Fools of us All - Chapter 32

I stared at the door, or rather, at the space where the door had been. Closed, it was invisible with no seams to betray its presence, which helped explain how these doors had remained a secret for so long. For a long time I waited for Caz to reopen to door and let me into the tunnel, but aside from the occasional dull thud from the other side, nothing happened. It finally dawned on me that I was, at least for the moment, utterly alone.

Turning slowly, I faced the religious archives again. Moments ago they had looked impressive, but now, oppressive was a better word. The building seemed to loom over me, growing bigger and angrier before my eyes. I blinked hard, and when I looked again, the building had returned to its normal, grandiose proportions.

Sitting with my back against the door, I pondered my situation. The plan had been to break into the religious archives to find the original prophecy and maybe to figure out what was going on at all instead of spending our time being jerked around by whoever had the strongest chain. Assuming that there was no real way to get the door back open, my best guess was that Caz would continue with the plan and come back for me later. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, hoping that she would be quick about it and get me soon. I was only sorry that I was not going to get inside.

But why shouldn’t I get to see inside? This whole prophecy mess involved me too, after all. I cracked open one eye and regarded the building for a long moment before rising to my feet. Surely, it couldn’t be that hard to get inside. Why would the religious archives be guarded heavily? It didn’t really make much sense. I stepped towards the mouth of the alley, stopping abruptly. My clothes would make me stand out like a sore thumb. Thus far I had only been out on the streets when there was no one around. But now it was the middle of the day, and I could hear plenty of traffic in the direction of the archives. I glanced around the alleyway, but I could tell that there was nothing there that could help me - just piles of garbage and dirt.

That’s when something that Caz had said came to mind. She had told me that she ignored the bad things around her. That was no fresh attitude - even in my day people would step over the homeless without noticing or offering to help. People only saw what they wanted to see, and no one wanted to see a problem.

Thinking about what Caz was wearing, I looked down at my outfit. Even though the past few days had been difficult, I was still too clean. No one would believe I was homeless. With some regret, I began to strategically ruin my clothes. I rolled around in some of the filth and muck that was in abundant supply in the alley. I rubbed my face with dirt, getting it in my hair. I tore my pants and shirt in a few places, making them look ragged and threadbare as best I could under the circumstances. I took off one sock and threw it away, walking around barefoot for a bit to dirty up my feet. I rubbed a bit of dirt onto my shoes, but they didn’t need too much work to look beat up. I had been meaning to buy new shoes for a while now but hadn’t quite gotten around to them. I tried to buy new shoes every three or four years if I could and I was about due.

Finally I looked at myself in a dull piece of metal that I found. In short order I had managed to take myself from somewhat grungy man from the past to filthy homeless man of the present (which was actually my future), and something I had rolled in definitely made me smell like I hadn’t bathed in a while. I tried breathing through my mouth to avoid gagging myself.

With newfound confidence, I shuffled forward, doing my best to not walk to swiftly or with too much purpose, instead trying to look as though I were just happy to survive. I even looked through the some of the garbages, amazed at what people threw out.

Soon I found myself in front of the archives. From across the street, I sat down and watched the comings and goings of various people. Everyone who tried to go in was forced to go through a series of security checks that included some sort of card and what I could only guess was fingerprint controls or some sort of biometric scan.

And then, much to my surprise, a pair of monks in long robes with hoods up that hid their faces walked straight through, completely bypassing the scans and receiving only a cursory glance from the security guards stationed at the gate. I wasn’t sure whether to smile or shake my head in disbelief. Instead, I got to work.

Moments later I was in a secluded alley, struggling into a brown robe and standing over a young man who was now sporting a nasty goose egg on his head and not much else. I just hoped the young monk would be okay, but not until after I got out. I hesitated over the cross he wore on a chain around his neck. It had been under the robe, and the other monks I had seen weren’t wearing it, so I figured it was just a personal bit of jewellery. I decided to leave it on him, hoping that if anyone came across his body they would recognise him as a holy man and not hurt him any further. Or maybe that was what I told myself to assuage my guilt.

I stepped out of the alley and flipped up the hood, slowly making my way towards the imposing building yet again. A few other monks were ahead of me and they entered without problem. As I neared the gates, I panicked somewhat, deathly worried that they would shoot me the second I was in range. Instead, I received the same courtesy nod and was allowed to proceed. Breathing a deep sigh of relief, I continued.

Walking up the steps to the main entrance, I tried to act like I had been there before, neither rushing to get inside nor looking around at everything like some sort of tourist. Upon entering the building, I blinked a few times to get used to the dim light before noticing that someone was standing in front of me, motioning me to follow him. Without a word, he turned and strode off.

Mentally shrugging, I followed him, hoping he wasn’t going to ask me many questions. He, in fact, only had one question, but I did not like it one little bit. We entered a darkened room and he looked at me scornfully. “Did you think we were stupid?” he sneered. Someone behind me pulled down my hood as the lights were snapped on to reveal ten very large men.

And they looked angry with me.