Timekeeper part 6

The eighth and ninth and chapter in a book I named Timekeeper where a boy finds himself pulled into a world that’s not his own, where much is expected of him. Friends turn to enemies as the boy is dragged deeper into the long dead world of Tithus discovering secrets that should have been left secret, medalling with powers that could lead to their own fall, just as the Timekeepers before them. Enjoy as the mystery unfolds...

(WARNING CONTAINS GORE)

Chapter 8-Tunnels
Samuel had 30 minutes left. He grabbed his trench coat and attached the short knife he was given along with his pistol onto his belt. “You’re going to need this,” Charlotte said handing Samuel a Mask that would only cover the mouth and nose, three straps leading off to attach it to the face.
“Do I put it on now?”
“Yes,” she took a rather large revolver out from her locker and loaded it.
“We gonna need that?”
“Were where going yes, Wraith territory, it’s full of them, and toxic gas, the last person to go down vomited out their insides,” she snapped the revolver shut and added it to her belt.
“Who was that?”
“Me,”
“Oh, then why are we going down there, it’s full of wraiths and toxic gas!”
“Only if you breathe it and it’s where I got my vibes when I was alive,”
Samuel strapped on the mask, Charlotte checked that it was on probably then secured her own and they were off.
They silently moved through the ruin, making their way down through the many holes in the floor, checking every room thoroughly before swiftly navigating their way through to the next. At one point Charlotte must have heard something because she grabbed Samuel shoving him behind the remains of a wall, drawing the revolver. But whatever it was passed and they were soon on their way.
15 minutes had passed before they reached the mouth of the tunnels, yellow fog hung thick in the air. She motioned for Samuel to draw his pistol and then descended into the tunnel, the fog engulfing them.
“Take the lead,” she whispered the mask muffling her voice.
He slowly moved forward, he could feel something all most pulling him forward, guiding him but nothing was touching him, he looked back and saw Charlotte inches behind. “I can…feel something,” he whispered
“Follow it,”
He walked on almost in a trance not knowing where he was going or how he was going to get back but the feeling only got stronger and stronger until suddenly Charlotte grabbed his shoulder and then it was gone, and then he heard it.
Something very large was rapidly coming their way; he could hear it scratching against the concrete floor of the tunnel getting faster and faster, closer and closer. Fear overwhelmed Samuel not knowing what to do but Charlotte stood her ground zeroing the revolver on the tunnel ahead of them. BANG!...BANG!...BANG! The shots rang out echoing through the tunnel leaving their ears ringing. They could hear the heavy thud of something heavy dropping only meters in front of them. “Run..,” she grabbed Samuel dragging him back then breaking into a sprint. “What was that?”
“Wraith,”
There was a high pitch screaming coming from behind them, then another, and another, and soon there was a chorus of high pitched screams coming from every direction.
“What’s happening?” he looked at Charlotte desperately, her normal quite determined face was gone replaced by childhood fear, wide eyes looking for an escape from this nightmare.
“I don’t know…SAMUEL!” she screamed but it was too late.

There was a rush of wind and something hit him hard sending him flying back ripping his trench coat and loosed his grip on the pistol.
Light headed he tried taking out his knife but shark metallic tentacles lashed out tearing at his face bursting one of his eyes and taking out his masked, he screamed blood gushing out of the large gash in his face. He was on the floor in a pool of blood, his own? He couldn’t move, pain rippled through him tearing at his insides, he wanted to scream but nothing came, tears weld in his eyes. Sharp knife like fingers grabbed him by the legs and, like a rag doll throwing him against the wall. SNAPE! He could see a bone protruding from leg only adding to the pain as he uncontrollably heaved up blood. He couldn’t breathe. He was going to die, panic drowned out the pain but he could do nothing but watch helplessly as Charlotte heroically battling off the Wraith, but nothing could save him. The last think he saw was a large barbed tail dragging across his lifeless body then…nothing but endless agony...

Samuel shot up gasping for breath, clawing at his face but there was no blood.
“Nightmare?”
He jumped, sat in the chair next to his bed was his girlfriend Jenna, eyes still puffy from crying, she was smiling.
He forced a smile, “You have no idea, how long you been here?”
“Only a couple of minutes,”
“Mum and Dad?”
“Talking to the Doctor…are you ok?
“I’m fine,” he said taking deep breaths
“We thought you were…” her voice broke
“He reached over taking her hand squeezing it gently. “It’s ok I’m here now, I’m not going any were,” he shook his head trying to rid himself of the memory of what just happened.
They were interrupted by Samuel’s parents almost running round the bend into ‘Wing 5’, his mother rushing over fresh tears streaming down her face smothering Samuel in an awkward bear hug, “You’re alive!”
“Of cause I’m alive,” he chuckled hoping it sounded convincing he wanted nothing more to break into tears after the shock of what just happened but he couldn’t.
She broke off beaming down at him, his father walked over and nodded “Saves us planning a funeral,” winking at his son.
“Oh stop it Sean. The Doctor has no idea what happened to you,”
“Neither do I, can I go home?”
“You just recovered from…death!
“The Doctors wants you to stay here until the blood tests come back,” his father answered.
“And how longs that?”
“If you pass the basic test you’ll be home by morning but I want you back in a week when we’ve properly analysed your blood,” said the Doctor joining his parents around his bed. “I’m sorry but I’m going to have to ask you to leave, this is a hospital and there are patience trying to sleep, as you can see your son is in perfect condition and I’ll be keeping a close eye on him.” “You should have seen what just happened to me,” Samuel thought
“Can I stay please,” Jenna asked smiling sweaty at the Doctor.
He thought for a moment, “as long as you’re quite.” She grinned happily.
They said their good byes and the Doctor shooed them out.
“You two behave!” His mum shouted back before disappearing round the corner.
They both laughed, “We will.” As soon as the Doctor and his parents were out of sight Jenna popped of her shoes and joined Samuel in the bed cuddling up to him tiredly, “Good night,”
He smiled and kissing her on the forehead, slowly stroking her brown hair. His mind turned to his last moments on Tithus, his death still vivid in his mind. He winced, a tear rolled down his cheek and he held Jenner close to him not knowing what to make of today’s events. Did Charlotte get out ok? She seemed to have been doing ok, he’d find out soon enough. Checking the time on his clock he wondered whether he should go back, 009:32:74, he then looked at the clock on the wall, 10:32 plenty of time, he’d wake up at 7 so that gave him a good 9 hours. He waited for Jenna to fall asleep, feeling her breathing become slower more rhythmic as she passed calmly into the world of dreams. He closed his eyes and relaxed.

Chapter 9-To the Rescue
Opening his eyes he walked over to the ship knocking on the door. Lauren soon appeared at the shutter, “Show me your eyes?”
“Why?” he almost laughed.
“If the shadows possess you your eyes have black veins instead of red, Charlotte didn’t tell you?”
“She didn’t tell me a lot of things, is she ok?”
“I thought she was with you?”
“I just got back; I got killed in the tunnels. She’s not back yet!”
“Oh, she’s a clever girl she can look after herself. Wondered why you where naked, just show me your eyes,”
Suddenly quite subconscious of fact he was naked he quickly showed her his eyes.
“Clean, one minute let me get you a blanket,”
Moments later she was back and shoving the musty blanket through the shutter.
“You covered?”
“Yep.” She opened the door letting him in. “I’m going back after her,”
She laughed, “You can’t do that with no clothes on and do you even remember your way back?”
“Yes,”
“She can look after herself!”
“She’s not a Timekeeper any more, I’m going,”
“You’ve been here barely a day and you want to go out on your own already, well it’s not like you’re going to die,” she shrugged her shoulders. “Come on then, let’s get you some cloths,” she lead him down the corridor where his room was stopping at the end of the corridor then turning into a large room full of cloths neatly arranged on metal poles. She picked out similar cloths to what he had worn last time, a brown shirt, grey jeans, working boots and a ragged trench coat. He quickly went to his room and changed meeting Lauren back at the locker.
She handed him a pistol and a couple of magazines.
“Don’t lose it where getting through too many of these, Ferric’s lost one and of cause you left yours in the tunnels,”
“Sorry, what about a revolver like the one Charlotte had?”
“Ha! We only have one of those and I don’t think you could handle it any way,” she handed him a knife, “Again don’t lose it, now be on your way,”
“What happens if she’s still in the tunnels, I’ll need a mask?”
Reluctantly she handed over a mask, “If she’s still in the tunnels she’ll be dead and what happened to the last one?”
“Ripped of my face,” he winced, recalling the event.
She rolled her eyes, “stop losing all my gear! Good think we got a crate of those!”
“Oh so it’s ok?
“No! Just be careful and bring Charlotte back,”
“Will do,” He winked and exited through the ship door, for the very first time alone but ready. He silently jogged the way they had previously gone. “Is it just me or I’m I getting quitter” he thought to himself and in fact he was, he smiled to himself, “Timekeeper,” he jumped down a familiar whole in the floor taking the 8ft drop with ease instead of climbing down like he’d done before and gently landed without a sound, free running to the next room.
The silence was suddenly broken by someone screaming, echoing throughout the ruin. A high pitch roar replied it was close. Drawing his pistol Samuel ran towards the noise skidding to a halt as Charlotte’s body smashed through a nearby wall Wraith in pursuit. Cocking the pistol he aimed and pulled the trigger. The bullets ricocheting off its armour merely denting it with appeared to only irate the Wraith even more. It turned noticing Samuel leaving Charlottes still body.
He backed away replacing the empty magazine then diving to avoid the Wraiths outstretched barbed tentacles, drawing his knife.
Annoyed the Wraith slashed at him again resulting in several seethed tentacles. It squealed lashing out with its tail trying to get a grip on its pray but Samuel slipped through climbing up to high ground then jumping on its back.
It thrashed about clawing at its back but to no avail. All Samuel could do was cling on tight not having the slightest clue why he just did that or how.
What happened next only seemed to confuse Samuel more. Green veins rapidly covering his left arm which gripped the neck of the wraith. All of a sudden it froze shrieking in agony, his clock rapidly counting up, then without warning it stopped and the Wraith fell apart leaving Samuel to fall into a heap of metal and bone. He stumbled to his feet confused staring at his arm as the veins slowly retracted, the clock back to normal couning up slowly, 010:46:97, “what just happened?” He thought, and then he remembered, Charlotte!
He ran over to wear she lay, cloths soaked in blood, a huge gash across her belly, blood freely flowing. It was clear that most of her bones where broken but she was still alive. He ripped of his trench coat and tried to stop the bleeding but it was no use. She opened her eyes and smiled but before she could say anything she broke into a coughing fit retching up blood. Her face tensed and green veins formed around the gash and the blood stopped, and it began to heal. Samuel’s heart lifted “she’s going to be ok!” But then the green veins faded and the cut opened up, blood poured free once again.
“It’s no use, I’m all out of juice,” her voice was horse and barely a whisper.
“Don’t say that, you’ll be ok, I promised Lauren,” tears began to form in his eyes, “It’s my fault!”
“No no its ok they have you now, I’ve lived long enough,” She said in-between coughing fits.
“No! You can’t die!” he tried stopping the bleeding again but it had no effect.
She smiled “its ok,” and with that she died in Samuels arms.
The tears where flowing freely know and he began to sob uncontrollably hugging Charlotte’s corpse, he didn’t care if a hundred wraiths heard his cries he barely knew the woman but she had done so much for him and he could never repay her. He noticed his arm felt really hot and when he went to look he saw green veins shooting out from his clock drawing mazes around his arm…