Empire Island, Exile the First

Chapter 3

One of the perks of being a drifter vagabond type was that I had almost nothing to get rid of. In fact, I left my apartment furnished and tacked a note up on Vlad's door before I snuck out in the middle of the night.

"Sell what's there, keep what's left over. Thanks, it's been a slice. KE."

He wouldn't be happy about it, but some of my vintage records and the mid-century modern sofa I'd lovingly restored would more than cover the money I owed. Plus, it'd leave him enough for a splurge on something he liked.

And that's when I realized in the three years I'd lived there, I'd never learned a single thing about Vlad. Not even where he was from, what his accent represented. Nothing.

I mentally shrugged as I strolled down the street with my Army surplus duffel bag slung over my shoulder. Next time I'd try to make more than superficial connections in the city.

Next time.

If there was a next time.

I decided to head for Waterfront Sky Train station to catch the first Sea bus across to North Vancouver. From there, I'd hop a regular transit bus to Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal and be on my way home by ten or so this morning.

It was a bit of a walk, but I wanted to soak in the ambiance of the city proper before I left. I'd always been fascinated by the looming sensation of sky rises and office towers bending over me. With the architecture dominating my view instead of the raw, untamed forests that I'd grown up with.

I probably never would've left Empire if I hadn't come to Vancouver for a medical trip for my little sister when I was a kid. We'd stayed in a cheap place near the Children's Hospital, but during the visit, we'd come through town on our way to Stanley Park. And I'd been hooked from that point forward. Vancouver had felt like the future, a glass city in the sky, modern and forward facing.

Empire had felt trapped in the past, and despite a few of its more mysterious qualities, I'd always felt stunted there. Unable to grow because it felt as if my roots preferred to work their way down through the cracks in a city sidewalk instead of the rich loam of the island.

Adding to that, some personal trauma, and it had been a recipe for getting the hell out of Dodge the moment I could without the RCMP dragging me into foster care if they caught me.

I got to the station as they were rolling up the access door to the trains, paid and walked down to the first level. I stood at the junction of the sky train and sea bus corridors and looked up to find a big black raven staring down at me.

He tilted his head and the morning light caught his eye, illuminating it as if from within. He opened his beak, worked his throat up and down, and finally emitted two loud grok sounds before dropping off the post and taking flight.

He flew to the other end of the platform, dive bombing morning commuters along the way, spinning up the stairwell and out of sight.

None of the commuters seemed to notice him, which gave me pause. Was I hallucinating the raven or were they too focused on endlessly scrolling, hunched over their phones without a single sense of awareness of the world around them?

I pushed through to the sea bus entrance and waited to load for the first crossing of the day. Once on board the small passenger ferry, I took a seat at the front and put my earbuds in my ears to drown out the sounds of people shuffling and talking around me. I focused on the waves and almost immediately felt my eyes grow heavy with the rhythm of the water.

I slipped into a vision without a transitional period, hitting a dream state in the liminal space instead of a deep dream. I could still hear the sounds of my music in the distance, tinny and far away. The Clash played, the beat matching my heart as I focused on the scene taking shape before me.

I was on Empire again, but how it had been when I was a small girl. Bright and magical, with motes of energy swirling around every living thing. From the blades of grass to the butterflies fluttering between glowing flowers and around the base of sparkling trees. Everything glowed and sparked with neon bright energy and I felt alive. Empire was on fire with energy of creation and I inhaled, feeling strong and purposeful even at the age of five.

"Come, child, follow me," a voice said behind me and I recognized it even though I couldn't be sure I'd ever heard it before.

I turned and felt small again, as if I had shrunk down. Not a child, now, but a woman half her regular height.

I kept shrinking as I moved and by that time, I had fully turned to find the source of the voice. I looked up at the underside of wildflowers and butterflies flew between them, seeming the size of helicopters.

"Who are you?" I asked, looking up at wavering features. One moment it was the face of a fox. The next, a beautiful woman. And the very next, an ancient man.

"I am who you were expecting," they said and their voice felt velvet smooth against my ears. The Clash was farther away now, but still I heard the lyrics..."Should I stay or should I go?"

"Who was I expecting?" I asked, blinking as the shape finally wavered one last time, taking solid form.

"You were expecting me, child," my long dead grandmother Bea said, her beautiful face appearing in the middle of a luminescent patch of fireweed.

"Grandmother, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"You need me now, more than ever," she said and frowned, her face frightening me. "You left the island, child. You were never supposed to leave, Kairos, you know that."

"You know why I left," I said, straightening my back to bolster my confidence. I'd left for good reasons, long after she'd died, but she should know what had driven me away.

"I do, but you shirked your sacred duty," she said, beginning to fade as a dark shadow approached from across the meadow. The shadow grew longer and I felt the earth rumble the closer it got. "You left and they went missing. Find them!"

The shadow engulfed her and everything around me, leaving me choking on acrid smoke and the taste of yellow-tinted, dense oil. I screamed, raising my hands to defend myself against it.

And fell out of my seat, jerked awake and found myself on the floor of the sea bus with everybody staring at me like I carried the plague and would infect them with my twitching body.

I jumped up, pulled the earbuds from my ears and put my hand up. I laughed and said, "I'm fine, sorry. It's early, right?"

Nobody joined my nervous titter, and I put the earbuds back in and sat down again.

I still tasted the oil in my mouth and when I wiped the back of my hand, I left a yellow-black streak of slick liquid.

I shuddered and scowled as life unraveled a new problem for me. It seemed simply deciding to return to Empire wasn't going to make my bad luck disappear.

I'd have to fix whatever had broken when I'd left and then decide from there if I'd stay or if I would go.