Kill The Spire?
This piece was written for Writing Battle, and entered into their “Tempest Raven 2026” contest (a peer judged 1000 word short story contest). I received the following prompts to write it:
Genre - Ancient Astronauts,
Character - Denier,
Object - Typewriter,
I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
“You know, I’ve been reading about the Spire lately.” Dan, a rather lanky fellow, tall and skinny, declared in his mild Irish accent, looking up at the grotesque monument that sat in the centre of Dublin.
“Why on Earth would you bother with that?” Sophie, a short woman with pink hair, replied with incredulity in her much thicker accent.
“Well, I think it might be an alien monster of some sort.” Dan explained, brushing his dirty-brown hair from his eyes.
“You think aliens would bother stealing the Spire?” Sophie replied with a laugh.
“No, they didn’t steal it.” Dan explained, as if it were obvious, “They put it here in the first place.”
“Why?” Sophie hung on the word, extending it as long as she could. She thought Dan was going mad - even more than usual.
“I don’t bloody know!” Dan replied, “To take over the world or something.” Sophie gave him a look of disgust, “Look, I just noticed something weird, and it led me down a strange path.”
“Ok, I’ll bite.” Sophie switched to an excited tone that was clearly forced, “What weird thing did you notice, Dan?”
“Well, I was working on my book, on my typewriter. I decided I’d go sit somewhere nice to do it, and came down to the city centre.” Dan explained in a rehearsed manner, “Well, all the good spots were taken, so I sat near the base of it.”
“You decided to stay here, rather than just go home?” Sophie asked with indignation, “By the Spire? Of all places?”
“The typewriter’s heavy, right, and it was a nice day. I just wanted to enjoy the sun a little while.” Dan replied with a defensive exasperation, “Anyway, you know I’ve got that Spire in my book?” Sophie nodded, “Well, when I started writing ‘The Spire was built’ it suddenly took over, adding ‘just a couple of decades ago’.” Sophie raised an eyebrow, “That’s weird right? Typewriters aren’t supposed to do that sort of thing. There’s no technology or the like in it.”
“There’s no technology in typewriters.” Sophie replied in a mocking tone, “Typewriters are a technology.”
“Ah sure, but you know what I mean.” Dan replied with only the faintest annoyance, he was used to this from Sophie, “Anyway, they aren’t supposed to do stuff like that, right?”
“No, typewriters, typically, don’t write on their own.” Sophie agreed, “But there’s plenty of other explanations more reasonable than ‘the Spire is an evil alien structure’ or whatever.”
“Such as?” Dan questioned.
“You could’ve written it without thinking, for example. Or you might’ve bought a typewriter than does have some more modern features.” Sophie threw up her hands, “Anything is more sensible than ‘aliens’, even you simply imagining it happening and tricking yourself into thinking it was real.”
“Ah sure, but like, there’s other stuff too.” Dan began, “The Spire was supposedly built in 2003, right. But I found some old forum posts from 2005, which talk about the Spire being ‘built a couple of decades ago’.”
“They probably just meant to write ‘years’ instead.” Sophie explained, “Jumping to ‘aliens’ is still insane.”
“But I also found maps from the 80’s, which have a landmark in the same place that looks like the Spire a bit.” Dan explained, talking faster, “And there’s an old cave painting from near here that looks like the Spire too.”
“Look’s like?” Sophie replied, eyebrows raised, “You sound like every other deranged conspiracy theorist.”
“Ok, but what about the fact that the measurement for the Spire on the official visit Dublin site is different than the wayback machine version from 2004?” Dan grew manic, “It’s a little over a meter difference. And the cave painting? It has a person for scale, and the Spire is only about 3 times taller.” Dan’s eyes were filled with madness, “That thing’s evil, and it’s messing with our heads.”
“Evil might be a little far. Ugly as all hell and a massive waste of money, sure, but not evil.” Sophie replied, not quite able to believe she was defending the Spire, “And messing with your head, clearly, but I think that’s a you problem.”
“Ah sure, believe what you want, I know what I saw. It’s alive, and it’s growing, and it doesn’t want any of us to figure it out.” Dan replied, growing calmer, “I think we need to kill it. Chop down the Spire. Free ourselves from this wretched root.”
“No disagreement there.” Sophie replied, looking up at the Spire again, “Not because it’s an alien growth though - which it definitely isn’t - but because it’s shit.” She paused in thought a moment, “Is that why you’re making up this insane story? To get more people to want it gone?”
“I’m not making up anything!” Dan replied, hurt, “I saw what I saw. But whatever reason someone agrees it’s gotta go, I’ll be glad to have them help. Even if they just think it’s ugly, like you.”
“Oi!” Sophie replied, “Uncalled for!”
“Wait no, I didn’t mean like that.” Dan grew panicked, “I just meant that you think it should go because it’s ugly, and I’ll take other people who think that too.”
“I know. I just wanted to wind you up.” Sophie gave a mischievous smile, and the two continued about their business together in Dublin town centre.
The steel Spire still stands tall, looming over Dublin.
Will it ever face justice?
Hopefully.