Edison's Dream ~ Chapter Four ~ Part Four

The door made creaking noises that echoed loudly. Edison placed both of his hands on it and held it tightly in order to minimize the sound. When it finally rested against a wall, Edison extended his left leg out and placed it down on the ground in front of him. He then extended his right leg out and leaned his whole body forward. From there he was able to move his head in each direction to get a look at where he was now. The sound of his shoes clicking against the floor echoed throughout the room as he took a step. The curator’s key had lead Edison into an enormous oval shaped chamber. There were six floors, each filled with dozens of exhibits. Tall golden pillars stood between every one. Eleven ground torches formed a large circle in the center of the room.

“I want to know who you are and why you have brought me here!” Edison asked piercingly. The torches began to light by themselves, one by one. Wrought iron bars fell from the ceiling and sealed the door behind him. “Are you ready to show yourself to me?” he hollered. “Have you no knowledge of the rules?” boomed the same voice from the museum’s main hallway. “No one leaves the Wanderer’s Museum under any circumstances.” From the chamber’s ceiling, a metallic grate opened up wide, revealing a pitch black hole. The voice let out a vile laugh, and a tall person brandishing a whip dropped down from the hole. They landed on their feet and stood across from Edison inside of the torchlight circle. The person wore a bistre colored cloak that had eccentric designs and patterns all over it, outlined in black. His face was darkened by a hood. “You, my child, have broken the rules of my museum time and time again.” the person growled. “It is now time to suffer the consequences.” Edison gasped and stepped back. “You are Dmitri Downs, the museum curator. Are you not?” he asked. “Indeed, I am.” The person replied. “I travel throughout this lonely world to find people of value. It is then that they are brought here to my museum, never to be heard from again.” Edison felt his upper lip trembling slightly. “I believe that your reign of terror is coming to an untimely close!” Edison blurted. “Is that so?” Dmitri responded slowly. “Well I believe that your corpse will make a splendid new statue!” After another evil cackle, Dmitri raised his whip thrust it wildly at one of the torches, making it fall against the one beside it. One by one, all of the torches were knocked down like dominoes.

When the final torch fell, a ring of fire encircled the area between Edison and Dmitri Downs. “Oh yes that’s right, you have no way to defend yourself.” exclaimed Dmitri. “Isn’t that just a crying shame?” He mocked as he raised his whip once again and attempted to strike Edison in the head. Luckily, Edison moved so fast to dodge it that he even surprised himself. He then rolled over to his right side as Dmitri tried another strike at him with his whip. “Why don’t you just surrender? There is no way you can win this!” Dmitri yelled. Edison ignored him and continued dodging the whip. This is hopeless. Edison thought to himself. How can I possibly fend him off without my weapons?  He then felt a rumbling in his pocket where the curator’s key was. He took the key out and noticed that the red jewel embedded in it was glowing brightly. As Edison held it in his hand, one half of the ring of fire dissipated, and he quickly dashed out of the circle. He ran over to one exhibit entitled Soldiers of Servenia. Edison continued to stand by the exhibit, gasping for air. The red jewel glowed again, and the glass protecting the exhibit shattered. Dmitri jumped out of the fiery circle and stood before Edison. “You are using my special key without my permission?” he shouted at him. The jewel continued to glow in Edison’s hand, and he held it high above his head, pointing it in the direction of the exhibit. Bits and pieces of shard glass flew everywhere. Edison placed his arms around his face to protect himself. The glass settled to the floor, and Edison could see movement from within the exhibit. Soldiers of all different shapes and sizes emerged out into the chamber. Edison stayed still, pondering his fate while the soldiers escaped from the exhibit and encircled Edison.

The shock of what was happening rendered him speechless, until one of the soldiers walked up to Edison and bowed before him. “You are our new master.”