The Tower

(I forget exactly how it started) but I got on a train to go to see my mom, who lives in NC. The train ride was 17 hours long (non-stop) and i was writing a book on my typewriter. A family that I know (I don’t remember who, but they had 3 dogs with them) was sitting near me and we were talking. They were going to California. A cute guy that I know was sitting next to me as I typed away. An attendant (which I don’t think trains have) came up to me and asked me if she could help me with my book. I asked her to make copies of half of my already written book so I could look over it. I start talking to the family next to me when the cute guy gets up to have a smoke in the nearby smoking car (I don’t think trains have those either). I wanted to go with him but I didn’t want to be rude to the family I was speaking to, so I stated. About 30 minutes after he came back I got up to have my smoke and he decided to come too as did the mom of the family. So we’re in the smoking car, smoking and talking and laughing, when an attendant or conductor walks up to have a word with the mom.

The guy and I are still chatting away when the train lurches forward and to a sudden stop. Suddenly, the mom screams and is crying and the guy and I go to investigate. Apparently she has to get rid of one of her dogs or they wont let them travel. 2 is the limit and they cannot have 3. The family is in a huddle trying to decide which dog they least like and they cannot make up their minds. The conductor chooses for them and picks this really cute looking orange colored cat. Apparently they just had 2 dogs and a cat. You cannot have dogs and cats together. They step out of the train to throw the cat off when I say, “Hey! I’ll take it! Then you don’t have to leave it to die.”

They agree and I take the orange cat, whose name was Charlie, to my seat. Suddenly there’s an Asian girl in the seat directly across from me. I don’t mind and Charlie seems to like her. The girl explains to me that she and Charlie are of the same soul and she speaks for him. I don’t bat an eyelash and I go on to explain to the girl that my plan was to take care of Charlie until I got back to Winter Haven and then return him. The girl relates this in a series of intense mews and I nod my head in agreement periodically. Charlie mews back and the girl informs me that this is alright and Charlie sees the wisdom in my decision. I smile and continue to write and drink black coffee.

The dream jumps to another time, to what I assume is happening at the same time as the events on the train. I’m kind of viewing things that are happening at the family’s house (which in reality is my house plus this weird group of creepy towers). The pool guy is setting up to clean the pool when this really vicious voice rings out “TIMOTHY YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED NOT TO TAMPER WITH THIS POOL. YOUR COMPANY CANNOT CLEAN IT SUFFICIENTLY AND THAT IS WHY THE FAMILY HAS ASKED US TO CLEAN IT FOR THEM. THE CHEMICALS THAT YOU ARE USING ARE COMPLETELY RUINING THE PIPES AND A CHIPPING THE TILE. LEAVE IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL BE FORCIBLY REMOVED” Timothy doesn’t bat and eye he just goes on pouring chemicals and whistling.

Suddenly, this latch opens and the back wall of the house by the pool opens up. This huge guy walks up with a huge rusty garden hoe and starts walking toward Timothy. Timothy cannot hear him and continues working. The scary man starts beating Timothy with the hoe and rips him to shreds. One of the family’s older sons walks around the corner and sees this happening and tries to stop it. The man just beats him to death with his fists. I watch as the huge man drags Timothy’s body into that weird back wall room shed thing and lock the body in there with one of the cats. I don’t see what happens to the son.

Different time again. This time I have finished my trip in NC and had a very nice time and I finished my book. It’s called ‘The Tower’ and I am very excited to publish it. I have Charles and the little girl with me and we’re walking from the train station to the family’s home (which is actually my home too?). We get there and find that they have just arrived a few hours before and are searching for one of their cats. I go in to start helping them when all of the lights flicker off. We’re standing in the living room, and all of the walls are glass, and we hear this banging on the wall/window. I, not giving two fucks, turn on my flashlight and shine it through the window. The eyes of a cat (the same cat who was locked in with Timothy) shine at me. The lights flicker on and we all rush outside to get the cat. The cat runs away and leads us to a crack in the door to the back wall/shed thing by the pool. I go inside and find the bones of a man. The cat ate him away to nothing left. We all look at the cat and see that he has a hunger for human flesh and now wants to eat us. We run.

The mom of the family realized that her oldest son, who was to stay with the house to watch it, was also missing. We’re running up the tower to escape the man-eating pussy and Charles and his girl yell out, “RUN! We’ll hold them off!” and Charles and I share this moment with Kawaii eyes and then we say good-bye. We continue running up the tower to the sound of cat screams. We reach the top and we’re looking around when we smell something awful. The mom looks down when she sees her murdered son’s head beaten to a pulp and his body broken. She screams.

We’re down stairs and we have the bodies in the living room, which is green. It turns out that Timothy was a child that they had put up for adoption years ago and that’s why the let him do work on the pool even though it sucked. They felt badly. Suddenly, the lights go off again and this weird green light floods into the room, making everything all Alien like. We hear this voice, the same voice that killed Timothy and the oldest son, “YOU MUST SUFFER AND BE PUNISHED. YOU ARE UNCLEAN. UNWORTHY. UNFIT. UNGODLY.” The bodies of the two dead men start reanimating. The mother screams and tries to force them back down. We drag the bodies to this hole in the floor and try to latch it. We cannot. The mother throws herself into the pit to keep them at bay and try to save her family.

We close the latch and watch through the clear ceiling of the pit.

I am the mother

I am telling my sons that I am so sorry that I couldn’t protect them and it’s all my fault that they died. They stare at me blankly.

I am sobbing and holding their bones close to me. I can feel their bony hands tightening around my throat. It’s getting harder to breathe. I am crying and whispering lullabies and feeling life slip out from me.

I feel my heart explode as one of them forces its hand through my chest.

I smile.

I am free.