Elizabeth
It's so blue out there ...
As I stand before the window and gaze out onto the city below, I find myself once again wondering what life must be like for within. They aren't confined to a handful of rooms, they have the entire world to explore.
Don't lose hope Elizabeth; sooner or later you'll figure out the combination for the lock get the door open.
I shake my head sadly at this thought; even if I do get it open, HE won't let me leave. HE will stop at nothing to keep me locked in this tower forever.
Don't lose hope Elizabeth, don't lose hope ...
To distract myself, I hum the tune to that song I heard on my phonograph. It is one of Albert Fink's songs, and even after 19 years of imprisonment I still like it.
Everybody Wants to rule the world ...
Wait, what was that?
I turn around and see that the latch on the ceiling of my library has broken open. Before I can react, a man falls through the opening and into my cell. He lands with a roll, grunting as he does.
I've never seen this man before, what is he doing here?
Cautiously, I make my way over to the man. I grab a book from the shelf as I go, ensuring I have something to use as a weapon should he have malicious intent.
When he pushes himself to his feet, I can get a better look at him. This man appears to be in his mid-twenties, maybe five or six years older than me. He has a friendly enough face, with fair blond hair and green eyes deep with some unknown sorrow and strained by some past trauma.
He wears a white wool sweater, a soldier's duty belt with a pipe-wrench tucked into it, and a Rolston's Reciprocating Repeater slung over his back.
"Who are you?"
When he answers, his voice sounds peculiar, as though his throat has been cut in the past. Yet in spite of that - or perhaps because of it - it is a nice voice all the same. "My name is Jack, Jack Wynand. I'm here to rescue you."
Here to rescue me? Someone's come to rescue me? I can hardly believe it; it's like something out of a Chivalric Romance! This is too good to be true!
I reach my right hand out to him, to make sure this isn't really too good to be true. He doesn't prevent me, doesn't move to stop me. Instead my rescuer, my new ally, simply stares at me with those green eyes ...
At the worst possible time, the whistling statue in my room plays those horrible notes. The songbird is coming, and when he finds Jack here ...
"He's coming ... you gotta go! You don't wanna be here when he gets here!"
Time is running out; I can hear it howling. Soon it will be in here. I shout something into the latch, hoping to buy Jack some time to hide.
Instead of doing that, Jack stands resolved. "I can get you out."
No you can't ...
"There's no way out, trust me I've looked!" Again the Songbird howls and again I try to stall for time.
It is at this moment that Jack presses a cold metal item into my hands. "This will get you out."
"Jack, what is-" I immediately pause with realization. It's ... it's a key! If this key is goes to what I think it does ...
I stare at it in stunned silence for a few seconds, and then run to the door of my confinement as fast as I can. My gallant knight Jack follows close behind me.
Please work ... please please please work ...
I put the key into the door lock and it the mechanism on the large metal door springs to life. It's open! The door is open!
"It's ... It's a way out!"
No sooner does it open than a loud alarm begins to blare and The Songbird's howls become enraged. I have to get out of this tower now! I will never get another chance!
As I run down the metal-lined hallway, I feel my heart beating in my chest as adrenaline pumps through me.
With a screech the Songbird strikes at the outside of the tower, causing part of the roof to collapse. I shout to Jack so he knows why it's tormenting me. "It's his job to keep me locked up in here!"
Undaunted, Jack simply shouts in reply. "Well that's too bad for him!"
As we race down the hallway, the walls and ceiling begin to collapse around us as The Songbird rips and claws at the tower. I find myself moaning with fear as I run as fast as I can, desperate to get away from it. I look behind me to make sure Jack has not been crushed or incapacitated, and every time I do I see him pushing forward in spite of everything.
When we reach the last room in the hallway, I push the elevator button. While we wait for it to arrive, I look around the room.
My bedroom. There are windows looking into my bedroom. People have been watching me.
"What is all this? They were watching me?! All this time ... why? Why did they put me in here? What am I? WHAT AM I?"
Jack does not speak, but I can see he is overcome with a flood of sadness. Silently, his only answer is that he stares at me with those doleful eyes.
Before the elevator can come, The Songbird smashes through the door with it's giant metal claw. Oh God, it's here! He's going to murder my friend and lock me back in the tower and I'm going to die in there!
OhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOhNoOHNO!
I press myself into a corner of this room, close my eyes, and sob. I sob in a panic and try to prologue this moment as long as I can for fear of what might happen next. I hear a gun-rattle in front of me, but the bullets do not stop The Songbird. Nothing does ...
While I curl up miserably, I notice that the Songbird's howling stop. Risking to open my eyes, I see that he is gone! He's not here anymore!
The elevator! It must have come down and forced the bird out of the way! When I push myself up, I see Jack standing directly in front of me with rifle in hand. Jack put himself between me and the Songbird!
Jack smiles briefly at me, the points out at the walkway on the other side of the now-empty elevator shaft. I jump before he can get a chance to, land safely on the other side, and run like I've never run before.
"We have to keep moving! He's tearing the building apart!"
Jack rushes alongside me, and when we reach a metal door he wastes no time pushing it open. He grabs my hand and pulls me along as we walk along the outside of the tower. The wind is blowing hard enough to push us off, but we press upwards.
By the time I see the shadow of The Songbird, it is too late. He knocks the head of the tower off, throwing Jack and I into the air!
I'm falling! I'm falling! "AHHH! AAAHHHHH!"
As we're falling, Jack reaches out for me. I grab his left hand with both of mine, and I grip onto it for dear life. With his other, he takes out a hook-like weapon and grips onto one of the sky-lines.
As we ride along it, I clutch onto Jack's arm so tight that I am probably hurting it. I keep my eyes closed, terrified of the thousands of miles of nothingness between us and the land below Columbia.
As we ride, I hear crumbling sounds. The songbird's destroying the sky-line! He'd rather see me dead than escape!
We fall off the sky line and I lose Jack's grip.
We fall and we fall and we fall, until we land into some water with a loud splash. I flail in the water with surprise - we weren't supposed to land for several hours! Unless ... we're in Battleship Bay. I remember reading about it; an artificial beach in Columbia! Land shouldn't be too far away, and if I survived, Jack must have too!
Fortunately one of the books I read includes swimming instructions. Though I've never actually swam before, I'm able to make my way through the water with only minimal difficulty. It is at this point when I see Jack's body, floating limp on top of the water.
Jack!
I make my way over to him as fast as I can, and see that he is indeed out cold. Fearing for the worst I place my hand on his palm, and promptly breathe a sigh of relief as I still feel a pulse.
I wrap my arms around his torso and begin to kick us both to shore. This close, I can feel just how strong he is. How muscular his physique is. He's certainly well-built ...
I see shore in the distance. If I can get him there, I can preform CPR and try to wake him up. After looking over my shoulder every three seconds and seeing nothing, I can conclude that we've seen the last of The Songbird. For now at least; he'll certainly come back for me sooner or later.
But for now, I have to focus on saving Jack.
Author's Note: The more astute among you might notice that I switched to Elizabeth's perspective in this chapter. Now that they're introduced, I'll be switching back and forth between Jack and Elizabeth's perspectives at different intervals.