Clock Tower 3

Chapter One: Alyssa Comes Home

This should have been a happy time…

It had been three long years since fourteen year old Alyssa Hamilton had last seen her home; having suddenly been sent off by her mother, Nancy, to begin a rather dull life at boarding school. It was springtime now, and the trees were dotted with pink buds, along with a warm breeze that greeted her as she stepped off the train. No one really paid attention to her as she moved across the platform, nor was she in any real mood for conversation, aside from hailing a taxi and telling the driver where she was going.

He was nice enough, and he attempted to make small talk since the drive was going to take a while, but the only thing that Alyssa could think about was getting home to her mother. There had been hardly any contact between them at all during the past three years, but then all of a sudden things got weird. It started out with her being called out from class to take a phone call, and the girl could hardly contain her excitement once she found out that it was from her mother. However, there was no one on the line when she picked up the receiver.

There had been no dial tone, meaning that the line was connected, but no one answered her increasingly frantic cries… until someone hung up. At first Alyssa had been worried that her mother had fallen and hit her head or something, but obviously not if she could hang up the phone after being quiet for five minutes… so had it been someone else? Had someone been simply listening, and taking some kind of twisted pleasure from frightening her like that? Seeing that she was obviously shaken up, they sent her to the school nurse, who assured Alyssa that it must've simply been a bad connection, and that her mother had probably received the same silence on her end.

The argument made sense, and for a time she tried to get back into a normal routine, but then something else happened. It was common for her mother to send letters every so often, as it was to receive one close to her birthday, but this letter turned out to be anything but common. In fact, it was this letter which made her decide to come home, and Alyssa pushed her short strawberry-blonde hair behind her ear before going over the contents once again.

Dearest Alyssa;

How have you been? I think of you every day, and now it seems like such a long time ago that you started your life at boarding school. It was after your beloved grandfather went missing while traveling three years ago, that I sent you away with instructions not to return for at least six years, without giving you any kind of real explanation. I know that leaving everything behind must have been very painful for you, and I'm sorry, but it was for your own protection.

Now, your fifteenth birthday is approaching, and I fear that your life may be in even greater danger than before. I know that what I am saying will make absolutely no sense to you, but please, go into hiding until after your fifteenth birthday has passed. Tell no one where you are going, not even me, and do so quickly, but do not return home.

This is all my fault, but know that I will do my best to protect you. Please remember that I love you more than anything else in this world, and that I always will.

Your loving mother;

Nancy.

Dark clouds had been gathering since she got into the taxi, and now the distant rumbling of thunder could be heard, as if signifying the mystery and dread that came along with her mother's letter. Soon the driver was forced to turn on the windshield wipers, due the light sprinkling of rain that started a few minutes later, and this made Alyssa even more anxious to make sure that her mother was all right. Yes, she had been told not to come home, but after the phone call, and that cryptic letter, how could she not?

It was only about a half hour drive from the train station to Hamilton Estate, the enormous family home where she had spent her childhood, but the urgency of the situation and the increasingly heavy rain, made it feel like hours had passed before the entrance to her drive appeared. Moments later the taxi came to a stop, and Alyssa paid the driver before smoothing out her skirt and getting out of the car. Grabbing her bag out of the back seat, she held it over her head like an umbrella against the now pouring rain, and the taxi drove away once she reached the archway in front of the main door.

She waved a polite goodbye to him as the car's taillights vanished out of sight, and then turning her key in the lock, the front door to her family's home creaked open. A flash of lightning through the open door and many windows illuminated everything inside the main hall, but when it faded a moment later, Alyssa realized that the whole house was dark. Not a single one of the lights was on, nor could she hear anyone moving around. This was strange, since there were always plenty of lodgers… of course, maybe they were out… and perhaps the storm knocked out the power? There was still enough light from the cloudy sky outside to see the features of the room, but not much else.

"Mum?" She called, setting her bag down and wringing out her skirt. "Mum, it's me, Alyssa; I've come home."

No one answered her call, aside from the echo of her own voice, and then the house was silent again. Thinking that maybe her mother was taking a nap, and simply hadn't heard her, Alyssa picked up her bag, and had just started up the spiral staircase in the center of the room, when she finally saw something. It wasn't much, just a flickering orange light that was now coming from the open door to the dining room, but a lit candle meant that someone was there. So she went back down the stairs and through the door, where someone was sitting at the end of the table, facing toward the window.

Hoping that it was her mother, it only took a moment to realize that it was not, and Alyssa could not help but gasp at the large, dark figure that was revealed in the light from the nearby candle. He was stocky, with sort of pale skin, and clothed in black with a wide-brim hat atop his head. Reacting to the sound, the dark man slowly got out of the chair, revealing that he was exceptionally tall as well.

"Oh, um… excuse me." She said politely while failing to hide her nervousness. "Are you… are you one of the lodgers?"

"Why, yes, I am." He replied in a deep voice, turning to face her. "And from your calls a moment ago, can I assume that you are Nancy's daughter… Alyssa?"

He walked with a golden cane, although didn't seem to need it very much as he moved toward her, and Alyssa found herself backing up until her back touched the wall. The dark man continued forward until he was less than a foot away, towering over her, and making the girl feel uneasy to the point of shaking a bit. Then he just stood there, his eyes traveling up and down her body as if he were studying her.

"Do you… do you know where my mother is?" She asked, looking away with a shaky voice. "Has… has she gone out?"

"You look just like her, you know." The dark man replied, putting his finger under her chin to make her look up at him. "But yes, Nancy went out yesterday morning, and mentioned that she would not be back for some time… does that frighten you, Alyssa? The thought of being all alone in this world?"

The dark man started laughing at this, as if he had just told a really funny joke, but Alyssa didn't find it funny. Instead, it felt like there was a knot forming in her stomach, and she knew that she had to get away from him. So she started to slowly move sideways to escape, but couldn't help crying out in shock when he moved his hand to her shoulder and shoved the girl roughly back into the wall.

"Oh, my sweet Alyssa." He continued, using his other hand to lightly caress her cheek. "You have no idea how I've waited for this day to come."

"You're hurting me." She whimpered, her body shaking even more. "Please… please, let me go."

And to her surprise, he did just that, releasing her and then walking out into the main hall, while she just stood there trying to figure out what she was supposed to do. Was this man playing some kind of demented game with her, or was he some kind of pervert? By now she was getting used to older men leering at her whenever she traveled around in her school uniform… like she was doing now, but thankfully the dark man was leaving. He turned left after entering the main hall, and walked past the stairs toward the part of the house that was partitioned for the lodgers.

Once he was gone, however, Alyssa regained her ability to move, and did so. Stopping only long enough to grab her bag, she ran up the staircase, and down to the far end of the walkway, where the locked door to her room awaited. Once inside, she slammed and locked the door again, but this was not her final destination. Dropping her bag on the bed, she barely noticed that nothing in the room had changed, as she went straight for the door on the other side.

This door led into an enclosed kind of common area that would allow her to travel between hers, her mother's, and even her grandfather's rooms without having to worry about getting cornered and groped again by that dark man. However, there were no windows in this area since it was surrounded by bedrooms on all sides, and propping open the door back to her own room only helped a little. The storm was still going outside, so the lights were probably going to be out for a while, but there was a fireplace in the center.

The light from her bedroom windows allowed her to see almost all the way to the fireplace, and her mother always kept it ready in case of storms… of course if she hadn't been so panicked, Alyssa would have thought to grab the candle from the dining room table, but there was no way she was going back downstairs with him around. Finding the mantle in the darkness and then feeling around with her hands, she was able to find the box of matches, as well as the small can of lighter fluid, which her grandfather had called 'the cheater's way' of starting a fire.

Well, her grandfather wasn't trapped in dark house, with the possibility of being molested by a man twice his size, so Alyssa poured a little of the fluid on the wood in the fire place, and used a match to light it. Soon the room was bathed in flickering orange light, and after closing the door to her room, she sat down on the sofa in front of the fire. This would give her a chance to dry off, and should also keep her safe while she figured out what she was going to do about that dark man.