Tower Race

Her hand burned as she threw open the front doors of Sidhe Towers.  Looking back, Sam spied the shadows skittering across the alley along the far side of the street.

Closing the doors, she could see the eyes of three seekers, fixed directly on her now.

She muttered the words and pulled a burin from her boot.

The hooded figures walked slowly, with dark purpose, towards the citadel.

Sam etched into the glass of the doorway an inscription surrounding an inverted triangle. "No passage."

The figures approached the door.  Each was white as bone. Each mouth hung open in agony.  Each fixated on the sigil, contemplating it. One of the creatures slapped a hand against the metal frame, the skin of its hand loose fitting and wet.

Sam stepped backwards, flailing her hand behind her, her fingertips finally catching the elevator buttons. Her chest was hurting, burning from the adrenaline. The machinery of the elevator engaged, and the whirring sounds competed with the whispers of the three gaunt creatures outside.

The wraiths stopped whispering and, the center figure approaching within inches of the glass, peering within,attempting a glimpse of its quarry.

Writhing fibers fell out from the vestments of the center ghool, and bony long fingers pushed through the skin of its hands, tearing through the fleshy gloves like razors.  It was the scarecrow. It pulled the face from its eyeless skull, smooth except for the teeth which spread from the space its mouth should be, but spread at all angled, as though stabbed into their sockets.  In a perverse tongue it cursed at the symbol and the glass upon which it was engraved shattered into a mist.

“Come on, come on!” Sam whispered, repeatedly stabbing at the elevator button.

The scarecrow stepped through the destroyed portal, and Sam recoiled.  The scarecrow began to scream, and other voices shrieked from within its body.  Voices of hate. Voices of ecstasy.

With a ding, Sam exhaled, and one of the tower elevators slid open. Sam stepped backwards into the elevator, resting against the rear of the car. The door did not close. “Shit.” Sam whispered to herself as she reached forward to stab a random floor.  Scarecrow broke into a run, its gate uneven. With a deep bass of a creature much larger than the wraith, she could hear the celebration.

"Your star has fallen."

The ground around the scarecrow rotted into green ichor and spread violently from its footsteps.  The doors began to close, but the creature was crossing the threshold, disease permeating the metal and rubber and tile.  Its claws curled at broken angles around the edges of the door, and she could see the outline of mismatched bones beneath its rags.  The scarecrow’s arms were strong, though its limbs appeared brittle. It’s mouth shaked violently as straw belched from its open shrieking mouth and the horrid sound filled the cabin.

"No!" Sam screamed, blocking her eyes with one arm while pressing the fingers of her free hand into the golem’s chest. The air shook as concussive wave blew her and scarecrow apart from one another. The doors slid shut and the elevator car rose.

She made it only to the tenth floor when the car jerked and lurched. The lights flickered. She wasted no time, and pulled open the elevator doors. She was caught between floors, but she quickly scrambled to the upper floor. A green taint was overtaking the car behind her and she could see the car plunge downwards.  The shaft was pungent and she could hear a strange children’s lullaby, sung through ragged vocal chords. She found her footing and pushed through a double set of doors into a stairway. Adrenaline kept her going, and from behind the walls around her she could hear children crying, close. She knew the dread creatures would be on top of her at any moment.

Two flights further up and Sam heard the crash of the creatures, who know had her scene.  A whispering manic cadence and occasional giggles, mocking the children’s moaning. The malice was palpable as the tendrils of putrid grew upwards along the stairwell.

Sam pulled a 9mm and fired it into the jamb of a door leading out of the stairway.  She lifted her boot and shoved hard. She tumbled forward, but used that time to releasing the clip from her gun and reload. Producing a second handgun, she rolled onto her back just in time to see a white seeker leap above her. Unloading with all the speed she could muster, she riddled the creature with gunfire. It lost its balance and continued its uncontrolled dive over her crashing hard into the floor. With a kick, she pushed the stairway door shut, slamming it hard on a hand grasping the frame. She sent a flurry of bullets at the hand, which retracted with a howl, and with another kick, the door was shut. She rolled back on her feet and began to run down the hall just as a hand from the crumpled wraith reached out, grabbing her leg.

Sam hissed an incantation against the creature and stuck her burin into its claw.  The crescendo of children screaming in pain accompanied the wraith’s own hawl as its hand burst into flame.  

She yanked her leg free and continued running. One of the seekers had reopened the door.  Not scarecrow. It shambled past its accomplice, who was shaking and contorting as its borrowed form went into a seizure. The prone beast tore the skin from his face, letting its true form show through. Unencumbered by its disguise, It lept to its mismatched feet from mismatched animals.  It galloped down the corridor after Sam. It was fast and driven. Wings opened from its back as it leapt to the ceiling, and inverted, clawed its to Sam, clawing its way to tear out her throat.

Sam took a sharp corner, and the beast, unable to adjust, overshot her. "No passage," Sam yelled as she produced a ceremonial dagger and shoved it sharply into the stucco of the hallway.  It wouldn’t hold the scarecrow, but it should restrain its minions. She reached the central area of the floor and caught two elevators open and waiting. Behind her she could here a low voice, “This swollen Earth longs for you." Scarecrow man was close. Sam took her knife and sliced her hand, flung a small pool of blood into the elevator car, and pressed the button sending it to the lobby while taking the second elevator herself to the 32th floor.

On the way up, she removed her jacket. "Benjamin, I need you. Help me." Tearing out some of the lining, she fashioned a bandage which she wrapped tightly around her bleeding hand. None of it could touch the ground, or the seekers would see her immediately. It would be only moments before her ruse was discovered. The screaming far in the distance corroborated this.

When the door again opened, she was in her office suite. It was silent.  Undisturbed. No sooner had she stepped out of the compartment than the lights went off. Emergency lighting flickered on instantly, and provided a meager illumination.  The power had been cut, and she was blocked access to the safe room.

Suddenly a wind, unexpected, blew across her face and children could be heard hushing in unison.

One of the seekers had foreseen her move, and was in the dark, waiting for her. She could see the shadow play across the wall as the thing moved in, but she had no hope of seeing the creature itself. It's breathing seemed familiar.

"Benjamin?"

The creature stood upright in front of her. "No." It sighed happily and pressed its claws against her forehead, preparing to take her face its trophy.

With a shriek, she fell backwards, slipping a dagger in between its ribs. It howled and reached towards its side. She muttered a quick incantation and the dagger burst into a jet of blue fire, and consumed the flesh of the creature. Without its mortal cage, it would be fierce, but also susceptible to the spells. As it giggled, screamed, and lumbered at her, she ejected an awkward syllable while striking the beast with her fist, sending the creature reeling. She wasted no time counter attacking the beast with a raking motion of her own, and with another incantation and a thrust of her palm, fired the creature through the suite and through the outer window, into the night air.

Retreating into the stairwell for a second time, she made her way up to the roof. She ran across the gravelly surface towards the edge, stopping short and flailing her arms. She stared thirty-three stories straight down to the streets below. Where was he? Sam’s hope sank. “Benjamin, where are you?” Her throat was ragged from the workout, and she seemed unable to throw off her scent. Scarecrow man was with them, and she was unable to get the devices from her office. She turned towards the door she emerged from and caught herself in a half sob. She looked around for possible rigging. Anything.

But there was nothing. She could hear the voices of children. Countless children whispering “hush.” She had read about this moment, about the children. Her hope was depleted.

Sam produced from her satchel a small vial. “Fuck this.” If she broke the glass against her skin, she would be doused, and would be a living bomb. Any seeker that touched her would trigger the reaction, and the entire roof would be obliterated.

As she eyed the vial, the door swung open. There stood three seekers, one still disguised as a man, but two now contemptuous monsters, wings spread agressively. Scarecrow passed between their ranks and tipped his hat towards Sam. "End of the line."

Sam raised the vial and as she began her death sentence, a form rose behind her, grabbed her forcefully and fell backwards, pulling her with it off the edge of the building. She lost her grip on the vial which spun upwards in an arc. One of the creatures desperately flew forward to catch the vial, but underestimated its fragility and it burst. A wall of flame exploded from the creature, cutting off her pursuers As she fell, she felt vertigo, and the creature which held her unfurled large wings which he beat, tearing her away horizontally at immense speeds.

"Benjamin?"

"Yes"