The tower was black. It radiated an aura — an ancient aura. It had a peculiar appearance, a beauty of its own, an almost hypnotic allure. It stretched toward the heavens. All the way to the heavens.
When one looked at it, like the call of a siren, a voice echoed in their ears.
— Would you like to enter the Celestial Domain?
The voice was seductive and irresistible. Once heard, an overwhelming desire took hold of you. Danilo looked away, and the irresistible urge vanished. He looked around. The same urge returned with the same intensity. Then he looked away again. Just like before, the chilling compulsion disappeared as if it had never existed.
Then he understood the secret. After centuries of life, he knew exactly what it was.
"Look at me!" he said to his children, who were completely hypnotized by the tower.
They turned toward him, confusion and shock painted across their faces.
"Just now, I felt like I had to enter that tower," Pancho said, frightened.
"Yes, the same happened to me. I felt like I had to do it no matter what," Kiala added, clearly shaken as well.
"It must be one of the entry mechanisms of the Celestial Domain. If I'm not wrong, that is the main mechanism. If we say 'yes,' we'll probably be teleported."
"As I said before, we've entered a new era — and that tower will decide everything."
The children listened quietly and nodded.
"I believe the two of you already have an idea of how to enter the tower, don't you?"
They nodded again.
"Then… are you ready for the new journey?
You will probably never see your siblings or the rest of your family again."
Once more, they nodded in agreement.
"Then let's go."
He took both of their hands, looked at the tower, answered "yes" to the question — and the three of them vanished.
---
About an hour later, five people arrived. The door was already broken open.
Of the five, four were young adults and one was a middle-aged woman. The woman was beautiful. Despite the years etched into her face, her features remained striking. It was obvious she had once been stunning in her youth.
The young ones were two girls and two boys, all in their twenties. One of the girls appeared to be the eldest.
When they entered, they found an empty room. On the floor lay a massive pool of blood.
Screams erupted inside the house.
"No, Dad! No, Dad!" Tiago Afonso cried out, horrified and in shock.
She could not believe the nightmare unfolding before her. There was so much blood on the ground. And the most terrifying part was knowing that this blood belonged to the man she once loved unconditionally.
And he — out of fear and cowardice — betrayed her in the cruelest way. It hurt to know she would never see him alive again.
She thought that, with time, once her anger faded, they would reconnect. But who would have imagined receiving a call from the younger siblings saying that their father had taken his own life?
When she heard it, she felt her world collapse. She didn't want to believe it. She preferred not to believe it. Because deep down she felt that, if it were true, her father's blood would stain her hands. Because she was one of the people who pushed him into this abyss with no return.
When the news arrived, she was at her maternal grandparents' house — with them, her mother, and her siblings. After seeing her mother's pale face from Kiala's call, Pancho called again and explained the situation. He understood why his mother had reacted like that.
When she tried to speak, her mother interrupted her. She grabbed her children and they rushed toward their ex-husband's house.
On the way there, the celestial domain notification arrived, right in the middle of the road. They saw a massive tower descending from the sky. The tower whispered into their minds.
But the shock and guilt weighing on them made everyone in the car ignore it. They had to abandon the vehicle on the road because of the traffic jam caused by the tower's descent.
They ran the rest of the way and arrived much later — only to find a scene straight out of a horror movie.