The Crystal Tower

  Table of Contents

  PROLOGUE - BLISTERING STARS

  CHAPTER 1 - THE COLD WIND OF DAY

  CHAPTER 2 - FLASHES OF LIGHT

  CHAPTER 3 - DRONES

  CHAPTER 4 - CLEARANCE

  CHAPTER 5 - DANIEL’S HOME

  CHAPTER 6 - SAN FRANCISCO

  CHAPTER 7 - CIARA’S STRUGGLE

  CHAPTER 8 - BUILDING

  CHAPTER 9 - FIRE AND LIGHT

  CHAPTER 10 - CRIMSON

  CHAPTER 11 - SNAKES

  CHAPTER 12 - SHE

  CHAPTER 13 - FIREWORKS

  CHAPTER 14 - FACING FUTILITY

  CHAPTER 15 - WALLS OF LIGHT

  CHAPTER 16 - THE FIGHTERS

  CHAPTER 17 - ETERNAL

  CHAPTER 18 - AWAKENING

  THE CRYSTAL TOWER

  AN ETHEREAL VISION NOVEL

  BY

  LIAM DONNELLY

  Published by Liam Donnelly

  www.liamdonnellyauthor.com

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  Copyright © Liam Donnelly, 2018

  Cover design by Andrei Bat

  Ebook Formatting by: Guido Henkel

  This is a work of fiction. However, many locations throughout this book are real. The names, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, (living or dead) or events, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  PROLOGUE

  BLISTERING STARS

  At dawn, the buildings that lined the skyline of New York City glinted with a silvery light that was between all temporal contexts and defied categorization. As the sun rose, it illuminated the buildings beautifully on a day that would prove to be the most pivotal and eventful in the history of the human race.

  Mason walked through the lower city toward the location of One World Trade Center with his twelve-year-old daughter, Jennifer, by his side. They had booked tickets in advance. Jennifer had wanted to stay in the hotel and visit with her mother later, as they had planned lunch, but her father thought it important that she see a place that was, according to him, “of great historical significance.”

  Jennifer didn’t know much about it, but Mason hadn’t given her a choice. He held her hand, and she lagged behind him, wiping her tired eyes and yawning. The sun was now up, and people were filling the streets, their faces buried in digital devices, their eyes occupied behind holographic displays. However, her father had booked tickets early, and assured her that far fewer visitors would be at the monument this time of day.

  They passed through the main entrance, with Mason taking care of the tickets, and proceeded to the escalators. After moving through a small number of people, they reached the elevators. There was a queue, and Jennifer glared up at her father. He looked ahead, pursed his lips, and then finally glanced down at her.

  “What?” he asked, quietly concealing the mild impatience in his voice that was tinged with a hint of humor. It sounded as though he were addressing a puppy.

  “You said when we came to New York we would be getting sundaes and going shopping. Not visiting museums.”

  “It’s not a museum. It’s—”

  The doors opened and people began pouring into the elevator.

  Jennifer rolled her eyes as her father looked forward again and placed a hand on her back, moving her toward the entrance. She went along reluctantly, and they followed the other visitors. Jennifer watched as the elevator filled quickly, and couldn’t help but feel a slight triumph as the ushers gestured for them to stop just as they were about to enter. The elevator was full. Her lips curled into a trace of a smile, and she glanced up at Mason, whose mouth was gaping open. He then closed it and nodded, stepping back with a forced half-smile.

  Jennifer walked back with him as he moved a few feet from the elevator, putting some distance between them and the ushers as the door closed and the elevator began to ascend.

  “We didn’t go for sundaes yet, Dad.”

  Mason turned around to face her. “No, we didn’t.” He remained silent for a moment, watching her, then leaned down toward her. “But we will.”

  “When?”

  “After this.” He smiled. “Look, you’ll understand when you see it, OK?”

  Her chest rose and fell as she took a belabored breath and nodded.

  He looked to his left as the opposite elevator came to a stop and the usher smiled at him, indicating he could enter. Mason smiled back as though she’d just offered him a chunk of free gold. He stood up straight.

  Jennifer felt his strong hand wrap around hers. The divorce had been difficult, but she was bright and she knew she had wanted to stay with her father. Thankfully, things had worked out that way. A stern knowing within her had told her she was somehow safer with him. As it turned out, she was right. Had she stayed with her mom—whose sole focus was her job—Jennifer’s life would have been much more limited and much less fun. Her father was a successful architect, and he often worked from home, which meant he spent a lot of time with her. Her right eyebrow lifted as she crossed the threshold of the entrance to the elevator just as she realized this—her father was indeed a lot of fun.

  Jennifer was looking at the blank wall at the back of the large interior when she heard the doors close behind her. She turned around to see the usher smile just as her sight of the friendly woman was obscured. The elevator began to rise, and behind them on the wall now, as she turned back around, Jennifer saw a display of the city. As they rose, the display took them on a virtual voyage through time, displaying the different buildings as they had been erected at different stages throughout history. To her own surprise, Jennifer couldn’t pull her eyes away from the man-made vision as it unfolded in front of her, and she regarded it with great curiosity.

  As she sensed the elevator coming to a stop, she turned around, along with her father, to face the entrance. After a moment, the doors opened onto a well-lit atrium, and a new sense of wonder overcame her. Glancing up at her father, Jennifer saw that he was already looking down and smiling at her. He nodded, then raised his eyes to the front, giving her the signal to go ahead. She left the elevator ahead of him and walked up behind a tour group. A woman was speaking near the front as Jennifer approached several lines of people blocking her view. She glanced back at her father and again received the nod to proceed. She smiled at him and slid through the layers of people to get closer.

  The tour guide noticed Jennifer trying to fit between the small group of people. She grinned and waved her arm. Tentatively, Jennifer returned the gesture and stepped to the front.

  ***

  Mason already knew his daughter would enjoy seeing the observatory; he just had to get her there to convince her. He had, of course, been there himself previously with Cassandra. He winced when he thought about her, so he pushed the memory aside. Instead, he stood on his toes, trying to get a glimpse of Jennifer as his thoughts immediately shifted to her. She had become the center of his life. She was his soul now, and he knew she was the light that he now felt in his chest. It was there in the morning when he woke up, it was there when he slept, in his dreams, and it was there in his memories. Thoughts of Cassandra brought nothing but pain, so, in a not-so-unhealthy fashion, Jennifer had become the fulcrum of his life.

  As soon as the introduction was finished, Mason reached in from a row behind Jennifer and scooped her up. She was well past that age, but he did it fo
r the wonderful reaction he always got. Jennifer would first smile at the ridiculousness of it, and then moments later, as he refused to drop her, she would burst into laughter. The sound of his own giggling would follow close behind. That’s exactly what happened now, though he managed to stifle most of his laughter as he lifted his daughter in front of him like a puppy through the crowd of people to get a front position at the unveiling of the view of the city. He dropped Jennifer to the ground and she landed solidly on both feet. She glanced up at him, trying to stifle a grin, and he pursed his lips: That’s what you get.

  She shook her head in mock disgust, giggling quietly again.

  He placed a hand on her shoulder and looked down at her. “Get ready,” he said as he glanced in front of them at the blank screen and nodded. Another man stepped in front, gave another speech, and then the veil was raised on the city below. Mason glanced down at his daughter—sacrificing the moment, as he had seen it before—and took in even more joy at the look on her face than he could have experienced in seeing the city itself. Her eyes grew wide in astonishment, and her jaw gaped open as she took a sharp breath.

  He leaned in behind her. “I told you.”

  She looked back up at him for a split second, still awestruck. Then, when the introduction was finished, Mason placed both his hands on her shoulders and they proceeded to the observatory. He watched as Jennifer raced away from him moments later—not even looking behind to check for reassurance—and pursed his lips into a thin smile as she tried to find a space from which to see. He frowned as he watched her, realizing quickly that the observatory was still full from previous groups of people and that viewing space was limited. He had thought that by coming in the morning, they would have avoided crowds, but apparently they had arrived at a busy time.

  He glanced over his left shoulder to see that much of the section behind him, which provided a view of the harbor and the ocean beyond, was clear.

  ***

  Jennifer felt her father’s hands fall upon her shoulders again, and she tilted her head to the left, listening as he whispered in her ear.

  “Check out the area on the far left—nobody’s there.”

  She looked around and saw that he was right; the area was clear. The large glass panels that covered the circular viewing space, stretching from top to bottom, were completely free of people.

  “You’ll get a good view of the water and a sense of what the height—”

  Jennifer didn’t really hear the rest of the words her father spoke, as a distant, piercing ringing resounded in her mind. She squinted, staring at the vacant segment of windows he had pointed out to her. His arms draped down behind her as she instinctively left him and approached the glass, which was thirty feet away. She stopped halfway across the distance as she heard the ringing once again. This time, she felt a flutter of excitement in her chest, commingled with fear. She squinted at the sound, not knowing what it was she was hearing, but knowing, even in her youthful mind, that it was important. She glanced behind her at the other tourists. Many of them were taking photographs, and all seemed oblivious to anything else. One thing she did take note of was that no other children were in the observatory; she was the youngest.

  Turning around again, she continued onward. When she was five feet from the windows, the piercing noise came again. This time it was louder, and it made her wince a little. Still, she continued moving forward as the sound receded once more in her mind. Distantly, she heard her father’s voice.

  Is she OK? We had a good breakfast. Maybe should have skipped the concentrated orange juice, but it’s just so convenient—

  And then the sound of his voice, which seemed—bizarrely—to come from within her own mind, trailed off. That’s odd, she thought. Dad’s thirty feet away now. I can’t hear him. Was that in my mind? She reached the window frame and looked at the city below. Then she glanced up and out through the glass at the buildings. She scanned the horizon as the same ringing sound—like a high-pitched, electronic siren—began growing inside her mind again. She pressed both hands against the glass. The sun was low over the water, and though the sight was beautiful, she turned away from it and gazed out toward the sea. She frowned, searching for the source of the sound, knowing it was out there somewhere.

  Looking down, she saw a platform below the window frame. Jennifer stepped up onto it so that she was standing with the tips of her shoes against the glass edge. Her face was only an inch from the glass, and the sound was now continuously ringing in her head as she scanned the water in the far distance, where it met the sky in a hazy orange line.

  What is that? she thought. Her stomach churned, knowing that while the sound was beautiful, it was also somehow…dangerous. Then her gaze was drawn directly toward something new. A bright light had appeared in the distance, like a large, glowing star. She immediately knew this was the source of the ringing sound, and she turned toward it on the platform beneath the glass. Squinting, she tried to get a better view of it. Then she inhaled sharply and her eyes widened as the sound she had been hearing suddenly became a constant, ringing cacophony. The source of light quickly grew bigger—in tandem with the sound—and then, after a moment, it had the appearance of a sparkling diamond. Her mother’s wedding ring came to mind, and the large gem that was its centerpiece. Sometimes, in the right setting, small flecks of light reflected from its surface.

  She stared in awe. Then, as the light began to split, clusters of the luminescence—whatever it was—branched off the sides of the central mass and moved away from it across the sea. Jennifer knew her father was quickly approaching from behind as the light source grew brighter. Somehow, she had also become aware that the other patrons had turned and moved closer to her position, having taken notice of the unusual light in the distance. How do I know that? she wondered distantly.

  She felt her father place a hand on her shoulder, but she didn’t respond to it. She could feel the shockwave coming across the land like rolling thunder. “Dad, hold on to something,” she said, still reeling in confusion as to how she had been able to anticipate what was coming. Then, as her father pressed his hand against the window frame next to her, gripping it hard, she saw it. The shockwave was affecting things in the distance. Cars were rocking in their parked spaces, and the water in the bay was swelling. Just ahead of them, on the high floors of the buildings, windows cracked and smashed. Then it hit.

  She saw her father’s strong arm reach in front of her with lightning-fast reflexes, gripping her as the shockwave passed over the observatory. She heard him take a few panicked breaths over her shoulder as the building trembled minutely.

  “What the hell was that?” he asked, forgoing his usual no-swearing policy.

  ***

  Mason watched as his daughter casually stepped onto the window frame. He frowned and glanced around to see that nobody else was doing that. She sure is different, he thought, and smiled, proud, continuing to watch as she placed her hands on the glass. Then, confident that she was OK, he turned toward the cafeteria to get himself a drink. He decided on Pepsi. He raised a befuddled eyebrow at the price tag, but began pouring from the dispenser anyway, knowing the money went to maintaining something wonderful.

  A mild tremor came from the floor beneath him. He frowned and looked down as he felt the vibrations rise through his body. He glanced around, but nobody seemed to have noticed. Still, somewhere in the near distance behind him, he was sure he had heard a pane of glass rattle. He turned in that direction now. The Pepsi flowed over the top of the cup and he pulled it away, standing back from the liquid that dripped over the sides. Then, after a moment of hesitation, he abandoned the drink entirely, leaving it on the draining platform. He turned to see Jennifer staring out at the horizon and he gulped.

  Pacing toward her rapidly, he almost stopped halfway as he saw the lights glowing on the horizon. Pushing himself onward, he watched as they grew quickly, until it appeared that clusters of giant, sparkling stars were spreading out from a
central point on the water in the far distance. Standing behind his daughter, Mason placed a protective hand on her shoulder. He was almost too transfixed by the beautiful light to hear his daughter’s warning: “Dad, hold on to something.” Still, he managed to do so, automatically reaching out a hand and grasping the window frame.

  The tremor that shook the building woke him from the momentary trance the light had caused him to fall into. He held Jennifer close to him with his left hand, pulling her away from the glass. At the same time, a strange knowing came to him: Jennifer had some connection to the light that he didn’t understand. A second later, the tremor hit the building.

  With a sudden, immediate knowledge of what to do, and a primal instinct taking over, Mason glanced over his shoulder to see that most of the patrons were now staring at the lights on the water, many of them taking photographs. He turned as gracefully as he could, lifting Jennifer off the platform and placing her on the floor. Then, taking her by the hand, he eyed the platform that led up to the elevators. He walked toward it briskly, praying secretly—and with no lack of guilt—to reach them before everyone else did. He dared not run, lest he provoke the same response in others. He didn’t know what the lights on the horizon were, but his mind was reeling with the possibilities. He immediately rejected the most conventional explanations that people think or worry about under such circumstances, for even he knew on a conscious level that what they had just witnessed was supernatural in origin.

  They reached the bottom of the ramp that led to the elevators. Mason was glad to see the attendant at the corner was caught up in the sight of the growing lights on the water. He moved past her and toward the elevators. Thankfully, one of them was waiting and empty. The second attendant smiled and gestured for him to enter, which he did with a nod. The doors closed behind them, and just as the elevator began its rapid descent, a voice came through on the speaker system.