The Stained Tower

The light fades. Darkness crawls back beneath my skin as if an insect, returning to its burrow. Silence tickles at my spirit, reminding me that this is all that has ever existed here.

‘...Nay. Was it all just a trick of a dying mind?’

As I am on the precipice of giving myself to this world, my head throbs. I collapse and clutch it tightly. The light returns, laughing at me for having ever believed it had left. I gaze at my reflection in the glass and watch as violet light spills from my eyes and flows into the object before me. Within a tiny violet flame ignites, dancing as the light drains from my eyes into it.

With the purple walls words, the shell, now kiln, spins, drawing in the surrounding blackness and the remaining light spilling from my eyes. The flame increases its intensity while my mind becomes weak, and I am certain I will collapse at any moment. The kiln vanishes and my wits return in an instant as if nothing had just transpired. 

‘So… so painful. Where di—’ Before finishing my thoughts, my throat burns as I involuntarily vomit congealed blood. 

Assaulted by yet more pain, I gaze downward to find the kiln has not vanished but simply driven itself deep into my belly. Too weak to process the situation, I simply stare at the embedded kiln in disbelief. The pain fades quickly, but what replaces it is an astonishingly powerful sense of hunger. Even more overwhelming than the pain, I attempt to embrace my abdomen, but oddly the end of the noose seems to be preventing me from slumping over. Weakly I glance behind me to see the rope is slowly becoming taut.

‘Is… is something pulling the rope? Am I not alone?’

With a sudden and great force, I am yanked by the throat. My backside hits the smooth floor with a thunk as I fall backward onto my back. I lie on the ground as something tugs at the rope, dragging me through the black murk.  

‘I… do not care where I am to be taken. Prithee, just take me away from this place.’ 

The rope jerks as our speed increases, and it tows me through the never-ending darkness by my neck. Even though it is faster than I have ever traveled before, it still takes a very long time to reach our end. We stop in an inconspicuous expanse of black, the same as everything else here. The rope commences leisurely, drawing me upward until I am dangling in the air, just as I was when I arrived here.

‘Did I fail a test? Was accepting the purple wall’s deal the wrong thing to have done? Was I meant to accept my fate to atone for any sins… and I failed?’

For a time, I am left to sway as unimaginable hunger gnaws at every fiber of my very being. A cracking sound reverberates outwards. My eyes stare lazily as cracks form in the blackness leaking blinding light into the dark. I swear for a moment, I hear a low growl and see a figure in the black move in the corner of my eye, but I cannot be bothered. 

The light grows larger as it approaches my hanging body. I simply watch the light unblinkingly, praying for either oblivion or salvation. A second later, I find myself hanging from a willow tree, gazing at a blinding sunset and trees of green.

“What!? She looks like a putrid corpse!” I hear a nostalgic voice shriek.

Beneath me, the screams of dozens of people reverberate between the trees. Yet, I do not care but simply fix my gaze upon the distant sunset. Tears stream down my face, something I expected to be nigh impossible after so long in that tenebrous place. 

‘Verily. I am really free…’ A small blue butterfly floats by and lands on my cheek gently. ‘I am not dreaming? Or have I gone mad? Either way, I am not there in that dark place.’

However, something else catches my attention; small motes of purple light are rising upwards. 

Gazing at the little lights, I find myself mesmerized by them.

‘They look as if they are purple embers from the flame of the kiln. Beautiful.’

My hand rises to reach for them, but after my palm enters my sight, I stop. The fingers of my left hand are gone, slowly crumbling into specks of black dust, leaving naught but the palm of my hand. 

From above me, the distinctive sound of splitting timber echoes over the hills. I feel myself drop slightly as the branch above starts to break. Yet, for now, I wish for nothing more but to enjoy the light and forest of green.

So with the screams below and the sounds of birds in the distance, the sun slowly dips down over the horizon. 

The branch snaps.

Time slows down as my vision turns upward toward the darkening dusk sky. My eyes meet the broken branch of the willow tree in time to see it also begin to crumble into specks of black dust. I watch as little motes of purple and blue light sparkle from within the clouds of dust. Resolving myself to one last-ditch effort to go on, I reach out to catch a loose branch with my right arm, only for it to break into more black dust.

What’s left of my body impacts the ground releasing a shower of dust. My vision becomes halved as I come to the conclusion one of my eyes seems to have shattered like glass. Using my one eye, I scan the area finding the once familiar townsfolk of the Colony staring at me with horrified expressions. 

The purple wall appears before me once again. Too weak, unable to comprehend much of the information, and certain I shall die otherwise, I simply decide to let it do as it wishes.

‘Aye.’

An unusual sensation swells within my destroyed abdomen, causing it to tingle. I watch as first the willow tree from once I hung slowly crumbles to dust and falls to the earth. The dust fills the air creating a smothering haze. The specks collide with one another, and drops of purple and blue light increase in number drastically. Soon the black dust is gone, and in its place, there are countless motes of light. Under the faint glimmer of late dusk, it is a magnificent sight to behold. 

The kilns flame lights up brilliantly, attracting the bits of light to it. Soon they form a glowing ball of violet just above where the kiln is situated within my stomach. Even the townsfolk have stopped moving simply observing the situation with amazement. 

The ball of light stretches a long tentacle-like arm and moves it toward one of the townsfolk. It’s difficult to tell who it is approaching, but I recognize them as Thomas. Amazingly not one person seems to be running away; they simply remain standing in awe and wonder.

Thomas reaches out to touch the light as if he is reaching toward the hand of God itself. He inches forward slowly, and the moment the tip of his finger touches the tentacle of light. With a sound like glass shattering, Thomas’s body collapses into fragments of light. The new bits of light rush toward me, and an amazing amount of comfort washes over me as I feel my long-held hunger dwindle. I also notice that my full vision has returned.

Slack-jawed, everyone stares at the place where Thomas once resided. 

A woman gasps and turns to run toward the cottages. The light pursues her, smashing her body upon contact. 

The local chandler points at me with a shaky hand. “We hast stoked Lucifer’s fury! Flee or perish!” he yells, attempting to escape into the nearby trees.

His yell wakes everyone from their stupor, and they flee in all directions. However, the light is simply too fast. Men and women alike are shattered by the light, making more blue and purple motes of light. 

I force myself to stand in time to see the last remnants of my skin fall from my body, which is then quickly replaced by the bits of light. I stare at my arms, finding them not white as they were before, but instead, they look almost like light-blue panes of glass. When I look closely, I can see a black haze with blue and purple embers mixed in beneath the surface.

“Mrs. Nightingale, p-please stop whatever thou art doing!” Someone’s screaming catches my attention, and I turn to find a familiar-looking man, Preacher Daniels.

He squints heavily under the shine of my body. “Stop! Please just stop!” he cries.

I attempt to open my mouth to speak, but I feel nary any sensation from the action. It does not matter, though, as arms of light make contact with the side of his head, and his body shatters on impact.

‘Stop.’

“...”

The chaos escalates as the arms of light rip apart the trees, the grass, animals, and even digs into the earth to reap the insects below. I stand uncertain of why the event transpiring around me is happening and if I could ever hope to stop it. Turning my head toward the ground, I question in my mind.

‘Halt?’

‘Cannot halt?’

I realize my surroundings are eerily quiet.

Turning my head back up. I find nothing but barren land and a single blue butterfly slowly crumbling into tiny purple embers. The surroundings are utterly silent, with none of the sounds one would expect to hear at the edge of a forest. My gaze fixes itself upon the hollowed land.

A piece of roofing shook loose by the happenings falls from a cottage in my peripheral. I glance toward the small colony, noticing the all-consuming light seems to have stopped mere feet from the cottages at the town’s edge. My attention returns to the barren land where once a small colony of townsfolk stood. The calm wind blows, restoring the lost sounds as birds once more begin chirping in the distance.  

‘My apologies to the very few inhabitants of this colony that perhaps did not merit such a fate.’ Despite her foolishly mislaid anger the image of the grieving and deceived widow flashes in my mind. ‘But I cannot help but be relieved with my escape from the Tenebrous Place. I pray that place is not truly the afterlife and the Preacher pays properly for what he has wrought.’

I peer into the nearby forest of lush green. The sight almost seems to embrace my exhausted soul.

'But for everyone else, this was brought about by thy own actions and,  for thou, I do not have any sympathy to give.'

A purple wall appears, blocking my sight.

Tilted_Axis

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