Chapter Six
OuroborosChapter Six
“Wow! The view is gorgeous from this balcony! Come, come look!”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re more excited to be here then I am?”
Turning around and leaning against the balcony railings Sana stared at Dahyun who was unpacking some of her things from her bag inside the hotel room. She reached out wiggling her finger for Dahyun to come over. The latter rolled her eyes with fake exasperation before smiling brightly and joining Sana by the balcony.
In front of them was the Grand Canal, the main waterway that winded its way through the centre of Venice like a giant snake. Gondola’s and other boats slowly drifted by and the noon sun was high in a cloudless sky blessing them with a bright day, the water sparkling and twinkling like diamonds. Across the water on the other side were similar renaissance stone buildings built up right against the water with tens of boats lined up and parked by the buildings. To their right the famous Rialto Bridge crossed over the water with its lovely white arches and on their left a couple of ferries were docking at the Rialto ferry terminal.
They had been extremely lucky to find a room at a prominent and amazing location like this on short notice. Hunting for deals there had been a last minute room cancellation which they had managed to snipe and now found themselves in a loft room that opened up view around them on this fine day.
“It sure is great,” Dahyun agreed leaning against the railing and letting out a huge sigh of happiness. She was bubbling with glee to be here and with a sudden burst of energy she turned to look at Sana, “Come! Let’s go out while the day is lovely!”
She dashed past her friend who quickly followed suite, the two bringing their sunglasses and handbags with and skipping out the hotel and over the Rialto Bridge. They were cutting through the San Polo district that sat in the centre of town and along the way stopped by at an ice cream store highly recommended with genuine and natural gelato; Italian ice cream.
Equipped with cold goodies to combat the heat of the wonderful weather they had been blessed with, the two continued through the San Polo district finding themselves on the other side of it and crossed the Ponte degli Scalzi Bridge. From there the rout took them along the canal bank as they wanted to explore the north side of the city on their first day, the Cannaregio district. At the statue of San Giovanni Nepomuceno that was at the junction of the Grand Canal and Canal de Cannaregio they turned in and eventually crossed the Ponte delle Guglie bridge that lead them to Campo di Ghetto; the old Jewish ghetto quarter.
The history of this tiny neighbourhood was extremely rich and it amazed just how varied its life and events had been - how such a small area within a historically significant city itself was able to hold a world of its own. Both fascinated by its phases of existence they were equally horrified at how restricted and persecuted the Jews had been at times in Venice; a view that was reflected across Europe at the same time. Life wasn’t all bad all the time, but the situation had never been ideal and they were pleased to learn how it was finally liberated and opened for free passage during Napoleon’s conquest. Even with the devastating wars and world domination campaign that Napoleon had embarked on in the early 19th century, at least some good came out of it.
Their next target was the I Gesuiti church further east before they would try find dinner so Dahyun suggested they take a casual stroll south-eastwards through the calm residential sections leading in that direction. Sana bought another ice cream from a store in the Ghetto as it was still hot and she loved the gelato here in Venice.
They ducked to a side street, walking along narrow corridors between buildings and crossing quaint bridges over the canals while occasionally a boat or gondola passed through the canal with a loving couple or an excited family sat and observing their surroundings.
It wasn’t until Dahyun stopped walking that Sana realized how few people there were around them; they had managed to escape the overcrowded streets and tourist trappings of the main thoroughfares, although she wasn’t sure exactly where in the city they were now. She was almost done with her ice cream, now slowly nibbling away at the waffle base as she looked up at the building that Dahyun was staring at.
A stone construction in a similar fashion to its neighbours, the facade and the whole building had seen better days. The stone render was now an extremely faded salmon red and one corner of the building was a little lopsided, and closer inspection showed that modern supports had been added to prevent further sinking. Most of the windows appeared to be covered up occasionally boarded, however there were some signs of restoration on the outside; the building hadn’t been completely abandoned to the elements and fate. The front door was accessible over a little stone bridge as the building itself sat on a neighbourhood block that was surrounded on all sides by canals, only accessible via bridges or boats.
“Let’s have a look inside,” Dahyun said as she took quick steps towards the entrance over the bridge.
“Are you sure that’s allowed?”
“Yeah, that sign on the front says: ‘Dona Merchant Museum. Free visit.’ We’ll see if the doors open, if not we’ll leave,” Dahyun said as she pointed at the sign that was stuck to the railing at the front of the bridge.
“You can read that?” Sana wondered as she started taking steps backwards and fished out her phone to take a picture.
“It says it right there underneath in English.”
“Oh,” Sana squinted at the sign seeing the faded but still legible English text. With a few steps further back she lifted her phone to take a picture and called out to Dahyun to pose.
Dahyun had reached the front door and turned around to beam a huge smile for the camera, and once the picture was taken she turned back around swiftly. Trying the door handle she found it locked so she quickly fished out a tiny piece of metal, stuck it in the lock and jiggled it deftly and smoothly feeling the satisfying click of an old door lock. These lock picking skills she had picked up were useful.
Just as Sana was reaching her across the bridge Dahyun turned around and turned the handle. The door opened easily and she beamed a smile to Sana, “Seems like it is open for visitors.”
She was the first to step in and a little apprehensive Sana followed her right after. They arrived in an atrium with a door at the far left corner leading further in and next to it stairs that rose up. It was all painted in a very worn and faded olive green with detailed Turkic influenced bands of flower and line work design running the top edge of the room.
The house was completely silent and the only sounds were the gently lapping water from the outside and the echoing footsteps of Dahyun and Sana as they proceeded deeper into the building, going through the door on the far left corner of the room. Inside there was renovation equipment; plaster, metal supports, old repurposed bricks and lumber and a lot of waste.
Not seeing much they took the stares up and came to a landing with a few doors to each side, but no stairs to continue further up. The building was at least three stories high so they knew there had to be a way further up somewhere if not here. Still no sign of anybody in the house, no museum staff or anything.
“Are you sure we should be here? There’s nobody here.”
“Well the door was open,” Dahyun replied as she smiled to Sana and walked forward through the door further in front of them.
“Maybe somebody forgot to lock it. We should let the city or someone know about it.”
“Yeah true, we’ll do that when we leave but look.”
Sana followed Dahyun into the room, one that was in a lot better condition than the rest of the building, and to their right they spotted the stairs leading to the upper floor.
“Now this room looks rather fancy, what room do you think this was?”
“The main sitting room,” Dahyun replied.
“Oh? How do you know?”
Dahyun gestured to look around the room, seeing the various exquisite couches and lounge chairs organized around the room. “The appearance is of one, at least to me.”
“Mhmmm,” Sana nodded in agreement as she followed the direction of Dahyun’s hand, seeing the two worn wide couches and the lonely lounge chair in the corner, a now rotten coffee table and bookshelves lining the wall. A lot of it was broken and run down and it was clear that nobody had been here or used any of them in years, even though overall it appeared in better condition than the rest of the house.
At the end of the room on the widest wall there was a large painting almost two meters wide hanging on the wall, the wood under the gold flake coated frame showing through as it had been worn and cracked from exposure and time. Dahyun approached the painting studying the people presented in it.
It appeared to feature a typical 19th century well-off Venetian family. The parents sat on the same lounge chair that could be found in the room, a beautiful floral themed varnished wood frame with Venetian red cushion and seat fabric, the father sitting just slightly ahead and upfront as the head of the household. Behind the couch were two sons and one daughter, the younger of the boys in the arms of the daughter and the older boy standing attentively behind his father. He would inherit everything.
All of them looked rather serious, as if this was a solemn moment that required tact and manners. Even the young boy had a rather muted look but with a hint of a little smile on his lips much like the mother. The daughter who looked like an adult women and hence appeared to be the eldest child of the family, had a defining smirk at the edge of her lips. The artist must have really stayed true to the real life event.
Dahyun’s fingers ran across the bottom of the frame eventually reaching out and touching the young woman in the painting who was holding the boy, brushing her fingertips gently across her cheeks.
“She kind of resembles you though doesn’t she?”
Dahyun turned to look at Sana with wide eyes of surprise.
“If you were a Venetian lady I bet you’d look just like that,” Sana chuckled poking her tongue out between her teeth just slightly, cheekily teasing Dahyun. A careful smile crept onto Dahyun’s lips and she looked back up at the painting.
“Yeah, I can see it too.” Dahyun chuckled to herself internally. Sana had no idea just how accurate she was.
They were stuck in a stare, looking at the painting before Dahyun suddenly grabbed Sana’s hand and pulled her along to move on.
“Come, let’s go upstairs. I bet we can get a good view of the city from there.”
Up the slightly creaking and terrifying wooden steps Dahyun pulled Sana along arriving at another landing. Almost right in front of the steps was a huge intricate door and behind them more empty rooms. Dahyun carefully pushed the door open and as she did, they were greeted with afternoon sunlight through the large windows and balcony doors at the end, the double doors opening up to a Juliet balcony.
There was a fireplace in this room as well, and close by on the floor were visible four distinct indentations where bedposts would have rested for years and years.
“This must have been the master bedroom. Look, bedposts have worn out the floorboards.”
Dahyun pointed out at the ground with a smile as Sana observed all the things that Dahyun was making her aware of. She seemed to know quite a bit about these things, to her surprise. Then her ears picked up on something else, some kind of mumbling that was coming from downstairs.
“Do you hear that Dahyun? Is that coming from downstairs?”
Dahyun stopped pacing around the room as she had been feeling the history of the place at her fingertips and listened closely. There was indeed conversation coming from downstairs.
“It must be the museum staff or renovators here,” Sana said walking towards the door of the room. “We should probably leave now.”
“We can try sneak out, don’t have to let anyone know we came here when weren’t allowed.”
“Oh? So we weren’t allowed to come in!” Sana at first huffed in annoyance at Dahyun for deceiving her before she grinned cheekily, “Ok let’s do this. Ninja time.”
Their boots were making audible sounds on the wood floor, so Dahyun and Sana took them off and with just their socks on across the dirty floor they made their way to the stairs. The first flight down went with little noise, just a few creaking of the steps on their way down but the talking of the people downstairs seemed to muffle most of it.
As they arrived on the second floor landing the conversation was now clearer and they could hear the words being spoken.
“Perché la figlia dovrebbe tornare? Non sarebbe così stupida.”
“Ordini da Adhabu. Non pensiamo. Noi facciamo.”
“Sì, sì, ho capito. Non sono pazzo.”
Wrenching her arm Sana felt like it would pop out of its socket and she was flung into a little nook that existed behind the pillar and door frame. Before she hit the wall Dahyun’s arm was wrapped around her back and she forced her down to duck, impressively managing to muffle any major bumps or crashes her feet and body would have otherwise made.
“Wha-” Before she could even say the first word Dahyun had put her hand over Sana’s mouth to stop her from speaking, shushing her immediately after.
“Mhmmm,” Sana mumbled into Dahyun’s hand but felt her grip around her tighten and the cupped hand press harder against . She looked up at Dahyun’s face whose bubbly and smiling expression had completely changed; she was ferociously serious.
“Don’t. Make. A. Sound,” Dahyun whispered directly into Sana’s ear while still cupping to prevent even the tiniest of squeaks from getting out. Sana’s eyes were wide darting back and forth between the edge of their nook and Dahyun’s face, looking for comfort in her eyes. All she could see however was an intense focus and ferocity that she had never witnessed in her. A burning that was frightening, but she equally could feel it directed elsewhere and Dahyun cradling her in a protective manner brought some calm to her nerves.
Sana nodded rapidly as she attempted to steady her breathing and her racing heart, still staring into Dahyun’s eyes. Dahyun looked up at Sana and gave her a small smile as reassurance and let go of . She leaned in once again to whisper. “Hold your own mouth if you need to. We can’t risk any sound okay?”
Once again Sana nodded, her round eyes closing a little from the initial shock but still intensely focused. She was at a complete loss at what was going on and why Dahyun was acting this way suddenly. Why was she so serious and afraid?
The echo of footsteps against the hardwood floor grew closer having walked up the stairs and now landed on the same floor as them, still in conversation.
“Dove aspettiamo?”
“Ovunque va bene, credo. Giovanni può stare al piano di sotto.”
As the steps drew closer Dahyun’s grip around Sana tightened and she very silently hushed into her ear. The two steps approached and approached.
Closer. Louder. Now right on them. Sana and Dahyun held their breaths and stilled their bodies to make sure not a single peep was let out. They were ducked into this little crevice but could see the passing of two shadows against the afternoon sunlight. Their heartbeats now pounding louder in their ears, almost drowning out every other sound, even the loud footsteps of the two men passing by. And then they had passed. Soon above them the wood steps echoed with two footsteps as it appeared that they were going up to the third floor.
Once the steps had cleared above them and had moved further away Dahyun pulled Sana from hiding with her and made her way towards the back of the building and not the same main steps they had used to get up. At the back of the next room that Dahyun brought them in there was a tiny door through which she went as quietly as possible. There were steps leading down.
Sneaking in and down the steps still in their socks they swiftly crept down and down, almost reaching the very bottom when Dahyun heard a door open right behind them.
“Tu chi sei? Fermare!”
“Run!” Dahyun said pulling Sana further down with her. They came out to the basement cellar where rotten wine barrels and furniture waited to be cleared. The stench of old and wet food and wood hit their noses, both stale and festering and Sana convulsed at it managing to just about hold her innards. Dahyun released her grip on Sana’s hand so they could run faster and they ducked in as fast as they could along the basement.
“No! Let go!”
Dahyun turned around and saw as a man had managed to grab onto one of Sana’s pigtails. She was violently pulled back and stumbled over back hitting her forehead on one of the low beams of the basement letting out a loud scream, before keeling over to cradle her head.
The first thing that Dahyun caught in her hand from the surroundings was an old rusty metal bucket which she flung directly at the man, catching him square to his face breaking his nose and forcing him to take a step back. The bucket rang and twanged with impact as it fell on the floor and by the time he saw what was coming it was too late as Dahyun was now right up in his face with a reverse kick contacting his chin snapping the man’s neck in a violent jerk upwards. He slumped down on the ground unmoving.
The sound of the bucket and Sana’s scream was sure to draw even more the attention of the other two so Dahyun was quick to move and help Sana up. She was a little dazed and had a minor cut on her forehead that was bleeding slightly. “You’ll be fine. Just be brave for me, for just a moment longer.”
She gave a light kiss on Sana’s forehead and then helped her up, holding her from her waist to help her move down further in towards the back of the basement, hoping to get out of the line of sight of the entrance before anybody else came down. Over her head moving behind her she could hear the frantic rumbling steps making their way towards the entrance of the basement.
At the opposite end of the basement where they had entered, Dahyun walked over to what at first looked like a regular floor panel, but as she pushed on it the panel shifted and was moved to the side. There was faint sunlight and Dahyun climbed up, quickly pulling Sana up with her.
They found themselves underneath the main support beams of the building and the piers that were attached to the backs of the buildings allowing for direct boat access. Dahyun crouched forward with Sana in tow and looking around she didn’t see anybody. She reached out the side of the pier and lifted herself up with one swift motion, reaching down with her arm and pulled Sana up in turn.
“You okay?” Dahyun asked Sana observing the cut on her forehead. Luckily it looked rather shallow and wasn’t bleeding profusely.
“Yeah I think…” Sana replied, still not quite sure what had just happened or was going on.
“Let’s go to our hotel quick. It’s not too far away.”
Dahyun took hold of Sana’s hand once more and began walking without a glance at a map or their phone in a direction; as if fully certain of how to get to their hotel. And she was, as not ten minutes later even Sana recognized the surroundings and their hotel and the two walked straight in and up the floors to their loft room.
Immediately after getting into their room and locking the door Dahyun turned around and walked over to Sana. “Do you think they saw your face?”
Sana shook her head, carefully touching the cut on her forehead wincing in reaction to the touch. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. At most maybe just a glance but I’m sure it wasn’t a clear look.”
“Come here, let me clean that for you,” Dahyun said walking to the bathroom where she dabbed a cloth with water and took out her mini-medical kit with plasters, swabs and alcohol to clean a wound and bandage it.
“Well, that one guy definitely didn’t see my face. Even if he saw yours it won’t be problem unless he survived the kick,” Dahyun said as she cleared the blood and disinfected it, causing Sana to scrunch her nose at the sting from the alcohol touching the wound. It was a minor laceration so a simple plastic skin tone plaster was enough, almost blending in with Sana’s skin and so was mostly invisible under her bangs.
“If he… survived?” Sana looked up at Dahyun who seemed to snap out of some world of her own, startled at what she was saying. Eyes wide she looked at Sana and let out a nervous chuckle before smiling wide to comfort her.
“If he didn’t get knocked unconscious that’s all.”
Sana attributed her uneasiness to the fact that they had just survived some weird attack or kidnapping. Whoever they were, this wasn’t normal behaviour even from a basic security guard looking after the building, they would normally first ask them to leave peacefully. There were so many things not right with what had happened and how well Dahyun had and still was reacting to everything. How well she had taken charge, knew exactly what to do and didn’t flinch in the face of fear.
“I think it’s safest if you flew back home. I don’t think this will get any safer,” Dahyun casually mentioned as she packed her medical material back into her bag.
“Get any safer? What do you mean? What about you?”
“I will stay and find my way out to my family alone. It’s the safest that way.”
“Leave? Alone? How can you say that?! I’m not going anywhere on my own, let alone without you explaining to me exactly what is going on!” Sana screamed out in frustration, something she rarely did especially towards Dahyun. After all they had been through how could Dahyun just tell her to leave? How could she suggest that they abandon each other?
Dahyun leaned back from surprise at the ferocity of Sana’s outburst. She couldn’t remember if there had ever been a time that she had been so angry at her or shouted with such gusto and determination. She must have been extremely scared earlier, and right now frustrated and lost. It was understandable that she would be angry with Dahyun, even if usually she was almost exclusively loving and touchy feely towards her.
“Are you sure you want to hear the truth?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think you’ll believe me though.”
“Try me!” Sana took a step closer, before her eyes softened and she lowered her voice into a gentle whine while grabbing onto her friends hands to hold on to them, ”Dahyun, I’m your best friend. Don’t you trust me?”
“I do trust you it’s definitely not a trust issue, implicitly trust you. I trust you more than anybody else in the world. But I honestly don’t think you’ll believe me.”
“Try me…” Sana whispered, pulling onto Dahyun’s hands once more, continuing to hold onto them.
Biting her bottom lip Dahyun’s eyes darted around the room, from Sana’s face to the window to the door, her mind trying to calculate what the correct move here would be. The usual perpetual smile had faded from her and it was filled with apprehension and worry, her thick brows furrowing in thought, biting her bottom lip, and she could feel her hands get sweatier than usual in Sana’s grasp. She was certain that Sana could feel it too.
“Come, you should sit down for it,” Dahyun pulled Sana along making her sit on the edge of the bed.
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s… that unbelievable and insane.”
Sana sat down at the edge of the seat and Dahyun released her hold taking a few steps back and taking a deep breath. Her eyes were wandering about the room again and she was clearly anxious, shaking herself in an effort to psych herself up. Sana could see the distress this was causing her and prepared for the worst. She would try steel her emotions and be as accepting as she could of Dahyun’s circumstances. Just how bad could it really be?
“I… wow explaining this never gets easier, I’m going to sound insane,” Dahyun sighed as her eyes darted around the room and her tongue poked the inside of her cheek. Her eyes found Sana’s still focused and intent eyes.
Those soft loving eyes, how could she tell the truth? She didn’t want to destroy what they had; she would never believe who she really was and why those men were after her. Telling the whole truth should be the ultimate vindicator, but much like humanity and history often repeated the same patterns many times over Dahyun was set to repeat a mistake she oft did. She was going to lie about this.
It’s not like they didn’t lie about it to most people as telling the whole truth to strangers would be putting themselves in unnecessary risk and danger; anybody could have been an agent of the Cult. But to people who had been dragged and gotten involved and who they were personally close with, often telling the truth had been the standard. Getting the knowledge of this eternal fight out to people who potentially had a vested interest to see them survive was pretty normal. However, Dahyun just couldn’t tell Sana the whole complete truth, there was no way she would believe it when there was little to no proof right now to help prove her case. She would skirt the truth a little, a tiny lie wouldn’t hurt.
“You were right about that woman in the painting back in the house.”
“Right? About what?”
“About it looking like me,” Dahyun looked to the side pulling her finger in frustration before focusing back at Sana. The real final truth would have to wait, for now this would have to do.
“Because she is my... great great grandmother. That house and the family that lived in it used to be the house of where my father’s side of the family comes from. We are a side family branch of a Venetian mafia.”
“That’s just… impossible. Dahyun, why are you still lying to me I told you to te-”
“It is the truth!” Dahyun shouted Sana instinctively leaning back in surprise. Dahyun immediately felt the stinging of guilt for not being completely honest with her but it was too late now, “this is the whole truth. I told you it will sound insane but it’s the truth. The main family branch we separated from is now for some reason trying to tie off loose ends of the family, so we’ve become a target.”
“This… no this is stupid you are insane,” Sana shook her head and got up from the bed but didn’t know where to go or what to do. This was impossible and her friend had lost her mind thinking she was a part of a Venetian crime syndicate. That’s why she wanted to go to that house or here in general. She must have had a mental breakdown without her knowing.
The unbelieving reaction of Sana pained Dahyun, but she felt a little vindicated about her decision of lying, even though it was more like bending the truth and the little facts within it. If Sana reacted so badly to this revelation she had just given, how would she have reacted if she told the very actual truth of the situation?
“I can prove it to you, at least part of it.”
“How?”
“You’ve known me my whole life, well most of it. You know my family and you’ve been my best friend always, going through all of school together, right?”
Sana nodded trying to figure out where this was going.
“What languages do I know?”
“Wha- languages? You speak Korean and then hopelessly horribly some English.”
“I’ll order room service, tell me what you want.”
“Uhh… just I don’t know. What’s a famous local dish?”
“Baccala Mantecato. Okay.”
Dahyun grabbed the phone and called room service, the front desk soon answering her call.
“Questa è la stanza 41. Possiamo avere un baccalà mantecato? Per due. Sì. Grazie.”
Eyes wide Sana stared back into Dahyun’s eyes as she spoke on the phone with what Sana could only assume and which convincingly sounded like real Italian. How on earth could she do that? She sounded fluent like a natural born Italian.
Dahyun ended the call and looked back at Sana who was now speechless and staring at her with incredulity and unbelieving eyes.
“How did you…?”
“We can wait for the room service to arrive before you believe me but,” Dahyun paused before walking over to Sana and taking hold of the shell shocked woman, squeezing the hands a little to give her some life, “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. It’s so insane sounding and now that you know it puts you also in danger, although you are in danger just by association and proximity to me.”
“But they don’t know what you look like, right?”
“No, not yet at least. But I think they can now make a guess that I’m East-Asian at the very least.”
“So why did you suddenly come here if you know it was risky?”
“I…” Dahyun paused, trying to think of a plausible explanation to give Sana, “my family didn’t think it would be this risky. We were contacted by another side family branch warning us. Their identities had been exposed but my families hadn’t, so they told us to try and find evidence from the original family home that could help take the main family down and keep everyone else safe.”
All of this was just too much to take and Sana stared emptily forward for a moment before releasing Dahyun’s hold and walking over to the bed. “So if we search here we can possibly save your family?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m here and that’s why I was wary about bringing you along. But having a friend to travel with works as a good cover too so, it was a blessing too. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“This just, can I sleep on this? I think I need some time.”
“Of course! We should both really sleep, it has been an eventful and rough evening.”
Dahyun smiled at Sana and walked over to her giving her a hug, the latter at first a little surprised but quickly flinging her arms around Dahyun and pulling her in for a deep squeeze and hug. They both needed this.
“Thank you for listening. You can go wash up first so you can get to sleep faster,” Dahyun said as she released from the hold and sat down on the edge of her own bed.
“You aren’t going to disappear in the night are you?”
“I won’t, I promise.”
While Sana was washing up the ordered Baccala Mantecato arrived in the room so before brushing their teeth the two enjoyed the dish in a happier mood chatting about random assortment of things, leaving the heavy topic of the night for a rest to pick up on it tomorrow. They had completely skipped dinner in the rush back to the hotel after the incident they ravished the dish but it left them very satisfied. Soon enough both were washed up and in bed.
“I’m sorry about today Sana; I didn’t want to drag you into this mess.”
“I know you would never willingly involve me I… I forced myself on this trip of yours anyway. I’m just,” Sana paused for a moment as there was a wave of emotions in equal measure; anger, frustrations, sadness, happiness, guilt, fear. She stopped to focus again and find the right words. “I am just shocked. About everything. I’m sure tomorrow I’ll feel better already.”
“I’m certain as well. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Dahyun waited for Sana to fall asleep making sure that she wouldn’t notice her get up from bed. She set one of the chairs slightly diagonally in front of the door, set the cutlery and the metal tray their dinner arrived in against it in a way that opening the door even the slightest would have the set up crash and create a loud noise. If anyone tried to get in during the night they would wake up.
For a moment Dahyun stared intensely at the door, guarding it, waiting for something to burst through. Sleep was beginning to take her eventually and her last conscious thought was how had The Cult managed to find out her previous home? She had kept her home and her name of her past life a secret. How deep had the Cult managed to invade while their souls slept for over a hundred years?
The morning sun woke them up in peace the night having proceeded without incident Dahyun could let out a little sigh of relief; at least they didn’t know where they were staying or their exact identities as of yet. Dahyun quickly gathered the utensils out of the way of the door before Sana was fully awake and conscious and the two started their day with a hearty breakfast at the hotels luxurious restaurant, both of them opting for Eggs Benedict and other breakfast essentials such as toast and cheeses; Dahyun naturally rounding it all off with a chocolate parfait.
At breakfast they discussed in hushed tones about what it was they would do now. They had come all this way to Venice and had only been there one day. As they were fairly certain their identities hadn’t been exposed they agreed to stay for a day or two longer to see the main sites, experience a little more of the unique city while Dahyun went to the public facilities and libraries to research some more. After this they would take a trip to either Rome, Florence, Pisa or another famous Italian city for the rest of their holidays duration to avoid confrontation with the same people. The coming week had been booked off as holiday for both of them so in total they had another full week left before they would fly back home the following week Sunday morning.
As they had only really explored the Cannaregio district and a little bit of San Polo seeing the houses and churches on that side and had yet to visit the world famous Piazza San Marco and St. Mark’s Basilica, today they would go there and they could enjoy the day in the sun together.
Heading out in comfortable summer outfits and sunglasses on, Dahyun and Sana made their way from the hotel southwest at an angle towards Piazza San Marco. On the way they would go see the famous palazzo’s and loop around to the Teatro la Fenice before finally heading east to have lunch at one of the restaurants around San Marco square itself.
At first they were extremely cautious as they walked around, Dahyun particularly having her eyes dart about and even Sana could feel the tension. There was little conversation between them. However, by the time they made it to their first location, nothing suspicious had happened and Dahyun didn’t spot anybody following them. The tension was quickly lifted and the two began to relax, their conversation flowing as it naturally would.
The intricate palazzos had their imaginations run wild wondering what it would have been like when this was built at the height of the Venetian mercantile and naval power. The noon sun was high when they made it to Piazza San Marco and they found a seafood restaurant close to one corner of the square and watched the tourists pass by while admiring the architecture and the massive St Mark’s Basilica at the opposite end.
Lunch done they walked to the waterfront after grabbing some more legitimate gelato ice cream, Sana was clearly hooked on them. They found an open spot to watch the sea by the piers all the while enjoying their ice creams in the basking sun. The day was hot and their treats began melting fast, so they had to quickly eat them before their hands turned all sticky.
The view was particularly lovely so for a few moments more Dahyun and Sana stayed there in silence, staring out into the vast open sea where the boats and sails floated by and gondoliers took their customers for an experience deeper into the canals of the city. With such calm for a moment both of their worries just flitted away, drifting far off into the open sea ahead of them.
The sudden flight and scattering of a drove of pigeons brought Dahyun’s mind into focus and something tugged at her senses to turn around and look. In the corner of her eye with a single glance she could see small groups of people purposefully walking around the square looking at people and observing their faces.
They were clearly looking for someone and from her quick observation she could tell; they were looking for somebody of East Asian descent, as they ignored most others until they saw a person with Asian features immediately giving them a closer look. The fact that they clearly passed by many Asians after having a glance clued her in; they must have some inkling of the features and likeness they were looking for. Maybe they even had managed to snag a partial security camera image somehow.
“Hey Sana, why don’t we take a gondola ride? We haven’t done that yet,” Dahyun said with a bright smile as she stood up and reached down to pull Sana up with her, the latter not really resisting and was pulled up with surprising strength.
“Wha- sure okay, but what about St Mark’s Basilica, we haven't gone in to see it yet?” She looked at Dahyun’s face as her hands got wrapped in hers and was pulled forward towards the gondola rental service just to the side of the Piazza San Marco. Sana could tell it was a forced smile and that Dahyun’s eyes were steeled with focus and her brows had the slightest crease of worry. She had been around her for so long she could tell from the faintest of expressions alone what Dahyun was actually feeling.
“Is something wrong?”
“No nothing’s wrong,” Dahyun said with her forced smile while her brows were downcast forming a sharp incline.
“We are being followed aren’t we?”
Sana attempted to turn her head to look back but Dahyun quickly placed her other hand on Sana’s cheek to stop her whole head turning and pinched it affectionately, “Oh you are just sooooo cute.”
As she said this the two arrived by the gondolas and with no inhibition and no pretence Dahyun booked passage on one immediately with fluent Italian. Sana was caught staring once again with wide eyes and surprise at her; Dahyun really did know how to speak Italian.
While Dahyun was engaged with the order and rental of a ride Sana took her phone out as if she was taking a selfie and with her arm outstretched she slowly turned around looking for that perfect selfie angle. At the same time she glanced about trying to see what it was that had spooked Dahyun so.
As she turned around to face the direction they came from she saw multiple men and women walking in a loose group all observing and looking at people’s faces, clearly searching for someone. They must have seen one of their faces, or at least had visual cues to look out for.
Behind Sana was a stand that sold variety of summer equipment; sunglasses, sunhats, sunshade, umbrellas, handheld mini fans, the lot of them. Just as Dahyun was finalizing their purchase Sana turned around and bought two wide fancy sunhats and a white lace edged and frilly umbrella. She turned back around to see Dahyun look at her with a little surprise as she plonked the hat on her head and opened the umbrella.
“A lady must maintain and take good care of her skin,” she said as the gondolier assisted the two into the boat and it lurched off into open water, distancing them from the shoreline.
For a moment Sana folded the umbrella and once again took her phone out to take a selfie with Dahyun while making sure it also had a good view of everything behind them. Immediately after she reopened the umbrella and looked at the photo.
“Seems like they didn’t see us,” she said as she zoomed into the picture she had taken, focusing on the group of people trudging through the pier. They appeared to be paying no attention to Sana’s and Dahyun’s gondola.
Dahyun looked over at her friend in surprise then at the umbrella above them and touched her fancy summer hat she had just received. “You got all of this to hide from them? You noticed?”
“I may not be some secret agent or member of a crime family, but I can tell everything you are feeling just from your face alone. It was enough of a clue.”
Dahyun’s brows and face finally relaxed into a genuine bright smile. She fished for her sunglasses out of her bag with Sana doing the same.
“I’m impressed Sana,” Dahyun said finally leaning a little back in her seat.” I guess we can enjoy our romantic ride in peace.”
The gondola continued along the coast of the island further east until it tucked into Rio del Greci canal and deeper into the city. Admiring the buildings and mixture of Buddhist, Muslim and Christian artistic influence that the merchants of the cities heyday had planted here and there, the gondola now swiped into a narrower and calmer little canal.
“It seems it is riskier than I thought to stay here. We should probably leave Venice latest tomorrow.”
“But what about bringing down the main family?”
“It’s okay, my family isn’t compromised yet,” Dahyun reassured Sana and took off her sunglasses as the canal they were in was shadowed by the buildings on both sides. In truth her Korean family wasn’t in any risk at all, it was another family that was. A much older family. “Besides, this information isn’t worth risking your life for, nothing is. Maybe one of the other side families at threat will manage with the task instead.”
Sana nodded, only half convinced but also clearly relieved that they would be leaving the threat zone. It was a shame their getaway to Venice had to be cut so short but Dahyun’s safety was more important than some romantic holiday.
They enjoyed the rest of their ride around the canals of Venice in peace, happy and content and managed to forget the looming presence in the city that was looking out for people. Although she had comforted Sana saying that the people looking for her didn’t have a clue of what they looked like, the fact that they were pretty particular meant that they must have had some inkling. At worst they had pictures of both their faces, and that meant Sana was in danger of things she shouldn’t even need to know existed.
Their ride looped around the full city and they found themselves at the west end of San Polo district as they disembarked the gondola. Since they would have to leave post haste Sana wanted to drop by some souvenir shops to at least get a piece of Venice with her before they had to leave. Close by their disembarking point they spotted an antique shop with souvenirs and other interesting knick knacks.
Sana almost immediately dived deep into the shelves to look for weird and unique finds while Dahyun casually strolled about looking more on the surface what the shelves had to offer. Deeper in her searching frenzy Sana finally found an interesting tiny cuckoo clock, barely the size of her palm.
“Hey Dahyun what do you think of this- ah I’m so sorry!” Sana said as she had bubbling with glee tapped the shoulder of a woman from behind that she assumed was Dahyun. Instead another Asian lady of similar stature and build turned around.
“Ah yes? Were you looking for something particular? Maybe I can help,” The woman responded to Sana in Korean with a faint cheeky grin.
“I’m really sorry I thought you were my friend,” Sana apologized profusely bowing in the process, surprised that this lady happened to be from Korea as well. It probably facilitated this situation of mistaken identity.
“Hey, I could be your friend!” The woman laughed brightly and beamed a bright smile, her voice tone tinted with a hint of joking and comedic attitude, “we must look quite similar then, maybe I can help with what you were looking for instead.”
“Oh... sure!”
With bright smiles Sana and her new acquaintance dug deep into the antique gift shop, running from shelf to shelf, slipping through the tiny spaces of the packed shop and enjoying her time with a newly made friend, even if Sana had to leave the next day. Maybe they could meet up back in Korea.
After some time they found themselves at the back of the building all alone just the two of them. Having explored most of the shop that ran through the building from one side to the other they got to the back of the building which had a lot more items out in the open, partially being stored on shelves with shutters on the front and there was nobody in sight, just a narrow walkway and the silent canal behind it.
So silent that both Sana and her new friend didn’t notice as a group of six people appeared behind them. Rough hands shut Sana’s mouth as two pairs of arms wrapped around her shoulders and Sana felt like she was about to fall losing her balance before her feet began to drag along the cobblestone pavement. She was being rapidly and violently hauled towards the canal and she tried her best to struggle free but couldn’t do a thing against the strong thick arms of the men pulling her.
The hand was too big and thick for any of her screams to travel through and she thrashed and ripped against her captors but wasn’t strong enough to resist. Ahead of her she could see as three other figures dragged her newly made friend, equally attempting her best to struggle and scream against the assailants but with her much tinier frame not even fazing them.
Rapidly shaking her head from side to side Sana managed to move her face higher and to the upper edge of the hand in front of . She bit on the finger hard. A loud scream followed from the man cupping her face as her fangs dug into the skin before releasing the finger, the hand for a moment moving from the mouth.
“Dahyun! DAHYUN! HELP! DAHYUN!” Sana managed to scream before a hard smack on her cheek left her dizzy followed by a cloth stuffed into and a gag to keep it in. She was harshly thrown into a boat waiting by the canal and soon after the other woman followed her. Before either could really make a move their kidnappers were in and two of them pulled out guns, pointing at the two while telling them, “Silenzio!”
As the boat revved up and began to speed away Sana pulled her newly made friend close to her for comfort and in the distance she saw as a familiar figure burst through the backdoor of the antique shop, but she couldn’t shout with the gun pointed at her and the gag in , she couldn’t let her know she was there.
Certain that it was Sana’s panicked voice screaming her name, Dahyun had for but a split second reoriented herself over the babbling of the tourists around her before dashing through the antique shop that Sana had dived further into. Dahyun had stepped to the sweets shop next door for a few minutes to get them some chocolates and sweets, and when she got out again Sana wasn’t by the front of the antique store, and that's when she heard the screams.
Bursting through the backdoor of the store she saw to her left speeding away down the narrow canal a motorboat with many people and in the front tucked away two young Asian women, one of them Sana.
“Sana!” Dahyun ran with all her might after the boat her calves all but bursting from the exertion as panic built deep within her core, immediately fearing that she would never see her friend again, that it was her fault that she had now been taken. But the boat had picked up speed and before she knew it had disappeared around the corner to what Dahyun knew was one of the larger canals where it could move faster and disappear amongst the boat traffic.
Dahyun slouched on the ground and behind her she could hear how a few people had gathered to wonder what the screaming had been and why this woman had rushed through the shop. All they could witness however was some woman with her back turned towards them sitting on the cobbled road, as the speeding boat was far gone from everyone's view.
“Excuse me, are you alright? What happened?” Dahyun heard a voice a few metres behind her speaking with accented English.
Standing and wiping the tear from the corner of her eye, Dahyun turned around to reassure the bystander that everything was alright.
“It’s okay, I just had a little-” Dahyun stopped speaking as she turned around to face the concerned citizen, another young Asian woman, her eyes locking with hers and something within her immediately opening up. She began to stutter unable to continue as she saw this woman’s eyes shoot extremely wide open as well, mouth agape and she looked as if she was about to be thrown off her feet as recognition hit her.
“Daria?!” She let out a shout of surprise.
“Christine… it’s really you. My precious Sister it’s really you!”
Dahyun shot forward launching herself into a deep hug of a flabbergasted Chaeyoung who couldn’t believe her eyes. She hadn’t expected to meet her soul sister Dahyun so quickly after arriving in Venice. Chaeyoung’s arms automatically wrapped around Dahyun and the two stood there in a deep embrace for a moment, before reality set back in and Dahyun’s bright happy eyes and smile turned dark again.
“Christine, we need to hurry they kidnapped my friend! We need to find them before they leave Venice.”
“What? How did they manage that? Never mind let’s get out of here and figure this out. I just need to tell my two friends that I’ll be busy,” Chaeyoung said, taking hold of Dahyun’s hand as the two dashed back towards the antique shop to find Chaeyoung’s two friends, her Eurorail companions Nayeon and Yeri.
Somewhere in the middle of the city winding through ever tinier and narrower canals and with less people in sight, the motorboat sped along with its two victims. Sana held onto her fellow captive and friend, not even knowing her name yet as they had been too engrossed with their antique shop finds to ask. Sana managed to push and spit the gag around enough to be able to speak and leaned in closer whispering to her in Korean.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. My friend will definitely find us.”
The latter was still too in shock to really respond and was staring intensely at the guns pointed at them. She didn’t want to do anything to anger her kidnappers and lose her life. Sana found herself surprisingly cool headed, astonishing herself how well she was handling this. Maybe it was her experience from the day before that enabled her to be more level headed or maybe she had always been like this. Either way her mind was working overtime to keep herself sane. The fear would probably set in later as the adrenaline died down.
Sana tightened her hug of the shivering young woman. “We didn’t even get to introduce ourselves properly yet. My name is Sana, what’s your name?”
The woman’s wide shocked eyes turned rapidly towards Sana and with stuttering and her breath consistently gone she whispered to her.
“My- my name is Yeri.”
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