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62
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Instead of going where she said she was going, Amy went to the Turret Chamber.
She climbed a flight of stairs to the battlements and then walked along them to the tower. She paused outside an old door and listened. A man's voice was faintly audible. Just a slight whisper, but she knew it was someone. Slightly hesitating, she knocked on the door. She waited a moment, but there was no answer so she pushed the door open slowly and walked inside.
"Hello?" She called. But there was no answer except the faint male voice coming from nearby.
"What the hell?" She asked, seeing that the place was in complete disarray. The floorboards creaked from above and she looked all around the chamber. After a moment, she began to climb the stairs. Amy looked around the upper floor then walked over to a small table that was in the corner. The table had nine sheets of paper laid out on top of it, a flask, and a Thermos. She could only assume that the papers were the missing engravings that she needed.
She picked up one of the engravings and looked at it. As she lifted it, she noticed something strange on the table underneath where the paper had been.
The word SHOOTER was carved five times in a row into the wood. She put the engraving back down over it and took a step backwards. Her eyes suddenly began to look all around. SHOOTER was written in white of the wall. SHOOTER was carved into the door. SHOOTER was carved in the walls all around her.
All of a sudden there was a loud creaking noise and the door of the chamber moved back, revealing Mort wearing a strange Amish hat. Amy jumped and gasped. Instead of SHOOTER the words SHOOT HER were carved around him on the walls. Amy covered her mouth and gasped. Mort raised his eyes to look at her. He looked very mysterious.
"Hi," Amy said. Mort stared at her angrily. Amy came closer to him. "Jesus, Mort. Where did you get that old thing?" She asked, remembering where they had gotten it, but wondering why he was suddenly wearing it now. Everything here was not right. There was something off.
"It's mine. Wasn't ever anybody else's," Mort replied in the slow, southern drawl.
Amy backed away a bit. She was usually a powerful woman, didn't take shit from anyone. But this was just plain weird!
She breathed out. "M-Mort.. What's wrong?"
Mort advanced. "You got you a wrong number, missus." He placed his hand on the back of her head and undid her ponytail. Amy moved away from him, toward the stairs. "Ain't no Mort here. Mort's dead." He advanced, and she began to back away down the stairs.
"He did a whole lot of squirmin' around but in the end, he couldn't lie to himself anymore. Let alone, to me. Now, I never put a hand on him, Missus. I swear. He took the cowards way out."
"Why are you talking this way, Mort?" Amy asked, nervously. She was totally freaked out now.
"It's just the way I talk."
"You're scaring me.." She whispered.
"It don't matter." He pulled out a gun. "You won' be scared long."
Amy scoffed at him. "You didn't have the guts to do it when you found me with Ted and you don't have the guts now. Put it away," Amy said, grabbing at it.
Mort took a step back, trying to get away from Amy's grabbing hand, but he stepped on something and stumbled back a few steps instead, allowing Amy to grab onto the gun and form a struggle between the two of them.
As their struggle moved to the side, they reached a patch of bad floorwork and Amy fell through the boards, stuck in place. Mort picked up the gun, scrambled to his feet, and aimed it at an Amy Milner that was trying to wriggle herself free of her entrapment.
Seeing the gun in her face, she stopped her wriggling all at once and stared up at her captor.
"I'm about done fussin' with you." Mort said, disgruntled. He bent down and, ever so kindly, decided to help out Amy's situation by pushing her farther into the entrapment with his foot. Amy let out a moan as the heel of his shoe pressed on her head. "Ahhhhhhh!"
She painfully lifted a hand and hit Mort in the face. He fell down from the blow. But not for long. He quickly scrambled to his feet once again, his lip split open and bleeding.
He held the gun up to her. "I am so sorry, Missus. But right is right, and fair is fair and something.. has got to be done." He brandished the gun in her face. Amy looked up at him and struggled to breathe. Her face was all bloody and dirty from Mort's shoe.
"By the way, I want you to know that none of this was my idea, it was Mr. Corso all along." He drawled, hovering over her.
Amy grabbed his pant leg. "But you are.. Mort.. Corso."
Mort smiled, his cut lip bleeding. "I got a place for ya."
"You are.. Mort.. Corso!"
"I got it all picked out."
"You are Mort.. Corso.." She struggled, breathing heavily.
Ted pulled his car up next to Amy's. He climbed the stairs and walked to the tower. He pushed open the door and walked up the steps. Ted stared down into the interior of the turret, which formed a cylindrical chamber. He observed his wife, Amy, being held at gun point by.. was that Mort?
He noticed engravings on the table and gulped. He opened his jacket, took out 'The Nine Gates' and began to flip through the pages. There were engravings missing, surely enough.
"Dammit," Ted whispered.
Mort heard a noise and looked off to the side. His smile faded and he turned around. Then he turned back to Amy. Her grip slipped from his pant leg. "Uhh.. Mort.. uhhh.." She moaned.
He walked away and looked around the chamber. But he saw nothing.
"Ohhh! Mort.." Amy moaned.
He looked at her stuck in the floor and brandished the pistol at her. "I like that." He stepped one step backwards and put his armed arm down at his side. "Now you can watch," He said and threw the gun off to the side carelessly.
Mort turned to his little table and picked the Thermos. He turned partway back in Amy's direction. "I'm enterin' unchartered territory. Takin' the road that leads to equality with God," Mort said in his accent, pouring the innards of the Thermos into a flask.
Mort lifted the flask up to his face and drank from it. "Ooh," He exclaimed. He turned back to Amy. "Ye can't come with me. I must travel alone." He picked up a kerosine lamp and placed on the floor. "But you can look on 'n marvel."
Amy moaned in reply.
Mort grabbed a container of gas and poured it in a circle around the chamber. "There've bin' men who've bin' burned alive 'r disemboweled fer just a glimpse o' what yer about ta witness." He put down the container of gas and kneeled down in the middle of the circle, his back to Amy.
Placing his hands in prayer position, he recited, "I give ya m'allegiance, Master. I pledge m'self te ya body n' soul. Let me fear neither noose, nor fire, nor poison. Erase me from th'Book o' Life 'n inscribe me in th'black Book o' Death. Emit me to Th'Ninth Gate. Let it be so."
All the while, Amy had been wriggling around in her entrapment again. Still coming up unsuccessful in freeing herself, though.
Mort stood up and picked up the kerosine lamp, raised it above his head. "Let it be so!" He said, his accented voice raising in volume. "Let it be so now!" Mort yelled, crashing the lamp down to the floor.
The circle of gas that had been laid out went up in flames. Amy watched helplessly, still struggling to escape.
Mort stood in the middle of the circle of flames and turned so he was facing Amy again. "Ooh.. ooh yes," Mort said, breathing heavily, taking in this new feeling he was experiencing. "I feel th'power surge through me like 'n electric current, renderin' me capable o' any feat o' mind 'r body! I am invulnerable, I am invincible," Mort said, beginning to laugh hysterically. The flames were growing higher and more wild.
Amy was really becoming desperate for an escape.
"I could float on air, I could walk on water," Mort marveled. He got down on his knees and kneeled over a section of fire. Mort moved his hands through the flames. "Behold. I plunge m'hands in fire, I feel no heat..." He said, staring at his hands. When he looked up, he fell backwards onto his elbows, seeing the unbearable. He saw Ted watching over him from above. "Ted?" He asked, surprisedly.
"What were you expecting? An apparition?" Ted asked.
"Yer not wanted here. Leave," Mort said angrily, grabbing the kerosine lamp, placing it behind his back, and getting to his feet.
"I'm the only apparition you'll see tonight," Ted said. He pointed to the engravings on the table. "You killed for those," he said, pointing to the engravings upon the table.
"They's mine. Not yers," Mort said simply.
"Teddd!" Amy suddenly moaned.
Ted turned in Amy's direction and gasped. While Ted was turned, Mort pulled the lamp out from behind his back and hit Ted atop the head with it. Ted's body fell to the ground and caught on fire. Quickly, the fire was spreading around the rest of the chamber as well.
"Teeeddd! Ahhhh! Ughh." Amy screamed, sobbing.
Mort looked over at her and smiled. Amy tried to lift herself, but couldn't.
Mort grabbed a nearby shovel that was leaning on the wall and brought it over to Ted. Amy sobbed uncontrollably. Mort brought down the shovel in a few quick stabs.
"Nooooooooo!" Amy yelled as Mort repeatedly shoveled Ted. "Nuuhhhh..," She moaned, stopping her struggling and letting herself go limp.
Mort walked through the flames toward Amy. "I know I can do it...," He began, advancing and looking down at her battered face. "...I'm sure that in time, I will open...," He placed the shovel over her head.
"...The Ninth Gate."