The Building(Part 2 Of ?) While it was pretty clear the only way to go was down, Phillip found himself walking forever down the spiral staircase. He began thinking this was a mistake, and that perhaps walking into the plain darkness above, was better than walking into the plain darkness below. He had been traveling down the staircase so long, that the light shining from the window above had diminished. And so he felt his way down the stair case. When the he could no longer see the light he stopped for a moment. �Something is wrong.� he thought. �This shouldn�t be taking this long. He wondered if the stairs led directly to the ground floor. And if they did was there a door to the outside. Would he be stuck in this building forever. He took off one of his shoes and dropped it off the side of the of the stairs. And then waited. Waited for that sound. The sound of a crack. The sound of water rippling. Anything. But it seemed that the shoe just kept dropping, because he never heard the sound. Discouraged, Phillip sat down. �I was better off where I was.� he said aloud. His voice seemed to echo. But he paid little attention to it. He was dying of thirst. It became hotter and hotter the further down he went. Yet something told him he needed to keep moving. And so he did. He thought optimistically for a moment, thanking whoever that the room was dark. If he could see the bottom, he�d probably be too freaked out to walk down the stairs, given the how high he was. Phillip hit against the stairs a couple of times. He could feel them shudder, yet they made little noise when he bounced down them. They were very sturdy, given the seemingly endless height of them. His instincts served him right eventually. He traveled further and further down into what seemed nothing, until he could see a flicker of light at the apparent bottom. The closer he got the brighter it got. He moved quicker. Skipping two or three steps at a time. And then the bottom just came. He tripped walking into it. He had been so use to walking down, that the first level ground made him trip. Phillip�s head bounced off the floor, and his chin bruised as it slid across the ground. However, all that seemed so trivial to the light in front of him. The candle. It was positioned on some sort of pedestal. One single, solitary candle. And looking at the amount of wax collected in the bottom, this candle had been lit recently. He knew he was at least getting somewhere. He picked it up, and searched around himself. �HELLO!� he yelled. It echoed erratically, like someone had taped it, and played it when they wished. His voice seemed to bounce off one wall and then hit the next. �HELLO! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?� he asked the darkness. Not expecting anything, Phillip let his guard down. �Yes. Someone is.� a voice returned. Phillip turned and dropped his candle at the sight of someone else. The candle fell to the floor and went out. For a moment Phillip could not see, and then the light returned to his eyes. The outline of a silhouette appeared and then he could clearly see a woman standing in front of him. Her candle lit the area around her, but darkness surrounded her. �Pick up your candle.� she commanded calmly. And he did. �Where am I?� he asked approaching her. �That is irrelevant as to where you are going. Come let me light your candle again. You will need it for a short period.� He held the candle in front of hers, and gracefully she lit it. Her light and his lit together to produce an effect you could only see in the room he was in. The walls of the room were composed entirely of mirrors. He looked in front of him and behind him. The mirrors reflected off each other an infinite number of times. And the same applied to the ceiling and the floor. He looked them over, completely astounded at the spectacle he was witnessing. �This room will take you where you need to go next.� she stated. �Who are you?� �My name is Ralandalia. But as stated before that is not important. The only thing I was brought here to do today is to be a light. And to provide you with one piece of information. This room will take you to the next, when you see yourself.� She started to walk away. Her candle did not seem to lose any light as she did. �Hey!� he shouted. She did not respond, and kept moving away. �Stop! Where the hell am I?� As he ran towards her he couldn�t help looking down, and seeing the reflection bounce a million times off the other. The image was mesmerizing. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back. She seemed completely untouched however. Calm and mellow. Her movements seemed so liquid and perfect. �You are wasting precious time.� she stated. The brutal reminder of the headache before returned. And Phillip fell to the floor in agonizing pain. �What are you doing to me?� he screamed, his nails digging into his face. �See yourself, Phillip. A room of mirrors is hardly a way to finish one�s life.� She once again turned and walked away. Phillip watched while he lay in pain. The light around her seemed to fade, and it dissipated into the air, making the room even brighter than before. Then she was gone. And so was his pain. But the headache had left him exhausted. It was stealing his energy. Breathing heavier, and sweating more. A train had hit him, and then just continued to run over him again and again. He stood up. He clenched his teeth together so hard it felt as if he had ground them down to nothing. His whole body ached, like he had been exercising intensely. But Phillip ignored it for now. He turned his attention to the mirrors, and the cryptic message playing in his head. See yourself. It seemed simple enough. He looked deep into the mirror. At himself. His eyes. His hair. Arms. Legs. Head. Every single body part he had. They were all familiar and in there normal spots. �SEE WHAT?� he yelled into the air. But he had seen it all before, or at least he thought he had. He wasn�t sure what he was supposed to be looking for. He sat down on the floor. He kept a constant stare at the image in front of himself. There must have been some distinguishing mark. Some feature he had overlooked. But everything seemed as normal as he remembered it to be. �WHERE THE HELL AM I!� he shouted. He could barely hear himself over his pain. The aftermath left pain all over his body. Like he�d been running for days. He once again concentrated all his attention to the mirror. This time however looking beyond the first image and into the millions that bounced off one another. He wondered why so many mirrors. He wondered why this room would have mirrors from every angle. And he pondered momentarily that perhaps the answer was within the vast reflection that was cast back and forth. The image seemed to drop further and further down. No sign of any differences between the first and the multitude of images that followed. �God dammit.� he stammered. It seemed to be getting hotter. The more frustrated he got the hotter the room became. He clenched his fists together. Gripping his nails into his palms. He beat the mirror. The first time it rattled. It was hollow on the other side. He beat it again, and again. Phillip became more and more angry with every punch he threw. The skin around his knuckles split open. He stopped punching and looked at the fresh blood on the mirror. It slipped slowly down the mirror. He turned and watched it slide down in the reflection. And in turn looked at the image as it repeatedly projected itself over and over again. Phillip sat down and watched. And that�s when he blinked. And he saw the blood dripping down the mirror again. He saw the same image. It only lasted for a moment. And unless he had been looking for something in particular he would never have noticed the image. But this time he did. And he blinked again. The blood seemed more noticeable this time. He opened his eyes barely able to comprehend the image. It might have been his imagination. He might have just made it so because he was seeing it. Phillip clenched his eyes shut. Holding them as tight as he could. He watched the same scene a third time. This time however he kept them closed as he watched the blood hit the bottom of the mirror. Then, as if he were watching a movie it slowly slid away, over the top of bathroom sink. Still moving, it drifted to the edge of the counter and moved downward. At the bottom a man sat with his head between his knees. He looked pale. Like he had seen no sun for months. And Phillip could smell smoke. Smoke, like how a person smells after recently smoking a cigarette. And he could hear panting. The man appeared, and sounded, like he was struggling to breath. The man lifted his head, but the facial features looked unfamiliar. But the pale face had wide eyes, and they were filled with tears. Phillip opened his eyes. He might have called it a nightmare, but he was living a nightmare now. The mirrors had been replaced with a small doorway directly across from him. The mirrors had just disappeared like they never had existed. He looked up and saw the ceilings rise forever. The spiral staircase had disappeared also. Nothing remained but a dark doorway, into yet another dark room. He walked over to the door. It was a new kind of dark. Cold and waste less. He stood in front of the threshold, wondering where he would go next. Nothing seemed to be answered. Only more questions remained. What did his vision have to do with anything that was going on here? Well more importantly where the hell was he? Even more angry than before he stepped through the doorway and started the new path that lay before him�
Copyright © 2005 Bradley Grimes |