-insert name here-'s Place and Everywhere Else ~ Geezerville

[FireSpark]

Daniel stood there for a moment, one arm propped against the side of the building holding up his weight. He had hoped that getting away from so many people would help to clear his head, but it hadn’t. If anything it had gotten worse. The more he focused on controlling the feeling building in his head, the more it seemed to grow. His breathing became fast and shallow, as if he had been running all day. His hands began to shake, and still he couldn’t bring the feelings or his physical form under control.

Staggering away from the theater, Daniel crossed the street haphazardly avoiding late night strollers as he went. Across the street he slammed up against the building there, his chest pounding, and his eyes burning. For the first time, true fear set in. What is this? Then a flash. Not of light, but of memory. Daniel’s vision tilted slightly, the street blurred but remained visible, though something was different. Daniel looked up and down the street to find it suddenly devoid of people. Then from around the corner, a vehicle. An actual automobile.

"That’s impossible. That can’t be here. What’s that doing here?"

The car trundled past, but as Daniel followed with his gaze, it faded and disappeared. The blur lessened, and he was again aware of people wandering past, though most were now giving him a wide berth. Daniel took a step back and stumbled into a plate glass window, thankfully not going through it. Pulling himself he peered inside the closed shop, and watched as his vision blurred again. He saw a couple inside looking over trinkets, though their forms were indistinct, as if they to were blurred. She was a petite woman in a baby blue knee length skirt and matching wide brimmed hat, long red curls of hair nearly reaching her waist. Her companion was a tall blond man with a strong jaw line, but facing away from him. Daniel did not recognize the man, though there was something oddly familiar about him. The woman though, he had seen before, one of the few memories he had managed to recover. The woman turned to her companion and spoke, a strong and silky Russian accent dominating her speech.

“Oh, Alexander, it is so perfect. You will get it for won’t you? Say you will.”

Her companion reached up and looked as if to say something, but the scene suddenly faded, and Daniel lost his footing once again. Tumbling to his knees, Daniel found himself rolling into the alley next to the store, and desperately tried to pick himself up only to find that his hands did not want to work. Suddenly out of the darkness, a cloaked figure strode. The figure bent over Daniel and dragged him the rest of the way into the alley before propping him up to sit against a wall. Daniel’s vision wasn’t blurred now, and he immediately recognized the sleek black outfit the figure wore as something not of this time. Then he looked up and found the face of a woman hidden deep in the cape’s cowl, sharp emerald eyes gleaming in the dark. And though her hair was pulled back somehow, what he could see was clearly bright red.

“You…weren’t you, just now…there. Then?”

The woman place a hand softly over his mouth, then placed a small metal cylinder to his neck. There was a sharp p***k and quiet hiss, but Daniel only noticed that his head began clearing almost immediately though slowly. The woman bent close to his ear.

“Do not fight it. You always have fought it. You aren’t mean to hold all that inside. Be calm. Understand. Remember. And I was never here. Please be careful.”

With a final pat to his head, the woman looked around to see if any had seen her, then darted off deeper into the shadows of the alley. Daniel pushed himself to sit upright, but stayed leaning against the wall, waiting for his head to clear. Many things began floating through his head again, but one stood out above all else as always.

“I wish I could remember.”  

[Jessi_Deramis]

Jessi looked around frantically for the exit to the theater. Maybe Daniel went outside. However, all she kept finding were doors that led to some other room. How did anyone ever find anything around here?!

The large lobby area started to clear when three chimes were heard. She figured the chiming must mean intermission was almost over, but she didn't care about the show anymore. She just wanted to find Daniel.

Jessi watched as people went by her, but she did not see Daniel in the crowd. So, she went searching for the exit again. No 'Exit' signs in this era.

Finally, after a few more attempts at other doors, she found the exit and hurried outside into the cool night air. She looked down one end of the street and then quickly turned her head to look down the other. Where was he?! She couldn't see him anywhere. She didn't think he'd leave her here and go back to the hotel, but she didn't know where else to look.

She wrapped her arms around her waist and starting walking down the brick street in the direction she was pretty certain the hotel was in.  

[FireSpark]

{{ Took a bit to get this posted. I got bit by the writer bug (finally) and got a little, how you say, swept up in the moment. sweatdrop }}


Daniel sat still, getting his breath back to a regular rhythm, and calmly trying to piece together what had just happened. It felt easier to work backwards, from where he was now, back to whenever this had started. There was the cloaked woman with red hair, with an outfit that could only be described as a stealth suit. He had not recognized her accent but it wasn't Austrian, and she had spoken English to him. Then there was whatever she had pressed against his neck. He assumed it was some sort of injector. It all added up to one logical conclusion. The woman was from another time. Daniel slowly got to his feet, mind casting back, trying to match the familiar woman.

As he stumbled from the alley he caught sight of the empty store again, and the memory of what he had seen there jumped to the forefront. It was fuzzy and indistinct, like watching a poorly recorded video through a smoke glass window. A memory of a memory. He focused on it best he could, trying to reconstruct it. Immediately, it became apparent that the store he had envisioned, and the one he was looking were different. So it wasn't actually here. Or at least not in this time frame. Then the woman can into focus, more or less. Her hair was very long, indeed almost to her waist, possibly past it if she let it down. Her voice was soft, silken almost, and very familiar. Then something clicked. Russian. The accent was heavily Russian, whereas the woman from the alley definitely not. So not the same. Where she had come from and why were still a mystery though. Daniel wondered momentarily why they both seemed familiar though. Perhaps he had seen her from a future time.

Thinking of the future suddenly brought his attention to the present. Dammit. Jessi! Daniel started back towards the front of the theater as quickly as he could, though his legs felt exhausted. His mind still tumbled over the mystery of his visions and the strange woman with her equally strange message. Daniel froze in the theater's courtyard. This was not his first strange message from an unknown woman. The message in a bottle. Her face leapt out at him. Her image had been barely over a foot tall, but it was clear enough. It was her that had left a message for me, which was then left with a message from me. She was from the future.

Daniel hurriedly snapped out of it, content to have solve done mystery, and hustled inside. The doormen were obviously surprised to see him entering again since they weren't aware that he had even left. Daniel could hear that the music had started again, and rushed to the door to the hall. Peering inside he could just barely make out the seats in front, and saw that two were empty. His jaw went slack and his chest sank. Oh no. He turned and bolted out the front door, ignoring the surprised yelps from the doormen and the coat clerk waving his hat at him. He tore across the square made an impossible leap to the pedestal of a stature to get a better view. It didn't help though, he saw Jessi nowhere. Oh no no no. He was almost ready to become frantic. She was out there, on the streets of 1800 Vienna, alone. She didn't speak the language, she didn't have anything warm, and she was alone. What have I done?

"JESSI!!"  

[Jessi_Deramis]

{{I like your posts! smile }}

Jessi swung her head around when she heard someone shout her name. Only one person around here would call her 'Jessi'!

She looked around in every direction but couldn't see him! Where was he?!

"Daniel?!" She shouted his name and still could not see him.  

[FireSpark]

{{ Glad you're enjoying them. }}

Daniel's head spun. He knew he had heard his name. Jumping down from the statue he hurried in the general direction he had thought his name had come from. At least he tried to hurry. The massive leap onto a ten foot pedestal had apparently used up what little resolve his legs had managed to build up in the short time he had been recovering. As he stepped onto the cobblestone stone street, his foot planted poorly on a bad stone, and he tumbled to the ground. As he rolled onto his back with a groan, it finally dawned on him. Something that had been nagging at him since he burst from the theater. He hurt, all over really, but a new pain in his hand had his current attention. He pulled it to where he could see in the dim light of the street lamps. What he saw shattered almost everything he thought he knew. His hand was steadily bleeding, and he couldn't stop staring at it.

"Well that can't be good."  

[Jessi_Deramis]

Jessi sighed in frustration when she kept looking around but couldn't see Daniel. She had a really bad feeling. She had ever since she had seen that look on Daniel's face and had seen him try to stand from his seat in the theater. Maybe she had wanted him to be calling out to her so badly that she had imagined hearing him call her name.

After a final look around, she sighed once more and continued toward the hotel.  

[FireSpark]

Daniel sat up and reached into his jacket with his other hand to produce a large white handkerchief. He wrapped the cloth around his injured hand and pulled it tight, then tied the loose ends tight over the wound. He had never actually had to bandage himself, or anyone else that he could remember, but plenty of his research into security had dealt with emergency first aid and the like. The numerous websites he had visited had failed to mention how much tying such a bandage on hurt.

Clambering to his feet once more, and bemoaning the fact that he seemed unable to stay upright tonight, Daniel started off again. As he came to a wide corner, he recognized the cafe where Jessi and he had eaten earlier that evening. She was backtracking. He quickened his pace as much as he was willing to risk at the moment. He would do no good if he ran himself into the ground. He hoped Jessi was headed back to the hotel where they'd first arrived, but it would be all too easy to get lost in these dark streets.

"Jessi? Jessi!"  

[Jessi_Deramis]

Okay, Jessi KNEW she heard her name that time. It sounded too close for her not to have heard it. She was not imagining it this time.

She turned around quickly and looked around. It didn't take her long to finally spot Daniel by the cafe she had just walked past on her way to the hotel. Her eyes widened and she ran over to him as fast as she could. She already felt safer just by having her friend in her sights again. The good feeling she had, though, quickly vanished when she saw the white cloth wrapped around his hand and saw how much he was limping.

Her eyes widened and she quickly placed her hands on his elbows and looked him over. "Daniel! I was looking everywhere for you. I'm so glad we found each other, but what's wrong?! I thought you couldn't get hurt!"  

[FireSpark]

For a moment, he almost didn't believe it, fearful it was another of his 'visions', but when Jessi placed her hands on him he was relieved. Though he thought her concern for him not entirely neccessary. But right now, he only wanted to say one thing.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for leaving you there. It's just, I didn't know what was going on, and then I got light headed, and, and the, then other things. But I'm just glad you're okay. I didn't mean to leave you there so long, I'm sorry."

Just then his legs gave out and he slumped to the ground. His calves and ankles felt on fire. His every breath ached. And now his vision blurred again, but this time it was different. It was from the pain, and it made him groan through his teeth.

"I'm okay. I think. Or not. I don't know. But you're okay, and that's good."  

[Jessi_Deramis]

Jessi didn't care about him leaving her alone anymore. He obviously was in no condition to stay seated in the theater. She didn't blame him for having to get out for some air.

Jessi cried out softly when Daniel suddenly collapsed to the ground. She followed him down and brought herself closer to him, drawing him closer to her as well. She held him tightly to her and rubbed one of her hands up and down his arm quickly.

"Daniel... Daniel what's wrong?! We have to go back. Can you concentrate enough to take us back? You need to go to the hospital!"  

[FireSpark]

Daniel was feeling weaker by the moment, relative to what he normally felt anyways, and his breathing was still difficult if not as labored as before. He still had enough energy to shake his head though.

"No. No hospitals. That, agh, that would probably not end well for me. Help me up. Get me, eh, over to a door. Please."  

[Jessi_Deramis]

Jessi wanted to argue, to make him go to a hospital, but she also didn't want to waste time arguing. She figured he wanted to go to a doorway so that he could make the portal like he did with the entrance at AS.

She quickly and carefully led him over to the doorway near a restaurant. "I know there are people around here, but it's the only open doorway I see."  

[FireSpark]

"Don't worry. It'll be okay."

Daniel placed a hand on the wooden frame, and then looked around waiting for the right moment. At the moment the fewest eyes were on them, he reached out with his mind and pushed best he could manage. When it felt ready he leaned his head closer to Jessi.

"Hang on."

He pushed again and felt both Jessi and himself moving forward. His vision twisted and stretched, but at least this he knew this to be proper. As the scene before him resolved, he was glad to see he had managed to reach his chosen destination, and on the right side of the door for good measure. He didn't have long to admire his good fortune though, as his weight and momentum pulled both of them to the floor. It was the simple but large round room, with the large silver orb within an inverted pyramid of metal beams.

"You should not be here child."

"Well at least she hasn't changed."  

[Jessi_Deramis]

Jessi looked around at the foreign room in confusion. She hadn't even heard the voice.

"Daniel... where are we?"

{{I did not know what else to say. sad }}  

[FireSpark]

{{ Makes sense, condsidering the situation she's in. }}

"Safe."

"You should not be here. You appear damaged."

Daniel moved his head to look at the sphere.

"Noticed that did you?"

Looking back to Jessi, Daniel grimaced, though not entirely from the pain.

"Don't mind her. Can be a real downer."