The Tower

1 - Appearance

"Just one last stop, then we're finally there!"

"You still haven't told us where we're going yet, Dad."

"That's because it's a surprise, Itsuki."

"After all, surprises make birthdays!"

"You too, Mum?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be on board with surprising one of you?"

"Because you do it every year?"

"That's even more reason to do it!"

They both laugh in sync in the front of the car.

"Still, can't we get there any faster? It's way too cramped in the back here."

In the back of the car, there was three of us. Me, my little brother and my older sister, although, despite being older, she was still the smallest of us all. Both were asleep, as we'd been in the car for nearly half a day now.

"Hey, no matter who we are, we still abide by the laws, you know."

"You can say that all you want when you don't have two shoulders pushing against you constantly, Dad."

"We're only 20 minutes away, so put up with it for that long."

"Aah, fine..."

I sigh and lean back as far as I can, though it seemed to make it more uncomfortable for me, so I returned to my original position of hunching forwards.

As I do so, I hear a faint whisper in my ear.
"--h, mythi-- one, heed ou-- all."

I quickly turn to the side of where I heard it from, but there was nothing there.

My movements seemed to be noticed by Mum though, as she called it out.
"What are you doing?"

"Did you not hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The whispering. Someone was whispering in my ear."

"Hm? Itsuki... Try to get some sleep, I think you've been awake for a little too long."

"No, I'm being serious, that wasn't me hallucinat--"

"What in God's name is that?"

Dad cuts me off as he leans closer to the dashboard of the car, looking up at something.

"What is it?"

I call from the back, also attempting to lean forward to get a look.

"It looks like... A tower?"

Mum points out the obvious as a monstrously large tower extends itself from the middle of wherever we are.

"Is that the surprise?"

"No... Not at all..."

The traffic on the road seems to have come to a halt as the road seems to have been blocked off by this tower.

Some people were getting out of their cars to get a better look and to take photos and videos of it.

Curious, I pull my phone out of my pocket and start looking online, and it seems to be everywhere.

"They're popping up in America, Europe, Asia. They're everywhere..."

"Is it... A movie promotion?"

"There's no way, it literally just appeared, right in front of my eyes."

"How is that possible?"

"I-- I don't know. I don't think it is..."

Half paying attention to my parents conversations, I continue reading online.