Tripping over Time

Jamie awoke abruptly as the BMW came to a sudden halt. When she sat up and peered out the window lazily, her senses instantaneously alerted and heightened at the sight before her. What a bizarre safe house. You couldn’t even call it that. It was a beautifully tall, renaissance sort of tower standing alone in a meadow. She couldn’t picture such a structure existing in America unless it was for some Fair which regularly happened in Lancaster. Jamie then wondered if thats where they had driven to, and that these two strangers were in fact loonies of a renaissance fair. The time period was right after all...but then again it wouldn’t have taken them as long as it did to arrive. The tower’s walls were made of white stone and the roof was an orange-red construction of layered tiles. It appeared to be straight out of Rapunzel, except instead of only window and no door there was nothing, no visible way of entering making it all the more strange.

Jamie was about to ask Thomas how they planned to get in when suddenly he pulled out an ornate silver dagger, bejeweled with rubies and sapphires on its hilt, and threw it straight at the tower. She arched an eyebrow, watching it hit in between two stones at the crevice, causing the triggering of some unknown contraption. Next thing she knew a stone pushed back and slid to the side, revealing an electronic combination lock.

“Why didn’t you just go up to the door and push in the dagger in like normal people?” Then she realized that wouldn’t have been normal at all either, just less dramatic. Thomas ignored her comment and passed Anya who stood in front of the both of them , entering a code into the lock, his fingers too swift for Jamie to even get an idea of what numbers he had pressed. Once again she could hear the trigger of yet another contraption (or perhaps even the same one) as multiple stones pushed inwards and off to the side, acting as a door.

Her two ‘protectors’ went inside, disappearing into the darkness. Jamie, however, paused, intimidated by the looming building. She had never liked towers, every time she entered one, like that one vacation where her and her parents took a road trip across Europe, she felt an immense dread, as if any moment something awful would occur. Swallowing hard she slowly moved forward, step-by-step. Soon she was at the base of the tower, right in front of the door. “Everything alright?” Called Thomas from somewhere inside, noticing her discomfort. Jamie nodded, her foot slowly lifting to make the final step inside. There. She was officially inside of the tower, the door closed behind her, and she could see nothing.

Standing still out of panic she could hear the shuffling of feet as Anya grumbled with frustration, “Where is the damn light switch!”

Thomas laughed not too far away, and suddenly his face was illuminated as he flipped on a lighter, moving by the door where Jamie stood he reached behind her and lit the torch, making the small area burst with light. Looking up she could see that the entire tower was hollow, with no stairs, just tall empty space. “Some safe house…” she muttered, looking at her surroundings. Yet it was true technically, since even in this awful space they were fully protected from the outside. It was just the inside with lack of comfort that was the problem.

“The electricity must not be working in this corridor. You’re not very patient are you?” He said smirking, the first happy emotion he had shown for some time since they had met only a day ago.

She couldn’t help but smile in return, shaking her head slowly, “You only live once,” She stated simply. This caused him to look away uncomfortably, drifting back to his secretive mode. Damn it.

A little less action-movie like compared to the other entrances Thomas had made he opened an old rotting trap door that stood beneath them, its hinges creaking loudly from lack of use. Beneath lay a staircase made from the same type stone as the tower itself. Following Anya’s descent she was put in between the two diagonally, as if they were bodyguards. The stairwell was dark and musty, the air stale; the trap door clearly hadn’t been opened for some time, especially due to all the cobwebs she could feel her hair run into, which she repeatedly attempted to get out.

Finally after twenty minutes or so of sweating down the long humid stairwell they reached the damp-cobble-stoned end. Jamie sighed with frustration as she looked ahead of her, seeing an antique, iron-rod elevator decorated with little fleur de lis all over. “How far down must we go before we are safe?” She inquired bitterly to no one in particular, her arms crossed over her black blouse. Thomas turned to her, barely sweating but serious:

“First, some ground rules. Everything that has and will happen will be told to no one. All right?”

Tapping her foot on the cobblestone floor she nodded, rolling her eyes, “You really have no faith in my intelligence Thomas, how hurtful!” She flailed her hands about dramatically, unable to conceal a smirk. “Besides, why bother telling a story no one apart from psycho's would believe?” This caused Thomas and even Anya to smile.

“I am going to regret this but I think she can handle it,” The other stated in her thick Russian accent, shaking her head as she still continued to smile.

“You know Anya,” Jamie began curiously, “Thomas has sort of given me a clue as to who he is, or at least who he claims to be. Yet you remain mysterious, care to share?” She smiled innocently, batting her eyelashes, her eyes opening up with a fake sort of wonder. Maybe flattery will give answers.

Anya simply laughed, “Don’t you worry little girl,” She said smiling just as fake as Jamie, pinching her cheek teasingly, “Everything will be told to you all in good time,” Jamie couldn’t help but simply laugh as she sighed with defeat. This had to be what, the millionth attempt at getting answers? Might as well laugh at it instead of being continually pissed off.

Turning away, Thomas lightly pressed on the elevator button, causing the iron-rod doors to creak open. For once, it was he and Anya who hesitated, clearly still not sure as to whether reveal whatever they were about to do or whatever was about to happen to Jamie. She didn’t care about their decisions anymore, they were too close for her to even think about stopping then. Jamie strutted into the elevator, causing it to creak even more, which brought down her confidence for a split second. “We don’t have all day,” She took Thomas’ hand, causing him to jump a bit with surprise, and pulled him in, Anya as always following behind. Why is he so uneasy? She thought to herself as they went further underground. She assumed she’d find out soon enough. More like she had better find out soon enough, or her somewhat pleasant demeanor was sure to change back to freak-out-mode.

“Well Jamie,” He began, “You are about to meet the The Guardians of Time.”