Hallucination or not?

Chapter 15

The sun glare woke Julian, and in less than a second he knew he was doomed. He was supposed to be up at seven o'clock and it was well after ten. Jumping out of the bed he rushed to the bathroom and fumbled with his clothes, getting dressed in less than five minutes. 'Great! I'm late for work and Carlos will remember it till my last day.'

At the last minute, he remembered the card and picked it up.

'Lovers or not, Lýkos should be walked at nine.' He crossed the corridors at full speed, reaching the kitchen almost out of breath.

“Good morning,” Lucia greeted him jovially. “Mr. Koiranos said to let you sleep longer today. He says you were up late.”

“Where is he?” Julian asked. “There's something I have to give him.”

“In the garden, by the old well,” she replied as she began to prepare Julian's breakfast, looking for two eggs inside the refrigerator. “Your brother went with Pedro to the Leroy Merlin. Lýkos went out by himself. The new vacuum cleaner was too much for the poor dear nerves.”

“I'll see to him now.”

“Wait! Your breakfast!” Lucia shouted but Julian was already closing the rear door behind him.

Julian crossed the esplanade and took the small path that circled the house and followed it in the forest's direction, passing by the small artificial pond. He walked for some five hundred metres more, wondering who in his right mind had built a pond so far away from the house, right in the middle of a clear in the dense forest.

Orion was crouched near the well, silently inspecting some herbs Julian had come to identify as aromatic ones. There was something in the fierceness in which the man checked the plants that drove Julian nervous without any reason.

Orion smiled when he heard the boy coming long before he could have seen him, stopping in the middle of the path, unsure if he should come or not.

“Come over here, little one,” he greeted Julian without rising.

“Lucia told me to meet you here,” Julian said shyly, not knowing if he should kiss Orion or not. His gaze met the man's luminous grey eyes and he got lost in them.

“Come down and help me here,” Orion asked and Julian crouched next to him. The man simply put his arm around his waist and pulled him against his chest. “Did you sleep well?” he whispered in the boy's ear before he kissed him on the lips softly before he deepened the kiss as the boy clung to his neck.

Feeling out of breath, Julian broke the kiss and smiled. “Come dressed like yesterday to my bedroom tonight, and you'll see what I can do for you.”

“Really? Even if court-dresses look so gloom today?” Orion chuckled and kissed him again.

“Suits or uniforms have that effect on everybody. That's what they're for.”

“Is it the clothes or the man under them?”

“Both, of course.” Julian replied playfully and poked Orion in the ribs.

“I need your help today,” Orion said seriously and Julian gaped astonished at the sudden change of mood of the man. Was a simple practical joke too much for his lover? What had changed his mood so much?

“Yes, of course,” he mumbled and put distance between them.

“Get some water from the well in the forest, pour it into the golden lion's ewer that's in my office and leave it next to the silver platter, the one on a ring foot that stands next to the window.” Orion explained him slowly.

“Do you mean the lion's pitcher? The same that looks like being made in the XVI century?” Julian whined. “It's an antiquity!”

“No, I think this aquamanil was made on the XIII century. Lower Saxony, perhaps. I don't remember it well. Don't worry about the bronze. Dry it well and there should be no problems.”

“You can't put water in it!” Julian whined. “And that silver thing.... looks much older!”

“Water does nothing to silver. Ah, and take whatever herbs you like from this garden and leave them to soak in the water for as long as you want. Then, remove them before you pour the water on the platter.”

“Do you want to make tea in a thirteenth century aquamanil?” Julian blurted out. 'Lýkos is the sensible one here.'

“No, I said cold water,” Orion replied without bating an eyelash. “Just do it and then, go get Lýkos and return to my office. He must be back from his ride with your brother.”

Julian gaped at Orion but once more decided to let it go. Even if it was a sacrilege, bronze should be able to survive the water and then, he could dry it well.

“Two men left a card for you,” he said instead. He searched for the paper in his pockets.

“I know. The persons whom they represent will visit us today. You and Lýkos will stay with me when they are with us.”

“Should I stay when you have one of your visitors?”

“Yes, I would like to have your support and you can control Lýkos if his temper is unleashed.” Orion kissed the youth on the forehead before he gently pushed him in direction to the house.

Julian walked down the path and turned around several times to gaze at Orion, but he was already gone.

The ewer was exactly where he had told him, and Julian sighed loudly when he opened the glass doors that protected the powerful lion. 'Must be the one who went extinct. Has almost no hairs.' Julian realised watching the animal's short mane. 'Way to go with the Greenpeace people, Orion.'

The office didn't look different than any other day, but Julian shuddered. The large, imposing desk was covered with many papers and the cleaning ladies had already tidied up the room and symmetrically placed the cushion on the leather chesterfield sofas facing the desk.

On the opposite corner stood the black tripod ending in a ring that held the silver platter. Despite of the many years he had been working for Orion, Julian had never truly observed that piece. All the items inside the small library-office were forbidden land for him and Lýkos when visitors were around. Therefore he avoided the place.

Still feeling as if he were on the brink of a mortal sin, Julian walked towards it. His small fingers reverently touched the shallow dish. The boy's eyes got lost in the flat rim embellished with a frieze in relief portraying leaping lions and dogs, alternating with ivy leaves and masks. After a long contemplation of the scene, he realised that the dogs in fact were hunting the lions.

'Funny, I always thought that a lion would swallow them whole, but it looks as if they're winning.

'It's quite beautiful.

'Putting water here is a crime.'

Julian took the pitcher in his hands and walked back to the forest with slow steps. Suddenly, he felt old, attacked by many cramps he didn't know he had, weighed down by all what was wrong in the world. He shook his head to dismiss the unpleasant feeling. Took a deep breath in, and everything returned to normalcy.

Perched over the pit's stone border, he guessed how the dark waters' ripples movements would be. The well was very deep and nothing could be seen from abode as if no light could touch the bottom.

Julian pushed the old wooden bucket down the pit and waited for it to touch the water. The muffled splash heard in the distance made him realize how deep it was and that it was time to pull from the chain and lift up the bucket.

The filled bucked was heavier than he had imagined and he used all of his strength and weight, clinging to the chain, to pull it upwards. With great effort he perched over the well to catch the bucket, getting wet in the process, and set it on the wellhead.

That little exercise strangely left him drained of all his stamina. Trying to recover his breath he held unto the edge of the well, once more contemplating its hidden waters. Julian felt as if he had ran a marathon and wondered why if he was well fit, walking several kilometres every day and not eating sweets or any processed foods like before. The darkness inside the well was appealing and he felt part of it.

Only the loud and raspy pants of Lýkos broke his concentration. “You're here,” he sighed as he watched the wolfdog dug his muzzle in the fresh water to noisily drink, splashing water everywhere.

'Great, now I'll have to do it all over again,' Julian thought but said nothing, only loudly patting the animal's side to vent his frustration at the perspective of the new task.

Lýkos gave a good header to the bucket and it fell once more inside the pit, splashing the remaining water everywhere. “Hey, you!” complained Julian as the dog had drenched his shoes. “Be more careful!”

This time, getting the bucket out was much easier and Julian poured the water on the pitcher. Afraid that it could fall into the pit, he rose the pitcher over his head, keeping it high from Lýkos.

“This is an antiquity. Not a bowl,” he told firmly to the animal and Lýkos panted louder.

'Chose herbs from this garden? What the hell?' thought Julian as his gaze travelled all over the aromatic plants. He felt clueless as most of the herbs meant nothing to him. Lýkos closed the distance between them and rubbed his head against his trousers.

'Rosemary is good. Grandma was always sprinkling it everywhere. Keeps the bad spirits away,' he decided as he patted the head next to him, without paying much attention to it. 'Anyway, a good cleaning of Orion's office will do him some good. The air is so dense in there.'

“You also think he has too many pricks coming over,” Julian commented with the dog. “But we would need an army of Gypsy fortune tellers to cast the bad things away and get rid of them,”

Julian smiled as Lýkos sniffed the freshly cut herbs with great interest, right before he would throw them into the pitcher, shaking it a bit just to mix them with the water.

Happy that he had finished his task, Julian only hoped to dive into the library and busy himself with the unsorted books. The weather looked stormy and he didn't feel like walking Lýkos to the forest.

He didn't feel like meeting the two gorillas from yesterday at all and hoped that Orion wouldn't notice if he scurried away after he had poured the water in the platter.

The sight of five black cars standing in front of the main entrance made his stomach churn. The men in dark suits didn't look better than their friends from the night before. Julian felt the hairs rise in Lýkos' nape and, with his free hand, he caressed the animal, soothing him when he would have been more than happy to release the beast upon the men who eyed him with a mix of distrust and scorn. He crossed the courtyard under the close scrutiny of the standing around their cars men, and wondered why Lucia had offered them nothing to drink, when she normally was a kind hostess to the bored chauffeurs.

He entered the house through the rear door and the old lady caught him by the arm. “Mr. Koiranos has people in the living room. He said you should finish what he asked you to do this morning and tell him when you're ready.”

“Do you know who they are?”

“Some diplomats from the Russian Federation,” she answered, frowning at the sight of the pitcher dripping water over her pristine floor. “You're dirty. Change your trousers, dear.”

“Oh,” Julian replied and noticed how dirty he was. 'Russians but not mobsters. Should have known.' “Do they stay for lunch?”

“No, of course not, dear. You know Mr. Koiranos' habits. Go change yourself and I'll give something to Lýkos.” She bent down to caress the wolfdog, already watching in direction of the porcelain bowl set on the floor.

“What do they want here?”

“I don't know. They speak only Russian,” she answered stiffly.

Julian bit his lips and left the kitchen, doing his best to muffle his footsteps as he walked across the corridor, passing in front of the closed living room's door. The voices heard through the door meant nothing to him; they were cultured and Julian found the rhythmical cadence of the language funny. Orion's raspy voice sounded tired and detached from what was being said, as if he were not interested at all on the conversation.

Already sensing that his lover was nearing the point where he would turn nasty or say something out of place, Julian rushed to his bedroom to change as quick as he could, finish his task and be done.

On the corridor he nearly bumped into Lýkos and dropped some water on top of him. The dog didn't seem to be offended at all and his tail brushed the boy's trousers. He walked back to Orion's office and Lýkos scurried through his legs when he opened the door, trotting in direct line towards the silver dish.

As Julian poured the water over the shallow dish, Lýkos rose on his hind legs and placed his massive paws on the border of the tripod that held the dish.

“Don't you even think on using this as a bowl,” Julian warned the dog as the water ran through his fingers, now used as a strainer to keep the rosemary leaves out of the water.

Lýkos heavily landed back on the ground and hunched his head in the way he always used to do when he wanted to be petted. “You're a teddy bear with big fangs,” Julian said with a smile as he patted the animal. “Don't mess with Orion's toys or we both will be in trouble,” he said. “And don't bite the ones who come today too,” he added with a chuckle.

'Why the hell does Orion want me with two Russians? Not that he's going to make an orgy,'

He chuckled again at the idea of an orgy with the two men who had been the previous night at his door dressed in ballerinas' tutus.

“Time to get the supreme boss to work, don't you think, Lýkos?” he said after a quick check of the room, making sure that everything was in order and that there were two extra chairs in front of Orion's desk.

Without waiting for Julian, Lýkos dashed out of the office and ran through the corridor. The dog jumped to his rear legs and loudly placed his paws on the polished wooden door, loudly breathing.

“Way to go, Lýkos,” Julian admonished him as he pulled from the collar with the intention of forcing him to sit on the floor. “What did I tell you about eating people? Get down!”

But Lýkos preferred to push the oak door open and enter the room without minding his caretaker frown. Blushing from indignation at the animal's impertinent behaviour, Julian followed him in.

One single glance from Orion made Julian fix his gaze upon the floor and remain standing at the door. He only nodded at the unspoken question and moved aside to let the two Russian men pass, nearly brushing him, beside him.

Intimidated, he watched the retreating backs of the tall men, not as tall as Orion, but emanating a commanding aura more dangerous than his lover had ever had.

One full header from Lýkos forced him to follow the men back to the office. The wolfdog stealthily trotted and entered the room, stomping on the men's feet, not caring at all if they were standing there.

“Please do sit down,” Orion said as he waived his hand in direction of the two old-leather chairs standing in front of his desk. Without saying a word, the Russians turned the chairs around to make them face the silver dish held by the tripod.

One single movement of the man's head made Julian realise he was expected to approach the water and stand there, next to Lýkos. Puzzled the boy obeyed and felt very uncomfortable as both strangers examined him from head to toes with a mix of curiosity and awe.

“Has the water been transformed?” asked Orion and Julian gaped at him.

“Yes, sir.” he answered softly. Lovers or not, Orion was his superior and the visitors had probably put money in his pockets. Their pockets if Julian would dare to dream of a joint future. Disoriented he briefly remembered an old Gypsy woman who was always standing at his building's doorstep and using the same weird sentences before playing she could foresee the future.

'Great. Orion plays parlour tricks,' he couldn't help to think, his blood beginning to boil as his lover had forgotten to mention a silly little detail such as “I make a living out of scamming rich dodos.”

“Sit over there and say nothing no matter what happens or what you may see,” Orion ordered him in Spanish, his grey eyes clearly showing his displeasure at Julian's sullen face.

Seeing that there was not seat left for him, Julian knelt down next to Lýkos and his left hand buried itself in the black fur sea. The youth's annoyance grew hotter as he watched the men fix their eyes upon Orion's form, without missing a single movement, dangling from the smallest gesture or sound he could make. His knuckles turned white as Julian clenched the wolfdog's hair. A sudden and moist lick to his face took him out of his self-righteous trance and Julian released the dog's hair.

“Stay put,” he whispered in the animal's ear as he caressed his nape as a sort of apologise.

Another warning glance from Orion convinced Julian of the benefits of following the old adagio of “little children should be seen but not heard”.

“Will the Guardian enlighten us?” The older visitor used English for the first time and Julian nearly huffed as he was now forced to participate in any charade Orion had devised.

“Only if he desires so,” Orion answered not minding the men any longer as all his attention was focused on the small ripples of the water.

Julian, upset at the unspoken “scold”, dedicated all his attention to gently pet Lýkos hair, purportedly ignoring the rest of the room.

He was old enough as to decide if he wanted to be part of a “gypsy scam” or not. He hated to land in the middle of a mess that nobody had bothered to foretell him in advance, like when that boyfriend of his in the ninth grade left his pills on his jacket and his mother found them. His mother shouted to no end with him and confiscated the blue, white and green pills. Despite Julian efforts to recover them, the chemical dreams were never to be seen again... just as said boyfriend.

It was just infuriating that people only considered him as a pretty face and nothing else. If his boyfriend had decided to start a promising career as dealer, he should have told him and he would have concocted a suitable lie to quench his mother's burst of motherhood zeal.

Instead of sending him to play gardener, Orion should have clearly said -well in advance-, “two Russian twerps come today. Get the crystal ball out”, and he would have known what to do.

Rosemary for all sakes! Now the whole office would smell like lamb stew, just like now. He wrinkled his nose at the powerful smell that flooded and hammered his brain.

This time, without bothering to hide his more than righteous annoyance, Julian huffed loudly and rose his eyes from the black ears he had been playing with to see the form of a city rising in the middle of the silver platter.

He grasped as he felt his soul being sucked by a powerful wind that dragged it towards the buildings. Faster than a blink, he shut his eyes wide as he feared the wind would smash his body against the window it dragged him to.

He opened his eyes to face a violet zombie doll dressed like a rock star.

'Shit, you're ugly,' he thought before he recognized Clawdeen with her lilac leopard-print mini skirt. The doll oddly reminded him of a shopping afternoon with Jenny and Jessy and he smiled at the memory of being banned forever from a Zara Store.

His eyes wandered all over the room as the painfully pink-violet-lima symphony of teenage accessories dazzled him. 'A real fan of the whole preppy monsters gang,' he mind-chuckled as he put distance to the shelf harbouring some twenty or thirty different dolls.

The door burst open violently and a girl -not older than twelve or thirteen years old- stormed in, cutting short the boy's normal shock at being in a total stranger's bedroom. The girl kicked her shoes away, oblivious to his presence and collapsed over her bed plugging her earphones to the mobile before starting to type on it.

Inwardly, he knew he was invisible and that this was another “psychedelic trip” like the one in the cave, a courtesy of his lover and his magical and mystery garden.

'Orion will hear me when this is over,' he thought rancorously. 'What's this? A big supernatural experience with.... the Monster High Shit?? Shit!'

The walls were covered with posters. Julian was shocked to see how many groups he didn't know were plastered there. The One Direction cuties where nowhere to be seen. Were they dead? Probably they were already forgotten and that was worse than death. Was he so out of fashion?'

Where were Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift? Who the heck were Queen Larissa or The Breakers -and the third blonde to the right was looking like highly datable material-?

“Shit!” Julian cursed as his fury increased with each passing second. “A wasted trip to a lobotomised teenage lair.”

'How the hell does Orion get so much... weed, grass, crystal or whichever shit he uses? He goes anywhere and nobody but his super rich pals come to the house. Does Pedro bring it?'

Alas the girl was oblivious to his predicament as her hand automatically searched for something in her night table. A large cream filled pastry he didn't know too.

“If you eat that shit, forget about those fluo trousers you're thinking about. Your ass will look bigger than the moon but maybe you like it, little chippy.” he said out loud, watching with a mix of envy, fury and longing the fat oozing cream dripping out of the oval pastry.

He had not eaten one in four or five years. Crazy Orion hated with passion everything that was made of flour or sugar. He hated everything that came wrapped in a plastic foil. The man was even able to smell if he had something like this hidden in his pocket. “Please refrain yourself of bringing such chemical conglomerates called food to my house,” he had said only once and Julian knew his job was at stake.

Normal people ate Twinkies and he wanted one badly at that moment.

'I'm sick of it. Period.'

He walked out of the room to remember he was again inside a dream and how do you get out of a dream when pinching your arm is not enough as to wake you up?

The fear rose in him and looked back at the girl, hoping to find a solution in her, but she was deeply inside her own trance thanks to the little screen secured in her hands. The half nibbled pastry laid forgotten on the night table, staining with the yellow cream her Hello Kitty bedside lamp.

There was no way out, only a way in; going further inside the dream.

'Wait and you'll come out,' Julian's inner voice told him. 'Just like in the cave. You've ridden tougher dragons,' it added evilly.

'No, nothing injected. It leaves marks and who knows what you can catch. Hepatitis is no fun,' he defended himself from the unspoken accusation.

'No way I'm going out. No way.' He sat on top of her desk and briefly wondered what would happen if he were to throw her books to the floor. Would she scream thinking there was a ghost? No, probably she would think there was good-looking teenage vampire sneaking into her room.

The little devil in him made him push a book, just a few inches, but she was too far away in her “What'sUp?” realm and the book didn't move at all.

Where's the fun of a practical joke if nobody sees it? He sighed in utter boredom as he watched the slight tremors running through her arms and shoulders as she typed in the screen. She seemed to be in pain as her hand rubbed the back of her neck but stubbornly returned to her screen.

“You should take your pills,” Julian said to the ceiling, knowing he would not be heard or seen. “And stop watching that screen before you have a full seizure.”

The phone was dropped unto the floor and broke in two pieces. Alarmed Julian abandoned the desk and looked at her filled with tears face showing an overbearing pain as her hands clutched the back of her neck.

She started to shake violently, like a fish out of water, fighting to recover her breath as her skin turned into white.

Julian ran to her but his hand went through her arm as if he were a ghost. Gasping he could only observe her pain as she rolled out of her bed and fell heavily on the floor.

The young man ran to her side but touching her face felt as if he were grabbing a piece of gel. She never felt his touch or heard his voice calling her. He could only watch her powerless. He cried “roll unto your side so you don't choke”, but she was only shaking even more violently than before.

“What the fuck did you take?” Julian shouted again as his mind raced, listing all the effects of many pills and drug cocktails he had heard about when he was younger. He tried to make her body roll aside, but he felt as if he were touching an icy, heavy, impossible to move gelatine. Desperate, he stood tall and took some steps away from her.

Maybe he could get some help from another person in the house.

It was empty.

Just like his own house had been for many years.

He could only wait and wait till someone would come.

And he did, witnessing how the convulsions increased their violence till they died out. An elderly woman -her mother he assumed- arrived in the late afternoon and cried when she saw the girl -her daughter- laying there, in the middle of a pool made of her excrements and vomit. The woman ran away and he could heard her frantically speaking on the phone, although he was unable to understand her words.

He only knelt down next to her and extended his hand to touch her trembling face only to realise how futile his gesture was.

He felt powerless and reduced to nothing as he watched her wide open eyes and spasms. The unshod tears made his throat hurt like never before.

Two paramedics arrived and one of them checked her condition while the other showed no interest at all in her or her sobbing mother. The man only shook his head after he checked her pupils with a flashlight and examined the simple reactive stripe he had wet inside the small urine puddle next to her.

Carelessly, both men hauled the girl in a stretcher and took her away. Julian followed them as he couldn't believe they could be so indifferent to the whole situation. He had felt more care and concern from the nurses and doctor at the E.R. when he overdosed -and it was very clear for them that he was nothing but a miserable project of a junkie using drugs to impress... who was he?- than with these two apes, slamming the ambulance doors without letting her mother in.

He stood motionless in the middle of the street just watching the ambulance drive away in the dying afternoon. The woman-mother turned around and slowly returned to her house, dragging her feet ans closing the door after her.

Julian looked around and a wave of dizziness swirled him around, making the tall buildings seem to fall over him. He closed his eyes and waited for the world to stop moving for a while.

The street was still empty. No cars, no buses, no people as a big street with tall buildings should have.

'Where's everybody?' he thought but there was nobody to answer him.

Afraid of the loneliness, Julian began to walk without any idea of where he was going or where he was. He walked and walked, only passing one or two people but he didn't talk to them. He already knew it was useless; everything was a dream and he had no power over it.

The dark shape of a wolf in the distance warmed his heart. He instantly recognized Lýkos and ran towards him, but the animal turned around and escaped in the opposite direction.

Frustrated as the wolfdog had undoubtedly started -once more- one of his mouse and cat games, one in which Julian started as the hunter and always ended as the ambushed prey. The boy chased down the animal through the empty streets, running as fast as he could but Lýkos seemed to increase the speed each time Julian was able to come closer to him.

Out of breath, Julian gave up as he watched the wolfdog enter in a building and run the stairs up. 'Suit yourself. I'm getting older,' he thought as his back collapsed against the brick wall.

The pounding pain in his sides began to diminish as his breathing returned to normal. Still upset with Lýkos attitude, Julian huffed and looked around, wondering why the place was so empty. There was nothing around except for a few cars parked on the opposite street.

Everything was silent. No noises. No talks. The silence hurt. It was even more silent than in the forest.

'Silent like the grave', he thought and entered the building, now only willing to become one with the silence.

The corridor looked like any other corridor he had seen in his life; cheap marble, tilting-broken lights and a dry fern. The elevator did not work but he saw a stairwell next to it. With total resignation he faced the idea of climbing all the stores in his quest for the wayward Lýkos.

The second floor corridor was as deserted as the first one and the line of closed doors made him drop the idea of searching for Lýkos there. He grimaced at the thick layer of dust on the floor when he noticed how dirty the hem was as the trousers had brushed themselves against it inadvertently.

He climbed the stairs to the next upper floor and the lack of footprints on the dusty hall told him it was useless to look for the wolfdog there. The dim light was clear enough for him to follow the negative footprints on the dirt.

After climbing one set of stairs after the other, Julian faced a peeled off painted metal door. 'Aha, trapped like a rat,' he thought and carefully pushed the door open only using two fingers, as he remembered Lýkos tendency to jump on him each time the dog planned to ambush him.

But nothing happened. The wolfdog did not jump and Julian shuddered at the cold win draft that swept across the terrace. At the farthest corner, Lýkos remained sat at Orion's feet.

“What are you doing here? Where's everybody?” Julian asked when he crossed the terrace.

“Dead, I presume,” Orion replied as his eyes scanned the empty street bellow them. “Perhaps the survivors had fled to the countryside, but it will not help them.” Orion turned around and crouched to vigorously ruff Lýkos side, talking to him in hushed low tones.

“You haven't answered my question!” Julian yelled feeling the previous resentment come to surface again.

“Most of the inhabitants of this city are dead. Killed by a neuro degenerative disease,” Orion replied coldly.

In a blink, everything made sense for Julian.

“She only had a seizure! Like when you take too much of... whatever!” the boy shouted hysterically as he couldn't believe the girl would be sick to the point of death.

“That is one of the first symptoms. The seizures you witnessed will be followed by a high fever, severe ataxia, ulcers and finally death by motor paralysis. It is very similar to kuru disease. A prion is an incredible structure from nature. It is nothing in itself, yet it can modify every other cell in the world to conquer it. A pathogenic protein with the wrong folding at the secondary structure can turn everything upside down.”

“I don't follow you.”

“The natives in New Guinea used to eat their ancestors brains and in this way they got infected with kuru. The prion, which is a misfolded protein, replicates itself over the healthy cells transforming them into more prions. If a prion enters a healthy organism, it induces existing, properly folded proteins to convert into the disease-associated prion form; the prion acts as a template to guide the misfolding of more proteins into more prion forms. These newly formed prions can then go on to convert more proteins themselves; this triggers a chain reaction that produces large amounts of the prion form. All known prions induce the formation of an amyloid fold, in which the protein polymerises into an aggregate consisting of tightly packed beta sheets in the form of plaques, which disrupt the normal tissue structure. This disruption is characterized by "holes" in the tissue with resultant spongy architecture due to the vacuole formation in the neurons. Other histological changes include astrogliosis and the absence of an inflammatory reaction. While the incubation period for prion diseases is relatively long (5 to 20 years), once symptoms appear the disease progresses rapidly, leading to brain damage and death. Neurodegenerative symptoms can include seizures, dementia, ataxia, and behavioural or personality changes.

“The fascinating part of this new development is, that we always believed that prions were of animal or fungal origin. But as you have seen, there can be prions of vegetable origin, mainly if you genetically modify the amino sequences of plants to make them more resistant or nutritious.

Julian opened his mouth to stop the avalanche of words but the image of the cream filled pastry flashed through his mind.

“Yes, I know what you will say next.” Orion continued with his speech impervious to the boy's face of horror as he realised which was the source of the disease: food. “This is impossible. Any new amino sequence is tested hundreds of times inside a lab. Unfortunately, this is the key word here; inside a lab, not in nature where there are thousands or even millions of possible combinations or mutations. Perhaps all this is the result of a symbiosis of a prion of fungal origin and a newly released seed. It is hard to tell at this point.”

Julian only blinked, doing his best to digest the implications of what he had seen, heard and felt. The girl wasn't older than thirteen years old and yet he knew she was a quivering mass of putrefaction.

“Death can occur between 3 to 6 months, if we are speaking of normal prion diseases, which is not our case.” Orion finished the lecture.

“It can't be!” shouted Julian. “She was fine and in the next moment, she was gasping and drooling everywhere!”

“Interesting. You can see actual people and feel their emotions. I can not do that.” Orion mused as his eyes got lost in the city once more. “It's different in all of us, like this scenario too.”

“What?” croaked Julian, lost once more in his lover's coldness towards anything that wasn't he or his pet.

“I can only see how a situation develops and its cause or causes. Never isolated cases or single people. Perhaps the reason behind this is because I don't feel very related to men any longer.”

Julian grabbed the concrete parapet and looked down the street. The buildings swirled around him and he closed his eyes. 'It's empty because they're all dead.'

“Why don't you care?” he yelled and bit his lips.

“Do you?” replied Orion and turned his back to him to crouch down once more to pet Lýkos black hair, speaking to him in their language.

“I do!” Julian shouted fighting against the nausea he felt at the familiar scene of the man and his pet. “My whole family and friends might be dead by now!”

“No, we will not be affected by this,” Orion said and shrugged. “You don't care much about your mother's fate,” he added.

“There has to be a cure!”

“No, there is none. Well, none unless nature provides the human race with a new genetic mutation that makes them resistant,” Orion answered. “That will be certainly an advantage for the new generations; being resistant to prions, that is,” he mused.

“This is a lie,” Julian said. “It has to be. This is all ridiculous. Nothing is true.”

“Why?” Orion asked with genuine interest.

“People would not simply die out. They would fight and kill on the streets if they'd knew they would die tomorrow.”

“Perhaps this is the result of a combination of martial law and the hope of getting better if you go to the countryside. It is not a virus that kills thousands within a week. Or a zombie plague, with hungry monsters flooding the streets,” he snorted, visibly amused at the image.

“It's a slow and silent process, Julian. People just fade away. Once the symptoms show up, the patient is rendered helpless. Besides, this is a small vacation town. The situation would look quite differently if we were to go to a place like New York or Paris. In a way, what we are seeing today, reminds me to the Spanish Flu back in 1918. Yes, that's right. The media kept the reports on the influenza outbreak focused on Spain and the people didn't perceived it as a dangerous as it really was, though 3% of the world population died within a year.”

“What will they do to her? To the girl I saw.”

“Nothing, if I see correctly. Leave her to die. There are not many available doctors too. Everything will be over for her in a week or two, Julian.”

“This can't be true. It's one of your psychotic drugs going on.”

“As you like, Julian,” Orion didn't pay attention to him any longer and closed his eyes. “But this scenario is quite different from the others I saw,” he mumbled. “So peaceful,” he sighed.

“It's the peace of the churchyards.”

“Would you prefer chaos and destruction?” Orion smirked. “This is a good way to go.”

Lýkos rose to his feet and stretched his back, loudly shaking his pelt. Man and wolfdog exchanged a single look. “We should return,” Orion said and grabbed Julian by the elbow.

“Return? Where?” Julian felt nauseous and dizzy.

“Home. With us,” Orion replied as he climbed the broad parapet he had been leaning to.

“What are you doing? Do you want to kill yourself?” Julian shouted and tried to put distance between them but Orion was faster and pulled him from the arm, lifting the boy to the parapet as if he were a rag doll.

Lýkos simply jumped on top of the parapet and threw himself down the abyss. Julian cried horrified and pushed Orion aside, almost losing his balance, but the man caught him before he would also fall.

“Lýkos!” the youth cried again and pushed Orion again to better look down and see the animal's body, bloody and destroyed on the street.

But there was nothing.

“This is impossible!” Julian's eyes searched for the animal frantically.

“I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast,” quoted Orion with a sneer before he grabbed Julian and jumped them both down the street.

* * *

Julian's body shuddered in the wooden floor and moved his feet spasmodically trying to feel if it certainly was there. He gasped when he opened his eyes and found himself at Orion's office. He was still sitting on the floor, with his back against the wall while Lýkos dozed at his left side.

Orion sat in the same position as before, his eyes still glued to the trembling waters.

Julian's righteous fury for being once more manipulated threatened to rise to the surface but the man's eyes, that were now fixed upon him, took a preternatural yellowish shade that frightened the youth.

Julian's blood froze and he took refuge by getting closer to Lýkos.

“All is set in motion,” were Orion's only words, disregarding Julian's unconcealed mixed expression of horror and disbelief. He blatantly ignored both men bombarding him with questions in Russian.

“No, there's nothing to be done. I have already said that,” he shrugged and ostensibly checked the time on his watch, before he called Lýkos to his feet.

“Everything and everyone is poisoned by now. Perhaps a few will be spared and that should be a sufficient number to start anew,” he shrugged. “Mankind chose to eat from the soil. Nobody forced them to. It was their decision.”

“The cow you eat, first ate that corn!” Julian couldn't help to blurt out and both men fixed their stares on him.

“True,” Orion answered as he frowned at youth for the protocol break. The Guardian was supposed to be under his command. “Then the survival chances are dimmer than I originally estimated,” he mumbled. “Not so long ago, two hundred people was considered a huge settlement, gentlemen. A thousand was a mega-city.”

“Our scientists are confident to develop a cure against it. We read your reports but we need you to be more specific, Lord Koiranos.”

“Against a prion caused decease? No, there is nothing and there will never be. You are not facing a single entity but hundreds or even thousands of different mutations of a very simple entity. All of them created by your manipulation of every conceivable source of food. You heard me twenty, thirty years ago, yet your leaders didn't or chose not to believe in my words.”

“Do you then reaffirm yourself in your conclusions, Lord Koiranos?” The older one asked and closed his eyes in pain, hunching himself even further in the seat.

“Of course I do.” Orion sounded offended.

“Is there a timeline, a feasible date?” the other man asked.

“The survival rates for your area will be greater than in other places as you have not consumed so many transgenics. No, I can't tell a date, but it will be soon. In a decade or less.”

“The girl had a Nokia 520 and Monster High dolls when she was taken to the hospital,” Julian said softly, unable to believe he was telling about the weird dream. “It already has started. She was dead within six weeks,” he spoke softly, without knowing from where that information had come.

“My government would appreciate if you could give us a specific date for the pandemic to fully hit our public health system, Mr.. ?”

Julian gaped at the old man, looking more clueless than ever before.

“When will be hit with full force?” the other man interrupted his companion frantically. “We already have many records of isolated cases.”

“There was a poster of Doraemon and a ring of flowers,” Julian said slowly as he forced himself to remember the small details in the room or the city, looking for any helpful detail that could reveal a date. “I saw it when the city was deserted. Everybody was dead.”

“Can you elaborate more?” the man pressed and Julian shook his head, trying hard to remember where he had seen it before. The letters written in the poster were blurred and it frustrated him that he could see the red, yellow, green, violet, blue cherry tree flowers crown in all detail but nothing else.

“Akira,” the name came to his mind without any reason and the poster letters revealed themselves, the blurred lines becoming solid.

“It's Tokyo 2020,” he said. “Or was right after it. The paper looked old, sun bleached on the ends. But it makes no sense. The original manga is clearly set in 2030 or 2031.”

“Did you see Tokyo?”

“No, I think not. The people I saw were like us. No Asian people at all,” Julian frowned trying again to remember the dream but the images became elusive to his mid. In his mind's eye he could see flashes of what he had experienced but the pictures didn't make sense anymore.

“The Guardian mentioned something about avoiding social riots,” Orion interrupted Julian, casting another warning glance towards him. “It would be a good idea that your government designs a system that sends periodical notices of their loved ones situation to the families. This could decompress the situation. A computer generated message would be sufficient. In the scenario we saw today, there were no riots and the populace seemed to be resigned to their fate.”

“This will not work.” one of the men rebuked the idea. “People want to stay near to their sick ones.”

“It's a suggestion only.” Orion seemed to be a bit upset at the remark. “You only need to protect the uninfected children, those who are born disease free and find a way they could be educated to rebuild part of your culture.”

“You would be the best option to lead them,” the oldest man said. “We humbly came here to ask you this. We know you had several offers.”

“And I have rejected them all.”

“There are other ways to ensure your cooperation,” the younger one added.

“Of course, there are.” Orion's grey eyes adopted a steely shadow as Lýkos rose his head from the floor, fixing his yellow eyes upon the Russians. “But you wouldn't like the consequences if you insist upon this road,” he added with a whisper.

“No, no,” his companion hurried to say. “We didn't mean to be disrespectful at all, Lord Koiranos.”

“I offer my deepest apologies if I offended you, Sire,” the other looked truly contrite and abashed. “It is too much for us and we need your guidance.”

“I lead no one. Not any more.”

“Your experience is exactly what these children will need.”

“No, it is not,” Orion refused softly, punctuating every word. “I would mould them to be what I consider to be right. They will be mere extensions of my own will and men would learn nothing from this experience. There will be other survivors, ones you haven't manipulated or kept isolated and mankind will learn from the disaster when both groups share their wisdom.”

“If the Guardian is right and the year is 2020, then we will have no time at all. You must give us something more to work with.”

“There is nothing else I can tell you. Leave my house, now.” Orion said and rose from his chair. “I spoke with your leaders last night and only agreed to receive you today so you would see a proof to confirm your fears with the Guardian's help. As you have witnessed, this is a process that is already set in motion. Nothing can stop it.”

'How can you believe this shit?' Julian wanted to cry but his throat felt constricted. The two men looked abashed and on the brink of a collapse. Had they seen what he had experienced? He couldn't be sure but the men knew exactly what was going on. They even knew what a prion was.

“All the information you need is stored in the diaries I wrote,” Orion said. “Read them and draw your own conclusions. Each people should do it on their own. This is your experience, not mine.

“You all are looking for a saviour when there is none.”

“We had gods who taught us how to live. Now we must look for gods who teach us how to die,” Julian said as he rose from the floor. The sentence echoed in his mind and he felt desolated.

“The Guardian has spoken. I will never see you again, gentlemen,” Orion addressed the crestfallen men.