Red Rain

Chapter 7 - Land Of Confusion

Feeling very much unable to wait for the movie, I wake up very early on Saturday morning - at least, by Saturday-morning standards. And, to my dismay, I wake up in the lounge again. The only difference is that this time, I'm not fully dressed - I'm still in my usual T-shirt-and-boxers sleepwear. I do a facepalm, wishing I could get a little closer to figuring out the source of my recently-reawakened sleepwalking issues.

A more superstitious guy than me would probably take this as a bad omen. I, on the other hand, won't. I've never been on a movie date before, much less a double one. Can anyone blame me for hoping against hope that it's a success from start to finish?

I sneak back to my room, then grab my hoodie and jeans (not managing to wake up Luca - he and I normally sleep in till eight on weekend mornings) and tiptoe out the door and down the hall. In the lounge, I silently get dressed, then take a seat in one of the comfy chairs by the panoramic south window.

The morning dawns with the usual icy blue sunrise and no clouds anywhere, but the trees are bending in the wind, which seems to be determined to defy gravity as it's moving eastward, up the mountainside. I shield my eyes from the sun, which is leaving a strong glare on the window, and glance down at the Bridge. Right on its center, on the lowest of its three levels, the theater juts out from the main structure before turning away and entering the rock face. The way the Bridge is constructed, the dimensional portal is only on the main structure, while this extra arm leads into a hollowed-out space inside the rock, so technically, the theater is in Heaven, when it should be in Hell.

It seems like a really bizarre way to build things, but then again, this is Coldfire Creek we're talking about. The terrain here just doesn't lend itself easily to living space, because it's contained in a narrow, steep-sided valley. It's easier for us angels, of course, because we can fly. The demons who settled on the other side of the border, however, were forced to get creative at times during their construction. For instance, just like Balthazar, Castledown does have a road connecting to the main highway in town, but it loops the long way around the side of the mountain and is therefore used exclusively for deliveries - or for students sneaking out and cutting class, Gabe tells me. To get to town more directly, they have to use a cable car.

For the next hour, people pass through the lounge on their way to breakfast. A couple of them stop and sit, putting on the TV. They're a pair of freshman spuds who wouldn't be able to get the primo seats otherwise, because these are usually reserved by the large-and-in-charge seniors. They flip through the channels but find nothing of interest on any of them, not at this time of morning. They don't even seem to be Buffy fans - they skip past FX with a look of disgust on their faces. It's funny - they look like real geeks, and Buffy is a well-known geek show. I guess they still have to get past their prejudices against anything even remotely resembling a girly teen drama. I sure did when Marco and Luca first introduced me to Buffy, which I'd initially been repelled by but quickly grew to love.

At one point, the freshmen stop for a moment on the morning news. I turn my head and watch as closely as possible, but they give no new information about Steve. The investigation seems to have hit a dead end in the last few days. Of course, I know that police business can't really be accomplished in a matter of hours like a lot of my favorite crime shows like to make it appear. But to think they've not found jack shit in - how long has it been now? Four days? No, five. I think. I count the days in my head. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. That makes six, if you want to get really technical about it. Which I usually don't, so I'm going to stick with five days.

Just after eight, Luca emerges from the dorm, and I join him as he heads to the cafeteria. Along the way, we see the Bible Study kids heading out to the courtyard, where they will be doing a morning prayer circle for All Saints' Day.