The Dragonfly in the Tower

7. The Bodies in the Tower

“Let’s keep moving,” urged Sharon, but Ilya’s face was white and now she could see beads of perspiration on his face.

Sharon was torn.

I’m coming to care for Ilya, but I can’t back out now…

“Dracrys, can you go back with Ilya?”

Dracrys fluttered its wings and green iridescent powder slowly drifted down.

Ilya gasped with wonder, running his hands through the green trail, and they left.

Leaving Sharon alone with Rainer.

Rainer studied her, then went to his desk to retrieve something. Sharon looked at it curiously when Rainer came back. It was a flask with a transparent liquid.

“What’s that? A potion?”

Rainer looked at her. “No. Water.”

Sharon was baffled. “Why are you giving me water?” She accepted the flask nonetheless.

Rainer shook his head. His expression was closed off. “You’ll see,” was all he would say, giving her a feeling of immense foreboding.

What is this feeling of trepidation? Sharon tried to tamp it down, but like the proverbial white elephant, the more she tried to squash the feeling the more it arose.

This feeling of dread I’ve had ever since I glimpsed the study… the evil aura emanating from this place…

The tunnel was longer than any of the other tunnels, and steeper. Sharon had to pause to catch her breath. Should’ve taken the light orb with me… but she didn’t know if she was halfway, or further, and didn’t want to waste her progress, not when she was so close.

She shouldered her resolve and continued.

After a long way uphill she could finally sense the air opening up. She was now in the chamber.

In the dark, she felt along the walls.

Wait… the light switch probably isn’t going to be on the wall.

She walked towards the center and extended her arm up, seeking a dangling crystal pendant.

There!

But then a moment of premonition warned her.

Her hands groped around and found a larger crystal pendant by the first.

She was remembering the birdcages, electrocuting the birds, from the previous room…

Grasping what she believed to be the light cord, she pulled.

Here goes nothing…

Sharon blinked and then staggered back.

She had hoped that what she had seen was just a trick of the light, a trick of her mind, oversensitized by the cruel hints from the first room.

But it was no trick of the light.

She was looking at a woman, a dead woman, slumped on a silver rack.

A bird head was sewn onto her bloodied and sawed off neck.

Six silver blades erupted from her back like an unholy mechanical angel.

For some reason, all Sharon could think was, Oh god. It’s real. It’s real. It’s real…

Her eyes desperately seeking confirmation that this was also a glamor, this was just a painting, just sculpture...

Just made of wires… just made of paint and canvas…

But this “art piece” was made of corpses, who had once been real. Once lived. Once loved.

The previous owner of the tower must have sunk further and further into his obsession, one step at a time, one cut at a time, and now as Sharon took in the room bile rose in her throat.

Next to the woman was a man, and next to the man was a young girl and boy.

The way they were placed, almost lovingly, almost tenderly next to each other, in sick contrast to their bodily mutilation… Were they family?

Again Sharon’s eyes zeroed in on their figures, seeking anything that could tell her eyes that the bloodstained fabric was just an illusion, the dangling hands an illusion, the stiff feet an illusion…

Instead, she retched.

And then she understood why Rainer had given her a flask of water.

Drinking to ease her throat, then wiping her mouth and ignoring the puddle of her own vomit, she turned to the other side of the room.

Nothing will scare me. Nothing will scare me. Nothing will scare me… she chanted internally.

Across the room were four birdcages. Large birdcages. Large enough to fit a human. Large enough to fit Sharon, large enough for the bodies…

Four human birdcages, four bodies.

The birdcages still shone a bright, beautiful gold, as though someone came in and polished them every day.

The crystal pendants of the ceiling fans shivered softly in the air, as though stirring from old memories.

All thoughts of moving forward fled Sharon’s mind and she ran away, unthinking, stumbling over the ground, crying, tripping, bruising her knees, back to the west end of the tower.

Ilya was there, and Rainer was there too, and Dracrys now, flitting around her anxiously…

Someone wrapped a blanket over her…

She wept and when she was done weeping she fell asleep almost automatically, by instinct, like she could take no more of this world.

When she woke up the shimmer of starlight covered the hall like a fine spiderweb of light.

Rainer was sitting next to her, dozing, and became alert as Sharon slowly woke up.

“Are you ready to talk?” Rainer asked.

Sharon gave a mute nod.

“Then my advice is this. Forget about this wing of the tower. You like living with Ilya, right? Spend your days in happy ignorance together in the east wing.”

Sharon’s mouth felt like chalk.

She tried to speak but her lips were puckered and her throat closed in a spasm.

As she was struggling to make a word she heard Ilya speak behind her in a relieved and joyful tone. “I agree! Let’s go back, Sharon!”

Next Chapter: 8. The Heart of the Tower

Previous Chapter: 6. The Fresco of the Tower

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