Chapter Three

Save me?

Lucianne stared between the piece of paper as cold heat spread across her back. Just then, a man passed by behind her and the hands of the woman behind the counter shot out to hers and clawed the piece of paper away from Lucianne's fingers, leaving some red scratches behind.

She winced and lifted them up to look at them. Rubbing her other fingers against the tiny wounds, she blinked at the woman in disbelief. The man disappeared into another room, but did not close the door. In a flash, the woman pushed the ball of crumpled paper into her mouth and began to chew hard.

"Can I have my keys?" Lucianne asked.

The woman opened a drawer and took a set of two keys out, passing them to her before her hands returned to her mouth, covering it as she chewed and chewed. The man reappeared from the room and stood by the doorframe, watching the woman closely. Lucianne stared between them as the man walked up to the woman and put a palm up under her jaw.

The woman froze as she glared at the man in fear, her body rigid as a block of ice. The man smiled thinly at her and before long, her jaw opened and the ball of paper came falling onto his palm, along with a long string of saliva that came from her front teeth.

"Thank you," he said to her and disappeared into the back room with the ball of paper in his hands. The woman brushed the creases from her cardigan and faced Lucianne again, this time with a smile.

"How may I help you?"

Lucianne leaned in and dropped her voice several registers. "Are you alright?"

The woman smiled painfully. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you need help?" Lucianne whispered.

"D-Do you have identity of proof?" the woman said. "I mean, proof of identity?"

"What's your name?"

"Francine."

"I'm Lucianne."

"How may I help you?" Francine asked.

Lucianne looked at her up and down. The entire posture of her body was on high alert, though she was trying hard to appear calm. Her jaw was clenched and her eyes wide, her arms trembling slightly as her hand rested on the table, her thumb tucked under four fingers.

"Do you - " Lucianne asked as the man popped his head out of the door to look at the both of them.

"Student, if you have nothing else to do here, please leave. There is a line forming behind you and I have to serve them."

"But - "

"Please, leave."

"Alright then," she said, sighing. She left the general office with her luggage and looked around for signs pointing her to Tower Sphinx. Some students dressed in uniform passed her by, bright smiles on their faces, curious glances at her. Before long, she found herself walking down hallways.

The interior was a light brown, much like the colour of the dried grass outside. Torches hung at regular intervals on the brick walls, wax dripping down the sides of the dark metal holders. There was a long carpet spread in the middle of the road down the hallway that did not cover fully from left to right and the colour was of coagulated blood. There were patches of carpet darker than the rest of it and the edges were rimmed with black.

Eventually, she found a sign pointing her to Tower Sphinx and as she treaded the path to it, her skin chilled, even though the air was still. She stopped before a door that she had been directed to. There was a plaque on the door, but it was so rusted that she couldn't make the words out. Pushing the door open, it creaked loudly under the weight of her hands and she took a step in.

She was out in the field again. Dried grass was beneath her feet and she was in the space between two looming buildings. The space was suffocating, and she spotted a sign that pointed her to the right for the location of Tower Sphinx. She followed it.

When she emerged from the narrow space between the buildings, a thin bricked tower the colour of smoke stood towards the left, a small door at the bottom of it. A wooden sign with the words she wanted to see was in front of it and she headed towards the tower.

When she was before the door, she tried the handle, only for it to not budge. Taking her keys out, she put one key in but the lock did not turn. She put the other key in, and it turned. The door opened to a stairway with a steep rise between each step and hanging lightbulbs over every few steps. She turned around to lock the door behind her.

Pulling her luggage behind her, she ascended the steps slowly, the luggage clacking at every step while she hauled it over with all her strength. Her forehead was slick with perspiration by the time she reached the top.

Looking forwards, she saw a wooden window frame with translucent curtains blowing inwards as wind escaped into the top of the tower. A grand piano was right in the middle of the room and there was nothing else there. Towards her right was a red door with a lock that she figured the other key would open.

Leaving her luggage by the stairwell, she moved towards the grand piano and slumped down on the wooden stool before it to catch her breath. She brushed her hair that had stuck to her temples away and waved some air into her face with her hand. Her breathing still ragged, she tried to slow her heart rate down by staring at the peaceful sway of the white curtains as the wind grazed upon the thin fabric.

It didn't take long before her breath returned to normal, and she got up from the seat to approach her luggage, deciding to check her room out. But before she could take a step forwards, the blood in her veins was paralysed.

There were sounds of footsteps ascending the stairwell.