Chapter Text
“Good evening passengers, this is the pre-boarding announcement for the Lufthansa flight 460 to Miami. We are now inviting regular passengers to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Thank you.” The announcement was heard around gate 5 of the Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport, in German.
A young woman stood up from her seat, and started to fumble around the many pockets of her jacket for her ID and her plane ticket. She sighed in regret at her own chaotic nature as she padded all of her jacket’s numerous pockets and other spots, even checking the pockets under the soles of her boots, before feeling them held between her jumpsuit and her obi-like belt. With that done, she approached the airport clerk, having held up the line for a few long seconds filled with groans from strangers, her documents in hand.
“Boarding pass and identification, please,” asked the clerk.
She handed her ID card and ticket to the clerk. “Here they are.”
“Hm…” The clerk studied the documents given to him. “Johanna Jostein, correct?”
“Yes, that’s me,” Johanna said in response.
The clerk gave back the documentation before inviting the woman to move past the gate. “Welcome aboard. May you enjoy Miami.”
“Thank you, have a good night,” she said, walking into the corridor to the plane.
Getting into the plane was a tedium all of its own. With everyone rushing to their place, Johanna quickly found herself suffocated. Thankfully, she managed to squeeze out of the crowd and into her window side seat. Finally, she had a modicum of peace and quiet. It would have been dark outside, were it not for the airport’s lights and the security they gave to pilots. Not that she planned on sleeping.
Instead, she removed some magazines and brochures from her jacket. The Antiques Trade Gazette, The Magazine Antiques, Art & Antiques Magazine, and Home & Antiques. She had a lot of reading to do. Especially since this was important for her business, and the flight would last more than six hours. Though she also had to account for the other items that spilled from her pockets, like her pocket watch or that collection of various ballpens, making her shuffle on her seat to recover them.
The flight safety announcement was going on at this point, though she had already put on her seatbelt and memorised the briefing. She desired to be in her own bubble as quickly as possible. It did not help that the person who was seated next to her took more room than his own seat would allow, not that she was any better with her jacket’s puffy pockets taking more room by themselves than she does. She did not let that get to her though, as she switched on the light over her head, causing her neighbour to grumble to himself.
Under the night sky and over the clouds, Johanna spent hours of the flight reading her magazines and taking notes. She took notice of prices, work for refurbishment, market tendencies, interviews, anything that could have an effect on sale prices. And once she was over reading each magazine once, she started to ramble on to herself:
“Hm, the trend is on small furniture right now. If I purchase coffee tables and refurbish them, I could probably have a mark-up of at least ten euros. More if I purchase something art deco, more people want that now-”
The neighbour suddenly shifted in his seat towards Johanna, taking an aggressive stand in the limited space of his seat as well as some of hers. “Will you shut it you kraut bitch!”
Johanna, in turn, spun towards him in quick bewilderment. “Hey! Can’t I just talk to myself, sir?”
“I don’t give a crap, I’m trying to sleep here, you weird kraut bitch!” the neighbour simply and rudely replied before switching the light off.
In response, Johanna could only huff and puff and let out a quiet “Good grief,” not audibly enough that her neighbour would be further annoyed. She regretted taking an economic seat, not that she had much choice in that matter. For the remainder of the flight, she would try to keep her thoughts in her mind. Which her urge to talk to herself made all the worse..
Johanna did not sleep throughout the whole flight, her mind being overtaken by so many things that it could not stop. From her business, to her plans once she reached Miami. Her mind was working overtime, so much so that when the day broke from a layer of clouds and that Miami appeared below her, she was yawning. Not that she liked how Miami looked. It was so modern to her. Skyscrapers did not look elegant to her, unless they were art deco. She much preferred Munich. It had a nice, old school architecture that was pleasant to her.
The plane landed without much complications and Johanna tried to leave in a hurry, squeezing her way through tourists. In a single flight, she learnt to hate this mode of transportation. Too many people, too little room.
Then came the airport slog. It started at the border patrol, with security officers screening her. Questions like “Why have you come to the United States?” or “Have you committed acts of terrorism?” were thrown her way, and she felt her blood run colder and her face contorting into a frown throughout the process. It felt like she was treated as a menace, even though she would never have hurt a fly. The wait for her luggage as the conveyor belt slowly moved only compounded Johanna’s rising annoyance.
It was sunny with a hint of clouds when Johanna finally stepped out of the airport, with her squinting eyes betraying her lack of sleep. She glanced at a taxi waiting outside, but she decided against it, seeing how costly her travel would be. Besides, she looked into bus lines beforehand. It is cheaper, and there is a line that goes from Miami to St. Augustine, her destination.
While she waited for her bus, Johanna felt her sweat dripping down from her forehead, and the frown from the airport grew more visible. So much so that she took her umbrella in her hand and opened it to block the rays from reaching her pale skin. She attracted a few inquisitive looks from puzzled onlookers, but she blocked them off to remain in her own world.
It did not take long for the bus to arrive at the airport, and Johanna leapt into it, seeking for fresh air! Thankfully for her, the AC was working properly. She took a seat in the middle of the bus, away from other people, and looked outside as the bus went on its way. She would have looked more, but her pupils started to feel heavy. She suppressed a yawn, but even with all her mental fortitude, she sunk into Morpheus’ arms…
“We’ve hit the terminus miss, wake up,” said an annoyed, but calm voice.
Johanna woke up in a rush. She barely even felt herself drifting to sleep, but here she was, in the middle of St. Augustine, her destination. The bus driver was on the central alley, staring down at her.
Johanna stood up in embarrassment, quickly glancing around in hopes there were no more witnesses. “Sorry. Thanks for the drive.”
She then left the bus about as quickly as she went in. The city felt much more comfortable to Johanna, with its antebellum architecture and its status as the oldest city of the United States. It felt so comfortable to her that she started spinning in place as if she was straight out of The Sound of Music, almost losing her footing due to her jacket in the process. She held her luggage closely and opened her umbrella once more, yet again attracting curious gazes. She still had a few things to do before leaving. First off, finding a cheap hotel to stay in, and second, finding something to eat, likely some street food. She’d need all the energy she can get for tonight…
After checking on her phone, she found a cheap chain hotel on the outskirts of the city centre, and so she walked there. On her way, she passed by the Plaza de la Constitucion and its statue of Juan Ponce de Leon. The words “Juan Ponce de Leon landed near this spot, 1513” were inscribed at the base of the bronze statue. It was a bit funny how Juan Ponce de Leon also brought her there, 510 years later, Johanna thought. And in similar pursuits too. She gave it a long glance, almost staring the bronze in the eyes, in defiance or in search of meaning, before getting back on track to the hotel.
After finding her hotel and a hotdog stand, where she took two hotdogs and a soda, Johanna started to read a tourism leaflet she found nearby while munching on her evening snack. The Castillo de San Marcos, the Lightner Museum… She would love to visit the latter one day, but not now. A bit later in the leaflet, Johanna found what she was looking for. The Anastasia State Park. It was about three kilometres down from St Augustine’s city centre. It was getting late and cloudy, so Johanna had to leave or face the mud of the road.
It took her about an hour to make her way to the park, which was not helped by the lack of pedestrian installations and the mud already forming under her feet. But when she arrived, it was getting dark and rainy, and a storm was surely brewing. She could feel it by the weight of the air. The woman was glad to have thought of bringing her umbrella, cursing under her breath Florida’s humid and stormy weather.
Walking through the park as the raindrops started to make Johanna’s sight a bit foggier was not an enjoyable experience. The trail was muddy and somewhat slippery, and she was getting tired of walking. It did not help that, as she slowly went further into the park, away from the human installations, navigating became more tedious. Especially since she had to be on the lookout for the park guards patrolling the area. There was no obvious dead angle to the security, which was not helped by Johanna standing out like a sore thumb, with her umbrella out for three raindrops per five second intervals and the shuffling of her free hand across the tens of pockets of her essentially all-pocket jacket.
Thankfully for her, and unfortunately for someone else, from a short distance, Johanna could spot the guards being occupied with what looked like locals complaining they can’t just walk around freely in there. Sensing an opportunity, she sneaked as if her life depended on it, passing by increasingly agitated civil servants who seem to have a new “Florida Man” situation in their hands to enter the dense tree thickets that surrounded the public side of the park. She looked back at the somewhat peaceful park, as one last check that she was not followed, and then disappeared into the woodlands, hearing a very loud shouting match as her background noise along the branches moving and snapping against her legs.
The lack of a trail made Johanna reconsider her choices in life, as the swampy soil started to take over the area, rendering walking all the more exhausting. But after long minutes of repetitive trees and humid soil, she was facing her destination. In front of her stood a proud mangrove surrounded by a saltwater marsh. Johanna was so deep in the park that she could not even hear the crowd of guards manhandling the locals anymore.
Johanna took a flashlight from one of the pockets on her jacket’s sleeve insides, dropping a pack of menthol chewing gum and some spare change into the mud in the process, and switched it on, revealing just how much space the mangrove took. There was no obvious way forward, and even she, in her lack of outdoorsy wisdom, could tell that her path would be terribly exhausting. Maybe sleeping on that bus was a good idea, she thought, before stepping into the mangrove forest. The moonlight glow gave the trees an ominous glare, though she did not take notice of the light’s warmer shade of white or its volatile movements creating face-like shadows onto the trees, figuring that the moonlight was perturbed by thick clouds…
Around the same time, atop a watchtower overlooking the park, a man stood, the rain falling into his uniform from the purposely opened top. He looked on through binoculars as he spotted a source of light suddenly lighting up into the mangroves. An intruder, he thought, and much too close to what he was supposed to keep an eye on. He switched on the spotlight to have a clearer view of the woman who was entering the wooden domain. His face turned into a disdainful scowl, as he went to the radio inside of his tower and started a communication with his superior.
“Boss, this is Agent Hogan, on site 7. I spotted an intruder entering the marsh. I’m gonna follow her. Requesting the right to eliminate the intruder,” he said into the machine.
“Request granted,” the voice replied over the distorted radio waves.
As rain poured over her head and thunder struck in the distance, where flashes could barely be spotted, Johanna was trudging through the mangrove, her feet sinking deeper in the marsh whenever she thought she finally found some solid ground to stand on. The texture of the marshland gave shivers to the young woman, as she pitied the explorers of old times. She wouldn't wish this experience on her worst enemy, and was hoping to not walk through swampy areas ever again.
Her feet got caught up in the roots of a mangrove tree, and Johanna fell face first into the ground in a very wet splat. Sand, marshy soil and stagnant water was all she could taste. Johanna spat out all she could, sputtering quiet german expletives at the taste dominating her mouth. For a few seconds, Johanna came to regret her trek into nature, until the sound of rushing water in front of her position had her raising her flashlight. She was certain she was in flatlands, so she was quite confused by what she was hearing this instant.
In front of her, a monolith stood. A large stone that was spewing water in a manner not unlike a waterfall. It stood as the central piece of a waterhole. A waterhole… This was what she was looking for! The account specified an unnatural waterhole in the middle of the marshlands! Could this be the Fountain of Youth she was seeking this entire time?
As an insurance, Johanna rummaged through her many pockets until she found the draft of the account she got from a document of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. She reread it carefully. It specified nothing more than an unnatural waterhole. And this was clearly unnatural. She could not tell if this was the place or just an unfortunate mockery of nature.
Best she could try was taking a sip of the water. Her document noted that someone took some water from what happened next has since been lost to time and saltwater. And as she read, she felt a heat swelling from inside of her, and her mouth dried in a second. She suddenly had an unquenchable thirst, and she was still facing water.
She took some time to consider her options. On the one hand, she was in front of something she could not quite fathom. She was about to do something that has clearly been documented, yet all the information is lost. She was about to do a leap of faith, an ultimate action with unpredictable ramifications. Her arms shook, and her skin crawled. It was normal to not be at ease in front of the abyss.
On the other hand though, as she looked up at the rainy skies, she started to reminisce. She sunk so much in this. Her hand gripped the soil, and the sandy marshland flushed away. The flow of water from the monolith was like the flow of time, ever moving forward. She did not know what she would get. But at this point, she had no reason to care. Either way, tonight was the end of a line. Or maybe it was that newfound thirst pushing her forward?
Johanna knelt down and crawled to the waterhole, cupped some water, and drank. It was bitter, it was unpleasant, and it was most decidedly swamp water. And yet, despite all of this, for the first few seconds, Johanna felt nothing beyond disgust. She slapped her own head and groaned in frustration. She figured it was yet another reason to regret her choices in life. What would she do now? Come back home? Come back where?
Yet, almost as soon as Johanna was done thinking over her own life choices, she was struck with an intense fever, and her brain felt like an impregnable haze. The strength in her legs buckled, bringing her to the ground. Johanna took a foetal position and breathed heavily and heatedly. Her umbrella rolled away in front of her as her body felt like it was going to melt apart.
And then nothing. One second, Johanna was paralysed in suffering, and the next she felt like nothing ever happened. She blinked multiple times. She went from a foetal position to being on her knees. She looked at her hands, and they were visibly not melted. Johanna was ready to celebrate, but one singular sound overtook all of her senses.
Click.
The noise of a rifle being readied right behind her back.
“Not one move, miss. You are in federal territory”, a voice coldly enunciated.
Johanna, trembling intensely and gripping on the humid soil, turned her head a bit, hoping to catch a glance of who was talking to her.
The man moved his rifle, pointing it straight at Johanna’s head. “I said not one move, can you not understand me?”
Lightning struck close by. From the corner of her eye, she could catch a glimpse of the man that was threatening her with what she could vaguely say was a hunting rifle. In the short flash, she could spot a few things, from the tag on the top of his open camo uniform spelling “H. Hogan”, to the night vision goggles covering his eyes, to the soldier’s grinding teeth.
Most notably, and most unnerving though, was this man’s nose prosthetic. It looked strange. It was crooked, like a witch’s nose with a curious cross pattern, and seemingly made of gold, or at least a gold-like material, for its yellow shine lingered in the stormy night.
“This place is supposed to be a government secret,” the soldier continued, his tone shifting towards something more sinister. “Now, you should be aware that you know too much now. I would just arrest you, but your knowledge is dangerous, and I have the right to eliminate you.”
Lightning struck once more, and the sight Johanna caught was enough to give her heart palpitations. Where she once saw one man, there were now three, all with the same rifle, the same name. The man with the crooked nose was now on her left, and suddenly had no ears. On her right, she found a man with ears of gold, sort of like the gold prosthetic.
Johanna’s sweat ran cold over her face, and her eyes went everywhere, sent into a frenzy through a rush of adrenaline. Her thoughts were a rush of questions, most of them variants of “what?” and “why?”.
“Besides, hunting nosey people is my job”, the soldiers finished, all in one voice, in a mocking tone. “And unlucky for you, I love my job.”
The woman was cornered like an animal. Three hunters and nature formed a dangerous cage around her. She closed her eyes, and put her dirty hands on her head. She even started to quietly cry under the pressure. But it was over. So she waited for her end. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
“Oof!”, the three soldiers said in unison once more.
The woman opened her eyes in a rush, looking up. She could glance in the twilight the three soldiers holding their abdomens in pain, all in similar positions on the ground. And in front of her stood a strange human, with skin of stone and a red cape held by a golden ring over its shoulders. There was little else the darkness allowed her to see.
And yet, Johanna had an eerie feeling at the contact of this figure. She felt a connection to it, and yet she had never seen it before. Despite the stress, even she could tell that this was, in a way, a reflection of her. Or maybe it is her.
But before she could get more of a glimpse of the figure that stood in front of her, a glint in the darkness caught her eye and she ducked.
The noise of a wild shot rang into the swamp, scaring half-asleep birds away. Under the stormy night, one of the three men stood, his night vision goggles lifted up, showing that his eyes were seemingly turned into smooth, gold-like orbs with a pattern similar to what was found on his nose, when he still had one. But this was the least of his worries. Because after all, there was something all wrong:
The intruder was nowhere to be found in his line of sight.
Johanna, for her part, found herself in an eerie world. It was not darkness, but it certainly felt like it. Her sight was as wide as usual, yet there was no sense of depth. It felt more like one very thin line of sight stretched as far as possible, leaving little details besides the rippling effect of raindrops.
It was not the only thing that felt like it was wearing thin though. Johanna herself felt herself flattened and squashed in this new universe. She could not tell much of her situation. One second, she was ducking away from an obvious shot, and the next second, she was sucked into this universe of eye-grating technicolour glitch, the blast of the hunting gun still ringing in her ears and shaking her entire body cell by cell.
She needed to get out of this weird dimension, and fast. But how did she even get to this place?