The Metropolis Series #2: Quinn Beyond Bounds
13. River Water

I COULDN’T GRASP the idea of Harumi being one of the Author’s rejected works. Julio could only temporarily maintain his physical form in the Metropolis. Since I was with Harumi almost all the time, I hadn’t seen her turn randomly into a dove and doze off on the study desk.

However… she did sleep on the top bunk… where I couldn’t see her…

“Look, Takahiro,” Julio began, “if that notebook really belongs to Yukine, it’s probably the closest thing we have to stopping Cassandra. She was always so close to her. That’s why we need to figure out what the rest of the notebook says.”

Takahiro rolled his eyes. “And by we, you mean me.”

“Well, I’d read the notebook myself, but obviously, I can’t do that. You’re the only one who can, Takahiro.”

At that, Takahiro took a long, deep sigh. “If it possibly means putting an end to this mess, then fine. I’ll do it.”

Julio nodded, sipping his coffee. I guess that was his way of saying thanks.

Meanwhile, Takahiro appeared to be scrutinizing me as if he were deciding whether or not he could trust me. “You said your name was Quinn, right?”

Yup, I was up for trouble.

“So, you were saying that this notebook belongs to a Harumi,” he continued. “Who is she, exactly?”

“We’re roommates at St. John’s,” I said.

“St. John’s…” Takahiro mused. “If you’re supposed to be one of us, how did you get into a place like St. John’s?”

“I’ve just always been there. I don’t really know.”

Wow, Quinn, that doesn’t sound suspicious at all.

“So what do you know?” Takahiro pressed. “Because from what I’ve read so far, Harumi seems to know a lot herself, if you know what I mean.”

I couldn’t look straight into Takahiro’s eyes anymore. My hands were trembling under the table, and I kept turning my gaze on my sandwich, hoping it could give me better ways to respond.

Julio looked at me as he put down his coffee cup. I could only hope that he would butt in and steer the conversation somewhere else.

He didn’t exactly do that.

“Quinn knows about Cassandra,” he began. “Cassandra’s been appearing in her dreams during her stay at St. John’s.”

“What kind of dreams, then?” Takahiro asked me.

At the mention of dreams, almost every nightmare I’ve had with Cassandra played vividly in my head. I didn’t think that I’d have the courage to describe them at that moment, but I managed to say a few words.

“I’d see her almost every night,” I stammered. “She’d chase me down this forest, telling me that I’ve done something terrible, and whenever she’d catch up to me, I’d wake up.”

Takahiro stroked his chin. “Interesting. Would you know specifically why you’ve been having those dreams?”

“No, but—”

A weight lingered on my chest. Around Julio, I had always chosen my words carefully. I was afraid that I’d put Harumi in danger. However, looking at how much he and his friends already knew about her, I didn’t see the point anymore.

I decided to tell them the truth.

“Julio,” I began. “There’s something else you need to know about Harumi.”

Julio and Takahiro exchanged looks.

I sighed. “She has told me about the Metropolis. Everything. About the Author, the characters… You see, Cassandra has always haunted me with these nightmares, telling me that I had done something wrong, and now, I understand what she means. I replaced her; I replaced Cassandra Diaz.”

Both boys appeared to not know how to respond.

“A replacement?” Takahiro stammered to get the words out of his mouth.

“It’s when the Author makes a newer version of another character,” Julio explained. “Canceling out the other.”

I gasped. “So that means Cassandra isn’t supposed to exist—at all?”

“She’s resisting it,” Julio explained. “Maybe that’s how she got corrupted.”

Takahiro shuddered. “Is she that powerful?”

The idea of Cassandra doing so made me shudder, too. She wanted to get rid of the Metropolis so that she could have everything the way she wanted it to be; she was fighting for her existence, and there was an aspect to it that made it sound so depressing. I genuinely felt sorry for her.

Julio sighed exasperatedly. “What else does the notebook say?”

“I wish I could say, but…” He flipped through the pages of the notebook. “Take a look for yourself.”

He passed the notebook to Julio. It was turned on a page where the ink was smudged and the paper was soaked.

Cassandra had offered Harumi to join her to “erase this world,” but when Harumi refused, Cassandra threw a fit and ended up trashing her study desk, drenching her school notes in bottled water—at least, I thought it was bottled water.

“It’s wrecked,” Julio said.

Takahiro shook his head. “Most of the notebook is. I’ll try my best to decipher what I can, but—” A wave of panic hit his face. “Hey, be careful—”

At the touch of a wrecked page, Julio winced, retracting his hand and letting out a yelp.

“What? What happened?” I asked, alarmed.

“The page felt cold.” Julio rubbed his hands together in an attempt to warm himself up. “It was so cold, it stung; I—” All of a sudden, his expression turned blank. He stared eerily into his hands, his jaw slightly hanging open.

“Julio? Hello?” I waved my hand in his face.

“The notebook…” Takahiro’s expression darkened. “It has been soaked in the Lethe. It’s so potent it that appears to have embedded itself in these pages.”

I gasped. How was that possible? The notebook had been wrecked because Cassandra had spilled bottled water over it. Unless…

No, it couldn’t be. The Lethe was supposed to give rejected characters a new life in the Metropolis. So was Harumi actually drinking it in the first place?

I glanced at Julio. He had the same expression Harumi had after drinking some of that water.

“Is Julio gonna suffer a memory loss?” I asked.

“Just a minor one,” Takahiro said. “He didn’t completely submerge himself in the stuff, so he’s probably just gonna forget where he put his wallet or something—like I had when I touched the pages.”

Julio gasped.

“He’s back.”

“What happened?” Julio asked frantically. “And where’s my wallet?”

Takahiro smiled to himself. “See, told ya.”

“Julio,” I said. “Takahiro told me that these pages have been soaked with Lethe water.”

His eyes widened. “Whoa, really?”

“You’re experiencing a minor memory loss there, my friend,” Takahiro explained.

“Takahiro,” I said. I took a bite of my sandwich. “What if she writes this diary to keep track of everything that happens in the Metropolis?”

He raised his brow. “Don’t people keep diaries for that very reason?”

“No, like—” I took a deep breath. “I saw her once. She was drinking out of this bottle of water. Then, later that day, the very same bottle had spilled all over the notebook. Harumi… Yukine… if she’s really one of the Author’s forgotten characters, she could be drinking Lethe water to keep herself in the Metropolis.”

“That makes… a lot of sense.” Takahiro’s eyes widened. “By not completely drowning herself in the Lethe, she would be keeping some of her memories intact. If her goal was to replace Cassandra in the Metropolis, then she cannot complete that mission as a full amnesiac. However, what kind of consequences would drinking the stuff entail? Have you been noticing anything strange about her?”

It was then I noticed that Julio had been silent throughout the rest of the conversation. He had gone back poking his banana bread with a fork. He then looked at Harumi’s notebook with a grave expression on his face.

“We need to dispose of this thing immediately,” he then said. “As much as I want to know more, the answers have been lost by—” His voice cracked. He clenched his fists.

“Julio,” I said. “Is something wrong?”

He banged his fists on the table, shaking a few spoons, plates, and forks. My hot chocolate rocked back and forth, some of it spilling on the table. “I need a minute,” he said.

I watched him get up and storm out of The MacGuffin, making the We’re Open sign on the front door swing violently from side to side.

I turned to Takahiro. “What’s wrong with him?”

Takahiro sighed. He looked sorry for him. “I dunno if you’ve heard, but Julio had a girlfriend.”

“I’ve heard.”

He groaned. “I should have been more sensitive. Julio, he—Well, do you know how they got separated?”

Before storming out, there had been many mentions of the Lethe.

The Lethe…

When Curtis got corrupted, Julio had said something to me about the Lethe. Just like in the original Greek myths, the river allows the Author to reuse his old characters and turn them into new ones.

They are drawn into the waters of the river, Julio had said. And they are washed up into a whole new person. I’ve seen it before. Not exactly a happy memory.

He was talking about Rachael. They had been together outside the Metropolis—

Until Rachael jumped into the Lethe.

“Gimme a minute,” I told Takahiro.

I followed Julio out of The MacGuffin.