Flash Fiction

The Tower

A little tale for Halloween

My lungs were struggling to fill. Fear has a way of breaking breathing's normal rhythm, tightening the stomach, shrinking capacity, and forcing small quick breaths. I could feel the strain in my neck and shoulders as I forced my body forward against my mind's better judgment.

Something moved behind the trees. I froze, my hand gripping the sharpened wooden stake with more strength than necessary. I saw nothing though I was certain I could feel a presence. I slowly released the breath I was holding, not wanting to add to the sounds in the forest. I waited as sweat formed at my temples and began to run down my cheeks. 'It isn't dark enough,' I told myself. The sun had yet to fall below the horizon.

I began to move again after an interminable wait. The silence did little to dissuade my mind of what I heard, or thought I heard. I took a step and waited. Nothing. I began moving forward again. I had to reach my destination before the sun fell behind the earth.

Stepping lightly, toe to heal, I avoided the dried leaves and sticks that were scattered about. Only my shallow breaths could be heard. I hoped they were only heard by me. I wiped my forehead, clearing the sweat that threatened my eyes. My heart sped as I neared the bog, unsure of what would be necessary to make the crossing. I knew I must. Lucianna had been taken and I was the only one who knew why.

A bird alighted from the brush to my right. I felt my blood shift to my extremities as my heart stopped for the briefest of moments. I stalled while I redrew the breath that had thrust itself out. Watching the sparrow wing away helped to calm me. Maybe, that was what I had heard before. Nothing but a bird. Birds would surely not be around if he was about. Life fled death.

My feet began to sink into the muck as I neared the bog. The sucking sound seemed loud to my ears. Breaking out of the trees, the sludge became a pond. Before me stood the old tower jutting from out of the water as if it had grown there. If the rumors were true, I would find her there. My Lucianna and his Lucianna. Tonight, she would become but one.

My mind was intellectually prepared for what was to come. I had known this day would arrive though it being Lucianna was not foretold. I only knew the stories my father told, and his father before him. Fear was the killer and it was wounding me greatly.

A superior intelligence spawned in the greatest evil had come. A man who was no longer a man. At night, he bore but a single weakness. I would risk all to exploit it even if my mind rebelled at the gamble. My life, even in success, was most likely forfeit. It was for her I continued forward.

I stepped into the pond, strained at the exposure, and allowed the water to fill my boot. I thought the pond ankle deep and I was already at my knee a foot from the vegetation border. To my thigh in a few more steps. I was not prepared to swim.

A mist developed, wispy at first, seemingly generated from the water itself. I slowed as it thickened, the water now waist deep. I raised my arms higher to keep them dry. The water turned strangely warm as the mist thickened. I looked about wondering if the fog was his. I knew not if it would block the sun enough for him. I tightened my hand about my stake and turned about quickly, causing small waves and a swishing sound I regretted. I almost ran back to the shore I could now barely see. I let the silence sooth me, then frighten me. There was no sound at all.

I moved with purpose. My life was forfeited, whether I turned back or not. The fear of being caught in the pond seemed more terrible than the fate that awaited on dry land.The water's depth restricted my movement. I would fare better with a solid footing.

The tower was growing as I neared. Appearing more solid as the distance mitigated the growing mist. It was him, I knew that now. Nothing natural would create such a fog so quickly. I found footing and slowly the water receded down my body as I neared the ancient stone tower. It had served some great forgotten purpose in the past. Now, it was more a tomb.