A Looming Tower

9

Okay, don't feel like you have to or anything, but I highly recommend rereading the last paragraph of last chapter before reading this! It's like one of the few times Anna's doing something that doesn't end in one chapter :P

Anyways, this chapter isn't the best I've done, but I haven't typed in a bit. It'll get better! Thanks.

For a moment, she's totally silent, eyes wide, staring at me in horror. But then her fists clench as it sinks in. "We have to go get him!" she exclaims, stumbling towards me, "Where's the Orb?!" Her eyes are crazed as she crawls towards me. "Give me the Orb, Anna!" she exclaims, and I shake my head.

"It's gone," I whisper, "We left it behind."

Her eyes go wide, then she falls back. "Are you sure?"

You are correct. There is no way to get him back, the Haunter booms, he is in a standstill. Since the Orb is left in the area activated by the Orb, you can only bring him back by escaping. If the rest of you die, he dies.

I suck in a breath. "...If we survive all the areas, we can save him. We just have to make it."

Lily glances at Haden, who groans in the corner. He's just waking up. "...Okay," she says, sighing. "Let's go."

As she walks over to Haden, I walk toward the Box in the center of the room. We're back in the room from the beginning, and as the room's the same, so is the box. But some of the orbs are different.

Most of them are still vibrant, but one two of them are grey. The completed ones, I think to myself, the lighthouse, and the tree. But that means...

"Lily!" I exclaim, "We can still get back to the school! We just have to find the right Orb- the one we used to get here was from a tree!"

That's not true, the Haunter says, the reality that reaches to there cannot be activated by anyone other than Max himself... I ignore him.

Lily's eyes go wide as she turns. "Then let's go!" she exclaims, but dragging Haden's body over, she hesitates. "Should we leave him here?"

I look at him, contemplating. "Yeah. Then we won't have to worry about him running away."

Lily nods, drops him where he lies, and walks to the box. She stares at it "...What's even the point of this?" she whispers to herself, but before I can answer she reaches in and grabs a yellow orb. She dissolves into the air, staring at the window, and I follow her lead. The Orb is cold in my hand.

The room shifts away, and suddenly, I'm in a mansion.

The floor I'm on is without light. The twisting stairs leading up are of mahogany, and the rail a pristine white. A decorated dining room is to the left, all of the floor is polished oak, but behind us is the entrance. I hurry to it. Lily struggles with the knob, glancing at the road and sparkling night beyond the window, but then she gives up, falling back. It's no use.

"I guess I should go to the stairs, then," she whispers to herself, and without looking at me once, she begins to walk up the steps. I frown. They extend endlessly upward into the darkness, growing in age as they ascend...

She's consulting with one of her memory figures, the Haunter BOOMs, suddenly loud in this place, just like I am one to you, so one is to her.

I frown. "Who is she talking... Never mind. What's up the stairs?" I ask.

For a moment, the Haunter is silent. But then he responds. I do not know.

Tensing, I rally my determination and run after her.

As I rush up the stairs- she only walks- I pass a variety of things. Photos, of people, places I don't know, windows to unknown scenes, whispers and voices. But mostly, there's the doors. And I can hear behind them. In one room, I hear a younger Lily fighting with her parents, in another an older woman whispers. In another, I can hear a rush of footsteps and then a cry, a falling body, and indiscernible whispers. But most of them are silent, and though I run and run, I cannot catch up to Lily. Until she falls to her knees at the top of the steps, the balcony rushing towards me, I can't reach. But then I can, and before her, before me is an Orb. Violet.

"The Orb," she whispers, but then she collapses to the floor. And from the air vent flies a force of darkness, rushing towards her with a burning iris in the center.

The comet.

Crying out, I struggle to my feet, run towards her, and heave her up, pushing her to the side. The darkness slams into the wall behind her, and with an umph I heave her into the vent, struggling in and quickly wrestling the vent grate back behind me. The comet rams into it again and again, roaring, but I ignore it, crawling on hands and knees without knowing why. Determination is wrought on my face like iron, and I drag Lily behind me. Slowly, the light fades, the bangs farther and farther away, but then I reach the other side of the vent. I push out the grate easily, and stare at the scene before me.

Lily stumbles out from behind my body, but I don't notice as I lightly step out of the vent. We're in an age-old, ruined building, with thriving moss and smaller trees growing all around, and sunlight passes in through the crumbled breaking in the ceiling. When I glance back to the vent grate, it's gone. I shudder, looking back ahead. Among the plant life are vines, so many vines, but what startled me most is the bomb. It's a nuclear bomb, a giant blood-red 4 upon it, crossed out with a silver X. It hangs in the grasp of the vines, entwined and inches from the ground. I can only gape.

"I... we shouldn't... be here, Father," Lily says, suddenly rigid, and I gasp as I see her. She's walking towards the bomb. "I shouldn't... touch it... Should I really?" she whispers, and reaches out a hand.

"No!" I scream, running towards her, but it's too late. She slowly pushes it, starting weakly, then more forcefully, and the bomb falls from the vines.

But it doesn't explode.

I sigh, relieved, but Lily remains unknowing of me. She steps over the bomb, brushing aside the dying vines with an uplifted hand, and then descends below my sight. When I follow her, I suck in a breath.

It's a tunnel, a crude dirt shaft descending down into the earth. And she crawls down it. "...Canopy?" she asks aloud, to some unknown entity, "Are you sure?"

She talks of another Project, the Haunter whispers, voice suddenly weak, That is where she goes. If you do not stop her, you will follow her to the Third Project, I will no longer exist, and everything will go wrong. The Madman will die. And you alone will escape.

I suck in a breath, thinking about it. The Madman... he did this to save us. I think. But he also did so much else. If he dies, I'll never know why...

I grab Lily by the scruff of her shirt. "I won't let you do this," I say, but when she only struggles, I suck in a breath. And I close my eyes.

You are... close, the Haunter finally says. There is no confirming your safety if you shift away now.

I frown. But I continue to think. I am back in the original room-- no. No. Wait! The floor is rough, like a carpet, I am back...

In the Haunting.

NO! You cannot do this! the Haunter booms, You cannot! I will be turned against you! I will no longer be able to help you-

But then he goes silent, I open my eyes, and there I am, encased in a circle of shimmering salt. But Lily's with me.

And the dagger is in my hand.

Okay, so yeah. There was a huge w-
WAIT! Sorry, I forgot I haven't revealed that yet. I'm not gonna say anything right now. Don't worry, you'll see how everything is important in this chapter.... next chapter!

Thanks for reading, hope you like!
--DraconisSolutus