Missy's Plea (2)
The building in front of Dawn grew substantially as she treaded forward, forcing the young teen into the shadows to stay out of the view of its yellow glowing windows, which looked more like a giant panther's eyes from the ground. Spires rose up beside two gilded doors, spiraling into the dark and smoky heavens and out of sight. In front of the enormous entrance stood two guards, both the height of three buildings stacked on top of each other, made of a type of stone or ceramic that Dawn had never seen before. In their hands, at ninety degree angles to their stiff and unyielding bodies, rested their spear-like weapons. Something told Dawn the real things were much deadlier than the stonework implied.
As she approached, sounds of hammers on metal and stern voices of guards caught her ear, shrinking Dawn even deeper into the darkness, clinging to the rocky wall and crouching low behind a mercifully laid pile of stones that hid her from the front doors perfectly. It was slow going, and she could hear her heart hammering in her chest every step of the way, but eventually she found herself knelt just a few boulders away from the building, into which she noticed a secret passageway, perfectly out of sight of the guards standing sentry by the gilded doors, and perfectly in shadow beneath the right side wall. Almost too perfectly. For a second, Dawn hesitated. But when one of the armed sentries bellied an echoing laugh and shivers ran up and down Dawn's spine, the teen made a run for it, jumping over the boulder in front of her with agility she never knew she possessed and sprinting to the wall of the staircase, stopping only when she was in shadow again, and only for a moment in order to catch her breath.
"They always go the most obvious way, don't they?"
Missy shook her head in exasperation as her long, bony fingers glided along her tablet. Dawn's heaving breaths and wide eyes shone from the device like a deer caught in front of the headlights of a truck. The Time Lady scoffed. "The Doctor really needs to find some more creative friends, let me tell you."
With a last flourish of her hand, a tony, dark smile came to Missy's face. "That should make things a bit more interesting."
Dawn eyed the dark staircase warily. Directly to the left of it stood the outer wall of the building, or castle, or prison, or wherever she had somehow landed herself. Directly to the right of the narrow, slightly crumbling staircase stood a chasm, dark as a black hole and seemingly infinite in its proportions. The teen gulped hard, urging her shaky, rubbery leg to propel her onto the first step. Some pebbles crunched beneath her foot as it came roughly down onto the stones. One tiny rock even fell off the side, dropping incessantly into the darkness. Dawn peered over the edge as far as she would dare, but never heard a satisfying 'thud' or even a disgruntled 'ouch' as it made its way furthur and furthur down. Again, she took a deep breath and focused back on the steps in front of her, which loomed almost as large a threat as the building itself from her position.
As she lifted her foot off of the ground for the fifth time and came down heavily onto the most ruined and crumbled step, Dawn muttered to herself, "They couldn't have added a railing or two here?"
Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, the step directly in front of her fell down into the chasm, exposing the spot where it had been like a missing tooth. Dawn held back her initial reflex to scream, and opted for a panicked gasp instead. Her heart beat wildly against her ribs, just after it had finally slowed down to normal for once.
"Ok, no more snide comments."
Softly, the teen raised her leg up and over the missing step and half jumped, half stepped up to the next stable one. Sweat beaded her forehead as she continued on, rushing up the last few and crouching in the shadows that lay against a nearby tower for relief when she was done. Silently, sue closed her eyes and wondered what this insane place had left in store for her, and how on - whatever planet this was, because surely it wasn't Earth - she was going to find the Doctor and break him out.
Missy set the tablet on the Console of the TARDIS and dropped into the pilot chair, which she had managed to convince the old Gallifreyan machine to move closer to the Control Deck. Popcorn popped out of one of the panels, fully cooked and laid in a plastic bowl, as the dark haired woman pressed a few buttons with her usual finesse. Without any care in the world, Missy rested her booted feet on the Console beside the tablet and watched Dawn sit in utter terror beside the tower. As she settled, she tossed a kernel of popcorn into the air and caught in her mouth, clapping her hands in a pattern the tablet recognized as a command. Words flowed across the screen rapidly, as did Missy's gaze. When she swallowed, she leaned up in her seat and eyed the new message with a sinister grin. "Yes, I think that'll do perfectly for our young companion, don't you?"