Sorry for the long wait. Still exhausted. Anyway, here's another chapter. It won't be a very long one, but it's not short either.
I do not own any Clock Tower characters.
Enjoy.
Alyssa stepped outside of the glowing circle on the floor. Immediately the sense of safety she had been feeling disappeared. Shivering a little, Alyssa began her search.
She appeared to be in a general store. Seeing a staircase near her, she walked up it until she reached a door. She tried the door but found it locked, noted it for later, and went back downstairs. She looked towards the store's counter and saw a large burlap sack on top. Alyssa walked over and opened it up.
There appeared to be nothing but coins that looked extremely old inside. She dug deeper into the bag until she felt something different. Pulling it out, she saw it was a key. But there was something attached to the key.
"Agggggh!"
Alyssa threw the object and the key to the ground. After calming down she investigated what she had grabbed. It was a skeletal arm. As much as she didn't want to, she knew that there must be ghosts around…she pocketed the key and the arm.
She tried the key on the door upstairs, but it didn't fit. She didn't see anything else worth investigating so she walked outside.
The feeling of despair overwhelmed her. Whatever had happened to this village, it was horrible. She moved over to the gate blocking off the outside village and tried to push it open. There was no visible lock on the gate, yet some invisible force seemed to be holding it closed. However, there appeared to be a newspaper clipping impaled on one of the fence's spikes. Alyssa reached up and gently removed it, to avoid further damage, and attempted to read it.
Strange Death Rocks Town
Two days ago, the brother of the general store's shopkeeper was slain. The name of the victim was Gerald Bronnsky, 24. After an inspection it was concluded he'd been cut up and stabbed, but the town doctor claims the wounds weren't from any form of knife. The only survivor to the deceased was his brother, a traveling merchant who ran the town store when he wasn't abroad. The brother has fled the town after his brother's death, and moved into an abandoned shack just outside town. The reason's for this are unknown.
Until the shop keep returns, or we find a new one, the store will be run by the town mayor, Mark Keyes. The burial for the deceased will be in 3 days.
Alyssa looked outside the town and saw that there was indeed a very rundown looking shack. Looking around for any way to reach it, Alyssa found a hole in the gate…was the hole was boarded up, impossible to get through without proper tools.
She decided that the doctor mentioned in the note would be a good spot to check next. She turned around.
A fiery red ghost glared at her.
Alyssa reacted quickly, throwing a tiny amount of her holy water at the ghost. It shrieked and covered its face, allowing her to creep past. Before the ghost could recover, she spotted a house nearby that appeared to have a red cross painted on it, although the paint had been well worn after many years. She raced to the house and ran in.
It was a complete mess. Blood shaded the walls a ghastly red, while numerous medical tools covered the floors. Seeing a body slumped over a counter, Alyssa walked to it and flipped it over. A mutilated face stared up at her. But she didn't notice the face, she noticed a missing arm.
Retrieving the arm from a pack at her hip, she placed it where it should be on the body while murmuring a prayer. Almost immediately the ghost from earlier barreled into the house through a wall, but stopped short upon seeing its arm had been returned. It turned to Alyssa and gave a thankful nod, before crossing its arms and flying away.
Now free to investigate, she searched the building. On a shelf in one room she found another key, which she slipped into her pockets. With nothing else useful around, she went outside. Alyssa searched around to see if she could find anything worth investigating, and saw a slip of paper resting on the gallows platform, a dull lantern shining light upon it. Despite a horrible feeling about it, Alyssa walked to the gallows.
Alyssa picked up the scrap and read.
I'm the last one left in this cursed town. It all started with the death of the shop keep, and the disappearance of his brother. Then, the doctor was found dead soon after. It all went downhill from there.
Citizen after citizen disappeared, and some families fled the town. Now… I'm all alone. But I'm done with hiding. This homicidal freak has ruined my town, and I shall put up with it no longer. I know he's out there, watching me at this very moment, waiting for the right time to finally finish off the town's populace. Well, I won't give him that satisfaction. I'm gonna get out there and skin that bastard alive, and then I'm out of here. In case I don't make it, I'll leave this note where someone can find it. If you're reading this, watch out. If I haven't gotten him, he's still out there somewhere…and he can be anywhere…even right behind you.
Quickly looking behind her, Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the notes warning had been false. She turned back around and shrieked.
In front of her, even though it had been empty a moment before, was a still decomposing body.
She closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath.
Alyssa didn't get the chance to recover, her Rooder powers were kicking in. Whether she liked it or not, she was being taken to a flashback of what happened to this poor soul.
Alyssa opened her eyes.
"What in the world…"
She was in a tree, sitting on a rather large branch. She crawled to the end of the branch and pushed a few leaves aside. She was in the tree in the middle of the town…but Alyssa barely recognized the town.
The town was…normal. No decrepit buildings, except the shack that was still there. The sun was slowly setting down in the distance.
Not sure of what was to happen, Alyssa waited in the tree until the sun had set. As if on cue, when the sun went down the door to what she believed was the town hall opened. Out of the town hall came a nervous looking man, with a shotgun at his side. The man kept the shotgun up at all times as he slowly crossed the town, looking around him every few seconds.
He looked up in the tree once and seemed to notice Alyssa, but he rubbed his eyes and continued his walk across town. Nothing interesting seemed to happen, until the man reached the town gate.
He reached in his pocket for something, until he pulled out a key. Shotgun at his side, he started to walk out of the town gate.
Fwish!
The man screamed as a knife embedded itself in his shotgun carrying arm, making him drop it. Before he could retrieve it a shadowy figure jumped from a nearby rooftop where he'd gone completely unnoticed.
Alyssa shielded her eyes from what was going on, until the noise seemed to cease. Reopening her eyes, she was confused when the two people were gone, until she spotted them directly under the tree she was sitting in.
The attacker was still shrouded in shadow, but the poor man had been cut up badly. He was still breathing, however.
The victim was dragged to the gallows, pleading for his life. His pleas went ignored as his attacker dragged the man to his feet and placed the gallows noose around the man's neck. Slapping the babbling victim with what appeared to be a clawed hand, the aggressor walked over to the lever that would send the man to his death.
"Any last words, Mayor?" the shadowy figure rasped.
"Why, why are you doing this?" The mayor demanded, sounding pained, "Why would you do this to your town?"
The shadowy man merely grinned before pulling the lever. Alyssa looked away as a sickening snap resounded around the area.
A knife slammed into the tree right next to where Alyssa was perched. Stifling a scream, she looked down at the grisly scene.
The entity smiled cruelly and waved at her with his clawed hand. He then leaped onto a rooftop and disappeared.
Alyssa looked at the knife that she guessed had been meant to miss her. On it was scrawled a message…you're next.
Alyssa didn't have time to react before everything started to fade.
Alyssa reopened her eyes and looked into the eyes of the gallows resident. Its lifeless stare seemed to welcome her back.
Somewhere in the distance Alyssa heard branches snap and leaves crunch, and realized what had happened.
The hunter had become the hunted.
Looks like Alyssa's in some trouble. Will she find the mysterious entity…or will it find her first?
Once again, sorry for the long wait. I'll try to upload another chapter within a week, but I can't promise anything.
Thanks for reading, review if you liked it.
