They fell, and so did I.
PURGATORIO
“And I shall sing about that second realm
Where human spirits purge
themselves from stain,
Becoming worthy to ascend to Heaven.”
Dante, The Divine Comedy
25
KATARINA
Iwoke suddenly, or at least my consciousness did. My thoughts were scattered like I’d just restarted my brain. I didn’t how long I’d been out for, but my neck ached and my head throbbed. The floor beneath me spun sickeningly as I blinked. When I was able to focus on the room, two male voices were arguing.
Slowly, I straightened up and glanced around.Where am I?I felt like I’d just woken from a long sleep, but I wasn’t in bed. I didn’t know where I was.
Rise and shine! Finally you join me.
I jumped. The voice spoke quietly, but the sound carried from wherever she was sitting. I glanced around looking for the person who had spoken.
I was in an office, and there were shelves with medical texts along one wall, and a leather sofa. In the corner was a privacy screen. I stared at that the longest. It was familiar, somehow. Candles burned all around. Outside the window, the sky looked black and white. There was no woman. Whoever had spoken must have left. Confusion pressed down on me, making mefeel small.
A man in a black priest’s robe stood before me, his face flushed. He stared over my shoulder at someone else.
“Katarina, how are you feeling?” a deep voice asked from behind me.
I swung around to see whoever had spoken. A man in a white lab coat. I peered between him and the man dressed like a priest, perplexed. What the hell had I been doing when I’d fallen asleep? Was I sick?
No. They are.
I spun around again. It was the woman’s voice. But no one stood there. Unease crept through me, and my palms began to sweat. My chest felt like I couldn’t draw a full breath.
“Katarina,” the priest urged me to answer.
“Okay.” What else could I say? Okay, but I think I might be hearing a voice inside my head? Okay, but I lost my mind somewhere and don’t know where to find it?
“That’s good,” the man in the white lab coat said, moving in front of me and shining a small light into my eyes like a doctor.
Ah, that made sense. He was a doctor.
“Do you remember why you’re here?” he asked.
I opened my mouth and froze. The answer was just there, not far from my lips, but it was held back somehow. I couldn’t quite reach it. I shook my head slowly.
The man in the priest’s robes smiled. A nameplate sat on the desk behind him.
Father Pavol.Pavol.I waited for some feeling of recognition at the name, but it didn’t come. Fear skittered through me. My head felt painfully empty.
“That’s fast-acting. Excellent. I need to send word to the director that we’ve at least achieved one thing with all this shit going on.”
“I don’t think the director will be very impressed in the end, seeing as you’ve somehow managed to let the cops in here on your watch,” the other man said sharply, a name embroidered on his lapel.
Dr. Blackwood.