The Metropolis Series #3: Quinn and Cassandra
40. Last Hope

I FOUND JULIO sitting on the terrace overlooking the sea. A gentle breeze blew against his tousled hair as he wrapped his cardigan tighter around himself. I wanted to approach him, but I knew better that time.

He wasn’t real. Julio was dead. Cassandra was messing with my head again.

I wondered what would happen if I chose to walk away, to forgo the thrill of seeing him again. Would it wake me up? Would I be able to escape?

Just as I turned to leave the seaside, Julio looked at me. He was radiant under the morning sun.

“Quinn, hey,” he called. “I was wondering where you’ve been.”

I froze. His smile, his voice, the way he looked at me—it was hard to process it all. His gaze comforted me, but I was frightened by how Cassandra could manifest something so lifelike.

I knew that I should ignore him. I knew that I should turn away and never look back, but I just stood there as my emotions ran wild. They willed me to stay and wait for him.

Deep down, it was what I wanted.

“I knew you’d come,” Julio said. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

To my surprise, he stepped forward and embraced me. I caught a whiff of cologne and the faint smell of cigarettes. I felt the warmth of his skin and his heart beating against his chest, and the next thing I knew, I was crying into his shirt. I missed him. A lot. But I couldn’t stay with him.

“Wake up,” I whispered into his sleeve. “Wake up…”

Julio must have heard my faint sobs. He pulled away and looked at me with concern.

“Quinn,” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

I wiped the tears from my face. “I’m sorry, Julio, but I need to go.”

He sighed. “Okay. But don’t you wanna talk about what’s bothering you?”

I shook my head, taking a step back. “It’s okay. I have to get going.”

“No problem. Feel better soon, okay? I’ll see you again sometime?”

“I—”

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew against the seaside, rustling palm trees and umbrella stands. Petals flew in the air, drifting over stone pathways. Wild patches of grass grew from the cracks of cement as lilies bloomed throughout the premises. The sky slowly turned red, creating a fiery haze over the sea.

I was running out of time.

“No,” I whispered. “Cassandra’s here, too.”

Julio raised a brow. “What are you saying?”

I ignored him and began pacing around, burying my face in my hands. “Wake up, Quinn,” I said to myself. “Wake up, please wake up!”

Julio reached a hand toward me. “Quinn, I’m here. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”

“No,” I pressed. “No, it’s not!”

The grass grew wilder around us, and the crimson sky was more vibrant than ever. Food stalls had been blown away, and the other people around us began to dissolve, their remnants blowing in the wind. I looked in Julio’s direction, and I was shocked to see that parts of him were slowly diminishing.

And he didn’t seem to notice.

“Julio, I’m sorry,” I sobbed. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you…”

He didn’t respond. He simply stared at me with those deep, dark eyes, as the wind slowly took him away…

▶︎▶︎

“Philip, she’s over here! My God, Quinn, what were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry, Quinn, I couldn’t shut up. Rachael forced it out of me.”

“Hey, no I didn’t—”

A sharp gasp sounded off, and I slowly opened my eyes. I rolled to my side, wincing in pain as the world came to focus. I found myself staring closely at the dusty wooden floor as a door lay wide open before me. In the haze of the morning light, I saw three people just a few feet away. They seemed to be talking about something, but the things they were saying came out muffled and indistinct.

Their voices…

Were too loud…

My head… hurt…

“Oh, would you look at that, Quinn,” I heard someone say.

It was Cassandra. No doubt.

“We have spectators,” she continued. “Excellent. They can witness your doom and watch me rise. I was starting to feel lonely.”

Footsteps filled the room.

“Quinn, wake up! Wake up!”

Rachael, I thought. She shouldn’t have tried to find me. She should have stayed away.

“Not so fast…” Cassandra said.

I looked up. I caught a blurry image of Cassandra standing defiantly against Rachael, who halted at the sight of a shiny object in the former’s hand. I squinted my eyes and my brows rose in shock.

It was a knife.

“I have to commend Philip and his boss for figuring it out,” Cassandra taunted. “What was his name? Simon? I thought I’d gotten rid of him in my previous life, but I suppose that was an overlooked mistake on my end. But yes, it is only Rachael who can wake Quinn up from the dreams I give her. It’s ironic, isn’t it? The very girl Quinn despised is her last hope now…”

Rachael stepped forward. “I—I’m not afraid of you.”

“As you should. You created me. You may have some power over me, but you and that scum Julio are the reasons why the Metropolis is doomed! And now, you’re burdened with the task of protecting it. How pathetic. But that’s all right. I’ll put an end to your misery!”

Cassandra raised her hand, threatening to stab Rachael.

“Rachael!”

A third person, Philip, charged toward the two girls. He pushed Rachael out of Cassandra’s way, landing him a knife in the shoulder.

“Philip!” Rachael shrieked.

Cassandra groaned. “What a joke.”

She forcefully withdrew her knife as Philip collapsed on the floor and winced i͘n pain.

I couldn’t just watch anymore; I needed to move.

Cold sweat dripped down my temples as my surroundings spun around me. I gathered the strength to turn my head to my records, which were still lying on the floor at about an arm’s length. Slowly, I inched my fingers toward them. I needed to move carefully.

Cassandra shouldn’t be able to notice me.

“Now, with your friend out of the way, where were we?” Cassandra tapped her chin with her knife. “Ah, yes.”

Before Rachael could react, Cassandra charged, pinning her against a shelving unit and bringing a knife to her throat.

“Nice to see that the Spanish House hasn’t left you after all this time,” Cassandra told her. “I may have not seen you back there, but I didn’t need to. Everyone’s sadly the same.”

She then drew a thin line of blood from Rachael’s neck.

“Always so brave, but so reckless. It’s like you all want to die…”

Rachael shivered. “N—no…”

The edge of my records reached my fingers. I began bringing it closer toward me—

But it made a noise as it skidded against the floorboards.

I didn’t see it, but I felt Cassandra’s eyes on me.

She charged. Just like I knew she would.

But fighting her would be a lost cause. I brought my records to my chest. It was the only way to stop her.

A crash sounded off. I turned around and found Philip grabbing Cassandra’s ankles.

“Quinn,” Philip called. “NOW!”

“Let go of me,” Cassandra shrieked. “Let go!”

Quickly, I brought Julio’s lighter to my records. I recalled that time by the seaside with him. We discussed my powers and my possible connection to Cassandra.

Maybe you’re the one destined to beat her, he’d said.

I didn’t believe him. There was no way I could beat someone so powerful, but in the end, she needed me to survive, to exist.

Without me, she was nothing.

Cassandra was slipping from Philip’s grasp. Philip held on to her while the wound on his shoulder worsened. Rachael clung to the shelving unit, her eyes wide with fear. Harumi and Bree might have been on their way to the boys’ dorms to find nobody there. The monsters outside the walls might have started to break in, and those from the Spanish House braced themselves for an attack. The students of St. John’s might have still been asleep, while some of them cowered in fear under their desks, unable to process the idea of being fictional, of being nonexistent.

The Metropolis moved on, and I was determined to keep it alive.

I lit the flame.

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