Sins of Our Fathers [Complete]--Editing

Chapter 70

Chapter 70

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They stood before the open doors of the Building of Judgment. It was the only structure that had neither been damaged nor destroyed.

No one had ever entered the sacred place, save the Dominion, but he wasn't around anymore. They all entered the hallowed doors and entered the building.

It was a massive place. The floor was made entirely out of marble stone and a great library housed shelves of books on every space of wall. They were a menagerie of works each aged and yellow with time. These were the secret texts known only to the Dominions of the Snake People.

They looked up to see a large chandelier hovering above them, taking up almost all of the ceiling.

"What is this place?"

Drake asked taking in the marvelous architecture.

"It is the place where the Dominion is officially chosen." Lewis answered as he stared at the titles in the spines of the old books.

They were books on just about anything you could think of, all in different languages. There seemed to be no furniture, accept for the large tomes, probably Almanacs that were placed on rust colored stands opened to various pages and spaced all around the floor. In the middle, was a statue representing the symbol of the Snake-men. It was a huge snake that had seven heads. It was a large statue. So large that the snakes' massive tail could never be completed, instead they chopped it off and gave the appearance that the statue was coming out from the floor.

"What did Antonio say in his letter again?"

"He said that there was a secret room or passage, or something, and that we'd have to go around the world and back again."

"Around the wor-yer tellin me that we just got our arses down here and he wants us to go back and travel round the world...twice?"

Nathaniel said crossing his arms in frustration.

The rest of the group looked about intently wondering what the deceased Former Dominion meant by going around the world.

Drake was particularly interested in what else could come out of this beautiful building.

He stared about in mute wonder, and his eye landed on one of the Almanacs on the stands.

It was open to a map of Africa, and he examined it. He turned the page and without warning the book slammed shut, almost catching his fingers.

A loud popping noise echoed about the room and you could almost hear the grinding, clicks of what sounded like the shifting of gears.

All whom were there, snapped their attention to Drake, who backed away from the almanac as if it were diseased.

Lewis, who was standing next to the almanac directly next to Drake, stared at it.

"What did you do?"

"I turned the page..."

They exchanged looks, and Lewis grabbed the page that held the map of Europe and flipped it over. The damn book slammed shut and the popping and the clicking resounded.

It only took a moment before everyone was going through a page turning frenzy, which occurred in a clockwise motion. They saw things, pictures of maps and continents each one representing a different place in a different part of the world.

When all the books had slammed shut, the ground below them began to rumble, and the floor surrounding the statue split into triangular slits. 

"We went around the world, now let's go back again."