The Beautiful

"I've been doing some research about strange disappearances that have happened inside this world."

Cleo nodded. She had invited Theo out to lunch, and they were sitting in a small restaurant, enjoying the view.

"I was very surprised to find a little something about Rosa's mom."

Cleo perked up. According to the original novel, Kiersten Sophis, Rosa's mom, had died trying to protect Rosa from her father, a rich nobleman in the capital. She had been weak for a long time after giving birth, and she sadly passed when her daughter turned five, which was also the year when the two of them were separated.

"I found a strange document about her. She actually did not die. She was taken into that nobleman's household along with Rosa. And then one day she just disappeared into thin air."

"What do you mean?" Cleo asked, surprised. "So she never died?"

"No," Theo explained. "She did die. But the strange thing is that she reappeared in the middle of the city, dead. Nobody knows what happened."

Cleo thought for a moment. She looked around the city, spotting a hooded figure down the street. The person looked up, meeting her eyes. She flinched from the cold glare of the man's icy blue eyes. Cleo was suddenly reminded of the Tower of Wishes for some reason. When someone exited the tower, dead or alive, the tower would dump them somewhere random, since the structure existed outside of time and space.

"I have a guess," Cleo finally said. "I believe that she may have tried to climb the tower."

"Well, we won't know for sure unless we go and take a look!"

Theo pulled Cleo out of her chair, dragging her to a small booth set up haphazardly on the side of the street. An old woman sat hunchbacked at the booth.

"Take a trip down memory lane! Your memory, someone else's, or anybody's!" the woman shouted, waving her arms around.

"We'd like to try!" Theo said, reaching into his pocket for some spare change.

"No, no, no!" the old woman cried, stopping him. "I do not do this for money."

"Okay," Theo answered reluctantly. "We'd like to-"

"Have fun, young people!" the woman hollered before he could finish, creating a giant black portal beneath them. She watched, amused, as Cleo and Theo fell into it, flailing and screaming.

The old woman casually wiped her hands on her dress, transforming back into a young woman with smoky, black hair and glowing, inhuman eyes. Then she disappeared in a puff of dark smoke.

***

Cleo was falling for a long time. When she finally landed on the dark, wet streets of the capital. But this place was different. She did not remember the rusting lampposts. She did not remember the dirt and grime that was everywhere she seemed to step. This was clearly a not the capital that she knew. She scanned her surroundings. She quickly spotted a small doorway in the alley she was in. She reached out to grab the doorknob, but she just passed straight through it. Surprised, Cleo just walked into the room, fazing through the door. The inside was lit up with romantic, pink lights, and everyone in the room seemed to be drunk. She ducked as a scruffy man stumbled towards her. He walked straight through her. Cleo decided to keep walking into the building. She strolled past many rooms, doors closed. But she could still hear the screams and groans of pleasure emitted from inside each of them. She reached the end of the hall. There was a single door here, no different form the others, but Cleo could feel that this one was the one she had to go through. She slipped into the room.

Inside, Cleo saw a woman that looked strikingly like Rosa. She also saw a young man, not much past twenty, hovering over her. Realizing what was going on, Cleo turned away. The memory faded away, only to be replaced by a long chain of scenes that flashed before her eyes. Cleo saw Kiersten getting fired from whatever place that strange location was. She watched as the now jobless woman fled to the countryside. Then Rosa appeared, smiling and laughing with her mother. The next image was of that same young man, barging into the small cottage, dragging Kiersten and Rosa away. Suddenly, the scenes shifted, as if speeding through the rest of the memories.

Now Cleo was inside the tower. She watched as Kiersten fought monsters big and small, braving the first few floors easily until she was eventually killed by the dragon on floor seven.

Cleo gasped, opening her eyes. She was sitting at the restaurant again. Theo was across from her.

"You saw that, right?" she asked, breathing hard. "I'm not imagining things, right?"

Theo nodded. "I guess you were right. But I wonder why things are different from the original novel. It's still the same world we're in, so..."

"There's somebody who's changing things around. If the book is the original universe, then there's someone who's messing around with the universe, since we're in it. We're also technically changing this place too."

"That makes sense."

Cleo thought for a moment. She felt a strange sensation. As if somebody was watching her. She looked up, meeting the hooded figure's gaze once more. Those eyes...she had seen them somewhere before. The man opened his mouth, speaking directly into Cleo's head.

"Very, very, good guess, my princess. But unfortunately, incorrect."