The Five Towers

Last night I went to a house I'd never been to before. It was some kind of party with people I didn't recognize. We ate pizza and everyone took turns telling jokes. After some time we all decided to call it a night and found places to sleep. I took a table that converted into a bed. Above the table there was a television embedded in the wall. Everyone else seemed to fall asleep immediately as I tossed and turned. Finally I gave up on trying to sleep I switched on the tv in hopes of finding an infomercial to lull myself to sleep.

As I turned on the tv it starting streaming extremely hard core pornography with the volume blaring. People were instantly awoken. The first person awake was Adam Savage from mythbusters. He took my actions as a declaration of orgy, "I thought it'd be tomorrow before we got into this but that's cool". Everyone removed their clothes in a fraction of a moment. I, being caught horribly off guard, stood up and started to make my escape. I was almost to the door when three women tried to stop me. "Are we ugly, is that why you're leaving?" "No no you're beautiful I just wasn't expecting this." And before any of them could speak again I was gone.

It was dark and the moon struggled to provide light through the dense forest canopy above. There was nothing around the house, not even a road out. I wondered how myself and everyone else had got there, but didn't dwell on it. In the distance I could see a row of lights and decided to follow them. I walked for miles amazed that I was able to see them from such a far distance. Occasionally a squirrle would snicker from the trees mockingly. I continued on undeterred.

I reached the source of the lights to find it was much more than I orginally had anticipated. There was a small mountain, at the base the first of many tall smoothed brick buildings. The buildings were scattered around the mountain in an upwards spiral connected by steep staircases.

As I approached the first tower a voice without form instructed me to go inside. There were no doors, only arched entry ways on either side and inside the tower it was completely hollow. The tower must have been 4 stories high or better. The floor was tiled in a mosaic of granite and sandstone. There were no other decorations. High up a torch burning appeared that seemed to levitate in the center, surrounded by other lights of varying brightness. Suddenly a booming voice echoed down the walls. "Welcome, I am Zeus." Then another torch as bright as the first appeared above me and responded, "And I Hera." "What is this place," I asked. "That doesn't matter," Hera replied, "What matters is that you must go up." Her words were soft and comforting. "Go now!" Zeus demanded.

I left the first tower and continued up the stairs. The stairs were lined with boulders and small plants. The rocks glowed in the moonlight. The second tower was exactly the same, only there was no torch. As I walked in many torches appeared above me, some much brighter than others. "[Desomniac] you've taken your time in finding this place," one voice spoke out. "Who are you?" I said. "They have called me Horus." "What is this place? Why are there so many lights here." "There are many lights because there are many of us in this tower. You are in a place that has been waiting for you for some time. You must continue now. Come back again."

As I left I could hear voices behind me, as if all the torches were whispering amongst themselves. The next tower was also empty. I waited for a long while assuming that a torch would appear, but nothing. Then the initial voice that instructed me into the first tower spoke again and told me to move along, there was nothing to see yet.

The fourth tower had three torches within it, already burning bright when I arrived. As I went inside I was extremely fatigued from the climb and sat in the center of the floor. "What has taken you so long?" a voice said. "I was waiting in the last tower." "Why would wait?" another voice said. "I thought something would appear like before." "You thought wrong," a third voice said, "you have no knowledge of what lives in that tower." The first voice spoke again, "without knowing you will never know." I stood up, "I don't understand". The second voice spoke, "You have but one tower left." In unison they all spoke, "Go now!"

The fifth tower was much further up the mountain. The staircase became more like rock climbing. This tower seemed to be newer, not bearing the weathered appearance of the others. As I went inside I found that the floor was not yet finished and a pile of tiles sat near the doorway. I paced back and forth trying to understand what all had happened thus far. It wasn't long before the initial voice could be heard again. "There will be no light in this tower." "I don't understand." "No one knows of this tower yet. And no one ever will." "Why am I here?" "You have not completed the task yet. You must see what lies in all four towers." "I don't know what I'm missing." "I hope that one day you discover it or all of this might be lost."

The ground than began to shake. The midnight sky burst into a thunderous rain storm. I walked out of the tower to see what was happening and the sky was lit by a thousand lightning bolts. And I was back in my room.