Short Story: The Tower

Short Story: The Tower

I settled myself down on the edge of the clearing in the woods just as the setting sun threw flames of thin cloud across the October sky. In the sinking light I could clearly see the silhouette of the tower, a needle of stone rising from the dusty forest floor with just one opening, a window. The window was shuttered tight with a heavy block of dark wood, more functional than decorative.

I had been sent here as part of my final training, to discover more about recent unusual events in the area and report back to the Aademy.

"Something's going on in the woods near the old stone tower," Chivers, my mentor had told me. "Local people have described strange sounds at night and the following day have found carcasses of dead animals strewn all over the forest. I'm sending Holden to take a closer look. You should go too, it would be good experience."

I felt a swell of pride at the chance to work for the Academy. It had been my only home since my mother died and my father struggled to cope. As my father's parenting skills disappeared down the neck of a vodka bottle, someone somewhere made the arrangements for me to live as a boarder at the Academy. I had been very happy there, but my days as a school boy were soon to come to an end with my eighteenth birthday and I was being given the chance to flex my muscles in the real world and find a life of my own.

I turned my attention back to the tower. As I looked the rough stone up and down a sharp rush of ice cold air swirled around my head. I shivered and pulled the collar of my coat up around my ears. My eyes followed the pointed roof to the darkening sky, where the last rays of the sun snuffed out and made way for the first tentative stars of the night.

Holden arrived, winding up a tape measure and stashing it in his pocket. "There you are Jack. Ive had a look around and there is something odd about this place," he took a perch on a log beside me. "Most of the forest is full of the sights and colours of autumn, but I've measured it and there is a radius of about 20 metres around this tower where everything looks dead. The trees are just decaying stumps, there are no animals, not a single bird to be seen or heard. In fact the only thing in abundance here is a strange black fungus, growing in the crevices of the dead trees. I've picked a bit and bagged it up ready to take back to the academy."

Our conversation was interrupted by a scraping sound coming from above us. The shutter was opening.

"I thought that place was supposed to be empty," I said to Holden; "Who can be living in that old wreck?"

"How more like. There are no stairs to the room at the top of the tower, the only way in and out is through the window."

As we watched, a face appeared at the window, eyes closed and upturned to bask in the light of a full moon in a cloudless navy blue sky. It was the face of a young girl, exquisite in appearance, with a white and flawless complexion, cascading golden hair and full red lips. She stood in this pose for some minutes before opening her eyes to survey the view from her window.

She seemed to be looking for something, searching the horizon with keen eyes the colour of a knife blade.

After a while she stopped. She took a deep breath and started to sing. It was not a song, it had no words, just a meandering, mesmerising tune. The kind of tune that made you forget who you are, where you were and why you were there. It invaded your body, clouding your mind and wrapping itself tightly around your heart, dissolving all your worries and sorrows and unexpectedly filling you with deep joy.

I was reluctantly roused from my spellbound state by Holden roughly shaking my shoulder. "Jack, please wake up Jack!". I forced my eyes open and took a deep breath.

"What?" I asked Holden, who put a finger to his lips to warn me to be quiet and pulled me back into the hollow of a fungus-infested tree.

" She is magnificent!" I whispered, as she stopped singing and stood bathing in moonlight again. I studied the crescent curve of her cheek, the gentle swell of her breathing, the moonlight twinkling in every curve of her hair.

As I tried to organise the buzz of questions that were forming in my head, the girl resumed singing. A rumbling and rustling of undergrowth began, slowly and far off at first, then gradually gaining momentum. Animals that should have been coccooned in sleep were gathering in the clearing by the tower, glassy-eyed and moving stiffly, as if their muscles were not their own.

The girl sat on the edge of the stone window sill, and I realised that she was wearing a thin, white nightdress in the frosty autumn night. I shivered in sympathy, but if she felt the cold, she did not show it. She picked up a comb and as she sang she slowly smothed out her golden hair, sending each shining tress to hang down the wall of the tower and lightly brush the dusty forest floor far, far below.

I followed every stroke of her comb until the very last strand had been teased out, pulled flat and made to shine like golden thread, she twisted it into a thick rope and attached it to a hook above the window.

"What is she doing?" I asked Holden, but he just nudged me and stared, open-mouthed as the girl began to scale the wall using the rope of hair.

As soon as her bare feet hit the ground, the animals seemed to wake from their trance and began to panic, aimlessly running, climbing, digging, frantically trying to escape.

The girl chased after them, lunging and grabbing until her hands closed on the back leg of a doe. Despite the creature's kicking and struggling, the girl stared it straight in the eyes and sang to it. I noticed its legs begin to wobble and then it lay, breathing heavily, its muscles awkward and stiff, as if it was paralysed.

The girl snarled with a mouthful of dagger teeth and with great relish sank them into the neck of the deer. She slurped and sucked, murmuring grunts and groans of deep satisfaction with each mouthful. The doe didn't struggle or complain; it just quietly accepted its fate, eventually closing its eyes to the world and flopping over to announce its departure. I was expecting to feel shock or dread at such a pitiful sight. Instead I felt the heat of adrenalin splashing and twisting through my veins.

"Oh yes!" the words were out of my mouth before I could control them.

The girl wiped deer blood from her chin and looked around.

"Jack!" Holden threw me a look of puzzled warning and pushed us both as far back into the dead tree as he could.

The girl dropped the dead doe and began to slowly circle the edge of the clearing, singing and swaying from foot to foot. When she reached the tree Holden and I were hiding in she lifted her eyes to meet mine and I felt my body freeze, unable even to blink.

She kept on singing and dancing. Through glazed eyes I could see her getting closer. I heard Holden shouting but his voice was muffled and distant. A flutter in my stomach and the sensation of the rest of the world passing by told me that it was not her moving but me, slowly leaving the tree and Holden behind.

It felt like floating, but I guess I was walking stiffly, like the animals had.

She was so close to me I could smell her scent. Not blood and death, as I had expected, but lillies and carnations, flowers I remember from my mother's funeral. She sniffed the air close to my ears and as soon as her eyes no longer held mine in their iron gaze, I felt movement return first to my eyelids then to the rest of my body. I was about to turn and run when I heard her speak, her breath as cool as snowflakes brushing my cheek.

"Come with me.......stay with me." she repeated over and over again in a voice swollen with desperation and desire.

A yell from Holden cut through the fog, full of echo and distortion, calling my name. The girl turned and shrieked at him and he was thrown violently back against the hollow of the dead tree trunk, sending a cloud of black fungal spores into the night air.

She stopped singing and started flapping her hands to shoo away the spores, coughing and sneezing, her eyes streaming with tears. She hissed and backed away, flopping to the ground and choking to regain her breath.

Holden grabbed me and pulled me into the tree.

"The fungus, it's a barrier, she can't cross it and can't breathe the spores." Holden announced triumphantly, "it's her Achilles heel. We have found our salvation."

I didn't feel his elation; I just felt her pain.

Holden turned from me and began scooping up fungus from the dead tree. I looked at the girl. She was standing in a shaft of moonlight in the clearing, still coughing and sneezing.

"Who are you?" I called. She looked directly at me, still coughing and clutching at her aching temples.

The answer came as a voice in my head, a sound taking over my ears and brain.

"I am Rapunzel." she crooned. "So alone, so lonely."

The whispering started again. "Come with me....stay with me."

I studied the graceful, nightdress-clad beauty before me. I felt her despair, descending and dark, cold enough to freeze. She was a contradiction. Helpless yet forceful; vulnerable and invincible at the same time.

I pushed myself toward her and knelt and waited for the honour to be bestowed upon me. I bared my neck and braced myself for the exquisite pain. When it came I felt myself begin to let go of my humanity. Out drained anxiety, pain and loneliness along with compassion, warmth and laughter. I was focussed now, I knew who I was and why I was, I felt liberated.

"So alone," I began to whisper. "I am so lonely."

"Come with me... stay with me," she repeated . I joined my voice with hers.

I took her by the hand and together we climbed up into the tower.