Monday, June 24, 2013

The Reburth of a Dragon: Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

    Seth remembered reading that Gothic architecture was designed to make the visitor of the building feel small and insignificant. He had never before believed that a building could inspire such emotions, but following his younger self, he began to understand and remember that feeling. Now that he thought about it, the feeling of remembering his memories as he watched his younger self experience what happened to him for the first time was sort of surreal and Seth thought that he probably did not want to make a repeat of this experience, not that he had much of a choice the first time around.
       The corridor they were walking in fit the Gothic/horror theme that the outside gave. It was dark because there was nothing to light the way, but from what Seth could barely make out, it wouldn't seem to be appealing even if there was a light. The walls were made of stone and Seth remembered that they felt like ice to the touch. As for Kid-Seth, he had taken his gloves off when he entered the building and was now feeling his way across the walls to move around. As for Josephine, she seemed to have turned three shades paler when entering and as a result, seemed to forget about her anger. Seth knew this to be true because when they entered, she always made sure that they were walking shoulder length apart. 
     Seth didn't want to upset her again so he focused all his attention on following his younger self and pretended not to notice her fear of this place. He had reasoned that if  she wanted to keep her secrets, it was fine by him for heaven knew that he couldn't deal with anymore baggage for a long, long while. As soon as he thought this, a wave of guilt hit him. This was followed by anger and annoyance that he should feel guilty for not being able to help a person who so obviously didn't care for him, but a tiny voice from deep in his psyche whispered, "If that were true, then why did she try to warn you about her dream? Why did she continue to push the subject, even after you had so blatantly disregarded her words as nonsense? And why are you currently in this situation? Would someone who gave no thought to your well being have went so far for you?" Seth would rather deal with his irritation than with the feelings that some  of these questions brought up so he mentally told that voice to take a hike. In response, Seth could have sworn that this voice had called him an idiot.
    This made him pause and break the silence by asking Josephine if it was possible to enter another person's mind and fool the said person into thinking thoughts that are not that person's thoughts. She replied by telling him that although there were a lot of creatures that could read minds and think things into another's mind, but the person that it was being done to would be able to differentiate his thoughts from the thoughts of the alien presence in his mind. When she finished explaining, she asked him why he would ask something like that. Seth thought that hell would freeze over before he ever told her about his inner monologue. Out loud, he said, "No reason. Just call it morbid curiosity that happened in the spur of the moment." She gave him an odd look, but let the subject drop. 
       Afterwards both focused on Kid-Seth because the wall had ended and turned into a corner that looked like a stairwell, but unlike the corridor, the wall adjacent the stairwell was filled with lit candelabras. When faced with this, the child looked at the stairwell with big, fearful eyes that were shaken off after he took a picture of the stairwell and tested the first couple of stairs to deem them safe for travel. Seth remembered that at the time, he thought that he had gone too far to back out now so he might as well finish exploring this place and that he might never have a chance like this again. 
      With a light to guide him, navigation became much easier for the child and with that power came the sort of confidence that only a child could muster in such a situation. Because of this fact, it was only natural that Kid-Seth passed through the stairwell much faster than he had the corridor. And at the top of this stairwell was not another corridor as the ten year-old expected, but a door. And when he opened that door, he saw a room. What surprised him the most was that it was not a room that matched the rest of the castle with it's dark and gloomy colors that seemed to give an aura of despair, but that it was but a child's room that awaited him.
      It was a room filled with the things that any ordinary girl-child would enjoy. The walls were pink with the exception of one side which was a mural of the forest that stood outside, but in the middle of spring instead of winter. The right corner was filled with toys and there was a bed designed for one of Kid-Seth's height in the left corner. It was directly below this ledge that was just under a giant window that overlooked the forest below. The bed was also the pink of most of the room. On the right of it was a bookshelf, no taller than Kid-Seth's eyes, filled with fairy tales and classics in a variety of languages. 
      Kid-Seth had bended down to take a look at the contents of the shelf and before he got up, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. When he turned to the bed there was something jammed in under the mattress. Kid-Seth pulled it out and saw that it was some sort of diary. The cover read, "J's Journal" in pretty cursive writing. He wondered who J was for a moment and in his imagination thought that it must be the name of the girl who lived here.
      Kid-Seth knew that it would be rude to read someone's diary, but the temptation of finding out what it was like for whoever lived here proved to be too much for the boy. So with a silent apology he cracked it open and read with the present Seth and Josephine able to follow along with him through the same power that had brought them here.


       
    

    

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