Topic: Destination Unknown

Eileen Bennet

Date: 2006-02-21 13:23 EST
Where do the lost go?

Eileen woke up to the bright RhyDinian sun shining in her window. It wasn't all a bad dream. She had boarded a plane for Switzerland, had a few drinks, and woken up on a bench in a strange city. A strange very non-Swiss looking city. Evidence of being in that strange city were all around her. She was in a bed in the room that some strange man had rented for her. There was the washing bowl with the broken mirror hanging over it.

She needed to get out of here.

Problem 1: There was no phone in her room. To further complicate matters, she didn't remember seeing a phone last night in the downstairs bar and she was almost positive there was no electricity in this place. The candles and matches on her bedside table reminded her of that.

Problem 2: She had seen a man with wings last night, and not the little faerie wings that people could buy off the internet or tried to make out of coat hangers. These things looked more real then the ones Victoria Secret models wear and they appeared to be naturally attached to his back. The fangs on that red-head and the overall weirdness of the city she was in she could explain away; humans were very experienced and amazing creatures in that way. The wings she could not ignore.

She kneeled on the floor and peered out her window. Things looked generally safe out there, although totally foreign.

If she was stuck in such a situation, she would make the best of it. She needed to find the local embassy or even a travelers office. Grabbing her 35mm from her hiking bag and pocketing the room key, she descended the stairs into the Inn of the Red Dragon.

Eileen Bennet

Date: 2006-02-22 10:16 EST
She had lasted outside the Inn doors for under five minutes. After seeing what she now knew to be a dragon, she had bolted for the safety of the Inn and locked herself inside her room for the next several hours.

When she had finally proceeded down into the common area in the early evening she was assaulted by knowledge. A Mr. Malign took kindness on her in explaining all the idiosyncrasies of the planet she was on. That was a real kick in the gut- the planet she was on. As in, not Earth.

She walked away from that conversation, eager to barricade herself in her room before all the crazies came out for their nightly drink. Foremost in her mind was the fact that she may never see her family again. Never was a long time and she didn't know how she would function without their moral, let alone financial, support.

A close second, and causing her absolute giddiness that didn't sit well with her sorrow, was that she was in a place saturated with Faerie. She imagined that she could feel it- a hum in the air that was magic. Naturally, she couldn't. Just knowing that all her fantasies, all the things she dreamt and read about in her books- that were scrunched at the bottom of her hiking backpack-were real came close to stopping her from crying herself to sleep.

Eileen Bennet

Date: 2006-02-27 11:48 EST
The kindness of Mr. Ravenlock was much appreciated when she awoke the morning to the membrane of last night. Mr. Malign had been exceedingly informative and helpful as well. She dressed in another pair of jeans, which looked just as worn and beat as the first, a t-shirt and her doc marten boots.

She was embarrassed to take the offered money that Mr. Ravenlock had left with Guido but it was a necessary evil- she was starved and poor! Having, in the meekest and littlest of voices, explained to the doorman who she was she was handed a small bag of coins and sent on her way out the door.

She wandered the city. During the day, it almost looked normal, if not somewhat medieval, if not completely inhospitable. She held off visiting Mr. Ravenlock's office. She was aware that perhaps she had not been very nice to him despite his kindness the other night. Perhaps, if she dared to venture into the Inn that night she could apologize and thank him.

She didn't take her camera with her despite her love of taking pictures of old derelict buildings. The city had them in abundance but she was not sure if she could even get her film developed if she did take pictures. #586 on her list of things to look into- could she get film developed. #1 on that list was somewhere to stay. She couldn't long rely on the kindness of others- refused to infringe upon such generosity.

She ended up in the Westend. It felt right there. The empty streets made her nervous but she had an innate sense of adventure. She was even so brave as to punch some kid in the head who went after her coin purse. Eileen didn't support violence but she wasn't a willing victim. Course, the punch didn't do much but annoy the kid. Her big loud mouth was what finally scared him off.

Buying a chicken kabob from a street vendor-she was ravenous by this point-she settled on the stoop of a building to picnic.

Eileen Bennet

Date: 2006-02-27 18:55 EST
She finished her lunch quickly, shoving the chicken in her mouth after a hungry looking kid had stopped and stared as she ate. She briefly entertained the idea that if someone came at her and tried to steal her food she could stab them with the kabob stick.

With no napkins, she wiped her greasy hands on her black hoodie and moved on. She had been watching a house down the street while she ate. There was no movement. The lower floor was trashed- all the windows broken and doors boarded up.

She approached it cautiously, keeping an eye out for anyone. She was unsure about the laws on loitering and breaking and entering around here. Upon closer inspection, she abandoned all hope of entering the building through the front door- the boards would not give way to her little hands. She rounded the building into the side alley instead.

A fire escape- how perfect. She wasn't exactly keen on climbing up it, what with those gaps between each stair-wrung and all, but she was used to climbing all over things for the sake of photography. Now it was of a more serious nature, she needed somewhere to live. In the novels she read people survived all the time by living in abandoned buildings-squatters they were called. She could so totally do that too!

She jumped, her fingertips just brushing the bottom step of the escape stairs. That wouldn't do. A pile of conveniently placed cardboard boxes, unsoaked by any recent rain, caught her eye. Utilizing the boxes as a step stool, she jumped. This time, her hands grabbed around the lowest step. The stairs, slowly and with flakes of rust falling to decorate her hair, pulled down enough for her to climb up onto it.

She moved up to the second of three floors, the stairs ascending once she stepped off them. The window was broken and it looked like someone had been living there for some time- at least there was refuse enough to show for it.

Up to the next level! That window was broken too but there were no signs of previous life inside. She ducked through the window, cutting her arm on the remaining glass. She hissed at the pain, using the sleeve of her sweatshirt to wipe away the drops of blood. She'd tend to that later.

It was immediately obvious why no one had taken up the third level of the house for occupation- it was really nothing more then a glorified attic. The ceilings were sloped and not very high, a problem for anyone taller then Eileen. The roof must have been still good, though, because there was no sign of water damage from inside.

The whole floor was made up of three rooms, the two large ones separated by a thin wall and door. The third was a closet with tiled flooring and a hole in the ground. She made a face at that setup and wondered if she could find a toilet anywhere in town.

All in all, she found the setup ideal- it was like living in a fantasy world. She just needed to find some things and maybe if she could get some electricity or at least a scented candle to light up the place.