The Tower

The Tower. It’s where I was born, where I lived, and where I would one day die. I had never set foot nor even seen what was outside of it. It was home, sanctuary, and prison. They said it protects us, keeps us safe, and that’s all we need to know or care about. They refuse to tell us any more than that, or so Mommy and Daddy say, I’ve never gotten to ask any of the people in charge myself. After all, Mommy and Daddy always told me to listen to and respect my elders. Daddy worked high up in the tower, and Mommy worked outside, where it’s so dangerous, and she wasn’t allowed to talk about what she saw out there. She told me I probably wouldn’t understand anyway or that I wouldn’t until I was older. Understanding is hard anyway, but I try my best.

I tried not to worry though, there are lots of floors in the tower, and many of places to go and play. There were some places I couldn’t go though, and if I tried, the grownups would find me and I’d get in trouble. They’d punish Mommy and Daddy for it too, and I didn’t want to cause any trouble, so I’d stay on the ground floor to be sure. Mommy and Daddy got into trouble enough as it was. They’d sadly smile when I’d ask them why and they’d tell me that they weren’t supposed to be together, that the people who worked outside weren’t supposed to be with the ones who worked high in the tower like Daddy did. Another something I didn’t understand, but didn’t want to ask about too often and make them sad. They loved me and that’s all that mattered to me.

I was extra excited though, for it was Mommy’s birthday. She didn’t get to come inside and visit me often from having to work so long and hard to help support us, but she promised she’d get to come see me on her birthday. I had it all planned out, she’d come home and I’d get to tell her I loved her and give her a present. I’d even gotten money to buy her something from Daddy. Money was hard to get. They said they tried to keep it moving so people at the bottom could survive, but the ladies and gentlemen who wore beautiful dresses and black suits made it hard.

They were the ones who owned the shops, and had all the money, so they got to stay in the rooms higher up in the tower. They were also the ones who held all the power. Well, all the power except for the ones who made the tower and it’s rules. The rest of us worked the shops and the wall, but we barely had enough money to buy our bread and had to sleep on the floors on the ground level, closest to the only doors in or out of the tower. The people in the nice rooms never mingled with the rest of us down on the bottom, but I was a product of such a rare mingling, and as such was condemned to stay on the ground floor and couldn’t live on the upper floors in the nicer rooms. It was an unspoken rule that we didn’t bother the people from the upper floors, so I always avoided them.

I rarely got to see Mommy from her having to work to support us, but with the money Daddy snuck to me I could make her birthday a special day, with a special gift! So I went to the shops. They had so many pretty things. Beautiful dresses, jewelry, flowers, and wonderful foods of all sorts. The tower’s market was amazing. Usually anytime I came near, I’d get called a street rat and get chased off, but this time I had money, so no one could keep me away. I could shop as much as I liked, and I did, going from store to store and looking intently at every little thing they had. I was about to give up though, not finding anything I thought was good enough for Mommy. I remembered one more shop though, away from the others, and the only one on the ground floor. I made my way there and looked in the window, and that’s when I saw it, a beautiful, golden, heart-shaped locket.

It was perfect.

It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Upon opening it, it was meant to hold a small photo and played a soft melody. The notes were slow and sweet. It sounded like the lullabies Mommy would sing to me when I couldn’t sleep. I was so caught up in the melody that I didn’t notice what started going on around me. There were people running and screaming, but I couldn’t hear them inside the shop. Nor did I consciously hear the sounds of the tower’s doors being beaten down. It was only when the melody stopped and I came out of my daydreaming that I noticed. My thoughts of Mommy’s smiling face were replaced with the sound of something behind me, breathing heavily.

I turned to look, and was petrified by a horrific black monster. It had no eyes, claws the size of knives, and teeth sharper than the fiercest creature I’d ever learned about in books. It’d somehow broken in, not only through the wall, but also the tower itself, with others, and in that moment I knew we were all going to die. I stood there, shaking in terror, unable to run or scream, as my doom towered ever more menacingly over me. So close that I could smell it’s breath, and watched as it drooled a sizzling liquid onto the floor and probed the air with a tongue as long as my arm. My eyes darted around to someone, anyone, who might help. There was no one. I could only grip my hands tighter, still feeling the locket I’d been holding digging into my hand.

There was a whoosh and a searing pain washed over me. I was suddenly on the floor, unable to move. My body was hot and cold all at once. The last thing I remembered seeing was the locket again, a few feet from my outstretched hand, now stained crimson. I wondered again how Mommy would’ve smiled as she put it on and shut my eyes, letting the repeating melody from the locket again send me into my eternal sleep.