Here I Go Again

We’re back. We finally have returned. We successfully outran the Archangel for so long, and now we’re back to the Tower. Oh god. The feelings overcoming me right now are wonderful. I suppose I should explain how all this all ended up appearing.

Basically, Elise and I split up from Sol, Luna, and Sylvia. So after driving for hours, stealing from stores (I’m now wanted all throughout Alabama and Mississippi) and having altogether probably too much sex, Elise and I somehow made it through everything.

Earlier today we got a note from a Patchwork Vulture, who had been treated like a carrier pigeon to give the paper to us before flying back to the Screaming Tower. It was from Mistress. I could tell by her handwriting. It said “Come back to the Tower. Have Timberwolves for ransom. It’s safe. Hurry.” So Elise and I were naturally overjoyed. We got in her car and she probably broke about 40 various traffic laws on our way to the nearest door. But we got there.

Once we got into the parking lot, there were a few things I noticed. One, all the cars, with the exception of Sol’s truck, were blown up. Their burned skeletons made it look like I had driven into a junkyard. Or a disaster zone, was more the case. The Tower had fallen into disrepair, and chunks from what I assumed were the top had fallen all over the parking lot. What’s more, there were considerably fewer Patchwork Vultures. Carcasses were laying around, and Elise made a slightly disgusted as a few of the surviving ones flew to the ground next to the parking lot, and tearing away the stitched-up skin and flesh of a dead one. Ah, well, once a vulture, always a vulture, regardless of how patchwork they may be.

Getting out of the car, I noticed something I hadn’t near the entrance of the Tower. Corpses. Many of them. Dolls, Timberwolves, Campers, Slenderproxies, Oathbreakers, Maenads, a few Archivists, and one Grayskin. There don’t seem to be many of those to begin with, and as shown by Elise, they’re pretty powerful.

The Doll at the gate, ever watchful, but seemed to be rather injured, as one of his arms was limp, and one of his nostrils seemed to have collapsed or something, was there, observing the surroundings for enemies. He looked up at Elise and I in surprise, and without saying anything, opened the gate for us. That’s how he was always. I’ll have to learn his name at some point.

Either way, once we got inside, the full extent of the damage came to light. The walls looked like they were going to collapse, having long cracks in them. The doors were off their hinges, and many of the windows had been boarded up, shattered in whatever did this.

I made it to Mistress’s room, and there I saw something horrifying. Mistress was dead, split in half, the wood around her stomach splintered and unruly. I dropped to my knees. Whatever had happened was recent, and I had been too late. “Daniel…” Elise began to say, but I put my hand up. It was not sadness that caused this reaction, but anger, and I knew whatever consoling Elise was trying to give me would just make me angry, possibly at her, and I didn’t want this. Finally, I had a stable relationship in my life, which is kind of ironic considering the nature of my life nowadays.

“Makes ya think, doesn’t it?” The closet door opened and there was Mistress. “This is what ya WOULD’VE seen if Sylvia had come back a minute later. Don’t ask me why I didn’t hafta have the body burned this time, some stuff with reality and the universe came up or something.” She said.

“Mistress? You’re alive?” I asked her, a sense of relief coming up. Another flare of anger came up. Why the hell would she trick me? What drove her to do that?

“Sure as hell am. And go ahead, be angry. The Brute’s been hanging around recently. But if ya wanna know what happened, I’ll tell ya. Basically, we’ve been under constant assault by Timberwolves and Maenads. Seems The Archangel and The Rake have teamed up. EAT pulled outta our agreement, the bitch, and made about three dozen Dolls Campers in the process. The Burning Bride hasn’t been seen in a while, so we’re guessing we’re just down to The Blind Man and The Choir on our side. Tall, Dark, and Diseased has teemed up with The Slender Man, but they seem to be against both us and Archie, so it ain’t all bad there. There are also rumours of The Convocation and The Intrusion joining up, but I haven’t heard much ‘bout them.” Mistress summed up.

“I’ll have to ask Lydia about that.” I chuckled.

“Lydia? Who’s Lydia?” Mistress asked.

“Some bitchy Nest who comments on my blog.” I replied.

“Ah, whatever. I don’t much care about her.” Mistress waved it off. “I’ve called all the Willing Dolls in America here. Talk to Sol if ya wanna meet em.” Mistress said.

“Your voice.” Elise said.

“What about it?” Mistress asked.

“It sounds different.” Elise commented.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Sylvia used a Doll from Maine.” Mistress rolled her eyes.

“Wait, people live there?” Elise asked, and that hit a nerve.

“Yes, honey, we’ve been there.” I replied, through gritted teeth.

“I thought that there was just houses and cars and things, and the government was using it for an experiment or something. I mean, why else would there be those massive towers and no noticeable people?” Elise asked.

“Honey, that was Cutler…” still with the gritted teeth, I spoke.

“I mean, really, who seriously would want to live in Maine?”

“I’m from Maine, Elise!” I yelled.

“Really? I thought you were from Pennsylvania.” Elise replied.

“I lived in Maine for 14 years before moving to Pennsylvania.” I responded with a sigh.

“Oh. I’m a little surprised this didn’t come up.” Elise responded.

“Whatever, ya two lovebirds. Get outta here, I’m gettin a wicked headache listen to ya two bicker about nothin.” Mistress said, shooing us out. We left, still debating whether people actually lived in Maine, or whether deer had evolved to be on par with humans. In the end, we concluded, it was not the deer, but in fact, the mosquitoes that had learned to function like humans. God only knows they were big enough to do so.

Eventually, we found Sol, who fist bumped me and gently hugged Elise. “You guys! How’d you fare?” He asked us.

“Pretty well. Had to kill a couple timberwolves and hide the bodies, but otherwise we just traveled a lot. You?” I replied.

“We actually ran into Archie himself on a few occasions.” Sol sighed. “But we got away. Luna’s all healed up. Sylvia’s just fine.” He chuckled. Upon hearing her name, Sylvia came into the room, and her eyes lit up almost instantly.

“Daniel! I so glad you okay!” She ran up to me and glomped me, completely ignoring Elise, as usual. She didn’t like Elise, and Elise didn’t like her.

“Hello Sylvia.” I replied, trying to get her off me, as she had firmly latched onto me in the air, and showed no signs of a desire to stop.

Luna stood in the doorway, looking as healthy and fit as she had the day I met her. “Well, I’m glad to see you two are all right. In the common room is everyone else. All the new Willing Dolls that are here, that is.” She said, walking back into the room. “Thompson’s here.” I heard her say, and there was applause directly following it. I had to go check it out. Finally getting Sylvia to let go, I got myself into the room. There were twelve Willing Dolls seated on couches and chairs.

“I’ll explain em quickly.” Luna said. “This one here is Cat.” She did look kinda cat-like. Of course, the black bodysuit and cat headband didn’t help.

“This one sitting next to her is Tyrone.” She pointed to a big, muscular, stereotypical looking black guy. I guess he was gonna be the major muscle for the team. I was surprised when he said hello, he sounded very refined and polite. Never judge a book by it’s cover, I suppose.

“That one over there is Turnip. We don’t know his real name, all we know is he loves eating turnips, so we call him that.” Turnip paid me no notice, and continued reading. Kind of reminded me of myself when I was 13.

“Then there’s Burnlove.” Luna went on, pointing at a girl who looked to be about nine or ten, but had massive burn scars all over the exposed portions of her body. Since it’s July, and there’s no AC in the Tower, that was a great deal. “Burnlove is her last name. A lot of them go by their last names around here.” Luna put in.

“That one looking out the window is Blondie.” Luna continued, pointing to a woman in her mid-40s with ridiculously blonde hair. Once again, as with Turnip, she ignored me.

“Then there’s Darren. He likes to use a mop as a weapon, though we don’t know why. I think he’s a little deranged.” Luna pointed to someone who was mopping the floor without using any water. Another one who ignored me. Ah well.

“There’s also Proxy. He used to be a Lilim, but then he became a Slenderproxy, then a Timberwolf, and finally is now a Doll. He doesn’t know what he is at this point, so he calls himself ‘Proxy.” Luna explained, pointing to a man in his late 20s, thoughtfully smoking a pipe.

“Then we got Mac. Mac was once a Truck Driver, but then he started shipping things for the Fears, lost his job, and was left homeless. But he’s still around, clearly.” Luna pointed to a large man sitting in an armchair. He looked about 60, and he tipped his baseball cap to me when our eyes met. I responded by tipping my Trilby to him.

“Afterwards, we have Thomas. Thomas looks like he’s a druggie, and it was confirmed when we found him snorting cocaine in the bathroom this morning.” She pointed to a guy who definitely looked like a crackhead.

“We have Led and Zeppelin, the two twins.” Luna pointed to two teenage girls who looked exactly the same. They were wearing identical Led Zeppelin T-shirts, but one of them had tape over the Led and the other the Zeppelin. Clever.

“And last but not least, we have this girl. Her name’s Realitea. She said she knew you.” I drew my knife.

“What are you doing here?!” I yelled at her. “Last time I saw you, you were a high-ranking timberwolf!”

“I know.” She looked remorseful. “But after meeting you, I just couldn’t resist joining your Mistress…after all…” She stood up and walked over to me, falling against me and putting a hand on my chest. “You’re so charming.” She whispered at me. I sighed. I could practically feel Elise’s anger behind me.

I pushed Realitea off me, not bothering to be gentle. “Look, you. Until you can prove to me that you’re on my side, I’m not going to trust you. Understand?” I asked her.

“I suppose…” Realitea looked saddened. I felt a little bad, but that was that.

“So…we’re all that’s left?” Mac asked.

“Seems like it.” Darren responded.

“All the Willing Dolls?” Elise asked.

“Yes, sadly.” Luna replied. “Apparently the timberwolves have been systematically killing us off.” She sighed. “It’s sad…”

I looked at the clock on the wall. 10:00PM. Time for bed. I bade everyone goodnight, and Elise and I retired to bed. Then I typed this out. Back to normalcy, relatively. More updates tomorrow.

~Thompson out.