Eclipse

Chapter 21

Place: Somewhere in the tower

Time: Late Evening

Tamara appeared from thin air in the corner of the room looking dumbfounded, and distraught at the same time. I slowly walked over to her and placed my hand gently on her shoulder. She visibly jumped and snapped out of whatever daze she was in. Immediately she embraced me, tears streaming down her cheek.

"I'm sorry," her voice quivered amidst the tears, each syllable heavy with the weight of regret. "I'm so sorry. To everyone I've hurt."

She sank to her knees, and I followed suit, cradling her as she rested her head against my chest

"Hey!" The woman behind us said. "Let's go, I don't have all day.  He's already drawing close, I've been off the map for to long." 

I jerked my head and looked up at her, sitting behind her table. "What was your name again?"

Her leather squeaked as she leaned forward in her chair placing her hands together. "Sasha" 

"What do you want" I replied coldly. 

"I saw what happened to Scythe, how he was able to get free of the masters control. Besides the other two pig headed idiots, I'm the only one with a brain. I figured that I could construct a special room to block the signal." She prided herself, smiling. 

I finally got the chance to really look at her. She was smoking hot in the leather getup. Thin and full at the same time. Short black hair with down to her neck and blue eyes masked in a dark eyeshadow adorned a nice symmetrical oblong face.  Her movements were fluid, not jerky at all. I'd be afraid to face her in combat. 

Shaking my gaze away, I started to ask the real questions. "Who is this master of yours and what is going on here?"

"I'll try to give you the quick of it. But you probably already know. We are trying to merge Heaven, Hell and Earth all together. Each dimension, molded onto one surface. As the merger is happening, we have some level of control over how the dimensions are woven together, hence the maze you're going through."

Makes sense, I thought to myself. 

Tamara had stopped crying at some point and sat against the wall. 

"You're on the right path to stop this, there's four locations that are the focal points we choose to make the merge. You've destroyed two of them already by lighting beacons in the buildings. Someone else is helping you and we don't know who."

Something felt a little off, the room wasn't as bright as it was a few moments ago.

"Where's the beacon here?" I asked, "and how do we get to your master to stop him?"

There was a small crashing noise outside and some heavy stomping. 

"Shit, I'm out of time. The beacon is on the top floor, on the roof, you will know it when you see it. You're going to have to get past the speechless one..." She started to cough violently.

The room grew darker still. 

"Speechless One... watc..." her words cut off my more coughing, which I realized was now choking. She couldn't breath. 

"Tamara!" I  looked at her, and pulled her back from the wall.

"Sasha, talked to me, what's going on" I asked her.

"Found me" Was all she managed to squeak out and toppled over on the desk

Blood started pouring out her mouth, a slow steady stream at first, then faster and as if someone turned a water hose to full power. The blood quickly consumed the table, spilling over the edge and onto the floor, making strides toward our shoes.