-2- Down the Tower

"What kind of a deal?" Yoru asked.

"Well, when witches help people, they need a little something in return," Amu began, "I'll help you into the Tower but in return you need to prove to me that you weren't lying about your brother being strong. Show me everything he can do."

"Deal done," Yoru said without second thoughts. It would be easy getting rid of this stupid witch later when he reunites with his brother, but at the moment, he might as well enjoy the help. "By the way Miss Witch, just because I'm younger than you, don't think you have any kind of advantage over me."

"Exactly how old are you then?" Amu questioned, "and my name is Amu. Stop calling me Miss Witch."

"10," Yoru simply replied, seeing no reason to lie.

Amu stared at Yoru for a few minutes. He was surprisingly young, now that she took a better look at him, he really did seem like a kid. Amu was beginning to falter a bit. Helping a kid enter a prison was wrong no matter how you thought about it, but as a witch, there was no way she could go back on her words either. Just what would Dia say to her if she knew, Amu didn't dare to think. She sighed, turning to look in the direction of the Tower.

Although they stood pretty far from it, the Tower was clearly visible to them. It was the tallest building in the area; its rocky walls being covered by the creeping vines which made it merge with the small woodland surrounding it. Amu had been around that place before. There were many royal guards around. Even as soon as you set foot onto the path leading into the woods, there were guards and soldiers that formed a line all the way leading towards the Tower. Wanting to simply just enter or bypass the guards was problematic. She did remember the woodlands were a strictly for governor-officials.

"Yoru, you've been near the Tower before haven't you?" Amu questioned.

"Yeah, I couldn't even walk on the path that leads to it," Yoru answered truthfully, "The guards don't allow any ordinary people to approach that place. You needed special authorisation. I did try entering from the sides of the woods but, the wood really isn't that big, running in after a few minutes and you'd immediately spot the guards and the main road again."

"Seems to me like you've tried to enter a few times already," Amu said, "say how were you planning to enter this time?"

Yoru placed his piece of paper back into his pocket, "every now and then, suppliers would take stuff to the Tower, I was planning to hide in one of their carts."

"I see," Amu said and a broad smile crept on her face now. "Let's forget about all that. There's a much quicker way to arrive there."

"There is," Yoru said, hopeful that Amu was telling the truth.

"If there's anything I'm good at, it's flying. I'm the fastest and the best flying witch there ever is," Amu boasted. She was not lying. Despite her failure in other aspects as a Witch, flying was something she did really well. Amu opened up her rubicund umbrella and put her hand out towards Yoru. "Don't be scared now, brat."

"Don't call me a brat," Yoru said, taking Amu's hand.

Amu raised the umbrella over them and as soon as she did, Yoru's vision was a blur, his heartbeat seemed to stop and his body felt light. He opened his mouth, wanting to scream for Amu to stop but his voice didn't come out as he struggled to breathe. The only thing he was aware of was that he was still holding her hand. Then he felt his knees hit something hard and slowly, his vision came back to him and his body no longer felt light and fluffy. He clutched at his own chest, his breathing slowly returning to normal. As soon as he calmed down and could see though, he turned to Amu, shouting, "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Shh," Amu motioned with her finger to her lips, closing her umbrella. She sat down beside him and whispered, "I'm sorry, I actually kind of forgot. I'm so fast when it comes to flying, it's more like I just teleport to the place I want to go."

"So…"

"So," Amu continued, "if you take a closer look around you, we're already at the Tower."

Yoru swallowed as he stared down below him. Tiles, rough sandy coloured tiles were beneath him and leaning slightly over cautiously, he couldn't see the ground at all. Not that he could see much anyways in the dark but he knew this was the rooftop of the Tower. They had teleported all the way from the town streets up to here? "Wow, so Witches really can fly," he muttered to himself, amazed at all this. He steadily got to his feet and looked around him. "So, how are we going to get in?"

Amu blinked at Yoru and then slowly shrugged. "I thought you had a way of entering."

Yoru stared at Amu, "through a door or window near the ground then yes. We're on the roof now. Do tell me you've thought this through before flying all the way up here. I refuse to fly again."

Amu gulped and looked away from Yoru. Clearly, she didn't think about it but it's not her fault either. He never told her, they couldn't enter from the roof. She began to whistle, not knowing how to respond or defend herself from making a mistake.

Yoru frowned, his gaze never leaving Amu. "You honestly didn't have a plan when you bought me here did you? Stop whistling and start thinking you phony witch."

"Phony," Amu repeated, her eyebrows twitching with irritation, "look here you ungrateful little brat, if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been able to bypass all those guards and arrive here."

"Yeah, standing on the roof doesn't achieve anything," Yoru complained, "We need to get inside and just before you do anything, we need to enter so no one notices us."

Amu wanted to retaliate but found she was not in the best position to do so. She sat down onto the coarse tiles and held her head in her hand, thinking deeply now. Why oh why did I decide to help this kid in the first place? Amu asked herself. There really is no way I can get into the Tower though… it's not like any of my magic can help when they all go wrong…what should I do? Maybe I should abandon him… Yeah, I should just leave him…

"Are you coming?" Yoru questioned suddenly, making Amu lose her train of thoughts.

Amu's eyes were wide opened now as her mouth made an O shape. Yoru had lifted some tiles off the roof to make a small hole, big enough for them to slip in. "When and how and…"

Yoru wrapped a metal hook with some cloth and placed it into his pocket. "I didn't think I could trust you so I took matters into my own hand."

Amu went over to Yoru and without warning smacked him on the back of his head, making him yell out. "You should've done that earlier." Before Yoru could say anything, Amu jumped down the small hole.

She landed onto the wooden floor boards without making much noise as the thick dust softened her touch. She looked around and saw nothing more than random boxes and crates stacked here and there with your usual friendly spiders and webs to accompany them. The faint moonlight coming from the hole she entered through lit the room surprisingly well. No doors or windows but as she took a few steps further in, she saw a small square on the floor with a handle. She hooked her umbrella on the handle and pulled, lifting the square up and she knelt down, peering down. Yoru joined her.

"There," Yoru pointed, "I think they are prison cells there."

"Seems like it," Amu said, "we're probably in an unused attic, the very top of the tower. That must be one of the main levels, but it seems empty."

"Let's go," Yoru urged, already jumping down from the attic. It was a bigger distance that he had anticipated and losing his step, he fell on his face. As he slowly got up though, he couldn't help but pull a face at Amu who landed easily on her two feet.

"So where is your brother imprisoned?" Amu asked, taking in her surroundings. No doubt they were inside alright; she could already see the endless rows of prisons circling them in this space and at the end was a stone staircase that led downwards to the next level. Although the individual prison cells could be seen from the torches lit on brick walls, Amu couldn't make out clear enough what was inside the cells themselves. It was dark but Amu was conscious there were prisoners inside.

"If I'm not wrong, he should be in one of the lower levels of this Tower," Yoru answered, "I think the 6th or 7th level. He wasn't being distinct when he told me. Maybe we can…"

Amu held out her hand to silence Yoru. Something was wrong, something was very wrong here. She stood before Yoru, shielding him for if anything was to come. Yoru seemed to have sensed the bizarre atmosphere as well and remained quiet. Amu placed the black metal tip of her umbrella into the flickering flames of one of the torches on the wall and within seconds, the tip of the umbrella had its own flame flaring.

"Cool," Yoru couldn't help but say as Amu's umbrella was now their torch.

Amu with her umbrella torch, walked close to one of the prison cells and she placed the light close enough so that she could see the prisoner inside. Amu was slightly surprised to see an elderly man sitting quietly there on his stool.

"You," Amu said, "what level is this? Is there a short route I can take to get to level 7?"

The elderly man just sat there, not responding to Amu's questioning.

"Don't bother," Yoru said, "We'll just look on each level. Come on, we shouldn't waste time. The guards haven't discovered us yet."

Amu ignored Yoru and stared at the elderly man who looked more like a corpse than a living being. He was very pale and extremely thin; his skin like paper wrapped around his bones which skeleton-shape was noticeable. "How long have you been here?" Amu continued to ask. When she got no response, she walked over to the next prison cell which was empty and then the next which had another elderly man in it.

"Come on, let's just go already," Yoru urged again, "we need to hurry to my brother."

Seeing Amu had no intention to move or hurry, Yoru jumped, nocking a torch off the wall and relit it with another. He then ran down the stone stairs, leaving Amu to question the old guys as much as she liked. What was I hoping for? Yoru asked himself, I'm in this alone. I only used that stupid witch to get me in. Now I'm in, I need to find brother.

"You're not going after him?" a croaky and faint voice asked.

Amu turned and walked over to the cell behind her where yet another elderly man stood behind those iron bars.

"Why should I? Our deal was for me to get him into the Tower," Amu began, "I guess I'm just more curious about the Tower than his brother."

"Who are you Missy?" the old man asked.

"Who are you?" Amu asked back. "I'm surprised none of you guys are reacting. Where are the guards?"

"Guards," the man repeated, "oh missy, there's no need for guards. As you can see, we are all old men. We're just here waiting for death. There won't be any guards in the top few levels not until you reach down, much further down."

Amu nodded, "so there's nothing to worry about for now."

The rubicund umbrella dropped to the floor. The old man suddenly lunged forward towards Amu, his arms stretching out the gap in the bars and grabbing Amu by surprise, he squeezed tightly around her neck, suffocating her as she tried to resist. Amu frantically grabbed the man's face, pushing him away from her as her other hand clawed at his fingers around her neck. Her mind was blank as she felt a sharp pain on her neck and no doubt, blood trickling down from where she felt that pain.

"LET GO!" she shouted with all her breath as she felt his grip weakening.

"You're a witch," he hissed. "But you're not a complete witch." He let go of Amu who fell to the floor.

She grabbed at her own neck and slowly breathed, calming herself down.

"I'm sorry I did that to you," the old man slowly spoke. "I only wanted to give you a present."

Amu glared at the old prisoner. She backed away from the cell. "You tried to kill me."

He looked upset, "I only wanted to give you a present. You know, no matter how old I am I am still a criminal. Of course, forgive my roughness."

Present? Amu thought and she must've had a shocked expression on her face because the old man was chuckling. Her fingers paused on the touch of a golden chain that now hung around her neck. She took the thin chain in her hand and slowly ran her fingers along it until she reached the object hanging from the chain. It was a beautiful locket in the shape of a crystal white clover. "Beautiful," she whispered, staring at it as it seemed to shine in that dimly lit space. She tried to take it off but the chain seemed to come alive and it shrank with her attempt, so that it wouldn't fit past her head at all. She then attempted to tuck and snap the chain but it simply wouldn't budge.

"Don't bother," the old man said, watching her, "that's a magical locket. Once smeared with the blood of its owner, it can only be worn by that one person until he or she dies. You're a witch so you should know how magical items work."

"Take it off for me," Amu said, "I don't want it and why would you give it to me?"

The old man smiled, "if you want to take it off, then run over there and smash your head into the wall. When you're dead I'll see if I can find a way to get out of my cell and retrieve it."

"What are you playing at?"

"You may be the last person I'll ever see this life," the old man said, "being stuck in this Tower and left alone to die. I refuse to leave my belongings unattended. I'd rather choose who inherits them and meeting you tonight, Miss Witch, may be fate. That locket is my everything, it is my life written upon it with all my possessions. Accept it for a dear old man like me."

Amu sulked. When the old man put it that way, she didn't seem to have any excuse to decline or refuse his gift. It was a pretty locket as well and she quite liked it. Plus, magical items were rare and scarce. Maybe it was her lucky day today that she managed to get her hands on something this exceptional. "I'll accept it then. Thanks." Amu grabbed her umbrella which was still lit with fire at its tip and she stood up, "I better head off now."

"Missy, why are you here?" the old man suddenly asked, "You're not an ordinary buyer are you? No, you're way too young."

Amu simply stared at the strange old man.

"Oh Missy, do look out for yourself. This tower is one cruel confinement. It's no different from Hell here for the prisoners. If you're weak-hearted I suggest you leave now before you discover further. Heed my words, not many people who've entered this Tower can still keep sane like me. Good luck finding the person you seek."

Amu turned to leave without a second look back at the old man. Strange, he was such as strange old man. Amu quickened her pace, the more she thought about his words, and the more she looked around at this cold stony environment, the more chills she got running down her back. Scary, Amu thought, this place is creeping me out big time and I'm alone… Amu's grip on her umbrella tightened as her legs began to shake with each step she took. She gulped; she didn't want to be alone here. Unable to suppress her fears, she cried, tears in the corner of her eye. "YORU… YORU you damn brat – where did you go…. WAIT FOR ME. I DON'T WANNA BE ALONE… YORU…" Amu shouted as she ran after Yoru, down the Tower.

Somewhere in the Tower, Yoru sneezed and he quickly covered his mouth afterwards, scared that he had alerted anyone. Did someone call me? Yoru thought, why did I suddenly sneeze? He shook his head and continued walking. He had already run down many staircases, and the prisoners seem to get younger but still no sign of his brother.

"This is all that silly witches fault," Yoru sighed, "if she entered from a more normal entrance then I wouldn't have to waste my time, getting all the way back down again. She's so stupid." Yoru continued down yet another flight of stairs and this time he heard voices.

"You are you the one who helped him…"

"Hurry, catch this woman, she must've helped the prisoner escape…"

"Now, now boys, don't cause a riot. I'm only here looking for someone, as for the escaped prisoner…"

"He must be still inside this building, now tell me where he is or we won't be nice to you."

A girl's voice arguing with the guards, Yoru presumed from the conversation. There's a prisoner who escaped, is it brother?

"How dare you talk to me in such a way? Don't you lowly humans know I'm a Witch?"

"Witch," Yoru muttered, "it's that silly witch again. God, does she know how to create problems. I told her to be careful and not alert the guards." Thinking it was Amu out there, Yoru ran out from the stairs, "hey you phony witch…"

The guards dropped to the floor unconscious and Yoru having taken a good look at the woman standing in the room before him, realised it was not Amu. This woman was a lot older, in her 40's and she seemed less kind. He quickly turned to make a dash back the way he came but it was too late, the woman, the witch dressed in complete black grabbed hold of him. "My, my, little boy, why are you here?"

Yoru slashed the torch in his hands towards the witch, trying to resist but the witch simply used magic on him. His body froze and he couldn't move at all.

"Boy, you have the lingering scent of magic on you," the woman said grabbing Yoru's cheeks and pulling it close to her face as she peered into his eyes. "You're not a witch, I know that but why do you smell of magic?"

"It's probably that stupid girl," Yoru stammered to say.

"Girl, you mean another witch?"

Yoru remained silent, not knowing what to do. Who was this woman? Why was she here and how could he save himself?

"Answer," she demanded.

Yoru just nodded, finding it hard to muster his voice and speak.

The witches eyes seemed to gleam a little, "another witch is present here?"

Yoru simply nodded again, only hoping she would let him go. If his brother was here, this witch wouldn't even be able to lay a finger on his hair, let alone grab him like this.

"How very strange," the witch said, letting go of Yoru. "I presume you two are together right?"

"N-no," Yoru managed to say as his body still felt very numb and he still couldn't move.

"I wonder why another witch would come here." She took Yoru's hand and started to drag him with her, "come boy, the party's about to begin down there. We'll both attend together and I'll return you to your witch friend when she or he arrives."

"NO!" Yoru shouted but it was too late. He was powerless, his body already placed under this witches spell. Somebody help me, Yoru screamed in his mind, brother…

On the upper levels of the Tower, but still running downwards, Amu was still shouting Yoru's name. She was aware that she was attracting more attention than she wanted, as some prisoners were already shouting as she ran past them, but she didn't care. She didn't want to be alone and she was slightly scared. It was all Yoru's fault for luring her into this creepy Tower. Amu entered yet another flight of stone stairs. She stopped running, leaning against the wall for the moment to catch her breath. "Damn that brat runs fast," Amu thought, "he couldn't have reached the bottom already could he?" Taking in a few more breaths she continued to run, this time entering yet another level where she saw more prison cells. The prison cells seem to increase the further down she went. Amu was careless though. All she cared about was to quickly find Yoru and she didn't notice that shadowy figure lurking at the entrance of the stairs she had just passed through. Almost as soon as she ran out from the staircase, a hand had grabbed hold of her long pink hair, dragging her backwards. She dropped her umbrella to the floor again as she staggered back from the force of the pull and tripping over her own leg, she fell to the floor. Her head banged onto the hard concrete floor, causing her to lose her vision for the split moment.

"Magic…. You can use magic," she faintly heard and she felt a sharp grip on her shoulders. As she slowly regained conscious and vision though, Amu wished she was knocked out instead. Fear had seeped into her very soul, her body losing all its strength as she locked gazes with those angry piercing eyes. A clear blue eye and his left eye, a bloody crimson. In the flickering of the flames, Amu stared at him, this man, the embodiment of the devil himself. Scary, this man, his presence is killing me, Amu thought, I've never seen such a malignant being ever, those eyes that portray his soul….they're…

"Offer your blood to me," he demanded, the knife in his hand tracing up from her abdomen to her neck. "Don't hate me, you're just unlucky."