“I do not believe,” he said, looking from left to right, “that we will be able to find them in the masses.”
I thought it highly doubtful too. There were too many people, but Guido was a force to be reckoned with. After he sent off a group text to his cohorts, he shouldered his way close to the barricade so that I could have a prime view of the event.
Once it started, I wasn’t sure if I wanted a prime view. I still hadn’t fully recuperated—mentally and emotionally—from what Nemours had done to me, what happened as a consequence after: the loss of our son and being close to death myself. This parade seemed to be drawing on the theme of death and the epochs of our lives that transform us into someone else.
Life. Death. Rebirth.
A fifteen-foot puppet woman on platforms cruised the streets, fire blowers behind her, a snarling white wolf in front of her, his hair hanging off in tattered shreds. The Wolf of Danú came closer, his glistening eyes taking me in with an eerily alive expression. I moved back into Guido, not wanting to be that close. He set his hands around me, pulling me in closer. It wasn’t done out of intimacy, but to let me know that he was close. He wouldn’t let harm come to me.
“It is not real, Scarlett,” he said into my ear. “It is fake. Remember.”
I nodded, hearing the words but not believing them. I felt short of breath, and I broke out in a cold sweat.
Fire sparked red and hot in the foggy air. The smell of it seemed to singe my lungs and make me cough. Musicians came next, followed by nymphs, dancers with blood-cloaked faces, mummers, and antelopes that had blood on the tattered rags they wore, waving in the breeze. More stilt walkers came in close.
I thought of Scarlett, the doe Brando had named for me back home. I imagined her being killed by the hunter’s gun. Scarlet blood staining the pure white snow. My hands. My inner thighs. Glistening. Smelling of iron and life.Pop!
So much blood.
“I. Can’t. Breathe. Guido.” I barely got out. My teeth started to chatter. The panic seized my entire being.
It was pure, debilitating fear.
“I will not let harm come to you.” He lifted me off my feet when I didn’t move, and set me down only after he had bullied his way through the crowd, putting his wide shoulders and thick arms to good use.
As soon as my feet were back on steady ground, free of the parade, I set off, not going far, but far enough. I turned around to take Guido’s arm, to feel his secure presence, but he wasn’t behind me.
“Dio,” I said, closing my eyes, face to heaven, asking for strength. Something was wrong, very wrong. He would never leave me. After ten minutes had gone by, I knew that he wasn’t coming.
Every face that passed me could potentially be the one to end my life, if this was a setup.
A chirp made me look down. With shaking hands, I dug in my bag, finally finding my phone. The screen was a sliver of light in absolute darkness.
You okay?
My hands trembled so badly that I dropped the phone. I hit the ground, scrambling to get it back. I had taken too long to respond and the phone started to ring just as I snatched it up.
“Scarlett.”
“Brando,” I wheezed out his name.
He became silent for the span of a short hesitation, and then he snapped into action. “Tell me.”
As unsteady as my hands were, my voice was even more so. It took me a while to get out the words in a coherent way. He had to stop me a few times to remind me to breathe, to calm myself down so he could help me.
The irrational part of me wanted to scream,You’re in Africa! There is no helping me!The other part just wanted him to save me, to find me and take me home.
I hadn’t realized that the entire time I had been talking to him, I had been walking further and further away from the area with the parade. There was nothing that I recognized.
Something cold and wet skittered up my back.
No one was around, but four shadows moved along the building behind me, bleeding along the cobblestones, close on my heels.
Brando snapped off commands to people around him, but I continued to walk fast, my face constantly looking back to see if they were gaining on me. They were.
“Scarlett.”
“W-what?”
