THE TOWER OF THE SKY

Stories

Chapter 3 - Part 1

"The Arrow"

-*- Over the shoulder of a Remarkable -*-

This room is large, isn't it, Reader?

Much larger and far more decadent than any room I've ever taken resident in. Perhaps you have been more privlidged in this area than I, but even if you have I am willing to bet it's not been this privlidged.

Forgive me if my tone has changed to a heavier pace. This room has that effect. It is foreign and unfrequented. I feel a certain serious calm that you may feel as well, for we are here on business and must leave our play behind for just a moment or two.

It's rather dark in here as well, and for that I apologize. The things of this room are not my responsiblity though, so take my hand and stumble with me over to the caramel colored candle burning on the desk in the center of the room. Here we can see more, though still not all, even through Our eyes.

It's simply too dark and there's just nothing important enough for Me to clear the darkness for (though the things that live in here are quite grand).

As it is, up here in the highest room of the Forbidden Tower, things are made to be grand.

The broad wooden desk is grand. The floor-length red velvet curtains are grand. The floor to ceiling windows that hide behind them are grand.

The man walking in through the black double doors is grand.

And he is tired.

He does not sleep though, not at all, Reader. He does not need it, does not wish for it, for he is always in demand of something or someone of importance and sleep would be wasteful of his time.

We can still see that his steps are heavy and that is proof that he still has the ability to tire after a day of shooting himself relentlessly around the world.

And this is good because he is not so unrelatable now.

But as he approaches his desk a new wind takes breath in him. See it? His eyes are re-lit in their black depths and his spine had lost a bit of it's weathered curve.

It's all due to the stack of papers waiting for him in the center of his grand desk, just to the side of the candlelight we sought out just moments ago.

He knows that they are the select few he's requested. He knows that Caius will have weeded out the excess stories and ordered these just so. He knows that they are as close to being a perfect pile as is possible.

Neat and orderly and built with the words he has to read, these six sheets of paper are what he's traveled back to Tower High so swiftly for and it should be mentioned that they are also the reason for Our intrusion.

He lifts the first from the stack and is so distracted by indulging in the words he begins to sit without properly preparing himself for it.

Lucky for Aro, We are here to pull out his chair for him. For We have almost as much interest in the Stories as he does, don't We?

-*- The first in the pile -*-

Name: Emmett McCarty

Age: 22

Classification: Shield - physical

Sub Class: None

Begin:

For the record, I think this is silly, but I'm going to do it anyway because that's the kind of guy I am. You guys want us to be honest and that's just great, because that's what I've always told myself I would be. Actually, that could be my Sub Class if you had "Truthfulls" as a Class at all. You don't. Maybe you should look into it? You seem to be changing things up. Having us write these papers, for instance. This is new.

My story begins with nothingness. I have no recollection of my childhood. One day I was just here, at Tower High, being told I was Remarkable. Or, actually "A" Remarkable, but at the time I didn't get the difference between the two statements. It sounded sweet at the time, I won't lie. But I've always had questions about where I came from. Of course, as you know, I've worked past my issues with that. There's no going back, only going forward, right?

I've been at Tower High for one year as an official student, but I've lived here in the outer dorms ever since I was eleven. All I can remember is waking up in a strange bed with strange men surrounding me, discussing where I could have come from. Everything before that is blank. I knew my name, I knew my age, I knew that I didn't like cheese. But specifics about where I came and who I came from were gone. It sucked.

Around my twelfth birthday all of you decided that it needed to be determined what I was and whether or not I should be able to stick around. Aro allowed me to stay after a few tests had been done to determine my Remarkability, because my worth was more than obvious. And there was pretty much no question about what Class I was in after I single handedly deflected a boulder Alec tried to drop on me when I was twelve. I mean, seriously, dude. You guys were there. It was like he threw a cotton ball at me. That day definitely beats the crap out of almost all of my other days. I guess whoever dropped me off at Tower High knew that it was where I was supposed to end up.

So I've been studying here for one term, one year now, and it's been probably the best year of my life. You roomed me with Eddie and I broke down his ice cold shell just as I suspect you thought I would. You've let me tutor the more nervous Shields, since I've always been ready to embrace my Class, and that's given me some pretty great sense of purpose. Other things have happened that I don't like you guys sticking your nose in, but just know that I'm happy right now. I've always been upbeat, but this year I've actually become happy. I like getting to know what my full abilities are and stretching them every day. I like feeling like I can protect those that I love. Being a physical Shield is more than just being a mindless muscled maniac, and I've always seen that, and I'll always fight against that stereo type in the Tower world.

You shouldn't need anymore than that. You know that I love what I am and I love the people that love me for what I am. And that's why I should be on The List. I know what's right and I will not compromise myself. I am loyal to those who understand me.

Everyone else, the rest of the whole freaking world if that's who it is, can suck it.

Aro sighs, and We sigh with him.

It's not a sigh of exhaustion or frustration. It's a sigh of amusement and affection because Emmett is a quite the Character and hearing from him will always be a little bit different from what you expect and a little bit more delightful than even he knows.

In a careful practice Aro places Emmett's paper to the side, not too close to the candle, and We all turn our attention to the next page.

-*- The Pixie gets her say -*-

Name: Alice Brandon

Age: 18

Classification: Breacher

Sub Class: Gateway

Begin:

My name is Alice Brandon and I've lived here at Tower High my whole life.

I grew up in the off campus housing with Aro and his family during the years in which that was a happy place to dwell. Aro's sister raised me as her own. Her husband, Marcus, took me in quite readily as well. I had a family and a happy childhood, though I'll never really know who I am. I laughed and played with the other Remarkable's children, though the secret of what every one truly was didn't reach me until I was ten years old. I suppose that's when Aro started to feel guilty for what he knew would happen to me at the age of eleven. I mean, he allowed me to stay here, in residence within the community of the Tower. He had to know that something was going to happen to me and the ones I loved when I turned eleven.

I will never really forgive myself for that day. We aren't even allowed to speak her name anymore, so I won't write it here. But you all know the story. She was stolen from us. I had a feeling she would be gone, but I didn't say anything. I didn't warn Marcus and I didn't warn Aro and I sat in my bed all night crying while she hurt and he yelled. It's the darkest memory I have. It's the darkest vision I will ever see, no matter what the future holds.

Your collegues here have helped me work through my past, though. I have come to terms with what I can and cannot change, and I'm working on finding my self worth once again. I need to be happy in order to be useful. I believe it's Mr. Whitlock who teaches that in his class, is it not? Maybe it's another. I only seem to remember things from certain classes, and though he is not directly my professor I've sat in on a lecture or two of his during my free time. So I'm holding that happiness to be a goal of mine this year, my first as an official student. I will be happy again. I will find people and places that make me feel that way in order to exude my Remarkability to my full potential. I really am so very excited to be here, living in the Inner dorms and starting a new life almost.

I should be on The List just because I've made it this far and I'm still choosing to fight. I fight so many things everyday, because that is the situation life has put me in. I know that I can love, and I can do it well, and that The List calls for that more than anything else. I know that I have to prove myself over again and I want to have a chance to make it right. Whatever the Tower calls for, I'm ready for because I've already lost so much. The List is everyone's goal. We are supposed to want to be on it.

Maybe I'm the only one who needs to be.

This one has pained Aro to read. That's why his shoulders have sunk down a bit and it's why the flame in the candle may not seem so bright.

He is close to this one, to Alice, you now know.

And Aro is a lot of hard things, but heartless he is not. He remembers the days she writes of quite well. If we were to open his memory and search it we would find these days tucked in the sealed envelope of his mind.

He sets the paper aside, resting it carefully on top of Emmett's. He knows these two voices well and he's glad to have spent some time with them once again. These were the papers he needed to read first, just for assurance of the pieces he was already putting into place.

Now for the unfamiliar.

-*- A fort of a man -*-

Name: Carlisle Cullen

Age: 21

Classification: Toucher

Sub Class: None

Begin:

I'm not accustomed to discussing myself so I'm not very sure where to begin, honestly. I've had a very pleasant upbringing, if not unusual at times. My father is a doctor, my mother a housewife. We've always lived in Perso, the town closest to Tower High, so it has always been a part of my life. I've always been aware of it's existence and I've always been aware of it's existence's effect on the people in our town. My parents are very level headed, however, and I was brought up to consider the Tower High as nothing out of the ordinary like some of the, for lack of a better term, "groupies".

Now that I am here, of course my perspective has changed. Well, I suppose that change began during my eleventh year. I was unusually interested in what my father did, always, especially for such a young child. When I reached the age of ten my hunger for his knowledge of healing was quite high; my other hobbies and most friends fell into the sidelines of my life. We were out in the market the day it all happened. It was one of the rare days we had a street fair market happening so there were a great number of people out for it. I don't know how or why I heard her in the crowd, but I was the only one who did.

I ended up saving a young lady's life that day. But it wasn't the normal way in which my father or any other physician would. I simply had to touch her where she was injured (in this case her shattered spine) and wish that she were healed. It was instinct. It hurt me. I had to share the pain with her, but I found myself gladly doing it even though she was a stranger. Once I healed her she was whisked away by a man she seemed to know and I was in shock from everything, namely thought that we'd just shared this experience but I'd never see her again. It was an odd, overwhelming reaction for such a young boy, and it left me questioning so much. But that was the first day I really was my Self and learnt of my abilities as a Toucher, so the experience brought the good with the bad.

As I stated previously, realizing I would be attending Tower High in the future gave me a new perspective on it. So far I really have enjoyed my first term here and my second has also started out fairly well. I've grown close to a select few people during my time here and I look forward to even more close relationships that I feel may be forming now. I hold those that are dear to me very close. I have a strong distaste for violence but I will gladly defend those that are signifigant to me. Please do not underestimate the power of my love. I am not rough, or barbaric, or cold, or distant. But I am strong and I am willing to fight for what's right.

I want to be a hiding place for my friends. I want to be the person they trust and confide in when the rest of the world feels like it has forsaken them. It's always been in my heart. It's what caused me to seek out the broken girl so long ago. That would be my worth to The List. The very heart I have had since I was a child.

The smile that pulls up Aro's lips is no surprise. Carlisle is likable. Carlisle is kind and true.

These are all things Aro has heard and is pleased to feel for himself the tone of this man.

A third paper is added to the pile by the candle. His eyes are hungry for more.

We all lean in a little closer as the next paper floats into the light.

-*- When the Swan first spread her wings -*-

Name: Isabella Swan

Age: 18

Classification: Shield - mind

Sub Class: Composer

Begin:

My name is Isabella Swan but I prefer to be called just Bella. I am new to Tower High this term. I grew up in Forks, Washington with my both mother and father, though they divorced when I was quite young. I always felt like a normal child and didn't notice that I was lacking any sort of friendship with the other children until after I turned eleven and came into my Self.

I was in the car with my father the day the accident happened. He was very upset over my mother's recent engagement to (her now husband) Phil and I was trying to comfort him. I wished and wished in my eleven year old mind that he could see things differently. He was too quiet and too sad and I wanted a new reality for him so I began dreaming one up.

I had no idea that he could see it, too.

The images of him and my mother happy and laughing in our kitchen that I wanted so badly to be true for him, and for me, had somehow escaped my mind and krept into his. Suddenly the car was swerving and we were barreling into oncoming traffic. Both of us were injured badly but he took the brunt of it. He lost the use of both his legs and looked broken everywhere. Only once, in a drug induced state while he was in the hospital has he spoken to me about what he saw - why he swerved. My daydream. I broke a few bones and felt like I'd rather be dead than live with what I'd done to my father for the rest of my life. It was my fault he ended up in that state. Somehow I'd used my good intentions to break him. I did not know what to do.

I was educated on the existence and purpose of Tower High very shortly after that incident. Of course it all came together after that. It was like instant therapy in my life, actually. Finally, there was an explanation for my unexplained freakish tendancies. I started to read up on the world of The Tower and all of the Classifications. It didn't take me long to figure out what my Class and Sub Class were after attending the sprinkling of workshops offered in Seattle. I was surprised to find that Composer is my Sub Class, though, considering it is the trait that brought on the accident. Then again, as we all know, around normal humans it is quite difficult to identify a mind Shield.

I am happy to be here. I feel at home already, mostly, and I know I'm ready for the journey.

Why do I think I'm worthy of The List? Because I cannot feel fear. One of my most unusual developments after the accident (the most unexplained) is how I shed my reaction of fear. Up until meeting Edward here at Tower High I'd rid myself of fear since the accident. Since I was eleven years old I've been brave in the face of everything. And I think that's reason enough for my name to make The List. Not only my bizarre absence of fear, buy also my right to understand why it's come back to haunt me in the eyes of another Remarkable. I know there's something more happening here and as soon as I get over my inane fear of talking to him I will find it out.

I apologize if this is not exactly what you wanted to hear. But these are my thoughts and beliefs at the moment. This is me.

And I have a feeling that my story is really just beginning.

The corners of Isabella's paper were torn and bent. It looked a little like Aro imagined her mind: busy and full of character.

As his hand passes her paper on to the discard pile he longs to hear the voices inside of her for himself. He knows, though, he would never do such a thing without permission and he doesn't truly believe she would ever permit it, so he lets the desire pass.

We can see here, Dear Reader, the true heart of our Tower High leader. He has a selfish want to keep all of the treasures that come to him here, to his school. He thinks they are rare and beautiful and he loves them all for it. But he knows that the world needs them more. The Cause needs them more. So he will sacrifice his most treasured to The List.

He turns back to his task at hand in order to fulfill that duty. He almost laughs out loud at the one awaiting him next.

Caius has such an odd sense of humor. Surely his old friend knew that by mixing the last two in such this way Aro would be amused.

Hastily he picks up the next page and begins to scan it. It's the only one he knows inside and out but must read again, for good measure.

And all of this is done quickly for he is eager to know the words of the last story.

-*- He is Jasper, but he is no stone -*-

Name: Jasper Whitlock

Age: 19 (Note: The boy is now 23)

Classification: Gateway

Sub Class: None

Begin:

Jasper Whitlock.

Up until now I've lived like a ghost.

I ran away from home when I was eleven because there was nothing for me there. I've always felt the need to run. But I was never running from something, always towards something. I just never had any idea what.

And no matter where I went I felt things. A lot of things.

In Texas I felt pride. In California I felt freedom. In Wyoming, despair. In Vegas, everything. I've felt and I've felt and I've felt every damn thing ever since I can remember, but it got worse the day that my sister died. The day I first began to run and I couldn't bear to feel my parent's despair on top of my own.

I had no idea what a Gateway was, but now I know that I am the rarest kind. An original.

That's what keeps me here. My instinct is to get out. But I can feel that I'm here for something bigger than my need to be free. What? I don't know yet. Maybe it's The List. Maybe it's so much more.

I know what you're thinking. There is no more. The List is it.

Well, I disagree. There is more. There is life.

Maybe that's exactly what's going to get me a place on the damn thing. My talented way of keeping the rest of them rooted in what's real and true and good.

Because it's not about all the stuffy professors you guys worship here and it's not about some war that's been forming over the past few years. I

don't like rules and I don't like confinement.

But I want to know what I'm all about, so I'm here to stay.

And when I do make your precious List, I'll teach you all that we've already been flying all along. We don't need some glorified Tower to show us how.

This is Our Jasper, Reader.

Ah, yes, he truly is a unique kind, and this is why Aro never tires of reading his story. True, the paper was written years ago, when Jasper was in his first term. He is now a full Remarkable himself, but just barely, and his permittance to teach at Tower High is only due to Aro's stern belief in his abilities and secret love of Jasper's unconventional ways.

The others would have nothing to do with him and his wild spirit.

Aro's simply pleased that he's never been enclined to change for any of them.

So his paper has been kept safe and sound until now when it was to rest in a neat pile with it's counter parts.

Aro's hand smooths out Jasper's paper on top of the others he's already read and his gaze lingers on it as he takes just a moment to imagine himself as young and revolutionary as the Whitlock boy.

Aro was that carefree, once.

But perhaps carefree isn't an appropriate term.

Jasper Whitlock cannot be carefree about anything, really, for he only concerns himself with things and people he finds terribly, terribly important.

We cannot pause long on this line of thought for We cannot keep Aro from moving on to the next, the final, paper.

This will surely be a treat, he thinks to himself as he pushes the candle a little further into the center of the desk.

His eyes fall to the desk and his heart soars to the sky.

It's all exactly as he expected and wished for.

-*- Can't buy me love -*-

Name: Edward Anthony Masen

Age: 21

Classification: Gateway

Sub Class: Breacher & Composer

Begin:

You know everything about me already. You knew it before I even arrived at Tower High. What else can I tell you?

I'm the wonder boy. The freak with too many Classifications. The lonley soul that lost his parents and then his ability to relate to others...

Aro, this is absurd. We are not children. Assignments are pointless, and a waste of time, and I cannot imagine you actually thought I would participate.

If you want me on The List you will put me there, and I will be grateful.

Though I have no idea how I'm supposed to grow to love the rest of them when that emotion is as foreign to me as the Tower itself.

Good luck.

We do not need to clear the darkness to see the look on Aro's face here, Reader. We can feel it even if we do not understand it.

He is excited, and proud, and in disbelief that it's all finally happening. Now.

They are all here and it can officially begin.

The few years wait Aro will endure until the younger ones, Alice and Bella, complete their training will seem like nothing to him for he is timeless.

And then The List will be formed. The Cause will be in motion. And the Tower will be pleased.

As we back out of the room we keep our eyes trained on the man in the chair, sitting quietly, stroking a lock of his long, black hair. He does not see Us, does not care to even if he could, for the thin sheets resting by the candle will keep his entire attention tonight.

He is resting in the strings of the bow, waiting to be shot out once again. For it's his duty to fly, fly before they do, so he can cut the path through the wind for them.

He rarely gets to rest, and even now he's eager to soar once again.

He may be The Arrow, but they are the warriors.

Chapter 3 - Part 2

"The Waking"

We perch far away and watch it happen in succession. Our secret, quiet ways allow us once again to peek, Dear Reader, into their lives as no one else gets to do.

It's quite delightful.

The Tower High is dark, for it is the dead of night.

Because of this the disturbances should be even more clear to Us.

They wake in order:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Emmett's eyes open towards the ceiling. He thinks he had nothing more than a bad dream. But he's not sure. He does not feel worried or apprehensive, just awake. Perhaps he's just hungry.

Little Alice sits straight up in bed. The expensive sheets surrounding her fall from her shoulders into a confused pile at her waist. She cannot understand what her mind just showed her; the four flashes of stanger faces followed by his, her Jasper's.

Carlisle Cullen carefully addresses the sate of sudden waking he's finding himself in, smoothing his hair back and clearing his throat. He is not so put together on the inside, though, is he Reader? His heart is frantic and his mind is searching for the reason he feels like something signifigant has changed. He immediately begins to worry about Esme and we turn our eyes away as he decides to call and check in...

Bella must write about what she has seen. His eyes appeared in her dream, she is sure of it, but they were not alone or they were not really his, she's not sure. Why did it wake her so suddenly? Her Dearest Journal must know. She must not forget that this dream was so important her body woke her to make sure she recorded it.

In his cabin on the far side of the campus Jasper starts fixing himself a cup of tea. He's almost certain he knows what woke him in the middle of the night and he is bordering on excitement. If only he could sneak and find if Alice is awake as well, he could feel complete.

And Edward, our Edward... well, he was not asleep at all when this all happened so he could not be woken up by it. But he still felt it, a jolt inside, and he does not know what exactly it means or what the appropriate reaction is because he has not been himself in the last 48 hours. He thinks it's still just her and what her slience, her beauty, and her mystery are doing to destroy him.

And if we turn just a bit, Reader, to another that I have not introduced yet, you will see one more waking. She is a little bit later than the rest, but that is to be expected for she is not asleep inside the Tower High.

A few miles away and just over that happy hill there, right on the east side of Perso you can see her.

Her blonde hair is not disheveled despite her being in bed and her curves are only highlighted in the moonlight coming through her window.

She wakes, and is confused, and hesitantly produces a ball of light to aid her sight in the darkness of her room. Nothing is moved, nothing has intruded, so why did she wake?

None of them know!

None of them know, Reader!

That this is the end. It is the beginning.

It is the rousing of the new and the death of the old.

This is The List finally waking up.


This was a necessary informational chapter and I hope it helped a little, at least with some backgrounds. You never really know what you're going to find in one of these, though, because I never really know until I'm in the midst of writing them :)

I love your thoughts. Share them?

LOVE YOUS!

-Car