The Metropolis Series #3: Quinn and Cassandra

I WAS A TICKING TIME BOMB.

I sent Julio an airplane the minute I returned to my dorm. He arrived in no time, knocking on my dorm room window.

“Is there someplace quiet we can go to?” I asked as I let him in.

“I think I know a place,” he replied. “What’s up?”

“Something I couldn’t believe just happened. I’m sorry, I didn’t know who else to talk to—”

Julio held up a hand. “It’s fine, I’ll meet you at the parking lot?”

I nodded. “Okay.”

He turned into a dove and left through the open window. As one of the Author’s forgotten characters, they could only maintain their human forms in the Metropolis for a certain amount of time. To heal themselves or to avoid corruption, they’d have to turn into doves from time to time. It may sound like an annoying quirk, but as far as I’d seen, it doubled as a super convenient means of transportation.

Honestly, I didn’t know why Julio still brought his car around. He could have saved a lot on gas.

Without his car, however, he wouldn’t have been able to take me to his quiet place, which wasn’t that far from St. John’s. What a relief; if he had taken me somewhere as far as The MacGuffin’s original location, I would have exploded from all the mixed emotions I felt toward Harumi’s return. Was I happy? Was I confused? Was I scared?

After a relatively short drive, I opened the car door to the sea shimmering under the dusk sky. I was ashamed that I didn’t know such a place existed so close to campus, prompting me to consider exploring the Metropolis a bit more. Julio led me past a few food stalls and toward the seaside, where we sat on a terrace and dangled our feet over the shoreline.

“Is this quiet enough for you?” Julio asked.

There were noises from the crowd in the area, but they sounded distant, lost in the sea breeze whistling in my ears.

“Yeah,” I replied, gazing at the view ahead. “It’s great up here.”

“I come here a lot when I need some space to think. It’s nice to be away from the noise of the Metropolis for a while.”

A peaceful expression made its way to his face as he stared blissfully at the horizon. I rarely saw Julio like that. He looked more laid back, more youthful. He could fit the role of a teenage heart-throb if he wanted to. Then, he blinked, and his expression darkened.

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at me. He was back to his usual self: serious, foreboding, and perpetually scowling.

“So what happened?” he asked.

Then, my surroundings suddenly weren’t as picturesque as I’d initially found them to be. The sea was restless. Waves crashed against the rocks beneath us, and on the shoreline were little pieces of garbage bearing the surrounding food stalls’ brands.

Without looking up, I said, “Harumi’s back.”

Julio’s eyes widened. “What? How?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea. What you said was true, right? If a forgotten character jumps into the River Lethe, they are lost forever until the Author brings them back?”

“Why would I make something up like that?”

He was right. Why would he? I was stupid for coming up with that possibility.

Julio scrunched up his brows and pursed his lips. “Maybe… maybe it’s like with Rachael. Maybe the Author brought her back?”

“My God, it’s so weird seeing you optimistic,” I said.

“I’m just trying to be rational. Far-fetched, but rational.”

“If you wanna call the metaphysical rational, go ahead. But honestly, that’s the story I want to believe, too. The Author’s back. All of our problems will soon be over. But then, something else happened…”

“What is it, Quinn?”

I swallowed. A strong gust of wind blew against my face. “Shortly after Harumi came back, Cassandra showed up…”

“Wh— what?” Julio mouthed. “You saw Cassandra?”

Slowly, I nodded. I couldn’t say anything else after mentioning Cassandra’s name. I felt like the slightest noise could summon her.

“What happened?” Julio asked. “Did she say something?”

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes. As I listened to the sea below my feet, I imagined that I was far away on an island somewhere. The fantasy shattered when I opened my eyes.

“So, during homeroom earlier, this new classmate of mine introduced herself as Harumi,” I recalled. “Of course, I freaked out but tried my best not to show it. When homeroom ended, I stepped out of the classroom and asked myself if the Author had brought Harumi back. That was when Cassandra appeared. She said it was all me. Then, poof! Gone.”

“Hmm…” Julio rested his palms on the terrace’s cold stone. “So, is she implying that you brought Harumi back? How is that possible?”

“I can’t say for sure. Even turning back time wasn’t enough to bring Harumi back. Cassandra’s probably just messing with me…”

The sun began to set, draping our surroundings in deep orange hues. Julio and I said nothing for a while; he seemed to be mesmerized by the view ahead of us, but he was probably just in deep thought about the recent conversation. The sunset was just a distraction, a short break from the discussion of both miracles and inevitable doom.

However, as we sat in silence, my vision blurred, and my face felt wet. I continued to stare at the sea even if everything was hazy.

“Cassandra’s long absence could mean that she’s planning something,” I heard Julio say. “Now that she’s made an appearance, we have to be more vigilant.” He then scoffed. “Let’s take a break from all this doom talk. You wanna get something to eat—”

Tears were uncontrollably rolling down my face, but I ignored them for a while only to find that my lips were quivering and my shoulders were shaking. I’d exploded; all of the emotions I had felt that day came bursting out, and I couldn’t hold them in any longer.

All I could do was hide my pitiful face in my hands, hoping that Julio wouldn’t notice.

He noticed.

“Quinn,” he said. “What’s wrong?”

I let out a deep sigh. And maybe a sniffle or two. My eyes hurt; I probably looked disgusting.

“She’s back,” I cried. “Harumi’s back. I should be happy, shouldn’t I? But why? Why do I have to feel scared whenever something good happens to me? Like there’s some kind of catch. There’s always a catch. This world is broken and probably ending, and Cassandra wouldn’t leave me alone. And I can’t talk to anyone about this because they’ll turn into monsters…”

I didn’t expect Julio to comfort me. I didn’t think he was that kind of person. But then, he scooted a tad bit closer.

“Well, you’re talking to me, aren’t you?” he asked, laughing a little.

I wiped my face with my sleeve. “I don’t want to keep bothering you. You’re always busy saving the Metropolis and all.”

“You’re part of the Metropolis, too,” he said. He looked me straight in the eye with that glare he always had. It often made me feel nervous, but this time, he didn’t appear so intimidating. That was probably the first time I found comfort in those eyes. For some reason, I couldn’t stop looking at them.

Julio eventually turned his head and diverted his gaze to the sea.

“Besides, you seem to be getting better at finding The MacGuffin,” he added. “You can always go there and talk to Takahiro and Ms. Louise when I’m not around. They can make hot chocolate for you.”

A faint smile crept to my lips. “Yeah, you’re right.”

I was about to get lost in the seaside view again when I felt something brush against my side. I gasped.

Meow!

Right next to me was a pudgy little black cat with big, pleading eyes. Its tail curled around my waist, stroking the small of my back. It was comforting.

“Oh, hey there,” I beamed, gingerly reaching out a hand to pat the cat’s head, but the small animal took it as an invitation to rub against the skin on the back of my hand. I chuckled. “Friendly, aren’t you?”

I forgot that just a few moments ago, I’d been crying my eyes out. I guess animals had that effect on me. Back at home, I had a dog named Oliver. I always felt comfortable talking to him, and even if he couldn’t understand me, he was always there to listen.

When I looked at Julio, however, his brows were scrunched up, his eyes were narrow, and his mouth was slightly open. I could only describe that look as only either pure confusion or disgust.

“Is that cat… blue?”

At first, I thought I didn’t hear him right. Cats? Blue? What was he talking about?

“My God, Quinn,” he exclaimed. “Look at that cat’s fur. It’s blue!”

I couldn’t seem to remember why I didn’t notice that before. Was it because my eyes hurt after crying so much? Did the light of the setting sun skew my perception of color? But the moment Julio mentioned that the cat was blue, I realized that the cat’s fur gave off an unnatural tint. At first glance, the cat appeared black, but when I looked closer, it was actually a deep shade of blue.

Surprised, I drew back my hand and stared at the cat. The cat stared back at me. Its eyes were an intense orange hue, and its heart-shaped nose pointed down toward a sad, small mouth. Its face was a bit misshapen as if it were badly drawn—

Badly… drawn…

“Quinn,” Julio said. “You’re seeing this, right?”

“I…” The voice that came out of my mouth was so faint it was barely there.

“Quinn?”

I didn’t reply. Instead, I rummaged through my small bag and pulled out my phone. I scrolled through the photos, looking for a specific one I took at the art club. When I found it, I stared at it.

Then stared at the cat.

Then back at the photo.

Julio narrowed his eyes. “Is everything okay?”

My hands shook as I turned my phone’s screen to him, showing him a drawing.

“I drew this…” I stammered. “At the art club…”

It was Julio’s turn to stare. I watched his eyes go back and forth between my badly drawn blue cat and the real one right next to me.

That went on for quite a while. I was waiting for him to say something, but the silence was beginning to consume me.

“It looks like him, doesn’t it?” I asked, referring to the cat.

Julio’s lip quivered. “Quinn… what is this… since when?”

Since when could I bring paintings to life? Saying that in my head made me shiver. That wasn’t it, right? The last thing I needed was another supernatural power to deal with.

“I needed to join a club at school,” I decided to say. “So I joined the art club. This cat I drew just looked a lot like him.”

I jerked my head toward the blue cat’s direction. He had left to dig for food in the trash.

“Have you drawn anything else recently?” Julio asked.

I showed him my drawing of a vase. He shook his head.

“Of something… alive?”

I opened my portraiture exercise. Seeing it again after quite some time brought a hand over my mouth. I thought I was about to cry again. The emotions I had shaken off suddenly came flooding back. I couldn’t breathe.

“This girl I drew,” I struggled to say. “Looks a lot like Harumi…”

Technically speaking, I was a horrible artist. An elite professional would look at my work and say, “This does not look anything like your roommate. It’s too stylized. The proportions are off.” Then, they would probably take a sip of their expensive wine and be on their way. However, I wasn’t a professional, nor was I an elite. For me, it wasn’t about the technical stuff. I was more interested in the impact my work would have, the emotion my lopsided strokes would capture on paper. With that, it both amazed and baffled me how multiple pencil lines and piles of eraser shavings could lead me to create something so friendly and familiar.

I turned my phone toward Julio and showed him the portrait. His eyes widened and his jaw hung slightly. He was silent, which I didn’t take as a good sign.

“My God,” he then mouthed. Waves crashed below us, drowning out the clarity in his words. “It does look like her—well, not exactly, but you seemed to have captured her aura. Were you thinking about her when you drew this?”

I was pretty sure I wasn’t, but I began to doubt myself. It was like the overall creation process had obscured my memory. What was I thinking when I was making that portrait?

“I started with a reference, actually,” I began, showing Julio the photo of a random girl I saved on my phone. “Somewhere along the way, I realized that I was disconnecting from my subject, so I drew and drew until I found that connection again. I didn’t mean to draw Harumi, but I guess I missed her so much that my subconscious dictated the work for me.”

Julio nodded, stroking his chin. “I just realized that in your story, she introduced herself as Harumi, not Yukine.”

“What are you saying?”

“You knew her as Harumi, your roommate and best friend, not Yukine, the girl from the Spanish House who escaped into the Metropolis. The former was brought back instead because—”

“Whoa,” I held up my hands and shook them frantically. “Are you saying that… that—”

“You brought her back with that portrait? It might be possible…”

Julio had finished my sentence for me because I still couldn’t get myself to say it out loud. I had a new supernatural power I clearly didn’t want. Having Julio say it instead seemed just as bad, though. I couldn’t read the expression on his face. Was he skeptical of this new power? Was he afraid of it? Or was he annoyed that I was getting all these powers I couldn’t control?

Nevertheless, the whole thing overwhelmed me. It was weird; shouldn’t I feel proud of myself for bringing my best friend back? Instead, I felt like garbage. I wanted to cry again because I knew that Cassandra would find a way to turn this new power against me.

It was all you, she had said.

She might have already known. Why else would she have uttered those words? I swallowed the lump in my throat and turned to Julio.

“What do I do now?” I asked him.

“I suggest you explore it a bit more,” Julio replied. “Could come in handy against Cassandra. You could draw a horde of monsters to go after her and maybe all of our problems would be solved.”

I laughed a little. “Even if I could do that, I doubt it would be that easy. Besides, I still get the feeling that this new Harumi is secretly a monster or—”

“Quinn, relax.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “People can’t secretly be monsters. That’s not how corruption works.”

I sighed. “Then, there are people like Cassandra.”

“Cassandra is different. Trust me, I can safely say that there’s no one else like her.”

Who was I to doubt him? He had been on the front lines for quite some time, protecting the Metropolis from all sorts of terrors seeking to disrupt its existence.

“I believe you,” I finally said.

Julio let go of my shoulder and gave off a faint smile. “Now, let me see this power of yours. Why don’t you draw something?”

I felt nervous. Somehow, I still clung to the possibility that the entire day had just been a dream, but if I were to wake up, Harumi would be gone. If I drew something that eventually came to life, the burden of a brand-new supernatural ability would weigh down on my shoulders.

“I don’t have any piece of paper with me right now,” I said.

“I do.” Julio pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket.

I took it with frail fingers. I knew that Julio kept them in case he needed to send a paper airplane to someone. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten about that.

“How about a pen?” I stammered.

He had one, too. He pulled it out from the pocket of his jeans and held it up with a stoic look on his face. It was like he was silently telling me to stop stalling and get things over and done with.

I took the pen and sighed. It was now or never.

I flattened the piece of paper on the terrace’s rocky surface and began with a couple of crude circles. The pen punctured holes in the paper, and the ferocious sea breeze threatened to blow my drawing away. The sky was getting dark, and I struggled to focus. Despite that, I was quickly able to form the figure of a small dog, its big eyes gleaming and its tongue sticking out. I lifted the paper and showed it to Julio.

“There,” I said.

Julio squinted his eyes in the dark. “Okay, now what?”

“We… wait?”

For how long? I thought to myself. It felt like ages since I’d drawn the blue cat, and even if Harumi returned the same morning I had finished the portrait, those two events were still hours apart. Was Julio going to spend his night by the seaside waiting for a misshapen dog to appear? (I will admit, though, that it was pretty nice out there.)

One by one, streetlights began to illuminate the seaside area, and the buildings in the distance followed suit, pretending to be stars in the sky. I held on to my drawing as I stared into the distance, the wind still trying to pry it out of my hands. There was no way I had a new power.

No way.

No way…

I thought about turning to Julio and telling him that it was all ridiculous. Perhaps it was the Author who had restored Harumi, and Cassandra decided to bring my badly drawn cat to life to mess with me. If she could create vividly nightmarish worlds, conjuring a small animal would probably be in her range of abilities.

However, before I could say anything, Julio lightly tapped my shoulder.

“Quinn,” he whispered. “Look…”

I turned my eyes to where he directed his gaze. Sitting by one of the food stalls was a dog—a very ugly dog, for that matter. Its white fur was covered in dirt and was uneven in certain places. Its tongue hung from its jaw, and its big, black eyes gleamed at me.

I let go of my drawing, and the wind carried it away. “I couldn’t believe it…” I said softly.

I kept my eyes on the dog. It caught a glimpse of the blue cat digging in the trash. Once the cat leaped out with a leftover chicken leg in its mouth, the dog snarled and began to chase the cat. The cat ran, and the two animals disappeared into the night.

“Quinn,” Julio then mouthed. “All this power you have. First time travel, now this?”

“I can also control the weather,” I said glumly.

Lightning struck the sky and thunder sounded from the distance. Drops of rain fell to the sea, creating infinite tiny pools on its surface.

“See,” I said. “It’s starting to rain because I’m feeling distressed. More distressed than I’ll probably ever be. Harumi said it was an emotional thing. Cassandra does this too, apparently.”

Julio furrowed his brows. “Yeah, I had my suspicions about that. Someone at the Spanish House once joked that it would rain if you made Cassandra sad.”

I let out an exasperated sigh, looking to the sky for answers. It didn’t have any.

“Quinn,” Julio looked gravely at me. “I think I get it now, but you’re not going to like what I’m going to say.”

“Get what?” I asked. “And what am I not going to like?”

“So Cassandra can travel through time and affect the world with her emotions. And you can do those, too. Cassandra’s also been building a world of her own, a world away from the Author. And now, you’re creating things, bringing things to life…”

“What are you saying?”

Julio took my hands in his. Heavy rains surrounded us, sending chills down my spine, but I could only think about his warm touch on my skin.

“Your powers mirror Cassandra’s,” he said, looking into my eyes. “It all makes sense. Maybe you’re the one destined to beat her…”

Back at the Spanish House, I considered my rewind powers to be my best asset. It wasn’t because I could use it to face Cassandra head-on, though. My powers were my escape route, my chance to avoid whatever chaos Cassandra would choose to unleash. But now, I had a new power, the power to create things, which was likely the same ability Cassandra used to build the frightening world she once tried to trap me in.

I held Julio’s hands—no, I squeezed them. I was so stressed out.

“Beat Cassandra?” I cried. “Julio, you know I can’t fight her. You saw what happened at the party—”

“I know,” Julio said, lowering his head. “But you still have that knife I gave you, right? It can still come in handy sometimes.”

I froze. Where was it? He had given it to me before Mackenzie crashed into Curtis’ party, saying that I might need to defend myself.

Admittedly, I had forgotten all about it.

“I… I think I lost it,” I stammered. “I haven’t seen it since the party.”

Julio sighed. “It’s okay. Maybe you don’t need to fight anyone. You may have certain abilities that Cassandra doesn’t. We just need to figure out what they are. Or, your powers haven’t reached their full potential yet, and you use those to beat her. Even then, it’s just another one of my theories. Why else would you two have the same powers in the first place?”

“I suck at using them, though,” I muttered bitterly.

“Quinn, think for a minute, okay? You saved the Spanish House from Cassandra with your rewind powers—”

“By passing out in the control room—”

“—And you brought back your best friend even though we both knew she was gone. If you learn to control your rewind powers and master this new one, maybe one day, you can save the Metropolis. You’re more powerful than you think you are, Quinn…”

I let those words sink in for a while. Me. Powerful. I would have hugged him under the pouring rain, but it wasn’t raining anymore.

Slowly, the storm clouds receded, and I looked up at a clear night sky.

“Huh,” Julio said. “I guess this means you’re feeling better now?”

I let go of his hands and smiled. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Now that it was dinner time, the smell of food wafted all around me. People began crowding the food stalls as soon as the rain had stopped, and I watched a few of them walk away with a steaming hot meal in their hands.

“So, you wanna get something to eat now?” I suggested.

“Sure,” Julio replied. “But I should probably get you back to your dorm. You’re soaking wet.” As he said that, he sneezed. He then shook his head and sniffled. “Excuse me.”

I winced. “Yeah, sorry about the rain and all.”

“We should also get that under control, though. If your emotions are linked to a change in weather, Cassandra can easily find out what you’re feeling and use that against you.”

The thought of that made me shudder. I imagined Cassandra in a high place, looming over the Metropolis ahead of her, and smiling at the first sign of storm clouds appearing in the distance.

Looks like Quinn’s not feeling well, she’d think. Now’s my chance…

I shook it off.

“I should probably work on my time traveling first. It should be my most reliable power whenever something goes wrong. As of now, I can only go back a few seconds on my own. It’s frustrating.”

“A few seconds can be vital. You’ll never know. But, hmm, how about this? We can enjoy the seaside food stalls some other time—preferably when we’re not soaking wet. I’ll bring you back to St. John’s so you can dry yourself off, then I’ll meet you at your dorm room. Harumi isn’t moving back in yet, is she?”

I shook my head. “She hasn’t texted me about that yet.”

“I see. Homework?”

“No.”

“Perfect. How about I help you practice your powers?”