Avatara

"Huhhhhhha." Grace gasped as she felt her mind going through a kaleidoscopic time warp. Rapidly leaving Byzantium and returning to reality. It took a moment for her to readjust.

To her left, her eyes met Pixel, who had reassuring eyes. Grace was back in the car, a far cry from the fine meal she'd been having in Suno's restaurant. Surprisingly, she could still savour the taste of the fine soup Snow Globe's father had made.

She remembered the request, Snow Globe made of her before they left Byzantium. "Don't tell Pixel I told you her real name, she's really s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e about that."

They spoke about many things in those thirty minutes; how Snow Globe's father named the restaurant after him to celebrate his birth and how he learnt how to do astral projection as a monk but lost the ability when he decided to become a businessman. Something about managing money and capital, made it impossible to retain, he'd said.

"Are you ok?" said Pixel. She pulled the sticker off Grace's forehead.

"Yeah," said Grace, as she shuffled in her seat. "I just feel exhausted."

"That's because you have lived two Byzantitum hours in two real minutes. Not to worry the effects will wear off in the next couple of minutes."

"Byzantium time is different from real time, by dilating every second but once your body's physiology readjusts back to real time, the experience is reframed back to real time." Snow Globe interjected with these words while rubbing his face to wake it up.

"I'm too old for this," he said. "Next time we need to convince someone Pixel, you can do it."

Grace noticed her fast heartbeat on waking but this subsided quickly and she felt calmer.

"Grace is going to join us," said Snow Globe. He cleared his throat in the unselfconscious way expected of an elderly man who had little care for the opinions of others.

"We'll have to make sure that her flower shop is taken care of," said Pixel. Grace found it strange that they were already discussing her business affairs like this. She felt taken advantage of.

"I have paid her a substantial sum of money, which means that the flower shop could exist without making a sale for the next ten years."

"I don't need your money," Grace said in response to Snow Globe's revelation.

"It's too late," replied Snow Globe. "The money has already been paid into your account. You can of course give me the money back if you so wish." He smiled in a satisfying way.

The chauffeur was still at the front seat of the car driving, quickly turned the car to the left. The swerve made Grace feel a bit sick.

"You haven't noticed but the government monitors your flower shop," said Pixel. "The UK government cannot just let you wander around free given the intel they have on you.

"They've approached Snow Globe about his dealings in the UK and his current visit. They clearly know now that it is related to you, though they probably suspected it already. He has diplomatic immunity anyway, so there is not much they can do."

The car flew down with speed humps on it, each jolt of the car making Grace nauseous.

"Still, I would worry more about Mr Grimm than the government," said Snow Globe. "His d.e.s.i.r.es for you seem to go beyond business from what I can see from his personal records. He sees you as a romantic partner as well with a predatory d.e.s.i.r.e to possess you."

"I can look after myself," Grace said. But she did not convince herself. She felt petrified about seeing Grimm again and thought about how Jazz and his colleague gave her the fright of her life by impersonating him.

"He calls himself Knightmare-Grimm now," she said.

"Of course the poor boy he took to hell with him," said Snow Globe. "The record of the fusion of their avatara, I had looked at by Qwerty and Pixel. The data shows that Grimm is the dominant part of the personality with Knightmare merely subsumed by him. It's understandable, I myself was misled by Grimm's charismatic manipulations. It's his power of persuasion that makes him so formidable."

They were close to Grace's home now and outside on the front steps she could make out the silhouette of a tall man in the dark.

"Who is that?" she said.

Pixel said something to the chauffeur in Japanese and the car slowed down significantly.

"Oh that's Jazz," said Grace.

"I can have Takeshi get rid of him, if he's a nuisance," said Snow Globe. Grace gave him a look that made him clarify himself. "Not kill him, just tell him to stay away from you." The car pulled up beside the pavement. The low hum of the vehicle stopped as they came to a standstill.

"He's a police officer and also Grace's boy-, I mean ex-boyfriend," said Pixel.

"He looks strong, maybe I should hire him as a bodyguard," said Snow Globe.

"I've got to go," said Grace. The right side door creaked open slightly, this shook Snow Globe out of his normal relaxed demeanour.

"Wait!" he said. Grace brought her right leg back inside the car.

"Close the door," said Snow Globe. Grace closed it.

"Ok," he let out some breath now, relaxing himself again. "We have to be careful. We know this Knightmare-Grimm is out there, probably at Sheldrake as we speak. I have no doubt when he's ready, he will come for you. You need protection. I will have my men, guard your flat, while we create a plan to get you to Sheldrake and destroy Avatara. Qwerty, Byte and Pixel will help."

"I don't want to be followed around," Grace said.

"I'm afraid it's worse than that," said Snow Globe. "You'll be under house arrest. Until we are ready, you need to be secure and safe. Your mother will also be kept safe."

Grace felt guilty again, forgetting about the welfare of her mother in all of this. She'd try and call her herself when she got inside.

"You see the cars around here," continued Snow Globe. "They all have my men in them. To keep you safe."

Grace left the car and on the pavement with Pixel, she saw Jazz coming towards them.

"I'll be in touch tomorrow," said Pixel. "I know you're scared but don't do anything crazy ok?" Pixel jumped into the car with its blacked out windows and off it sped. Snow Globe, an international man of mystery.

"Hey," said Jazz sheepishly."I wonder if we can talk?" It was so deep into the night, probably around 3 am but Grace felt under surveillance.

All around her there were cars with blacked out windows, probably with security personnel inside, courtesy of Snow Globe. On the floor above hers, through a net curtain she noticed they were being watched by another man in the suit. Someone else used to live there. It appeared Snow Globe had paid them to leave. Grace felt like a prisoner.

"Grace, I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry," said Jazz.

Grace ascended the steps past him without looking at him.

"Ok," she said. She felt afraid to open the front main door, before the stairs that led to her flat. Internally, she reprimanded herself for being so weak. For needing someone. She creaked the main door open to the ground floor lobby. Light from the lobby shone out into the street. She looked back at Jazz.

"You said you want to talk, so let's talk," she said. Her face firm and hard like stone.

"Thank you," said Jazz.

She closed the door behind them.