Fall Into Me

~.XVII.~

"Be careful!" Minerva's warning echoed around Mona. "You've already hurt yourself once."

"Yeah, yeah," Mona waved her off, still impressed Minerva had allowed her to climb this far up the tower. There wasn't much of it left, but it was high up enough that Mona could see the sprawling ruins all around them.

From the ground, it looked like an uncoordinated mess, huge chunks of crumbling stone in odd places. Walls that only came to Mona's ankles, riddled with holes and gaps. Nothing about the area said a structure had once stood there, nothing but the tower that Mona had seen and climbed.

Truthfully, it wasn't much of a tower. Half of it was missing, spread around the base, and the walls weren't particularly sturdy. On her way up, Mona had leant too hard against a weak section and it had tumbled to the ground, causing Minerva to pay attention.

Mona had settled as far up as she could, and from here she could see the base of the structures.

"What did you say this was again?" She called down to Minerva, who was hovering below Mona, watching like a hawk. Minerva was there to catch her if she fell.

"A church. You're currently in what's left of the bell tower."

"Where's the bell, then?" Mona scanned the nearby area, not seeing it.

"Buried somewhere, I believe."

"Buried? Why would they bury it?"

"That, I don't quite know," Minerva admitted slowly, "the information I have for the bell is limited. The church was used for many things, including animal sacrifices and all sorts of heinous rituals that the Stewarts performed. My understanding is that the bell was used to signify these rituals. A lot of it doesn't make sense; bells were important in the medieval era. They were used to mark religious and secular activities, and for communication."

"But if this one was used when the Stewarts did bad shit, then maybe the people thought the bell made the bad shit happen?"

"It's possible. I truly have no idea. Whether or not it's buried isn't confirmed either. The bell was huge, and historians believe it's the oldest bell in the country. Without the bell itself, none of that can be validated. Now will you get down? You're making me nervous."

"I ain't gonna fall," Mona told her, still looking around the area. Minerva said it was a church, so there must be a graveyard somewhere. "Is this where your family tomb is?"

"Not here exactly," Minerva said with a sigh, realising Mona wasn't coming down yet, "more to the west."

Mona peered over in that direction, seeing a stone building through the trees a distance away. She pointed at it, looking down at Minerva who nodded. Letting her arm fall, Mona stood up a little straighter, trying to see the castle from where they were. Surprisingly, the massive structure wasn't visible anywhere, which made Mona wonder just how far away they were. Stones fell as she twisted and turned to look around.

"Mona," Minerva warned through her teeth, "get, down. That tower is more unstable than you are."

"That's just mean," Mona said as she began to retrace her steps back to the ground. Jumping off the last little bit, her landing sounded hollow, and she kicked the dirt beneath her feet. "Whys it sound like that?" She called, and Minerva appeared in the doorway, watching her stomp the ground. "It's all hollow under here."

"Because it is," Minerva placed her hands on Mona's hips, gently moving her out of the way. That small contact made Mona's heart quicken. Crouching, Minerva disturbed the dirt, then hooked her finger through an iron rung and pulled. With an awful creak, a trapdoor opened up. Mona peered into it, excitement dying when she saw a huge steel wall.