I’m going to finish telling you a story

It’s going to involve a missing old woman

And the fact that sometimes old women see dead people

Oh and maybe a hint of the tower of the dead

Welcome to the Aurora Wasteland

Connections in the Aurora Wasteland aren’t pleasant. You never get what you want. You always get what it wants. It takes and takes and takes, it never gives. It’s connections run one way, and one way only. Into the wasteland. Into darkness.

As Doloris stared into her tea, her computer chimed in the distance. She always kept the sound turned up loud so that she could hear when an electronic mail came in. She rushed over to see it was from Mollie. Obviously, she was having trouble sleeping too.

After watching several episodes of Who wants to be a Millionaire, Doloris went to bed but she laid there tossing and turning. Eventually, she’d gotten up and stared into the night sky while sipping her tea. Everything from the last couple days just kept cycling over and over in her mind.

It was a comfort to see the same thing was happening with Mollie.

Doloris opened the email, the message from Mollie was nice, maybe she had been too hard on her earlier. Yes, she probably had, she’d have to rectify that when she saw her next. But what really caught her attention was the pictures. The tower stared back at her. It swayed and reached for her. The image was alive. She stared at them, unable to look away. Tears welled up in her eyes. She could see her husband in the tower. Pain on his face. Reaching for her to help.

In a snap, and with no preparation Doloris, still in her housecoat, ran as quickly as she could out to her car. She frantically drove out to the lake. In nothing but slippers, she stomped her way out to the point in the lake where she had seen the bodies.

They were still there, reaching for her. The sounds of their bodies moving echoed through the silence of the night.

Without Mollie there to stop her, Doloris stepped out into the cold lake water. Soon it was up high enough that she had to swim. Slowly she made her way over to the tower of bodies.

Exhausted but determined, she reached the tower of carnage. Though the face of her husband seemed to be gone, cautiously, she approached it. The water became shallower as she did. Eventually, it reached the point where she could stand up.

She circled the tower, the hands and faces of those in it followed her around. But nowhere did she see her husband. He seemed to be gone.

As she turned to leave, she noticed just how rocky and uneven the ground was. Only after nearly slipping on a rock and catching herself did she notice that they weren’t rocks, but that the tower of bodies continued under the water.

Panic rushed through her as she realized what she was standing on. She tumbled over and tried to get to her feet. Only she couldn’t. Something was grabbing her. Holding her down. It was a hand, from the tower. She screamed and struggled, but there were too many of them, and she was too tired to fight back. As she watched the water rush over her face, a man who resembled her dead husband stood over her waving, a menacing smile spread across his face.

Panicked and unsure what to do, Mollie called the police. Within minutes, they were at Doloris’ house. And they quickly came to the same conclusion Mollie did, Doloris was missing.

Mollie told them about the lake and that Doloris was possibly seeing things. Minutes later, police cars were racing to the lake. They asked Mollie to stay there in case she returned. A request which Mollie ignored and instead, raced off to the lake behind them.

On the way, she remembered the conversations the two women had shared. They’d seemed so different when they had first met, but quickly discovered as most humans do, they had more in common then they realized. Gardening, TV game shows, being alone, being women. Given enough time, they could have become friends. But now she was worried that their time had run short. And what they had been given would end up being it. A short connection.

The drive to the lake seemed infinitely longer than the previous time. Every turn seemed to take an eternity. By the time Mollie reached the lake, she had wished she had been the one missing. The anticipation was agony.

The flashing lights of the police cruisers welcomed her to the lake. Their ominous glows flooded the area. Mollie was barely out of her car by the time the police stopped her. They told her that this was an active crime scene and that they’d found something. Over and over, she asked what they’d found. But their reply was always, “we can’t give out information regarding an active case.”

As the officer tried to coax Mollie back into her car, she sprinted past them. She couldn’t let Doloris down. She couldn’t let the Aurora Wasteland down. She ran down the path Doloris had walked her down only a day earlier, passing confused police officers as she did.

When she finally reached the point on the path where Doloris had witnessed the tower, Mollie froze. There in the mud was Doloris’ slipper. Mollie stared at it as the officers caught up to her. Panting, she quickly pulled her phone out and snapped some pictures. Then she was escorted back to her car, where she proceeded to cry her eyes out. Both tears of sadness and happiness poured out. On the one hand, Doloris was likely dead. Killed by whatever the tower was. But on the other, she was hopeful back with her husband again.

Except, the longer she thought about it, the more she questioned whether Doloris would end up back with her husband. Doloris had mentioned in passing that she attended church. Most religions considered suicide a sin. Assuming Doloris was dead, and assuming the tower had killed her, what if Doloris had come out here knowing she would likely die? Was that still considered suicide? Suicide by cop was? What about suicide by the unknown Aurora Wasteland creature?

Mollie hoped Doloris, and her husband were back together wherever they were.

After taking a few deep breaths, Mollie opened her phone to update the Aurora Wasteland post with the latest news about Doloris, which she did. But as she pulled up the picture to post the pictures she’d just taken, she froze and stared at them. In the distance out in the water past the slipper was a tower of bodies. The water was dark red. Exactly as Doloris had described it.

Mollie flicked through all the pictures she’d taken. They all showed the slipper, the tower of bodies, and something else. Something out of focus, but something Mollie was certain of. It was Doloris walking across the surface of the water, reaching out for Mollie. Even as Mollie stared at the picture, it seemed like it was moving, reaching for her.

Mollie posted the pictures and deleted them from her phone. The police never found Doloris or her body, only the slipper. Mollie closed her first Aurora Wasteland investigation, it would be far from her last.

The paths around the section of the lake that contained the tower of bodies were closed to the public. Rumor has it that one of the higher up police officers saw the tower too.

To this day, Mollie hasn’t returned to the lake, nor looked at the pictures, though she does still see Doloris semi regularly in her dreams of the tower of bodies, and the lake.