues to her case. She paced in the direction of the man, but she got distracted by a flapping of wings from the other side of the window. It was her very own friend, the barn owl, which desperately tried to warn her about something but as the windows were shut down well she couldn’t hear its hoots. She raised an eyebrow in utter confusion but shook her head to regain focus on her mission. She apologized mentally to her feathered friend promising to explain herself later on. She finally reached the table where the man stood and waved at him to receive his attention.

‚ Hello, err, sir? Excuse me. Sir, can I have a word with you?’ Beatrice asked forcing a smile onto her face.

The man decided to finally look at her only for Beatrice to notice a strange glittering of his eyes that kept on growing and growing. She took a cautious step back and decided to speak a bit louder so she could be understood clearly.

‚ Sir, I know you aren’t an average human being. I’m not that human either. Could you please answer some of my questions?’ she asked again in a one-go.

The gloomy man muttered some words in a unique language suddenly transforming himself as he threw sparks all over the place. Wild lights cut through Beatrice’s human shape deeply harming her flesh. She desperately tried to take cover under the table, only for the man who was no longer in human form to drag Beatrice by the leg-pulling her hard towards him. Parts of the room turned into portals to another dimension forcing in everything that stood against the man’s goal.

Fortunately, the people inside evacuated themselves out of the house except for the woman and waitress to be trapped.

The old woman made her way to Beatrice in an attempt to help her escape from the tight grip, yet as she came closer to her she was slammed violently to the wall and lost consciousness.

Beatrice felt there was no more need to hide her true nature, and so, she went back to her poltergeist nature which allowed her to slip from the man’s powerful hand. He growled in frustration as different shades of gray light emerged from inside him. She widened her eyes in fear and shock trying her best to get away from the scene. The old woman, who now regained her consciousness, grabbed Beatrice by her arm in an attempt to protect her. The poor girl didn’t know if she should have thanked or cursed the woman but dared not say anything until things calmed down. The odd man tried dragging everyone into his vortex. He faced an obvious failure when the old woman enchanted a purification spell. He aborted the mission and disappeared into the thin air taking all the portals with him as if nothing happened.

Pure silence crept in for a couple of minutes since the three women tried to process everything that happened. That was until Beatrice cleared her dry throat and started speaking.

‚So, you’re an old hag!’ she stated as she gave a little grin on her face.

‚ Seriously? Are you starting this now? It’s all your fault because my place got turned upside down. You got to repay me for every damage! I told you this man is up to no good but you wouldn’t listen, you, brat!’ nagged the woman.

‚ Look, I don’t have time to waste listening to your nagging. How were you able to enchant spells, huh?! And, you shouldn’t have trusted a stranger like me in the first place, anyway. Don’t you go blaming everything on me!’ cried out Beatrice.

‚Oh, I knew what you were in the first place. So, have you learned what you needed to find out? I hope ripping this place apart was worth it.’ scoffed the woman.

Beatrice blinked a few times before answering.

‚ As a matter of fact, not quite. But now I do know that someone is after me.’ She replied as somebody clenched its claws onto her shoulder making her realize it was her beloved feathered friend. ‚Oh, sorry, friend, I forgot about you in this chaos. Glad you managed to escape.’ the owl made a loud angry hoot as it was flapping its wings onto her face. ‚ I’m sorry, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let you inside the bar. My undercover would have been ruined.’ Finally, the good friend gave in and forgave Beatrice for letting it behind.

‚ Are you two done? You’d better get out of here if you’re not going to clean up your mess.’ Said the woman angrily.

‚ Okay, okay, we’re out, we’re out. Sheesh. Thanks for your service!’ Beatrice waved as she and her owl backed off and went out of the ruins.

The two of them set off to continue their searching journey while trying to process all the new clues they got although they were still vague. This was going to be another long and rough journey since they were wandering as they tested their guts and wisdom. Even so, the journey was sure to be filled with bigger surprises.