Beyond The Gates

Chapter One

Written by Laura Howe 

I sat in my towered bedroom, waiting for the mistress to return once again and give me a task. I lookout at the bustling people in the old cobblestone streets, wet after the late summer's rain, the sun glistens off each stone like a flickering candle, as if at any moment you could just blow it out, but the candles burned on for the oncoming villagers. Back then I hoped that someday I would be able to walk on those stones, feel the sun on my face and the wind in my hair, I would dance and sing and have an amazing time, and best of all, I would never go back to the tower.

But now, seven years later, nearing my eighteenth birthday, I still had not left the tower, I have lost all and any hope that I could be out there, with the villagers, and that I would ever be free. I look out the window and see Lillian, the mistress's spoiled daughter. She is with two young and handsome boys. One is tall and has hair as brown as a cocoa bean, and he holds a bundle of yellow wildflowers in his hands, the other is not so tall, but has white-blonde hair, and eyes as blue as the deepest ocean, he is holding a lovely handmade oak wood box, decorated with fine hand carvings of the forest. Are those for me? I thought happily, maybe these boys were in my destiny. I could see them in my future, us holding hands after a beautiful marriage on the ocean, and a small baby girl! I waited for them to open the heavily locked door to my tower with the shining gold key that Lillian was holding, but they never did, instead they gave the presents to Lillian. They were all smiling and laughing with each other. The boys turned around and started walking down the path, back to the main town, but Lillian looked up at my small window and smirked, as if to say, haha Tara, I am going to always be the one who is happy, and you are always going to stay up in that wretched tower forever and more. Lillian always was trying to annoy me. She knows that I have stayed up here for so long, she wants to make my life miserable, I thought sadly. My parents died 13 years ago, when I was just 4. I remember staying with a kind family and making friends. The family I was part of ran the bakery below my tower, I had two sisters, and one brother. Oh how I miss them. My parents died in the battle of King's Field, the mistress tells me. My mom was a nurse and my dad was a soldier. The Mistress was a nasty person but she had written permission from my parents that she could take me in if they ever died. I believe she only took me in for revenge on my dead family that "ruined" her life, so now the Mistress is doing a great job at destroying mine. She is my mother's mother in law's 2nd cousin. Maybe if my parents died a year earlier, I would not be stuck in this tower. Four months before my parents death, there was another battle. The mistress's husband and baby boy were both killed. She blames my mother for not being able to save her husband from a deep sword wound, and blames my father for not being able to protect the town as Chief of the army. After their death, a kind village family took me in for two years, but the Mistress found out where I was staying, and since she had control over me, she took me from the family and locked me up in the tower in anger. That is why I wound up here in this 60 foot high stone tower, and not down by the bakery with my old friends. Even if I did come down from the tower, everyone would hate me still because Lillian played the fantastic roll of telling everyone a that I endangered her mother and threatened to kill her 4 years ago, and that no one should come near me. People still believe that lie. A CREAK interrupted my flash back, and I heard angry footsteps up the winding staircase. I heard a heavy bolt slide across the door, and the mistress walked in. Just her presence gave me the chills, and the look on her wrinkly face didn't help.

"TARA!!! Lillian told me that you have been seeing the two boys, Josh and Noah." She said pacing back and forth across the old carpet on the floor. "I am very disappointed in you Tara, didn't I tell you that you were too ugly for boys, and that others shouldn't be cursed with your presence!" She shrieked. Her cold hard eyes glared right through Tara like a needle of ice as thin as a laser. Tara shrank under her gaze.

"YOUR DAUGHTER IS A LIAR!!!!! AND AT LEAST I DON'T GO AROUND RUINING PEOPLE'S LIVES AND I DON'T LOCK PEOPLE UP IN TOWERS SO THEY WILL NEVER SEE THE RISING SUN AS IT CRESTS THE HORIZON, OR SEE THE DEEP BLUE SHADE OF THE OCEAN AS THE WAVES LAP YOUR FEET, OR EVEN GET TO WALK ON THE DANCING PATCHES OF SUNLIGHT IN THE STREETS! I HATE YOU, LET ME GO!!!!!" I wanted to yell at the mistress, but I didn't. Instead I said, "I understand."

"Good, now you will have your window boarded up, and extra chores for the next five weeks." The mistress then lowered her voice. "And if I ever catch you being mean or rude to my daughter, you will be sorry your filthy parents ever had you, understand?" I looked at the mistress, shocked. Did she really just say that about my parents? I thought. I felt my ears turning red in anger. "I said DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" The mistress started to yell.

"Yes ma'am." And with that the mistress turned and left.