tower of dreams
an excerpt

The front door. There it stood. Amanda, Peter, Little Boy Blue, and the rose-faced girl all stood before it. It was small; barely above Amanda’s head, and made of coarse, un-sanded wood that didn’t fit together too well. The knob was old and dented rusting iron, the frame was splintered and broken. Amanda held what had once been an ornate key in her hand. Now when she looked at it she saw broken iron, twisted and old. The nightmare writhed and twisted slowly forward behind them. Amanda looked back over her shoulder and saw it, oozing its way down the stairs slowly. Corinthian…She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
“Amanda! Come on!” Peter was calling to her.
“We don’t have time to be sentimental.” Little Boy Blue waved his hand, beckoning her forward, but she saw a tear in his big blue eye.
“Don’t worry about us, Amanda. We’ll be just fine.” The Rose-faced girl said, wrapping her arm around Peter’s shoulder. He smiled and wrapped a hand around her waist in return.
“You’ve earned it.” Peter said, tipping his top hat to her, “Without you, we would have never made it this far. And I wouldn’t be able to go on. I would’ve wound up like the Corinthian used to be.” He stepped forward and reached a hand up to her shoulder, “You’ve taught me that I can live here.” He wiped a tear from his own eye, “Now go. You’re the one who deserves to be free.”
“Thank you, Peter.” She smiled and reached down and hugged him. It was the first time she could remember embracing her brother with mutual happiness, “Thank you.”
“Amanda!” Little Boy Blue called, “We don’t know how long the Corinthian can hold that thing, now go!”
Amanda picked up her dress and ran. She plunged the key into the hole, and twisted. A series of clicks and pops, some kind of incredible mechanism deep down inside the tower activated and undertook the enormous task of bringing the tower to the real world.
In her peripheral vision, she saw the other three standing before the nightmare. A tear fell from her eye, and she wrenched the door open. She placed one foot on the cold, dew-covered grass outside, and immediately, a wind began to blow violently. It shoved her out onto the grass, knocking her over, and as soon as she looked back, the door was closing with alarming speed.
In those last few split seconds before the door closed, she saw Peter standing several steps ahead of the other two, standing defiantly before the monster he had accidentally spawned.
SLAM! The door smashed shut; the echoing noise reverberated throughout the woods. A flock of birds cawed and flew up from the black trees, and then all was silent. Amanda stood from the grass and looked about at the forest around her. The fog suddenly cleared and the sun shone down on the grass, turning it a brilliant green that seemed to glow. Amanda put her hand up to shade her eyes, and watched the tower before her. It shimmered for a moment, looking magnificent and brilliant for an instant. Then it began to flicker. Like a sputtering candle flame, it wavered uncertainly for a few moments, before it twisted and distorted, and began to float away like a wisp of smoke. The last bits of fog receded into the forest, and Amanda was finally alone. She stood; her face somber but a kind of contentness inside her that helped her feel better. Peter, Little Boy Blue, and the rose-faced girl would be just fine, Just fine after all.