The Tower

Chapter 6

     Upon entering, Stephen saw the empty streets of Last Light and wondered where everyone was. "Hey Rose, didn't you say this was a city? Where's all the people?"

"I said it was a city. I didn't say it had the population of a city."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Anyways, why don't we split up for a little and meet up at the bar?"

"I would, but I don't know where it is."

"Aah, right. You'll find a map of the city on the street coming up, just walk up and you'll find a girl giving out maps of the city. Take one and explore to your heart's content."

"Gotcha."

     The street light filled the darkness with the night's light. After walking straight up the road for a long time, he came across an intersection and this was where he found the girl Rose was talking about. She looked very similar to Stephen, however, there were differences. Her cloak was dark green and her facial features were lime green. "Hey, are you the girl handing out maps?" Silence. "Can you hear me?" Silence. She handed a map of the city and then ran away. She was a mystery to be investigated. Stephen chased after the girl trying to find out just why she was running, she would run out of breath at some point. Right?

     At first, Stephen was chasing her down the streets she was going down but as they proceeded the chase got more intense. They were jumping through windows of empty, abandoned apartments and buildings. However, Stephen kept up the pace surprisingly well. No amount of fatigue would stop him from reaching the girl nor would it slow his pace. They ran up to the roof of an empty apartment building and she leaped onto another roof. This is where Stephen stopped, as he realized that he can't go any farther with her, but this didn't stop Stephen from his pursuit. Why did she do this? was it normal?

     Stephen asked around about the girl and found out she hadn't done this to anyone else but him, so there was something different about him. He went to meet up with Rose for help finding this mysterious girl and went to the pub, but she wasn't there. He couldn't wait, or else the girl would get away, so he had to fend for himself. He was half nervous and half excited about this because this was the first time here he was alone on an adventure.

He ran to the left-most street half-wondering if the girl turned the other way, but he felt confident enough that he ran up to the roof of an apartment building. Now the real challenge was finding a way to get to the other roofs, but then something caught his eye. An electrical wire connected to the other buildings. It was a risky choice but he remembered that he was a simple cloak, and so he grabbed the wire and slowly moved his way to the next building. Then the next. Some may argue that this is slower, however, doing this allows you to cover two times of the space.

Some people opened up their apartment windows to see what was making all the racket. They saw Stephen on the buildings and wondered why he was there. They asked him "What are you doing up there?" and "You're gonna get hurt!" but these remarks meant nothing. Some people even tried climbing up the apartments to grab hold of him but the efforts were wasted. Stephen realized how many different races of creatures there. Every one of them was different from another. Stephen wondered how all these people were from the same planet. After a while, they gave up but only because they saw her.

The girl Stephen was looking around the city for. She looked confident in what she was about to do and Stephen realized she had a knife in her hand. He realized what she was aiming to do. She wasn't going for him. Instead, she was going for the wire. Stephen was now rushing and risking falling much more than he was earlier. The wire was slowly growing weaker and weaker. It was on its last strand. Stephen was about to go headfirst into a brick wall and plummet to his death. Then, he remembered something.

When the wire broke, he leaped into the air, causing him to glide the opposite direction from the wire, and dove straight into the girl and tackled her, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Only for a moment, the girl looked to be taken by surprise by Stephen's plan. "There's no escaping now. I don't mean to hurt you, but you forced me to. You ignored me and didn't speak to me at all." Then, after a long pause, the girl finally said:

"Alright. You got me. I guess you can't run away from all your problems, isn't that right, Stephen?"

Her voice sounded like the same voice he heard back in that strange cave. It was the girl. It must've been her.

"Linda?"

"I'm glad you remembered my name. The question is, do you remember anything else? Don't you remember the conversations we had in middle school? Do you remember me?"

"I wish I could say I did, but I don't."

Here again. He walked through the isles of stored files. What was the point of looking for something non-existent? Maybe that's not the right mentality to have. Maybe searching was the wrong answer. Perhaps... he would have to create a key. Stephen snapped back to reality. He felt the warmth she gave him and the strange sense of familiarity she gave off to him. She was calm and collected even in this situation where she is cornered. Then he remembered who she was. Stephen forged the key and then unlocked the file cabinet.

His eyes lit up and immediately she knew what that meant. A strong silence grew upon them and it was just a moment between them. Finally, Stephen collapsed into Linda's arms. He was so happy he could remember. In a soft voice, Stephen said, "I remember now. I remember who you are, Lin." This made her happy beyond comprehension. "I honestly didn't think you'd make it this far, Stephen. The reason I ran away from you was that it was so unexpected I had to prepare something, but I guess you just had to ruin it, haha" then they both had a little laugh together.

Linda was Stephen's only friend and Stephen was Linda's only friend. They had other friends but they felt like they were the only people that genuinely cared. They treated each other like brother and sister, however, one day she mysteriously disappeared. For some reason, it seemed like when she disappeared, Stephen forgot she ever existed. No human would ever do that to someone so close to them. Perhaps it had something to do with Betiko where anyone who even acknowledged her had their memory wiped of her.

"I can't join you on your journey if you were wondering, Stephen. It's too dangerous for me, that whole chase you did was unexpected and could've hurt us badly."

"That's fine. I'm satisfied knowing someone like you still cares for me."

"Thanks..."

"You can still join me in the bar if you want."

"No thanks. Aren't we both too young to drink any way?"

"Lin. we're on another planet. For all we know, a bar could mean anything. They might not serve drinks. Plus, drinking laws could state that even babies can drink here!"

"Haha, I guess I'll come with you."

So then they arrived at the bar, Rose and Salutem having seated themselves at a table.

"Took you long enough Stephen. Looks like you made a new friend as well. That's pretty cool. I already know her."

Then they seated themselves at the table and enjoyed a nice meal. The whole bar was filled with friendly people and Stephen felt more confident knowing everyone liked him. The people didn't seem as alien as they were from before, and Stephen was more prepared for variety. It was nice.

     Earlier, Rose had a close call. Walking down the familiar streets of Last Lights, she encountered someone she knew. They jumped out of a window and dumped a bucket of oil on her then whapped her on the head.