That night, Elizabeth was having trouble getting to sleep in her unfamiliar surroundings. Her father never let her spend a night away from home, and while she sort of resented him for it, she had gotten used to the luxury of her own bed. She briefly considered sneaking off and letting herself into Deejay's room, when the door suddenly opened. The light from the elevator crept into the darkened room. For a moment, Elizabeth thought Deejay might have had similar thoughts, but quickly realized the figure in her doorway was most definitely not him.

The man entering her room, if it was a man at all, stood close to six feet tall, with an imposing muscular frame. Long hair the color of blood hung limply around his face and down his neck. Enormous black leathery wings stuck out from his back, curling slightly around him like two terrible grasping hands, each as large as he was. The door slid closed behind him, and the room was cast back into darkness.

Elizabeth froze. The intruder didn't seem to have noticed her yet. She held her breath, and tried to quiet her racing heart as he lumbered into the room, lurching slowly forward like the living dead. He made it as far as the end of her bed before he suddenly stopped. As he turned his head to face her, she could just make out a faint glow from his icy blue eyes.

“I didn't know someone was in here. Don't mind me. I won't be long.”

He turned and continued through the room. Elizabeth quietly reached for the comm on the nightstand, watching him with a mix of fear and curiosity, as he headed toward the kitchenette. Light once again invaded the room as he began rummaging through the fridge. He emerged moments later with a pair of bright green two-liter soda bottles. Then he moved on to the cupboards, locating and retrieving several large bags of chips, pretzels, and other assorted salty snacks.

With his arms full of refreshments, he sleepily trudged back to the door. He tapped the call button with the tip of his wing, and the elevator opened. Without another word or otherwise acknowledging Elizabeth's presence, he got on the elevator and left. Elizabeth sat frozen in the darkness for several more minutes, struggling to process what just happened.

–

Minutes dragged on into hours. Elizabeth tried to sleep but couldn't. By that point her earlier fear had completely given way to curiosity. There was still so much about this place she didn't understand, and she was itching to know more. She slowly got out of bed and headed for the elevator. She brought the comm with her in case she stumbled onto anything more terrifying; anything that wasn't likely to be placated with junk food. She wasn't sure that the comm would allow Ty to find her if she ran across something dangerous, but she hoped so.

Elizabeth pressed the elevator call button, and the door slid open. Inside on the wall, there was an image of the Tower. Elizabeth had seen Deejay tap on a spot where his name was written, and that had taken them to his room. Toward the top of the image, there was the word ROOF in capital letters, and a little below that was DEEJAY. Going down the side of the Tower, there were numerous other names or words, most of which she didn't recognize. BOARD, LAB, MALUS, GUEST, KITCHEN. At least “Kitchen” seemed self-explanatory, and she could hazard a guess which room “Guest” was. Below that were a lot of blank spaces where a word could be written, followed by the word GROUND.

Looking over the buttons, Elizabeth noticed something a bit off about one of the blank buttons. Most of them were obviously blank and untouched, but one toward the bottom seemed to have some faded fingerprint smudges on it. She found herself wondering what might be there that whoever labeled the rooms didn't feel the need to announce. She decided to press it and find out.

The elevator lurched slightly, and Elizabeth felt the pull of movement. Her previous elevator rides had lasted only moments. This one seemed to last minutes, although it was hard to tell how much of that was from anticipation. When the elevator stopped, the door opened on total darkness. She made her way slowly into the room, and the door closed behind her leaving the room pitch black. Nervously, she felt along the walls by the door for a light switch. When she found it, she flipped the switch up, bathing the room in pale blue light.

That's when I first saw her. When she first saw me.

I must have been quite the sight, curled up on the floor next to a bare mattress on a metal bed frame. I was holding my arms over my face trying to shield myself from the light, until my eyes finally started to adjust. My face was barely visible anyway under a tangled, matted blob of black hair. It hadn't been washed in days. I still had on this old baggy white t-shirt and black jeans, both faded to the point where they were sort of grayish. No bra; I'm real classy like that. Oh, and I still had on that white flu mask covering the lower half of my face. So yeah, quite the sight.

“What is this?” she asked, incredulous. “Who are you?”

As she stepped closer, I tried to back away but I was already up against the wall. She was staring at my red eye. It was staring back at her. I felt my body trembling.

“Please, don't be frightened. What is your name? Why are they keeping you here?”

I was fighting just to keep my body still. I don't want to say what was going through my head. I never want to say. She looked down and pressed the button on the comm.

“Whatever the reason, Tyler has much to answer for.”

We waited together in silence. I could tell she wanted me to talk, to explain what the hell was going on. She could tell it wasn't going to happen. After a few agonizing minutes, Ty suddenly burst through the elevator door with his gun ready. He relaxed a bit and lowered the weapon when he saw we were both safe.

Somewhere in my clouded mind, I registered a little bit of amusement that he came downstairs in such a rush that he was still in his pajamas. I tried to focus on that silliness for the moment. I mean really, who wears actual pajamas? He looked like a 1960's sitcom dad, if not for the wild-eyed look and the massive revolver in his hand. Maybe early-to-mid-2000's sitcom dad, then.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked.

“Sir Tyler, you are the one who should explain yourself. Why is this girl being imprisoned here?”

He sighed. “She's not. This is her room.”

“This is a dungeon. Any fool could see that.”

“Alright, so we haven't had time to redecorate, but it's not that bad.”

She marched up to him angrily, pointing a finger in his chest. “I want an explanation! Who is she?!”

“Will you please lower your voice?”

He nodded toward me, and she turned back to look. I wasn't totally aware of what my body was doing by that point, but I must have been shaking pretty badly. Ty reached toward the light switch and turned the dimmer knob down, mercifully darkening the room a little more for me. I'm not sure the darkness ever actually helped anything, but I appreciated the effort.

“Alright,” he said to her, his voice barely above a whisper. It still carried clearly through the little room. “I'll give you the short version: we found her a couple of weeks ago, in a city a long way from here. She was out wandering the streets alone in a rainstorm. She wouldn't say what happened to her. The whole thing seemed really weird, but we couldn't just leave her there. We tried giving her the room you were staying in. She was a nervous wreck the whole time, wouldn't sleep, wouldn't eat. She cried and broke things a lot... At least down here in the dark she finally calmed down a bit.”

He was telling her the truth, at least in part, and I think she could tell. Elizabeth looked back at me, presumably with a look of pity. I had trouble focusing on her face.

“Where did she come from?” Elizabeth asked.

“I have no idea. She still hasn't said a word to us. If she even can.”

“Why is she wearing that mask? Is she disfigured somehow?”

“Not that I'm aware of. She got it from Deejay's lab after she first got here. No idea why she wanted it, but he let her have it. She hasn't taken it off since.”

Elizabeth looked around uneasily. “And... She actually chooses to stay in this place, all alone?”

“She can come and go as she pleases, at least within the Tower. She just... doesn't.”

They both fell silent for a bit. Sitting in the dark, my body started to settle down. My thoughts were calm, for the most part. Elizabeth took a step back toward me and looked into my eyes.

“Is he telling me the truth?” she asked. “Can I trust him?”

I wished she wouldn't get so close. But she did need to know the truth. I looked up at her and nodded as decisively as I could manage. I even threw in a weak thumbs-up for good measure.

“That's about the most communication we get out of her,” he added.

“But why would you stay here? Don't you have a home? Haven't you a family and friends who miss you?”

I looked down at the floor. Even if I could speak without my mouth betraying me, I wasn't ready to answer a question like that. She gave me a pitiful look but said nothing else.

“Want us to leave you alone?” Ty asked.

I nodded.

“I figured. Come on, Princess.”

She started to go with him, then turned back to me.

“Um, I'm sorry to have intruded. Whatever is troubling you, I hope it gets better soon.”

It did. Gradually.

The two of them got back on the elevator. Ty turned off the light on their way out. I rested my head back against the wall and closed my eyes, allowing the rogue thoughts to swirl restlessly through my head until sleep finally came to sweep them away.

–

Ty escorted Elizabeth back to the guest room. She still had a lot of questions for him.

“So, you really don't know anything about her?”

“Nothing that would help us find out where she came from. Anyway, she hasn't exactly shown a lot of urgency to go back, as you might have noticed.”

“Do you know her name at least?”

“Her first day here she wrote the letter 'J', but that was it. We've been calling her Jay since then.”

Elizabeth looked down at her feet. “Well, I'm sorry if I caused any trouble for you, or for her. I was only trying to help.”

“Now you know one reason I didn't want you getting too familiar with this place. Anyway, please try to get some sleep, Your Highness. We'll take you home at dawn. I just hope your father won't be too upset.”

“You don't need to worry about him. I locked the door to my room and was refusing to talk to him, so he likely hasn't noticed that I've left my room at all. But if he has noticed somehow, I'll say I ran away on my own. I'll make him believe it somehow.”

“Okay. Well, that's somewhat reassuring at least. Thank you.”

Ty turned to leave as Elizabeth started settling back into bed. She eyed the revolver he was still carrying. Apparently his pajamas didn't come with a holster.

“Sir Tyler?”

He stopped by the elevator. “Yeah?”

“Why did you need that weapon when you came to find me?”

“I never go anywhere without a weapon... But I guess that's not much of an answer, is it?”

“No, it isn't.”

He hesitated. “Well, now we're getting back into things I didn't want to have to burden you with... I'll put it this way: I wasn't sure if I would need it or not. But I'm glad I didn't.”

“...So am I.”

She didn't really understand what he meant, which was probably for the best. Ty got back on the elevator.

“Goodnight, Princess.”

“Good night.”

Sleep still wouldn't come easily to Elizabeth, especially after our encounter, but eventually it did come. I can't say whether Ty slept any better, but knowing him I wouldn't count on it.