The Diamond Hallway- Chapter 4

The Diamond Hallway

Chapter 4 - Thinking Time

I felt the harsh time jump on my body and I couldn't suppress a painful scream. The time around me seemed to stay still as my wounds where healing so fast and so painful, in this moment I just wished it would stop and let me die. I writhed as the scales on my back where replaces with new ones. I could feel the bones in my body growing together again and the hole in my lung was crammed. The worst was the wound on my chest. I squirmed with pain as the flesh, the muscles, the skin and the scales contracted themselves and covered the cut. With every second I realized how more and more of the many voices disappeared as they where giving their life for mine and after five minutes, which felt much longer, the aching stopped. I was lying on the ground, panting in exhaust and trying to catch my breath. I was alive and alone and there was nothing to hear but the sound of the rain.

Under much effort I rose up, shielded my eyes with my claw and looked up in the sky. The rain got stronger and somewhat painful. The clouds where dark, almost black, but with a strange creepy red gleam that pervaded them like veins. The dark red drops where falling very dense and somehow they where leaving a burning feeling like acid. No… it was a different, hard to describe feeling. Acid would melt you, but this, this did something else. I observed my left claw more attentive, ignoring the pain on the rest of my body. The water was flowing off and neither left a burn mark nor a cauterization. The only thing I noticed after a while, was that some of the smaller scales on my fingers changed colours, from black to an old grey. My body then shed them and newer ones took their place immediately. I shivered. I did not remember if I saw any rain before or not, but somehow I was pretty sure that this wasn't right. And the last words form Raisus confirmed it. So it was my fault that the rain here was falling like this? I couldn't remember.

My breath was going heavily when I finally reached my house. I stood still before the front door under save shelter of the roof and was harkening for any sounds inside. It was completely still and there was not a single light turned on. Should I have that much luck, that neither Raisus nor Tally found it yet? I opened up with my key and slipped fast and silently through the door. It was completely dark. The only light, that fell in from the windows was the eerie red glimmer from the clouds. I went straight through to the bath. After my eyes got used to the darkness, I undressed myself and went under the shower. There was not even a scar left on my chest and I couldn't feel the slightest wound – there was only the pain the rain left - as the water was running over my scales. I tried not to think of the prize this has cost.

It would be no good, to put on the suit again. It was dirty and ripped and probably beyond remedy. So I went to my bedroom and took some others clothes out of the wardrobe. Some that where pretty similar to the ones I first wore. Then I went to the living room and sat myself at the table. I didn't turn on any light, it would reveal that someone was here and it and didn't needed it anyway to see a bit. I tried to think. I tried to remember anything, but as soon as I tried, my mind went blank. There must be something lying in the past, explaining all the things that happened. There just must be something, a life I lived, with family, friends or whomever. The strange red light suddenly fell on something on the kitchen table. The white envelope, which the postman brought to me this morning. Of course! Why didn't I open it earlier?  Maybe it will reveal anything, even if it was just a little bit. I opened the envelope, in which where two sheets of paper and began to read.

I put the paper aside when I reached the last line. There was a bitter lump in my throat I couldn't slug down. I understood not more then before but now I was sure that there was really something wrong, with me and my life. I did not startle when suddenly someone was laying a hand on my shoulder. "You understand it now?", was a female voice asking. I turned my head around and was not surprised to see Tally, standing behind me. Her eyes looked demonic in the red light. "How did you know I was alive?", was the only thing I could say in this moment. Tally was shaking her head. "I didn't know. After Raisus killed you, I found out about this house by coincidence. You where somehow different, so I went in to find out why and then you came."
"Different from whom?"
"From the others of your kind."
"My kind?" I swiped her hand of my shoulder and stood up. "Can't you finally just tell me what is going on? Why you tried to kill me and why I can't remember anything? Where are my memories?"
"Ha! Memories? What memories?" Tally began to laugh. Her voice was unnatural horse. I just pursed my lips, unable to respond to this words, but my anger began to grow more and more. I slapped my hand on the table. "Then just tell me! What is it about me!", I screamed. The smile vanished from her face and instead a deep sadness filled her eyes. "You shouldn't be able to ask this question.", she sighted and let herself fall on a chair. "I looked through this house. It is a wonder that you even have one. You have clothes in your wardrobe and food in your fridge and…" Angry I made her words stop with a movement of my hand. "Of course I have that! Don't say such nonsense, tell me what is going on!"
"I'm trying! And I must say, that I'm pretty disappointed that you didn't figure it out after you red the letter.", said Telly in such a harsh voice, that made me silent. "We failed. Now that I saw this all, now that I see your still alive somehow, I know we failed. Raisus should know that by now too, but he will never give up."
"And you do?", I couldn't deny myself from that question. Tally was just nodding. "Yes I do. I didn't regret anything and I still think you would be better dead. But for me it is out of question now. You are feeling, thinking, living. I don't know how the world is going to bear it, thought." A dark premonition was coming over me after this words. I picked up the letter from the table and looked at it again. My voice was almost breaking, when I asked: "What am I?" Tally was bowing her head. "A diamond.", she whispered.

I dropped the paper, the letter from my mother, that was filled with words, but… but it was nothing. There was no feeling, not a single one, just regular words that could come from anyone, even a complete stranger. With fast steps, I went to the bathroom and holded my head under cold water. Why did I woke up in the Hallway? Because I belonged there, I was born there. Why did I not have any memory, but only the knowledge from a whole life? Because I had no life. The ones at the tower, at my work, only remembered me, when they saw me, but they did not know me at all, because there was no me. Nothing. I turned the water off and looked at my face in the mirror. My mind was strangely clear and only in my green lizard eyes I could see a bit of a shock. But I did not cry, I did not became hysteric. Why should I? There was no pain and no lies in me. No happiness or someone dear I lost. I only had this one day, this day I lived. I breathed in deeply.

"What are you going to do now?", Tally asked, when I came out of the bath again. I looked at her. Her yellow lion eyes where dull, her fur sticky and untidy. Her time was almost over. Soon she had to pay the price for her crime. "I will go home.", I answered.
"He will be there and he will not stop. He is a Gemdragon after all."
"I know. But I have to go." I went towards the glass door. A shy smile was coming over me, I could now feel what was behind it. I laid my claw on the handle. Slowly I opened the door. The hallway of diamonds, the hallway of time. The place I was born. The place where I would end. Determined I stepped inside, closing the door behind me that perfectly fitted in the wall and was not seen anymore. At the same moment I could feel a warm and gentle atmosphere. It was good to be here. The voices in and around me came back, welcoming me. A few metres before me stand Raisus. He raised his head, first looking surprised, then angry. I looked back at him. I won't let him kill me. I won't. Not again.