Chapter 17: The Tower Rises

"I'm impressed," the dark man said as he began to slowly descend the stairs. "You've already faced two of my Subordinates and defeated them both. As I've always suspected, the Rooder strain in your blood is a particularly strong one."

As he continued down the stairs, moving as calmly and casually as can be, Alyssa backed away. Her hand was already on her belt, ready to whip the glass bottle out, but she was hesitant to try it.

Despite the sinister air that surrounded him, he didn't have the same energy that a Subordinate possessed. Of all things he felt human, but at the same time there was something undeniably evil about him, an evil so strong it seemed to fill the space that surrounded him, like a stench drifting off the surface of a swamp.

Her hand tightly clutching the bottle, Alyssa continued to back away, ready to splash him at any moment. Even if he was—as impossible as it seemed—a living, breathing human being, if he was full of evil the touch of the water would sting him...right?

She never got the chance to find out. The dark man reached the bottom of the stairs, his cane clacking on the tile. With a flash of his evil grin, he waved his hand at her—and a blast like a powerful burst of wind struck her, knocking her clear off her feet.

Alyssa let out a startled cry and shut her eyes tight as she waited helplessly for her body to land painfully back on the floor, or worse, bounce off one of the walls—but the blow never came. She continued to feel like she was falling, tumbling over and over again, as a sound like thunder surrounded her on all sides. She realized with horror that it wasn't thunder—it was an explosion.

She let out a yelp as she suddenly landed on something hard. She lay still for a stunned moment before quickly pushed herself into a sitting position. She could barely see through the whirling winds that still surrounded her, but she could make out what looked like the last of the walls of her home crashing down around her as they were torn apart by some unseen force.

Her eyes barely had a chance to process this sight—a sight that just couldn't be real—before her vision was filled with an endless sea of blue streaked with swirls of white. The ground beneath her shuddered and swayed, but she managed to stand. Looking down, she was astonished to see that she wasn't standing on the ground at all, but on a circular disk—the face of a clock, to be exact. She stepped over the massive hands and went to stand near the edge. And was astonished even further; the expanse of blue surrounding her was the night sky, and the swirls of white were clouds.

This isn't happening, she told herself. The blast must have knocked her out and she was dreaming. She couldn't possibly be standing on a floating clock face that was magically soaring through the sky like some wingless bird.

The clock face shuddered and she dropped to her knees, desperately grabbing one of the hands as the disc spun around wildly. Her vision hazy with tears as the harsh wind stung her eyes, she vaguely saw the shape of what looked like a giant staircase spirally around her, rising higher and higher above her as if it were reaching for the heavens.

The disc wasn't following. Instead, it spun through a large hole in one of the white walls that had risen from nowhere, tossing her back outside into the night. The disc stopped spinning again, and Alyssa got shakily back to her feet as she stared at what was before her in awe.

What is this place?

A great tower of white and gray stone had sprung up out of the ground—right where her house had once been, to be exact. Alyssa watched, amazed, as pieces of rock and brick floated through the air, meeting and melding with the tower as it continued to climb higher and higher. Alyssa watched a moment longer before closing her eyes. It's just a dream, she told herself again. Maybe if she fell...

The disc beneath her feet suddenly wobbled sharply, making her gasp and reach down to seize one of the hands again. She didn't want to believe she was awake, but after all she had seen and done she couldn't take the chance that she wasn't. Clinging tightly to the minute hand, she watched as the clock face flew closer to the tower, careening towards a large round hole near the top.

Alyssa's heart dropped; it wasn't just any tower. It was a clock tower, and the clock face she was sitting on was turning upright so it could fit into place inside the large hole. Her hands, numb with fear, desperately clawed at the face as she was tipped further and further back, but it was no use. Her fingers slipped and she dropped into the air.

A picture of herself falling for miles before hitting the ground had barely formed in her mind before her back struck what felt like a stone floor littered with pebbles. "Ouch," she hissed. She rolled to her side and winced as she pressed a hand to her now sore lower back. With her other hand, she pushed herself to her feet as she looked at her new surroundings.

She had been dropped at the top of the spiral staircase, which opened up to a wide, circular platform with gleaming white pillars holding up a domed ceiling that was still taking shape. The spaces between the pillars were dotted with crackling torches, and the space beyond them led to open sky.

Alyssa barely had a moment to take all this in when a wicked chuckle behind her made her spin around fearfully. The dark man was coming towards her, the torches casting shadows across his cruel face. "Welcome, dearest Alyssa," he said jovially. "You're in my world, now."

Her first instinct was to run, but there was nowhere to run to, so she held her ground. "Don't come any closer," she warned. "Like you said, I've already defeated two of..."

She trailed off as the man's words repeated in her mind. Two of my Subordinates...

His Subordinates? Then he had to be the one controlling them, she was sure of it, but she still didn't believe he was possessed by an Entity. Why in the world would they obey him, then?

Ignoring her warning, the grinning being continued to approach. Alyssa kept backing away, her shoes scuffing on the stone that littered the ground, not yet merged with the tower. "A very special time is coming up," the man was saying. "In just two short hours, the clock will strike midnight, signaling the arrival of your fifteenth birthday. Are you looking forward to it?"

Although she had guessed as much, hearing the words spoken still shocked her. What was so special about her fifteenth birthday? What did these evil beings want her for?

Her thoughts came to a halt as the man suddenly lunged for her. Alyssa shrieked and tried to run, but he hooked her with the crook of his cane. He yanked her closer, grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, cradling her against him as if she were something dear and beloved to him. "I, for one, cannot wait," he cooed. "When that moment finally comes you and I will be joined as one for all eternity. Two souls united in immortality for all time. Doesn't that sound wonderful?"

"You're insane," Alyssa screamed. She pushed and shoved and kicked, but the wicked man's strength was amazing. He ignored her blows and hoisted her in his arms like she were a doll. "I've waited so very long," he sighed. "These final two hours will be like an eternity all by themselves."

Alyssa continued to thrash and struggle, even though they had moved uncomfortably close to the edge of the stairs. Below them, she could see the spiral twisting down, down, down, so far she couldn't see the bottom. She tried desperately to grab for her bottle of holy water, but her belt had twisted and it hung from a spot at her back, out of her reach. "Your mother worked so hard to keep you from me, to put all those obstacles in my way, but in the end...I win."

Alyssa stopped thrashing at the mention of her mother. "My mother? But she..."

"Is dead," the man finished merrily. "One of my Subordinates killed her ages ago."

"Liar!"

Alyssa reached out to strike him—anything to get him to let go—but he just scowled in response to her outburst. He tilted his arms and Alyssa found herself facing the yawning opening of the spiral staircase. "Don't believe me?" the dark man snarled. "Then go to hell and see for yourself."

As he spoke, he let her drop out of his arms and she fell, screaming, into the space below. Alyssa saw flashes of white steps and silver railings all around her as she careened wildly through the air. Her body twisted around so she was facing downward and she looked, unwillingly, to see how far she would fall before she reached the ground.

Instead of seeing the floor of the tower, she saw a pool of thick blackness. The next instant the blackness had swallowed her whole and the feeling of falling faded. For a time she felt like she was drifting free, weightless, until the world and her senses slowly returned to her.

The first thing she felt was a coldness, followed by the feeling of something hard and rough beneath her. From somewhere nearby she heard a dripping, and when she opened her eyes she saw a puddle of water next to her.

Her head swam a little as she sat up, but her vision was clear enough for her to see that she was surrounded by greenish rock. Stalagmites and stalactites jutted from the floor and ceiling, and her nostrils filled with the smell of stale water and traces of sulfur.

Amazed as she was that she had somehow survived the fall, she was even more amazed to see that she couldn't have possibly fallen into this place; the thick roof of a cave stretched out above her head, with no hint of an opening. Eyes squinted in the dimness, Alyssa slowly scanned her surroundings; faint light was coming from somewhere, so there had to be a way out.

Her mind was still reeling from what had just happened. It had to have been some kind of illusion—her home couldn't have been destroyed any more than a mysterious tower could have popped up in its place. That sort of thing wouldn't go unnoticed—the entire town would be in an uproar in a matter of minutes. No, she must have been, as his words suggested, been torn from her home and the real world and sucked into 'his' world, as he'd called it...wherever that was. If she didn't believe that the house—and Edward, who was the only one still inside—was still okay and started to consider otherwise she knew she'd go crazy.

She told herself that the house would be just as she left it the next time she went back, just like the other times, and began to circle the perimeter of the small space. She soon came across a stone slab embedded in the cave wall; there was a hexagon-shaped symbol etched across it, a symbol she had never seen before, but felt as if she recognized somehow.

It was strange how her Rooder self worked. Her mind knew nothing of these things, but her body seemed to understand and react. She touched the symbol with her fingertips and felt her nerves ease a little. As her mind cleared, she remembered what she had just heard—the last thing the dark man had said before throwing her over the edge.

"It can't be true," she whispered.

Although she had begun to suspect that very thing—that something had happened to her mother—she refused to believe it. She wouldn't accept that she was dead until she saw the body with her own eyes. Even without her Rooder powers her mother couldn't possibly be weak enough to fall so easily. She was out there, somewhere, waiting for her daughter to find her, and Alyssa was determined to do just that, no matter what.

When she turned around again, she saw that the light was coming through a narrow gap in the far wall. It was small and near the ground, but she was able to crawl through it—barely.

She found the source of the light on the other side of the narrow tunnel; a discarded lantern that still flickered faintly. Alyssa stood and looked around, surprised by what she saw.

After waking up in the cave she had been expecting a different environment than the one she now stood in; the wall she had crawled out of was made of brick, and she was standing at the top of a set of cement stairs, with a metal railing for her to lean on as she looked around. The area to her right stretched off into the darkness, but her way was blocked by heavy iron bars.

The area to the left was barricaded in the same way, leaving her with only a small, dimly lit expanse of brick floor to move around in. The floor itself was completely submerged in water that was leaking in through cracks and crevices, and it came up past her ankles as she sloshed along.

In the opposite corner was another short set of steps; at the top of them was a metal ladder. Alyssa gripped the icy rungs and ascended it slowly. The only sound to be heard was the dripping of water, which did nothing to calm her increasingly jittery nerves.

She could only have been sent here for one reason; she was going to face a third Subordinate. Though she felt confident that she knew how to handle them now, she wanted to find something that would help get her get a grasp of where and when she was. Her previous trips through time had offered up various hints that helped her get her bearings, but this dark place offered no hint of where it was located in either time or space.

At the top of the ladder was a trapdoor, which she had to push with both hands to raise. The area above was no better than the one below; it was narrow and the walls were like that of the cave, with florescent bulbs that flickered a dull blue attacked at about waist-level. The floor was hidden beneath a stream of rushing water, which was pouring down from a hole in the wall across from her, forming a small waterfall. There was no floor to walk on, just two narrow catwalks hugging each wall. The two catwalks weren't connected to each other, except near the very top, where she stood, and near the middle where a wider strip of catwalk formed a bridge.

There was also a tank-like machine next to her, quietly spewing steam, but even that didn't help her identify her new time; everything looked anywhere from five to fifty years old.

Alyssa passed in front of the tank, heading to her left. The steam was making it harder for her to see in the already dim light, but she could make out the shape of a narrow hallway directly in front of her. There was also, she noticed, another trapdoor on the other side of the tank, but she didn't see any reason to go back down into the flooded sub-basement.

There was a door at the end of the short hallway—locked, naturally. Undaunted, Alyssa tried the other catwalk and found another short hallway further down. She practically tiptoed as she moved along, though the sound of her own footsteps were lost in the sound of the rushing water. It made her wish she were back by the dripping again; at least there she would be able to hear if a Subordinate was sneaking up on her.

Shivering as the cold mist coming off the surface of the water began to seep through her clothes (didn't Subordinates ever hang out someplace warm?) she tiptoed up to another closed door, which opened when she tested the knob.

The room on the other side was small and square—and warmer, to her relief. Directly to her left was a desk with a small pile of books (a brief search told her nothing, though she did find a key with a tag on it), across the room was a table with various odds and ends scattered across it, and bubbling merrily along the right-hand wall was a large aquarium. Swimming inside it was a long fish with wide, thick scales, but its species was unknown to her.

Alyssa looked around a little more, but there wasn't anything else worth her time to be found, so she—reluctantly—went back outside.

As soon as she stepped through the door, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and not from the chill in the air. Her eyes darted up and down the long room, but nothing and no one was in sight. But even without her Rooder instincts it would have been clear to her that something—something very unpleasant—was out there.

She was about to take another step when there was a small splash to her right. Immediately her body froze in place, her eyes darting in the direction of the sound—just in time to see something large and silver flash in front of her face with a metallic whisper. A second later she heard a loud clang.

Alyssa's eyes were on the waterfall. She wasn't sure how, but the object—whatever is was—had come from that direction, so her feet carried her the other way. As she ran across the catwalk in front of the tank, she saw something silver lodged in the side of it—an ax with a wide, curved blade and a glinting handle.

She had almost made it across to the main part of the other catwalk, her hand absently touching the pocket that held the key she assumed opened the other door, when something exploded through the waterfall.

Alyssa instinctively threw herself to the side, making herself slip off the catwalk and land in the shallow but frigid water. Looking up she saw—not something but someone—soar clear over her head, like an Olympic jumper. The being landed where she had just been standing and she watched, the tension in her body growing, as he casually yanked the ax free. There was another ax in his other hand, which he propped against his leg as he rested his foot against the steaming tank. The toes of his other foot were curled around the edge of the catwalk, and Alyssa knew that, despite the relaxed way he held himself, he was poised to leap at her with all the force of a wild cat in an instant.

He didn't look anything like she had been expecting. The previous Subordinates she had faced had been large, bulky, and slow; this one was shorter, but he was also lean. His torso was bare, except for red streaks, like tattoos, that marked his chest and face. Unlike the other two, his head was uncovered and exposed, allowing his white eyes to gleam at her in the dimness as he grinned. And Alyssa knew that, as she watched muscle ripple across his whale-gray skin as he absently twirled one of his axes, she was going to miss being chased by Morris and Haigh.

As if reading her thoughts, this new Subordinate chuckled lowly and said, "You've had it easy up to now, little girl. The others were just practice; whatever you learned from fighting them is meaningless with me."

Alyssa rolled back with a shriek as he abruptly swiped one of the axes at her, narrowly missing her right arm. She crawled frantically out of the water and climbed back onto the catwalk. In her mind her thoughts were racing; maybe this was one Subordinate who didn't care about the order to take her alive. Or maybe, she thought as an ax blow near her head sent chunks of the wall flying, he intended to—he was just going to chop her to bits first, so long as she was still breathing afterward.

Alyssa's feet pounded the metal catwalk; she needed to put more distance between them (the sound of his breath was dangerously close) before she dared to try attacking him. She decided to run into the aquarium room; putting the door between them should give her just enough time to pull her weapon out.

She was still about a foot away from it when she heard a rushing in the air, like something massive was flying over her head again. The next thing she knew, the Subordinate was blocking her way—horizontally.

Defying every natural law she knew, the Subordinate's bare feet clung to the wall like her own feet clung to the floor. Head cocked, his pupil-less eyes flashed as he raised a hand, still holding his ax, and wagged a finger at her like her teachers used to when she was small and getting into mischief. Hands numb and heart pounding, Alyssa came to an unpleasant realization.

Outrunning this one was not an option.