Flowers in a Dumpster

by Mark Allan Gunnells

  As the saying goes: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

  Alec heard someone below clear his throat.

  He froze.

  He wanted to move, to at least glance back and see who it was, but it felt as if the air had solidified like cement, encasing him in place. He tried not to panic. It might be a student, if so he could talk his way out of this. Taking a deep breath and slowly lowering the bolt cutters, he turned his neck, hearing it creak like rusty hinges. He looked down and saw not a student, but several familiar faces.

  The old security guard, Dale Trilling, Mr. Brackett and Dr. Grey all stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at him. “I told you he was going to try something like this,” Mr. Brackett said, addressing the president.

  Dr. Grey shook his head, like a disappointed parent. “Alec, what are you doing, son?”

  He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He couldn’t exactly deny his attempted breaking and entering. In the end, Alec only said, “I tried to call you today.”

  Dr. Grey sighed wearily. “What are we going to do with you?”

  The group of men suddenly seemed more menacing. Alec found himself gripping the bolt cutters tighter. The guard noticed this and stepped forward, his right hand resting lightly but meaningfully on the butt of the gun in his holster. “I think you need to put those down and come with us.”

  “Listen to Chief Simms,” Dr. Grey said. “It’s in your best interest to do what he says.”

  Alec hesitated for a moment then sat the bolt cutters on one of the steps, resting the handles against the wall. He slowly made his way back down.

  He’d really done it now, let an obsession impede his better judgment, and he had a feeling he’d be talking to the cops very soon.

  ***

  “We’re not going to call the cops,” Mr. Brackett said.

  Together in the security office, Alec was being fenced in by the other men. Alec threw up his hands. “What then? Do you want me to say that I’m sorry and I’ll never do it again?”

  “What we want is for you to go,” Chief Simms said, his bulldog jowls quivering as he stared down at the writer as if he’d like nothing more than to pistol-whip him. “Get off campus and don’t come back. If we see you around here again, we will call the police.”

  Alec looked at each man in turn, a smile curling the corner of his lips upwards. “Is that so? I don’t think you’ll call the cops at all.”

  “Alec, please,” Dr. Grey said.

  “I’m right, aren’t I? If you were going to call the cops on me, you’d have done it by now. No. I don’t think you want the cops out here, because maybe they’d start asking questions about what’s up there, and I don’t think any of you want that.”

  Now it was Dale Trilling who threw up his hands. “Why won’t you let this go?”

  “I’m tenacious. I am not going to drop this matter until I find out what you are hiding up there.”

  “We’re not hiding anything,” Mr. Brackett said. “I swear there’s nothing in the tower. Nothing.”

  “Then what are you protecting? And don’t feed me anymore of that ‘it’s dangerous’ bullshit.”

  “But it is dangerous,” Dr. Grey said, his voice imploring. “You have no idea how dangerous, but maybe it’s time you did.”

  Chief Simms reached out and put a hand on the president’s shoulder. “Sir, I really don’t think you should.”

  “Perhaps if we tell him, if we make him understand, he’ll leave it alone.”

  “Make me understand what?” Alec said. “This whole cryptic vibe you’re giving off is getting old. Now either you tell me what’s in the tower or I go to the police.”

  Chief Simms snorted a laugh. “And tell them what? We ain’t breaking any laws here.”

  “Well, maybe I think you are. Maybe I think you have young girls trapped up in the top of Winnie Davis.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Trilling said.

  “Be that as it may, I bet I could convince the police to at least check it out.”

  “You little piss-ant,” Chief Simms said, advancing on Alec. “I ought to tear your spine out and beat you with it.”

  “Enough!” Dr. Grey said in a loud, sharp voice. Chief Simms backed off, but he didn’t seem happy about it. Dr. Grey pulled up a chair and sat across from Alec. Meeting the writer’s gaze, he said, “We can’t let you go up in the tower because . . . because you may not come back.”

  “What?”

  Dr. Grey took a deep breath before he continued. “Sometimes people go up in the tower and they don’t come back.”

  Alec squinted at the older man, waiting for the punch line. “Uh-huh. Where exactly do they go?”

  “No one knows. They simply . . . vanish.”

  A thick, suffocating silence filled the security office. Finally Alec cut through the smoke with a wild laugh. “You can’t seriously expect me to believe that.”

  “It’s the truth,” Dr. Grey said. “Doesn’t happen every time, there were plenty of people through the tower during the renovation that came back down fine, but every so often, someone goes up there and simply disappears.”

  Alec was in shock. What was Dr. Grey playing at here? Did he really think such a preposterous story was going to keep him away from the tower? Or had grief over the loss of his daughter driven the man insane? That would mean the rest of them were crazy, too. None of the others confirmed Dr. Grey’s story, but none of them denied it either.

  “Okay,” Alec said, deciding to play along for the moment, “exactly who is supposed to have disappeared in the tower?”

  Mr. Trilling was the one to answer. “The first was the foreman of the construction crew doing the renovations, Lester Todd. There were a lot of men in the tower at the time, installing the panes of the skylight. At the end of the day, no one could locate Lester, and the last time anyone remembered seeing him was in the tower. It was assumed at the time that he had left without being noticed by anyone, although his truck was still parked behind the building and no one knew why he would walk out on a job. Weeks, then months, went by and no one heard from him, not even his family. The missing person’s case is still open.”

  “One of my guards was next,” Chief Simms said. “The building had already been renovated, but wasn’t open for classes. Pete was on his routine rounds; a kid really, couldn’t have been no older than twenty-five. Had a girlfriend and a kid on the way. Anyway, I get this call from him over the two-way, saying there was something strange going down in the Winnie Davis tower. I asked him what the problem was, but there was so much static on the radio, I couldn’t tell for sure what he’d said. Thought it was something to do with snow, but that didn’t make no kind of sense. Then the line went dead. So me and one of my other guards went over to Winnie Davis and straight up to the tower. The trapdoor was propped open but when we went up there, no sign of Pete anywhere. We searched the entire grounds but he was gone. His girlfriend thinks he freaked about the baby and took off.”

  “Maybe he did,” Alec said. “I mean, what do you guys really know? Both men were in the tower at some point shortly before their disappearances, but that’s flimsy reasoning to support the theory that the tower is eating them up or whatever.”

  Dr. Grey nodded, his eyes cast to the floor. “That, of course, wasn’t the first conclusion we drew from the disappearances. At least, not until the third person went missing.”

  “And who was that?”

  Dr. Grey took a shuddering breath and the expression on his face suggested it hurt him, as if he were inhaling thorns. “Have you heard about my daughter, Melanie?”

  “Yeah, I read that—wait a minute, are you trying to tell me she vanished in the tower, too?”

  Dr. Grey started to speak, but then he grimaced and choked back a sob. He stood and walked to the corner of the room. Mr. Brackett took the chair vacated by the president and answered for him.

  “We were getting ready for the building dedication ceremony to commemorate the reopening of Winnie Da
vis. Melanie was here helping out. She wanted to see the view from the tower.”

  “I said I’d take her up myself,” Dr. Grey said, still facing the wall. “But when we got to the fourth floor, Dr. Robinson was there setting up his new office and asked to speak with me for a moment. I sent Melanie ahead, told her I’d be there as soon as I was done. I didn’t even go in Dr. Robinson’s office. We stood right out in the rotunda the whole time. When we finished our conversation, I went up the stairs to the tower, but Melanie wasn’t there. I checked both levels, but she simply wasn’t there.”

  “There’s only the one way in and out of the tower,” Mr. Trilling said. “She couldn’t have come back down without passing her father. A few of us met, discussed the situation, and decided to lock up the tower and not let anyone in there.”

  “And no one has been in the tower since?”

  Mr. Brackett shook his head. “No, although we have done experiments.”

  “What kind of experiments?”

  “Every so often we’ll open up the trapdoor and set an object just inside the tower. Books, music boxes, clothing. We’ll come back later to see if the objects are still there. Sometimes they are . . . sometimes they aren’t.”

  Alec stared around him at this group of older men. A realization hit him with the force of a sledgehammer. “You all really believe this, don’t you? You actually think people are going up in the tower and vanishing into thin air.”

  “It’s the truth,” Dr. Grey said in a raw, scratchy voice. “You have to trust us on this.”

  “I don’t think so. I may write about spooks and supernatural happenings, but I don’t actually believe in that nonsense. I can’t believe a group of intelligent men would believe in it either.”

  “Then where is my Melanie?” Dr. Grey shouted suddenly, turning and advancing on Alec. “What do you think happened to her?”

  “I don’t know,” Alec’s voice softened with sympathy. “I really am sorry for your loss, but I don’t believe there’s some kind of black hole or whatever in the Winnie Davis tower.”

  “You don’t got to believe it,” Chief Simms said. “What you believe or don’t believe don’t change what we know.”

  “Look, the bottom line is that you let me up in the tower or I’m going to go to the police and let them decide how to proceed from here.”

  “Let him go,” Dr. Grey said in a whisper.

  Mr. Trilling, Mr. Brackett, and Chief Simms all exclaimed “What?” at the exact same moment with such perfect synchronicity that it would have been comical under other circumstances.

  “We can’t let law enforcement get involved in this,” Dr. Grey said, regaining his composure and authority. “And it has become painfully obvious that Mr. Stevenson won’t drop this matter until his curiosity has been satisfied. So let him go. He knows the risks.”

  “Thank you,” Alec said.

  The president walked over to Alec and stared into his eyes. “But before you go, I want you to ask yourself one question, are you sure you want to do this?”

  ***

  Alec wasn’t sure he wanted to do this.

  Not that he was afraid he’d step up into the tower and melt away into nothing, but these men seemed more than a little unstable. What if he got up in the tower and they locked him in?

  He had his cell phone on him, should anything happen.

  Mr. Trilling climbed the stairs to the tower’s trapdoor and used a key to remove the padlock, sitting in on the top step. Then he made his way back down the stairs and stepped aside. “Have at it.”

  “No one coming with me?” Alec asked with a small, somewhat sadistic smile. None of the other men would meet his gaze.

  Alec hurried up the steps, feeling oddly excited now that he was finally going to get into the tower after such a protracted quest. He pushed open the trapdoor, hesitated to lend the moment a bit more drama, then stepped up into the tower.

  There wasn’t much to see, really. After all the effort he’d expended trying to gain access, it was rather disappointing. The tower was split into two levels. The first level consisted of a platform circling the skylight. A narrow staircase led up to an identical second level. The walls were painted plain white.

  Alec started toward the stairs to the upper level, pulling out his cell phone to take a few photos. He was finally getting what he needed for his story idea. Although his desire to get into the tower had ceased to have anything to do with the potential book and more to do with getting what was denied him. A childish motivation, perhaps, but despite finding nothing of particular interest up here, it still felt good to have reached his goal.

  As he climbed to the upper level, he paused by one of the tall windows and looked out across campus. The view was quite stunning. He could see all the way to Lake Limestone, down by the dining hall, and he was struck anew by the college’s picturesque grounds.

  Something caught in his eyelashes, a piece of dust perhaps, and he blinked it away. He felt several cold spots on his arms and looked down to see droplets of water. Was the roof leaking? He glanced toward the ceiling and gasped at the snowflakes fluttering down from above. Big, fat white flakes drifting down at first but then began to really pour.

  Which was insane.

  It didn’t snow this time of year, certainly not indoors. Still, the snow rained down so hard he couldn’t even make out the ceiling. He glanced back toward the stairs, ready to call out to the men gathered down on the fourth floor, but he couldn’t even make out the walkway. There seemed to be inches worth of snow and ice already built up. It didn’t make any sense. Alec moved forward slowly, feeling along for the stairs he knew had to be close.

  There was no end in sight.

  Large drifts of snow, as tall him, rose up on either side to create a valley through which he walked. The frigid air made his breath come out in thick plumes. Dressed in only jeans and a light shirt, Alec wrapped his arms around himself for warmth, shivering violently. The exposed skin of his arms and face already felt numb.

  In the distance Alec thought he detected a flickering orange glow, a beacon in the oppressive darkness. He started toward it, stumbling several times along the way. Alec felt like he’d already walked for at least an hour, but he wasn’t sure. His joints were stiff, and he found moving a chore, but he trudged on.

  Alec arrived at what looked to be an ice wall, with a fissure at the base opening into a cave. He ducked through the entrance and found himself in a narrow tunnel sloping down into an open cavern. In the very center of the space was a fire, the smoke drifting up, into an opening high above. A young woman sat by the fire, bundled up in layers of clothes. Thin and pale, her curly brown hair fell over her shoulders. Meat had been jammed onto a stick, roasting over the fire. She was surrounded by a few books and an ornate silver music box that sat on top of a rock.

  “Hello,” she said, quietly. “Come get warm before you freeze to death.”

  Alec shuffled forward, dropping to his knees in front of the fire. He was so cold he wanted to dive headfirst into the flames, but he settled for getting as close as he could without actually burning himself. He allowed the heat to bake into him and thaw his flesh.

  “What is your name?” the woman asked.

  “Alec Stevenson. Are you Melanie Grey?”

  She seemed a bit stunned. “I am. Did you come through the tower?”

  “Yes, I did. Your father is very worried about you.”

  “My father,” she whispered, tears glistening in her eyes. “How long have I been gone?”

  “Three or four months, I think.”

  “It’s hard to tell, there is no day or night here.”

  Alec still clutched his cell phone. Unclenching his fingers was painful, but he did it anyway.

  “Your phone won’t work here,” Melanie said matter-of-factly. Alec tried it nonetheless, but couldn’t even get the phone to turn on. “I’m sorry you got stuck here, too,” Melanie said, wearing a sad smile, “but I must admit, I’m glad to have someone to talk
to again.”

  “There were two others here before,” Alec said, not quite a question.

  “Yes, Lester and Pete. Pete died shortly after I arrived. He got very sick, was coughing up blood. Lester and I weren’t sure what was wrong with him, but after a few days of screaming and crying, he went to sleep and didn’t wake up.”

  “Is that what happened to Lester?”

  “No, Lester gave up hope. While I was sleeping a few days ago—or maybe longer, like I said it’s hard to keep track of time here—he slit his wrists with a pocketknife he had with him.”

  Alec didn’t know what to say to that, so he stared into the flames for several minutes. Finally he said, “How did you start the fire?”

  “Pete had a cigarette lighter with him, and this cave is full of sticks and twigs. Of course, the lighter is almost out of fluid. I’m not sure what I’ll do when it runs out entirely.”

  Reaching into his pocket, Alec pulled out a half-used book of matches. “Isn’t much, but it’s something.”

  Melanie smiled. “You wouldn’t happen to have a steak and baked potato in your pocket as well, would you?”

  “Afraid not.” Eyeing the meat roasting over the fire, Alec went on, “Speaking of which, what are you surviving on?”

  Melanie looked uncomfortable and stared off toward the cave’s only entrance. “I . . . I’ve had to make do.”

  Alec didn’t pursue the topic any further. He scooted a bit closer to the fire. Ice had collected in his hair and was now melting and running down his face like tears. “Do you think there’s a way out of here?”

  “There has to be,” Melanie said with conviction. “If there’s a way in, there has to be a way back. Periodically I go out searching for it, but I can only go so far. If I lose sight of the fire, I may never be able to find my way back here.”

  Alec nodded. The aroma of the cooking meat caused his stomach to grumble loud as thunder.

  “Want some?” Melanie asked, waving the stick his way. “There’s plenty to share.”