The Hazing Tower

by Leland Roys

  She memorized the instructions and handed the phone back. They changed trains two more times, as the directions stated. They got out at the station she memorized. They sat down and waited. It wasn’t a long wait. Two men walked up and sat down on the chairs to the left and right of them.

  “We both have guns, so don’t do anything stupid. You can’t stop two bullets, not even you, Nikki.”

  They walked with them to the street level. The sky was grey and it seemed even colder than before. They got into a white van and immediately she felt a hood being pulled over her head and her hands tied.

  Had she fallen asleep? They must have drugged her. She felt dazed as the van seemed to come to a stop. She felt herself being pulled forward. She could sense they had entered some type of building. It was warm and the wind had stopped.

  “Let go of her, you idiots! And take that hood off her! She could snap your necks before you even blinked.” A man with a black mask waved the men out of the room as he glared at them.

  “Nikki, please forgive me, it is so hard to find good help these days. I have been waiting lifetimes to meet you. I can see it was worth the wait. Please, sit down. I really apologize for how you got here. Those guys are worthless; I know you could have killed them both with a flick of your wrist,” he said with an accent. “Do you drink tea?”

  Nikki nodded. She stared at his mask. It looked like the material was some type of metal. She could see what looked like dead skin underneath. He looked like a monster.

  “Where is my friend? The other girl.”

  “She is fine. The drugs lasted longer on her. She is sleeping calmly. You are strong, Nikki; the drugs didn’t even slow you down.” He smiled slightly. It was hard to tell through the mask.

  She sat down in a leather chair and scanned the room. Antiques everywhere. Paintings, some she recognized; must be millions, probably billions of dollars worth. The word was priceless, she remembered. Something caught her eye. A whole wall of clocks; there must be thousands of them. Intricate, beautiful. Clocks of every type.

  “Ah, I see you found my weakness. I collect them. Yes, clocks, of course. But then you know all about the little time trick we can play.”

  He walked over and picked up one of them from a glass display.

  “This is my favorite. They say it was the first pocket watch. Made in 1510 by an inventor named Peter Henlein. It still works, you know; it works perfectly after all this time. Hold it. This is when they really made things to last, not like the cheap stuff today. Such a sad state of affairs; we have gone from craftsmanship to mass production, the opposite of advancement. I would trade a smart phone for this art any day.” He handed it to her and walked back to a chair and sat down.

  “Why haven’t you killed me?” Nikki asked.

  He closed his eyes. “Killing. Why does everyone always talk about death first? Why not start with life! You are alive now, am I right? You have never felt more alive; I know you feel it.”

  “You said you will let them go, my friends, if I what? If I stay here?”

  “Your friends are of no consequence to me. Why should I hurt them? They are like flies to you and me. The girl that came with you; she is out cold from a simple sleeping pill! Do you think she is a threat to me?” He laughed again. “Nikki, I know you understand. You are not a fool. You sense the power you possess. You must realize what you could do, what we could do together.”

  “Alex didn’t have time to teach me much.”

  The masked man laughed. “Oh, Nikki, my sweet girl, you are not a very good liar. We can work on that; Rebecca, now, she was good at it — she fooled me, you know.” He seemed to pause for a moment as he thought about Rebecca. She must have meant something to him, somewhere deep down.

  “Don’t feel bad. The best liars are such because they have turned off their emotions. What is life without emotions? Without love, hope, happiness? If you give me time, I can teach you to lie without that trade-off. It’s not easy, as you can see. I can read you like a book; you might as well give up on trying to fool me. It took me almost 20 years to learn to lie without detection.”

  “Why would you believe I would work with you?” Nikki asked.

  “Nikki, you grew up on the streets, in a foster home. I know you better than you know yourself. True, you are emotional, but you also think with logic. What I am offering you is a life beyond anything you can imagine. Do you see it? Worlds await for us. How long do you think it will be before space travel is perfected? We have time to wait. Nikki, we could be the first to discover a new planet, new life. The possibilities are endless.”

  “And the cost?”

  He sighed. “Do you think it is easy to live this long? Even with the advantages we have? There will always be people who want us dead. I have lived this long because up until now I have thought decades ahead of everyone else. I need you, Nikki. I need someone with your power, your intelligence.

  “How many died in your wars? The Civil War? World War II? Were those wars any different from now? Do you think I find enjoyment in killing? I do not. It is a necessary evil.”

  “My parents?” Nikki dared asking.

  His eyes were so sharp, almost like knives.

  “They would have died in any case. I wanted them alive. Rebecca, well, she thought she was helping them. If she wouldn’t have tried to escape with them, maybe, just maybe they could have lived.”

  She noticed it was dead quiet in the room. “You don’t wind them? The clocks?”

  “Very perceptive. As you know, our hearing tends to be above average. It would sound like a thunderstorm if I wound them all. Very distracting.”

  Distractions. Right. She had to remember her plan. She had to focus. Maybe she had a chance. After meeting him she doubted it, but she still had to try.

  “I know you think I’m lying, but I really don’t think I’m all that powerful.”

  His eyes seemed to darken. She had a bad feeling; as soon as she spoke, she regretted it.”

  “Well, then! Why don’t we play a little game? Let’s make this interesting.”

  He clapped his hands and one of his men walked over to him. He whispered something in his ear. Nikki felt a sick feeling slipping over her, she had pushed him; he was going to call her bluff.

  She started to say something when she heard crying. She turned herself around quickly. Jinny was crying. Two men were holding her arms; both had guns.

  “Logan, no, please. Just let her go. I will do whatever you want. You said it before; she doesn’t pose any threat to you.”

  “You know what, I would like you to shut up! You just can’t seem to stop talking. You really must think I am an idiot. Do you think Logan could come even close to what I have done! He is a mindless fool!”

  “What? You are not Logan?” Nothing was making sense again.

  “If you call me that name again I will kill you right now!”

  She could see the real monster now. He was sadistic, evil — pure evil. And now she didn’t even know who he was.

  “Cuff her to the bookshelf!” the masked man ordered, pointing to Jinny.

  Jinny stopped crying and opened her eyes wide.

  The masked man took a pistol from the man next to him and stood up.

  “No! I can’t control it. I did lie, I know I am powerful, but I don’t know how to start and stop it. Please, I beg you, don’t do this.”

  “I guess we will find out then. Stand still, girl, I don’t want to waste a bullet.”

  Nikki jumped out of her chair just as she heard the gun fire. She shut her eyes and focused as hard as she could. CRACK! The gun fired again, or maybe it was an echo. She opened her eyes to a vivid red scene of rippling colors. She saw the bullet. It was moving fast. She didn’t have time to grab anything. She just ran, jumping over a table in the center of the room and grabbing the bullet with her right hand.

  She hit the floor and more red splashed against her face. She looked down and part of her hand was gone. The bullet had gone right through h
er; it had torn a hole through her hand.

  She felt stunned as she jumped back up. The bullet was so close to Jinny now, she needed something solid — the watch! She had dropped it when she jumped out of the chair. She was feeling dizzy now and started to stumble as she picked up the watch. She wasn’t going to make it; Jinny was going to die. She felt a wave of panic shake through her. She ran directly to Jinny and stood in front of her. The bullet was maybe two feet away now, headed directly for her chest. She held the watch as firmly as she could; her right arm was totally numb now.

  SNAP!

  She was staring up at the ceiling. It had paintings all over it. Almost looked like a church, she thought to herself.

  “Nikki! Are you OK? What did you do to her, Logan!” Jinny screamed.

  “Bravo! Bravo! Now wasn’t that fun, everyone!” the masked man said gleefully. He walked slowly over to Nikki and stood over her. He shook his head. “I told you not to lie. Now look at your hand. I hope you didn’t plan to learn the piano, such a pity. And tell your little friend about our name rule.”

  Nikki looked up. “Jinny, are you OK?”

  She nodded. “Your hand, Nikki, you’re hurt.”

  Nikki pulled her arm up and blood soaked her shirt. Her hand was torn to shreds.

  The masked man talked to his men again, and one of them roughly picked up Nikki. “We will get that wrapped up for you. Wouldn’t want to have our special gift die on us so soon. Let’s try this again tomorrow! I haven’t had this much fun in decades!”

  “Nikki! Wake up!”

  She slowly opened her eyes. “Jinny, what happened?” She started to remember. She pulled her arm up and saw the bandaged hand. Blood was seeping through.

  “Nikki, I’m so sorry. He’s insane, Nikki, totally insane.”

  She nodded. “I know. Don’t be sorry. Jinny. And he isn’t Logan.”

  “What?”

  “I don’t know who he is. Rebecca was wrong. Logan is not at the top of all this.”

  Jinny held Nikki’s left hand and squeezed tightly.

  “We’re in some kind of bedroom. I looked around a bit. There are two men at the door, we can forget trying to run.”

  Nikki thought about it. He had two reasons for that stunt. One was just for his sadistic own fun, the other was to weaken her. She was totally spent by that; she was no threat to him for now. He had clearly thought this through for a very long time.”

  Jinny was rubbing Nikki’s hair, and softly crying.

  “Jinny.”

  “You don’t need to say it. I know. We have no choice now.”

  Nikki put her finger over her lips, the international don’t talk symbol. She tried to sit up, which was very hard. She pointed in the direction of what looked like a shower.

  They found the shower and turned it up all the way. Steam filled the entire room; hopefully it would obscure any cameras.

  She whispered into Jinny’s ear. “I think this is the safest place. They probably have cameras everywhere. Jinny, up to now, I was thinking I could reason with him, make some kind of deal. Clearly that won’t happen. As you said, he’s insane. He will kill anyone that gets in his way; actually I think he will kill just for fun. Whoever he is, he probably killed Logan already.”

  “Do it,” Jinny said. “I’m not scared anymore.” Jinny looked again like she did on the train — strong, ready to fight, or die in this case.

  “Get in the shower. Give me a second. I need to do something.”

  She pulled her shoes close to her and lifted off the top of the leather. She broke the glass separating the first two chemicals in both shoes. They were ready.

  Nikki got in the shower. Jinny was crying, she could tell even with all the steam. Nikki held her face softly. “I’m sorry it ended up this way, Jinny.”

  “I know. I am so stupid, but I don’t regret this.”

  “You are so brave.”

  “Do you believe in heaven?” Jinny asked so quietly.

  Nikki paused.

  “You know, if you would have asked me that a year ago, I probably would have said no. Now, after all this. Eternal life, everything. Who am I to say there isn’t more out there than I can understand? I do believe, Jinny. I think we will all be together again. I really do.”

  “Thanks,” Jinny said. “I never was religious, I guess it’s true what they say.” Nikki thought she saw Jinny smile. “There are no atheists when you’re on your deathbed. Or something like that. I forget the exact quote, but it never made sense until now.”

  Nikki smiled. “I have a strong feeling we will see Alex and Josh again.”

  “And you, Nikki. I love you, too, you know.”

  “Same here, you crazy kid.” She shook her head. “Oh, you are trouble.”

  “OK, let’s go over the plan. We have only one shot at making this work.”

  They used the cover of the shower to discuss the next steps, then quietly went back to bed.

  They both faked sleeping for about six hours. Nikki’s heart was racing as she walked back into the bathroom. Jinny had already asked to get breakfast early, as they had planned.

  Nikki took a shower again and tried to envision her plan while the steam provided a world of white. Why was she so sad? She was destined to die. She already had been given a second chance. Maybe it was short, but most people don’t even get that. She wanted to feel brave, to feel like she was a hero. She didn’t for some reason. She missed Alex so much it was beyond anything she had ever felt. The only reason she wanted to die now was that the pain of missing him would be over. Jinny was so brave. If she could be so brave then that was the answer. Nikki had been trained for this. This was her job. She needed to be her old self again now, putting the bigger picture above her life. But she wished more than anything that Jinny wasn’t here.

  She dressed herself and carefully put her shoes back on. Distractions, Nikki! she said to herself.

  Her heart was pounding as she walked out of her room. She had to calm down; he was going to read her like a book.

  “You’re up! Just in time for the family gathering!” He pulled a chair out for her. “Your friends have already joined us; are you feeling ready for another game today?” He smiled. “Too bad about your hand. Maybe this time you will be smarter.”

  Nikki almost fell down as she scanned the table. There was Rebecca, sitting next to her a handsome man she had never seen before. She realized in a flash that it must be Logan.

  Nikki looked over to Jinny. She looked calm and was sipping tea. The china cup looked like it was worth millions itself.

  “I heard you like tea. Wait until you taste this. All the way from southern China. And older than any of us, even me.”

  Someone filled her cup with tea. Her hand started to shake.

  “I think I know your favorite drink already,” he smiled; it was like he was looking right into her mind.

  She looked across the table. Did she see Rebecca slightly shake her head? She stared at her eyes. Was she telling her to end it now?

  She let go of the cup and it shattered at her feet. “Sorry! That must be expensive!”

  She bent down and pressed the toe of her shoe, a tear rolled down her face and dropped into the air; she could see it in slow motion as it fell to the ground.

  CRACK! The pain was excruciating. She felt like she was being electrocuted. She closed her eyes and tried to use her gift. She focused as hard as she could. She opened her eyes and saw the familiar red. SNAP! It went back to white, then nothing. All she saw was black.

  Was she dead? It was dark, beyond dark. She couldn’t see a thing. Not even her hand in front of her face. She reached down to feel for her shoes. She was barefoot.

  She had lost. It was over.

  • • •

  War

  Nikki felt herself slowly waking up. Did her bomb work? Did it go off? She couldn’t remember now. She opened her eyes and the sun blinded her. She tried to look around. She was outside somewhere? It must be his private garden.

/>   “Foolish girl. Did you really think you could take me on and win?” He laughed hard. It was the monster. She could never forget that voice.

  She tried to talk but nothing came out. It felt like she hadn’t had water for weeks.

  “We’re having a small party, Nikki. All your friends are here. Oh, and try your tricks all you want. I think you will find my electric net is very effective. You didn’t think I would have a backup plan? After all these years? I will always be a step ahead, I always have been. I must say that bomb you tried, very smart. You got close; if you were not so emotional, you might actually have killed me. Just so you know, it was a single tear that gave you away. You came so close, Nikki. Those pesky emotions, they will be the end of us all.”

  Nikki looked down and realized she had been shot with some type of taser; electric barbs were all over her, pulsing. From the corner of her eye she could see a man holding the taser gun. She could hardly even move her head, and she could feel the electricity from the taser device shooting through every part of her.

  “Brilliant, isn’t it! I designed this electric net, as I call it; I guess I really am a genius.” He laughed insanely.

  She felt him grab her head and twist it.

  “Look at him! Look at your lover!”

  It was Alex. He was against the wall. He was alive. He looked completely broken; she could see it in his eyes. Next to him was Rebecca. Her face was bruised. One of her eyes was swollen shut. Logan was next to Rebecca; he looked like he was already dead, or unconscious.

  “What a love triangle! On one side we have Logan, so in love with Rebecca.” He let out a loud sigh. “Ah, but then Rebecca is forever in love with Alex, such a tragic tale. And we all know who Alex loves — sweet Nikki!”

  Nikki closed her eyes and tried to focus, nothing happened. She couldn’t get it to start.

  “I love games!” Richter laughed hysterically.

  The sound of a gunshot echoed from the hills in the distance.