NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 12: Shadow
Early the next morning, before the sun rose, not that he would know if it had being in an underground room, Vorden was fast asleep. All alone in his own bed, in his own room, in his very first apartment. He began to stir, deep in the midst of a very vivid dream.
Inside of his dream, Vorden was standing on the rooftop of a several story tall building. In front of him, instead of the rooftop access door like one would normally see on the rooftop, there was the entrance to a grand, gilded maze. The walls were made of polished mirrors, reflecting back infinite versions of himself. Some smiled with confidence, while others looked uncertain or terrified. Above the entrance, shining letters read: "Choose Your Reflection, Choose Your Path."
Vorden scratched his head and glanced around, wanting to ensure it wasnt an outright trap. He carefully stepped into the maze and with a blink found himself in a classroom. It looked just like the academy he attended with Quinn and Peter. How he imagined the one that he would soon teach in would look. Yet it was somehow twisted. The desks were made of blackened stone, but instead of students filling the seats there were just shadows—featureless and silent.
As he looked around the room the ghostlike shadow students started to whisper his name. Their voices rose in urgency, increasing steadily. At first it sounded like buzzing, like when a fly passed by your head. It continued growing and soon the sound was more like a hive of bees. Still they continued, louder, clearer, and even more urgent, chanting his name, "Vorden, Vorden, Vorden" their voices building until they all shouted in unison, "You don't belong here!" Vorden was blown backwards into the chalk board by the force of their combined voices. At that instance the room darkened, and the walls began collapsing into shards of glass that rained down around him.
Vorden picked up one of the larger fallen glass shards. To his surprise, instead of Sil's face looking back at him he could only see the reflection of a very beautiful, brown haired, young woman, smiling back at him with her braid glowing with golden light. The mysterious mirrorland beauty said to Vorden, "You can do this. Trust yourself." A blade of light suddenly formed in his hand, and he felt a surge of power, and confidence.
He followed the glow of the blade, holding it out in front of him, cutting a path through the darkness. As he progressed the blade became heavier, shifting and enlarging into a jagged, obsidian sword. A voice suddenly whispered from the shadows, "This path is not what you think it is. Are you ready to face it?".
Vorden reached the center of the maze, where a spiraling glass tower stretched into the sky. At its peak, he could see a shadowy figure. "Quinn?" Vorden called out to it, feeling a lump form in his throat. He began climbing frantically towards it. As he got closer his heart sank. It wasn't Quinn, he didn't recognize this man. Until he made it all the way to the top and was able to clearly see the shadow man who looked just like him. It was a shadow version of himself except it had a scar across its face and fierce, glowing, golden eyes. The shadow said, "You think you know who you are, but you've only scratched the surface". The figure then stepped aside to reveal a doorway, also glowing with golden light. As Vorden cautiously moved forward, the ground beneath him crumbled, and he was plunged into an all encompassing abyss, engulfed by the darkness as it swallowed him whole.
The uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach from the free fall made the whole ordeal seem very real. It was so real to him in fact, as his fall took longer than expected Vorden couldn't quell the growing fear inside of him, he was starting to question if maybe it wasn't actually a dream.
After what had felt like an eternity of falling, Vordan could just finally make out a change in the color of the void ahead. Slowly, the pitch black darkness wasn't all enveloping. There was a spot, just a few shades lighter than the darkness, in the center of his view. He brushed it off as his eyes playing tricks on him. Until it started to grow larger, which grew increasingly more rapid.
With absolute dread flooding his entire body it dawned on Vorden that it was the ground growing closer, and it was growing closer fast. The panic forced his mind to race and before he could even try to come up with a plan, he instinctively braced himself for impact. Instead of the immense pain that he had been half expecting, Vorden woke up, just before he could hit the bottom.
Vorden shot bolt upright in his bed, drenched in a cold sweat. Blinking a few times looking around the oppressively dark room he almost forgot where he was. Suddenly a loud buzzing blared at him from the void of darkness and he started to regain his senses. He reached over to the nightstand clumsily feeling his hand around in search of the culprit responsible for shrieking at him. Finding the off button on his alarm, he disabled it and then continued to grope around at the table until his hand hit the lamp. He followed along the cold metal base until he located the switch.
With a loud and satisfying click, the lamp illuminated every corner of the cave-like bedroom. The lamplight was an intensely bright contrast to the depths of darkness just before and it forced him to squint, rubbing his eyes as he hoisted himself, sitting up on the edge of the disheveled bedspread. The blinding lumens brought memories of his dream to the forefront.
Flashes of the sequence of events he had just dreamt were still fresh in his mind and he took advantage of this fact to recall as much as he could. The maze, the shaw students, the beautiful encouraging girl in the mirror, the blade of light, the shadow clone he mistook for Quinn, then finally falling. What could it all mean? Clearly, his mind was trying to work through some things.
After gathering himself, he took a quick shower, then threw on a fresh set of clothes and finished getting ready for the day. He tried to put the dream out of mind for the time being so it didn't distract him. He was excited for the day and felt pretty good. Other than the strange dream, Vorden actually slept better than he ever could have imagined possible. Vorden grabbed a quick bite to eat from the kitchen, and after rinsing his plate and placing it in the sink he headed out the door and set off once again for Shiro's office.