Imagine

Chapter 8

Sorry I have been gone for a while. The holidays are crazy scary. But not as scary as logging on to see 380 notifications and wondering what you've missed.

He woke up from Wendy shaking his shoulder, and when looking out the window found they were in the middle of a street, in a forest. Edwin grabbed his bag and got off the shuttle, watching it leave. He looked around for Wendy, spotting her already walking somewhere.

"Where are you going?"

"To the cabin!" And with that she climbed over a hill not even looking back. He followed her because now he was deeply interested. Ever since she had mentioned these "Imagineers" he wanted to know more. So going over the hill he quickly caught up to her.

With that they started walking, Edwin taking in all of the beauty of the forest. It was thickly dense and cloudy but he would take it any day over flat lands. They had been walking for at least a half hour when suddenly he saw a cabin in the distance, following the trail leading towards it.

Looking at the cabin there were two stories, with a beautiful paneled door. He knocked on the door patiently waiting, that is until Wendy came up and opened it herself.

It opened to a beautiful room with black and white tiled floor, an elegant white couch and chair, a black piano sat in the corner, and a sturdy fire place with some picture frames on it. He followed Wendy around the room to open a door that led into a kitchen.

A silver fridge sat there with black cabinets and a white granite countertop. On the other side was a white granite bar, and behind it was an elegant long black table overseeing the lake behind the cabin.

"Ahh I see you made your way back here just fine."

Edwin turned around to see an old man with glasses,  walking with a cane, who he immediately recognized as the janitor. At closer look he saw that the man was much older than he had taken him to be, somewhere around his early 80's in fact.

"Ahh Edwin nice to meet you face to face, my name is Oswald, we met briefly in the cornfield," Edwin cringed at that," my sincere apologies."

He then looked at Wendy seriously,"I presume you have the book?"

Wendy pointed to Edwin smiling proudly. Oswald looked back at Edwin," I presume you have met my granddaughter Wendy, correct?"

Edwin was taken back for a second. He hadn't realized they were a family. He wondered where Wendy's parents were but thought he may met them later. He just nodded to Oswald.

"Right, Wendy if you don't mind going to the library and putting the book on my desk, then bring me back my book that I was reading while I chat with Mr. Tomly here? Then you can hook him up to the simulator."

And with that Wendy grabbed the book out of Edwina backpack and left the room. He was left with Oswald uncomfortably looking at him with what where no hard eyes.

"Do you know what will happen when you go through the simulator?"

"No."

Oswald scoffed and looked at the floor smiling. "I didn't think she would tell you. Wendy can be like that, it's been lonely for her here."

Oswald looked back up at Edwin who was obviously confused. "You will see the world like an Imagineer, you will enter your own mind, and once you do so they will know."

"Who will know?"

Oswald scoffed again, looking back up, "Obviously Wendy did not explain everything now did she? We call them blanks. People who only use a certain type of imagination when they themselves are not imagineers. They are controlled by the superior, someone no one has ever seen. Once you open your mind they will know and you will no longer be protected from them. They will come after you."

Wendy definitely didn't tell him that. If he was no longer protected did that mean they would come after him or his family? But then again he would never get the hunger in the bottom of his stomach to be satisfied. He wanted to do what he did in the cornfield again, to let his curiosity be at rest. 

"I found your book, and it was in you room," Wendy said as she came back into the room. "Ready for the simulator?"

"Now wait a minute, let us have Edwin decide whether or not he would like to go in or not."

Wendy turned to Edwin, worry obvious in her eyes. He turned to Oswald remembering his words about how he wouldn't be safe. But he knew that he couldn't let this go.

"I'll go in the simulator."