The Wailing Tower

I was a child. A child who did not know. Did not see. Did not care.

But then I was a teenager. Teenagers do care. Teenagers will seek answers and flush in questions and plant seeds of questions and build mountains of questions to answers they do not want to know. No, they do. However, in their foolish quest of desire, they miss a step.

What will this do to me?

I did care. I did not see, nor did I know. But I wanted to. I was thirteen, a little girl. A curious little girl.

This is not only a story of the horrors I’ve witnessed, but perhaps a lesson that all things do not deserve answers.

A wail. An agonizing wail shook the grounds, jutting into the glum, rainy air that hung about our miserable village.

It was as if everyone took a breath in at once, the folk still. The sky was dipping into gray sullenness, an approaching night time was to take the reins of our simple village.

Nellie was beside me, holding the small rock we played catch with.

“We should go home,” she whispered, tugging at my arm.

“No,” I stood, staring at the building that had started it all. A tall, solemn structure with vines creeping along its sides. At the top, a ceiling held, with yet another cylindrical structure on top.

The gray, drab walls stuck for years, the bricks as strong as they had been since I was born.

For thirteen years. Thirteen years, something inside pierced sound through the village. Trudging its steps into my thoughts, and soon earning my piqued curiosity.

Every night, of every day, of every week of every month of every year for thirteen years, something screeched and wailed and cried and yelled inside that very building. Impossible, you may think. No creature could make a sound that loud. No. You are wrong. This one can. Despite my lack of knowledge on this ‘creature’, perhaps it was magical, perhaps its squeals magnified, amplified by a device, I knew because I heard. I did not know, but I seeked to.

“What, no?” Nellie tugged harder at my sleeve.

“Nothing will come out.” My eyes still glued to the curious building, I shook my hand free from Nellie’s grasp.

Nellie’s breath caught. For once, I tore my eyes away from the Tower and then to Nellie. I knew that breath. She knew something, something different that she did not intend on telling me.

“What?” I asked.

“I…I heard rumors. From the village folk.” She looked away, gazing at the Tower, watching the crows flock away as yet another painful scream shook the village.

I raised my eyebrow, prompting her to go on.

“They say whatever…thing that’s inside there will finally come out. Tonight.”

“You’re joking?” I asked. This had grabbed my attention. What could possibly be inside that horrifying tower? Could I possibly see it? What would this mean-

Nellie interrupted my musings. “This-this is why I didn’t want to tell you!”

“What?” I looked at her again, returning my gaze from the random spot on the floor.

“You’re planning something, aren’t you?” She asked, injecting anger into her voice.

“No.” I simply lied, and moved away. “Do you want to go inside? Like you said you would?”
Dubiously, she stepped inside the wooden hut. A wooden plank lay outside the hut, with a small shed for rain and intense heat. The clouds had started to coalesce, bringing darkness upon us another night.

Dinner was another drab event. We’d get rotten tomatoes if it were a performance. My mother was, as usual, scolding my poor brother. My father was reading the newspaper, of course, at night.

Tonight, however, for me and my thoughts, was a stage set in an entirely different world. It was as if everything was clear. Tonight was the night. I just knew it! I could finally discover the secrets the Tower withheld from me. Alas.

By that night, I had set out to find what I intended to find.

With a water bottle, a packet of food and a flashlight, I slung a backpack over my shoulder and lit the flashlight, illuminating the path of dirt that will soon be my way to the Tower.

The night drove in quickly, and the moon was set high in the sky as I checked my watch.

10:24 p.m. I had successfully snuck out of my house, and my parents were too busy putting my brother to sleep anyway. The stars painted the sky brilliantly… dull shade of gray, and the screaming from the Tower had stopped. It had stopped ages ago, actually. That was unusual. Usually, they went on every night. Usually, the wails of agony kept the restless village awake, and no one got proper sleep, waking up with relief and a wave of gloom hanging over their heads. This might be different, though. Maybe the village will finally get to sleep now. Maybe whatever was kept hidden inside the Tower was going to leave at last, and we will have finally gotten peace.

I was wrong.

As I passed through the bushes near the bridge, on my way to the Tower, I heard a faint rustle in the leaves.

“Who-?” I was about to ask, when someone came out from the bush. My breath caught, and I stumbled in fear. Maybe this was a bad idea.

Shining blonde hair draped its shoulders, and it bore a…a smile. She was panting. Nellie.

“Nellie?” I asked, immediately rushing to her and helping her regain her steps.

“I hate you, fool! I snuck out for this. I’m terrified. It better be good.” She panted.

“How did you-?”
“I just do. I would know when my best friend is up to no good.” She smiled at that, though I could see her fear, and I couldn’t help but smile a little too.

“Thanks. For coming out and…assisting me, I guess.”

“Let’s go, then!”

And with that, we began our journey to the Tower.

The air was cold, and our feet crunched the frozen leaves littered across the ground. Our breaths came like fog, and we spoke little.

“There!’ Nellie whispered, and dragged me down with her arm.

A figure emerged from the Tower, its shadow pressed against a starry sky. It was unreal.

It was hunched over, greasy and shaggy hair tossed over its shoulders, and raggy clothes hung over from its emaciated body.

I was just rising, with Nellie at my side. How could something so small scream such volumes every night?

Perhaps it did not see us. We rose to a full stance, and I let out a small breath, one that I had not realized I was holding.

However, I was wrong. It did see us. With a sharp jolt that I was sure must have hurt the creature’s neck, it looked straight at us. Despite not being able to see the features of the creature, I knew its piercing stare penetrated right through my soul.

The creature charged. It ran, and it ran towards us. This was the end. I could see it, written in the stars, in the fates, in the fact that my legs weren’t moving at all and the fact that my heart had stopped beating right then and there. Breathing heavily and ever so quickly I regained my senses and stumbled whilst Nellie was beside me most probably experiencing the same panic I was.

Running. We were running, chasing the sky and all the glory it withheld, while this monstrous creature that I did not look back at to see what it looked like charged at us with full speed.

Within no time, a clammy hand grasped my collar, and I shared a look of trepidation with Nellie.

Dragging our feet across the soil, a grating noise in the air, I was tossed into the Tower.

The Tower. I was inside the Tower.

Nellie was outside, a knife being driven into her stomach. The creature was out of sight, on the other side of the wall.

My mind racing and scattering my thoughts, I didn’t scream for help or fight. I just…gave up. The darkness folded over me as the wooden, creaking doors closed shut, and Nellie was outside, her shrieks of pain muffled and soon silenced down to a whimper, and then nothingness. It was as if blackness would have a sound, pure silence. It was deafening, and I was deafened by my senses.

The musty air filled my nostrils, and my face was wet with tears.

Soon, in about ten minutes, after the washed away tears wet my shirt, a knock abruptly sounded. The knock turned to banging, and I stood, my flashlight shining on the door.

I had a flashlight. How could I forget?

I immediately checked my surroundings. There was a puddle of water on the ground. Gross, what could that be?

The door flew open. The moonlight spilled onto the floor, the light dancing on the ground.

The creature stood there, panting. Blood stained its pallid skin. How atrocious! Its hair covered its facial features, and its skin was all shriveled up and you could see its bones. In its hands was a knife, Nellie’s blood splattered on it. I shivered. How could I have let this happen to her? The creature hissed, its scratchy voice making a move once more. I still wondered, how could this monster be so loud?

I expected it to come towards me, try to kill me, but it simply stood there, soaking in blood and panting. Suddenly, it gasped, as if it could feel pain, and froze. The knife slipped out of its hand, and clattered to the floor, and the monster followed in suit.

Standing behind the monster was Nellie. Nellie. She was alive! Alas, relief flooded my senses. I didn’t go over to her, though. She looked at me, pain in her eyes. Then, she, too, slumped to the floor, her knife slipping away too. I did not know she packed a knife.

Was she dead now? No! Impossible. The creature and Nellie both immobile, only my breathing filled the air of the night around me. What now? What was there to do?

I stepped over the dirty creature, and put it inside the tower. It was disgusting to have to touch such a thing. I checked for Nellie’s breathing. She…she was dead. Stifling a sob, I picked her up and attempted to drag her to town.

Right then, when I was about to, a sound stopped the beat of my heart. A wail. From the tower.

I turned, to see the creature, very much alive, closing the door behind me.

Was this it? Was I not going to succeed? What even was that creature?