Tower of the Truth part 3

"I have no idea about that one; some things can't be explained, I guess." Periphirilia looks at the painting again.

"Do you see something else?" Curiously asks Gorge

"No, let's go up; I can't even imagine what else we might find there."

"What about that blob thing? I think we killed it. It was a human, too, right?"

"What's done is done; there's no need to overthink it; let's keep going."

Periphirilia starts climbing up, and Gorge reluctantly follows.

And there it is, yet another painting. A painting of a huge tower that reaches the cosmos. Above it, written in something red, the text says: 

Some outcasts have regained their senses and spent generations building this tower to preserve history. It has been rumored that they built it to withstand the floods but gave up once the tower was also eroded by water. However, that knowledge has been lost and is just a mere rumor.

"So they were humans, after all!" Screams out, shocked Gorge

"We don't know that for sure; for all we know, all these paintings could be fake."

"Are they?" Hopefully asks Gorge

"Doubt it," Replies Periphirilia. There is no need to jump to the conclusions yet; as you can see, the tower keeps going, which means all the answers that we could want are up there. All that's left for us to do is keep going up."

Gorge and Periphirilia resume their climb yet again.

They have kept going up and up, and yet there is no end to the stairs.

"Is this the infinity thing that doesn't exist that you have talked about? I don't think there is an end to these stairs."

"Gorge, I have already told you that everything has an end; as long as we don't give up and keep on climbing the stairs, it's going to end."

Gorge and Periphirilia persist in going forward, albeit a bit more anxiously this time. As much as they would like to admit it, the thought of endless stairs scares them both. Nonetheless, they must continue going up.

They have climbed for so long that they have lost track of time.

How long has it been? It feels like I have been climbing these endless stairs for longer than my entire life.

Gorge is so tired that he can barely think anymore. He stumbles, but Periphirilia catches him.

"Careful, don't give up hope yet; there must be an end to these stairs; we just need to keep going."

Gorge looks up

"Hey!!! Look at that! I think the stairs are ending."

Periphirilia looks up.

"You are right."

Both of them hurry to the exit. They climb the end of the stairs and enter the next floor.

Suddenly, they hear a voice.

"Hello, so you have come here."

What in the world is that? Is it a ghost? Gorge is getting panicky now.

"Show yourself!" Shouts Gorge

Out of the shadows, standing at the very top of the stairs, there is a strange creature.

"Don't be scared; we have already met before."

"Oh yeah, well, where did we meet?"

"In the shelter, remember ?"

"OMG, it's you; I wanted to meet you again. Oh yeah, who are you anyway?"

"I'm one of the outcasts from the shelter, as you may have realized by now, but some of us actually managed to build this place to preserve our memories."

"Wow, that's so cool." Gorge is deeply impressed by the creature's story.

"How in the world did you guys manage to build this thing? In the middle of nowhere, and it looks like the construction would have taken hundreds of thousands of years.

There is no way a construction project of this magnitude would be unheard of, plus as far as the doomsday scenario is concerned, the rest of the world is perfectly fine."

"Oh, come on, stop pestering him; he's a SURVIVOR! Do you even know how cool that is?"

"Well..about that"

"What ?"

"I know this might be hard to believe, but you guys happen to be in a different world!"

"No, we are not!" Stubbornly objects to Gorge.

"Yes, you are; whether you like it or not, it doesn't change the reality of things. You are in an alternate world that's identical to your own—a mirror world."

"Wait, wouldn't a mirror world be supposed to be identical to our own world?"

"Yeah, you fraud!" Gorge pouts angrily.

"However, at some point,  the course of the history of the two worlds started to deviate, which caused a time rift to appear. Naturally, as the time rift began closing, the two worlds got pulled closer by its energy, until eventually both identical worlds got connected at the river, causing it to become infinite."

"What do you mean by infinite?"

"Well, once you enter it, you cannot leave. You get stuck in between two mirror worlds, standing in front of each other. If you reach an end on one side, you will appear at the other side's start, creating an endless loop."

"Does that mean that there are other people stuck in here besides us? We did find a ship, and someone's skeletal remains remain after all."

"Yes, people or some animals do occasionally wonder in from another side but they get stuck in here till they die.
However, I don't know if anyone else besides you is here; I'm not exactly omnipotent."
Well, that's enough talk for now. Enjoy your journey."

"Hey, wait !"

Gorge shouts out, but it's all in vain as the creature vanishes into thin air.

"Nevermind that, we did learn something crazy, and we can finally exit these damn stairs." Periphirilia looks pleased.

Gorge and Periphirilia take the final steps on the staircase.

The view that's presented to them leaves both of them speechless.

They are at the top of the tower, which is entirely transparent; they are completely surrounded by the cosmos from all sides; all the stars and planets they have always looked up to are now right beside them.

Gorge looks down.

Wow, the Earth looks so small. We are on top of the world, no, even higher than that. I wonder if the fisherman who never returned saw the same thing as well.

Gorge then gets a sudden realization that interrupts all of his thoughts.

"We did!! The most beautiful place in the whole world!"

Periphirilia finally returns to her senses after getting interrupted by Gorges's shout.

"Yeah, I guess you are right; I don't think anything in the world can top this. See, we didn't even need a magical wish-granting fish; we reached this place with our own effort." She smiles the same as the first time they met.

Gorge forgets the beautiful view and is mesmerized by her smile yet again.

Suddenly, Periphirilia puts her hands around Gorge and kisses him.

"Wha-a-t are you doing?"

"It's our promise, remember ?"

"Oh yeah." Gorge blushes and stares at the ground, but then he sees something.

"Hey, Periphirilia, you are getting transparent..."

Periphirilia looks at herself and gets shocked.

"Wait, you are getting see-through as well."

"What ?!" Gorge looks at himself.

"AHHHHHHH!!!" What is going on? Am I dying? But it doesn't hurt, nor does it feel bad.

"Is this dying?" Asks scarred Gorge

"I don't know; she doesn't feel like dying," Says Periphirilia while staring at the ground.



"Gorge, I have something to tell you.
Remember when I said that the meaning behind my name was a secret and that I would tell you when the time came?
I think now's the time," She says softly.

"My name, Periphirilia, means outside the boundary; in my case, it means outside the boundary of the world of the living.

My parents were ghosts: two young teenagers who died young, losing their lives without accomplishing anything, not fulfilling any of their wishes."

"Whaaaat, ghost parents? How did that happen?"

"Shush, keep listening. They died full of regrets and unachievable dreams, but then one day, they met each other and decided to fulfill their most sought-after wish—having a child." Periphirilia smiles

"And that's how I came to be. However, something unexpected happened, and since they had fulfilled their dreams, they both disappeared the moment I was born. To make matters even worse, since both of my parents were ghosts, I existed in a completely different world than that of the living. I couldn't even interact with other ghosts. My entire life, I have spent entirely by myself. The only memory I have of my parents is them naming me right as they disappeared."

Gorge sobs

"But then I met you. For some reason, you were different from all other beings. You were able to interact with me. That's when I realized that the misery of solitude was finally over. I was saved.

"I didn't save you; you saved me!"

"No, Gorge, you saved me. I was cursed to spend eternity alone, but then you appeared and gave meaning to my life. The moment our eyes met for the first time in that alley, the only thing I could think of was, "I'm saved."

Gorge and Periphirilia have nearly vanished already.

"Hey, hold me tight," Says Periphirilia with a big smile on her face.

"Hey, are we dying?" Gorge looks scarred.

"No, it seems we both have fulfilled our wishes and now we can finally pass away peacefully."

Gorge and Periphirilia are holding each other in their arms, slowly disappearing while surrounded by nothing but the beautiful scenery of the cosmos around them.

Gorge opens his eyes and sees the same beautiful face that has captivated his heart before, but now it's presented in a background of countless stars.

Wow, she really looks divine right now. Is she a god?

 I can see the stars right thru her. She's getting even more transparent each second.

This time Gorge is the one who leans toward Periphirilia and kisses her.

"Since we've been together all this time, we might as well go out together, right ?" Periphirilia looks at him happily.

Gorge nods with a bright smile across his face.

Their thoughts soon dissipate, and they can only feel each other as they disappear into the limitless cosmos.