Edison's Dream ~ Chapter Five ~ Part Two

While he carefully traversed through the field, Edison tilted his head in every direction so that he could compare the dream realm to the actual place itself. The minimal number of trees that existed in his dream did not exist at all in reality. The field was completely bare, and seemed to spread across the horizon for miles. A slight wind blew throughout the area, sending shivers down Edison’s back. From afar, he noticed that on both sides of the temple’s entrance were massive gargoyles. Sturdy cement stairs lead to a brown wooden door. As he moved closer to the temple, he thought he saw someone standing inside the alcove of the rightmost tower pointing down at him. “Am I being watched?” he thought. He then heard the blaring of a whistle from behind him. “It is him! The rascal Master Fine warned us about! Do not permit him entrance!” a voice with a slight accent shouted. Edison stood still, petrified. He stared at the wooden door, and contemplated sprinting up the stairway and dashing into the temple. He then spun around and faced whoever it was who shouted at him. Spread out in the field was a group of five men, each dressed in grey robes with hoods that covered their faces. They wielded tall burning torches that were pointing at Edison. “What business do you have in our temple?” one of the men questioned. Edison gave the men a look of perplexity. He tried with all his might to not appear nervous. “And what gave you the idea it was yours?” he asked sarcastically. The man who first shouted at Edison pulled back his torch while his arm was shaking. “Don’t get us angry, kid!” he said forcibly. “The last thing we’re going to do is let the likes of you into our temple!” After that, the men began to chase after Edison, who hastily charged up the stairway anyways and threw himself into the temple’s front door. The force of his lunge nearly knocked it off of its hinges. While the men were hot on this trail, Edison barricaded the door shut by placing a metal rod from the floor in between both knobs.

The Temple of Imbroglio’s interior was tremendously huge. The main floor contained a wide hallway that stretched very far to the right, and only a short distance to the left. The floors were covered with a red velvet carpet that sparkled with gold, and numerous candles hung from the walls. The ceiling was high and arch shaped, and had green streamers hanging down decorating the main hallway. The atmosphere seemed very dark in spite of the glowing candles. Straight ahead of Edison was a monstrous room with a circular staircase. The hand railings were lined in purple velvet lace. There was also a wall of windows displaying the view of a river and a small patch of woods. Edison was just about to take a step forward until there was thumping and banging from the door behind him. “You had better run and hide you rat!” The muffled voice of one of the men threatened. “Just wait until we get a hold of you!” Edison’s body cringed, and he searched all over the place for somewhere to escape to. He then remembered the room in front of him, so he bolted inside of it and rushed up the staircase. Just before he reached the next floor, he crouched down and peered into the hallway through one of the railings. The front door had broken off its hinges and fell onto the floor. Nearly twenty men charged in through the front entrance holding torches. “I want all of you to listen to me very carefully!” The man who first confronted Edison demanded. “V.H. Fine ordered us to never let that kid even step one foot inside this temple. Since he is lingering somewhere in here, he must be exterminated!” Edison overheard every word. Drops of sweat poured down from his forehead. I have no weapons…No way to fend for myself…I am going to die, I am certain of it... Countless thoughts ran through his mind. “We will divide ourselves into groups and patrol the entire building.” The man continued, pointing at seven others standing closest to the door. “I want the seven of you to keep a close guard on this floor. There is no doubt this scoundrel is roaming the temple as we speak.” The men he spoke to nodded their heads obediently. “As for the rest of you,” he ordered, directing his attention to the rest of the men. “Ascend that flight of stairs and search through every hallway.” The men bowed and headed for the staircase.

Edison, who witnessed everything that had just happened, jumped up from his spot on the stairs and ran down the hallway of the next floor. The ceiling was still decorated with streamers, only they were blue instead of green. More candles were hanging out from the walls, but they glowed with harsh violet flames. Looking directly ahead of him, the hallway appeared to continue on and on with no end in sight. While he was mildly confused by this, he focused mainly on finding a proper hiding spot. To his left and right were two doors, one red and one blue. He walked over to the left door and tried its knob, only to discover that it was locked. Mysteriously, the door’s color changed from red to black when he did this. He then heard the sound of loud footsteps coming from the staircase, and saw the faint shining of torch lights. Knowing this, Edison scrambled over to the other door and frantically turned the knob. This time, the door opened with ease, so he jumped into the room on the other side and quietly closed the door behind him. He then peered out into the hallway one last time through a small peek hole in the middle of the door, which had now changed its color from blue to white. The room consisted of a lecture hall that contained over three hundred seats, and a blackboard that was covered in words and diagrams that he couldn’t make sense of. Right in front of it sat a podium with an open book. At the end of each row was a lantern planted firmly into the ground. Edison sauntered further into the room to inspect the blackboard, until he was spoken to by a timorous voice. “Are you one of them?” It asked. “Please don’t hurt me… Please…”