The Tower in the Night

[gothrockrulz]

Written for Challenge #04: The Table of Doom, Prompt #11: Tiananmen Square over at writerverse. Concrit welcome!

Prompt: Tiananmen Square
Word Count: 332
Rating: G
Original/Fandom: Original
Summary: A soft-treading admirer of grand architecture muses on The Tower in the moonlight.


I stole over the dull cobbles in the moonlight, glad that my bare feet betrayed no sound, but feeling as if I was somehow offering disrespect by shedding my shoes. Tiananmen Tower seemed even more commanding than she did during the day. She rose sharply into the night, as if she were preparing to summon the star-sprinkled sky to bend low and give its reason for mounting itself on high above everything else, including the Tower herself.

As always, I felt like an insect that had strayed into the square by mistake. Never mind that I had slipped inside past the guards almost every night for weeks upon weeks. No matter how familiar I dared to make myself with this grand place, the Tower would always make me feel like the intruder I was. Her guards could neither see me nor stop me, but she knew I could not escape her notice, nor her imposing reproof.

I could steal within the square a thousand times--but I could never stray anywhere near her, the splendid Tower, the sacred Tower, the jealous Tower. Guards or no, her very presence would still my unshod feet the second I dared to brush closer than she could endure.

I smiled at her, for tonight, I knew she might very well lose patience with me altogether, no matter how respectful a berth I afforded her. It was my wont to to make the square my own, and mine alone, during the night hours while guards merely marched along its boundaries.

But this night, I was to have a visitor, a friend to share the sight of the Tower robed in the night with me. The Tower had grown almost accustomed to putting up with my presence, no doubt because I always afforded her the admiration she felt was her due. But tonight, a stranger would join the usual trespasser--and if the Tower resented anything, it was strangers that only showed themselves under the cover of darkness.

Comments

[riverotter1951.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful with the Tower personified as female. I like the thoughts of the narrator sneaking across the square. The image of a wandering insect sneaking around is crisp. .interesting that the narrator never approaches the tower. Taking off shoes enforces the idea of sacred space and a sense of wonder. Slight error - as if she were preparing the [to] summon

[gothrockrulz.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your detailed comment! I was a little afraid of writing this in the first place because I didn't know much about Tiananmen Tower. I figured I'd be safe writing about the trespasser's perception of the Tower, since I could toy with that at will. As they say, write what you know. And thank you for spotting the error--it's fixed! :)