Predator

Before she could even truly register anything about her new surroundings, Atheer gagged on the new blend of air that she took into her lungs. It smelled like she was standing directly downwind of a coal bonfire. It was not thick enough for her eyes to water and sting, but it positively overwhelmed her nose to the point that she felt like she wasn't getting air fit for breathing. When she was through with her hacking fit, she looked around, still ignorant of where she was.

Just as the view from the window had told her, she was on the sidewalk to a cobblestone road in some sort of city. It was dark out and streetlamps lit the way in gaslight-yellow. The buildings did not look like anything Atheer would expect to find in America. They were old. If anything, it looked more like something out of London, except that only some of the structures were in the style of Western Europe. Atheer barely had to turn her head to find glazed tile roofs and minarets. It looked as though a Chinese, an Arab, and a British architect had all been commissioned to design a city, and their final designs had all been chopped up and reassembled as one mosaic. Atheer knew that there were countless cities in the world that featured multiple architectural styles, but this was something different. This wasn't a collection of districts with distinct ethnic backgrounds, this was individual structures starkly contrasted by their neighbors, yet still comprising a cohesive layout, like a finished jigsaw puzzle.

Gazing up at the taller edifices, Atheer's attention caught on the sky. Past the dark clouds, among the twinkling stars, and set against the blue-black beyond, was the moon. At least, it looked like the moon. It was a brilliant white and full, acting as the mirror that prolonged the sun's illumination. It had the same grey features that were visible to anyone on earth that looked up at it, but still it was different. It was huge.

The moon was enormous, its normally remote corner of the sky now prominent and imposing. Some have poetically described how the moon has looked so crisp and clear that it was as though they could reach up and touch it. Tonight, Atheer feared that the moon was doing its best to meet them halfway.

The woman shook herself out of her stupor when the absurdity of the moon's size properly registered in her mind. And they had done such a good job getting all the other details right. Atheer was almost starting to believe their fable about how she had been transported into a book before this glaring fault of a set piece shattered the immersion.

She turned to tell Ci-Ci as much, but the words caught in her throat. The door was gone. Behind her now was just a segment of wall of some unremarkable building. She stepped closer and put her hands to it, searching for the cleft that would give away the hidden door. There were none to be found though. She pounded on the wall and the sound that resulted was exactly as a fist striking brick was supposed to sound.

The smoke, Atheer thought to herself. The smoke was deliberately **** so that they can distract people long enough to swap out the wall. Parlour trick or no, she wasn't going back the way she came. She would have to play along for now.

Atheer started off down the road, the street so quiet that her ordinary footsteps echoed like claps. The longer she travelled, the more convinced she became that this was not an elaborate set, but rather just a different time and a different place. However, she had no recollection of being incapacitated to be moved. Atheer did not know of any **** that could put you into a senseless stupor and leave you on your feet, but that did not mean it didn't exist.

She decided that her priority in that moment was to try and find a way back to her friends. Fun house or foreign town, she needed someone she could trust and rely on to get out of there. Some relief came to her as signs of life emerged along her way. A pair of men dressed in the same fashion as her came down the opposite way, on the far side of the road. They were sharing some humorous story and only spared Atheer a passing glance as they went.

She was tempted to go to them for help but reconsidered it given their apparel. If they were dressed like that, then they could just as well be in on the act. Besides, Atheer knew well enough to avoid unfamiliar men at night. Now that she thought of it though, night did not look as though it would last much longer. Already one end of the black sky was giving way to the blue of morning.

She was in the midst of this observation when she heard a creak. She turned toward the source, a narrow alleyway nearby. It took a moment of looking to find what could have caused the noise, then she saw it; a window, at least one story up, catching the wind. Atheer noticed a stack of boxes arranged rather suspiciously like a crude staircase leading up to the window. It wasn't very hard at all to picture someone scaling the boxes and making their way inside. Heck, maybe someone already had.

The woman quickly unsettled herself with the idea. If someone had broken in to abduct or **** or **** a resident there, then Atheer didn't like the idea of simply carrying on without doing anything about it. Perhaps she should knock on the front door? Done loud enough, it might wake the residents and spook away any intruders. Or it could just tip them off that someone was outside, and they'd just be quicker about their misdeeds. As stupid as it sounded, Atheer felt compelled to go in that same way. Yes, in that moment, she thought that breaking into a house to thwart an infiltrator she assumed existed was the wise course of action.

Steeling herself against the discomfort that came with doing something that could normally land her in quite a spot of trouble, Atheer reached the boxes and began to climb them in the most subtle way she could manage. The going was tricky, but she reached the top without much issue. She was making to climb inside when her top hat caught on the frame. Rather than put up with the clumsy headwear, she removed it and left it on the topmost box. She managed to make it inside with the window only creaking pretty loudly. Atheer had not paid much mind to the exterior of the building, but from the inside, it was clear that the residents had money.

Artisanal consoles supported doilies which themselves were topped with lavish vases. Framed paintings the size of dinner tables left little of the walls to be seen. It was dark in that house, but moonlight streamed in though a parlour window and scattered against a grand chandelier, decorating that room with its own stars. If her theory about someone having broken in here was true, then theft definitely seemed like the most reasonable motivation.

The window had seen Atheer to a landing in that parlour. Following her hunch, she crept up the stairs to the first floor. She started out confident, seeing as the stair carpet was that thick bougie kind that utterly swallowed footfalls. However, she was swiftly returned to a deliberate pace when a board squealed under her weight. Cresting the staircase, she was met with a hallway that ran from one end of the house to the other.

The floor seemed less prone to unwelcome noise in the corridor, but Atheer remained cautious all the same. She maintained a constant surveillance of her surroundings, watchful for disturbed residents or any anachronisms that would undermine the guise of the historical setting. Looking about, she was certain that, during the daytime, this would be quite a beautiful building. However, in the early morning dark, she was constantly reminded of every movie she'd seen that featured a haunted mansion. This, coupled with the fact that she was trespassing, kept her jumpy and on edge.

Far enough along, Atheer arrived at the first doors of the passage. She was admittedly curious as to what lay beyond them but was prevented from investigating by the mental image of opening the door and awakening someone in their bedchamber with its creaks.

Ugh, what am I even doing here? Atheer bemoaned internally. Did I think I was going to search the whole place for an intruder? This is stupid. I need to focus on finding the others. She was turning to leave when something caught her eye. Ahead of her was a corner, around which some moonlight reached. A shadow grew as something approached. Heart leaping into her throat, Atheer scrambled for a place to hide. The hall was dark, but unless whatever was approaching had its eyes spoiled by candlelight, she would be plainly visible.

A nearby window possessed retracted drapery - the fabric heavy, thick, and bunched. It drooped all the way to the floor, a rather convenient hiding place indeed. Doing her best to be both speedy and silent, Atheer hid herself behind it. Tucked out of sight, she focused on remaining still. Despite not breathing hard, she still did her best to suppress her breaths. A couple of tense moments passed and nothing happened. She had been hoping to track the movements of whatever was up and about by the sounds it made, but it became clear that she would not be able to hear much at all.

Ever so carefully, Atheer pulled back the curtain to offer herself a glimpse of the hallway. She nearly jumped. Directly in front of her in the passage, the figure had paused to do... something. It was little more than a silhouette, but she thought it resembled a masculine person with a bag slung over one shoulder. Atheer could only see the back and side, but they did not look like a resident that had risen for a trip to the loo. They were dressed in dark, close-fitting apparel; clothes optimal for sneaking and surmounting.

They were only about a metre away from her when they stopped, and Atheer was petrified at the thought that they had somehow detected her. After some observation though, this did not seem to be the case. They kept mostly still, occasionally swiveling their head. They must have been listening. Evidently, they heard something that Atheer did not because they whipped around to face the way they came. Atheer followed their gaze to see some soft yellow light peeking from the same corner the figure had rounded. Someone else was coming, and based on their use of light, they had no fear of their presence being known in this place. It must have been a resident.

It would seem that the figure was either not as quick, or not as clever as Atheer because they were still there when the candle-toting denizen came about and saw them. A shrill scream ensued, chilling Atheer's blood.

"Myles, there's someone in the house!" the resident yelled in terror as she bolted back the way she came. The intruder ran too, though in the direction Atheer had come from.

With all the racket caused by the encounter, surely others would awaken. If they knew that someone had broken into their home, then surely they would search to make certain they were no longer inside. Atheer would not be able to hide then. She had to leave now.

However, there was a chance for her to prove she was not of the same lot as this burglar. If she made a point of trying to stop them, then perhaps she might vindicate herself.