The Heaven and Hell Complex

Part 5

It was Douglas, coming out of the opening like a doorway. But only in the reflection. I looked up at the real pillar, but nothing emerged from the opening.
I looked up at the ceiling, and sure enough, yet another "reflection" of Douglas Day was stepping out of the opening, in an almost too casual way. 

I was utterly stupefied.
This was incredible. Such ground-breaking technology, I thought. I wanted to know where actually Mr Day acquired all this, or even if he came up with it himself. I took him for a hands-on type of artist, but not an incredibly technical-minded one. I saw him more as a builder of physical things, so he must have had some sort of assistance. After all, he must have had someone to help refurbish this entire room.

But before I could line up a number of questions ready for when Douglas Day would come back out of the stairway, I noticed up the top of my eye that the "reflection" of Douglas above me suddenly moved in a very sporadic manner.
I looked up at it and I saw that it had apparently recoiled in surprise. I followed its line of sight, and it was looking directly at the other completely identical copy of itself. The other reflection seemed to do the same, but made different actions.

It was amazing!
These two copies of Douglas Day were acting totally independently to one another, and furthermore, they seemed to be interacting with one another.
Or at least, trying to.
They both cautiously took the time to approach one another, seeming wary of the other's movements, but overtime they began to lower their guard more the closer they got.

I looked over the edge of the balcony, wondering if the bottom "reflections" acted the same way.
But their mannerisms were vastly different.

Both copies of Douglas Day seemed incredibly irritable with one another. Surprised for sure, but much more aggressive in their approach to seeing one another; a vast contrast to their ceiling counterparts.

In a few short seconds, both immediately walked up to one another. They both had disgruntled, bordering angry expressions. They seemed as if they were both sizing each other up, and soon they began to circle one another. Both of them looked as though they were going to engage in a physical fight.

I hadn't even noticed that Douglas had already walked back up the stairs and appeared behind me.

He slammed a hand on my shoulder, shocking me but I was relieved to see him.

"Well, what do you think?" He asked me.

I was practically speechless. I wanted to know how he did this, but once again he evaded my questions, telling me that I should 'have a go'.

I asked him what he meant by that.

"Go down to the stairs and just walk down to the bottom until you're beneath the floor. Then come back up here and see."

Admittedly I was a little hesitant. I'm not sure why, but there was a little voice in my head telling me that this whole situation was somehow wrong.

Well, not exactly wrong, but more...unsettling.

I couldn't fathom how this was accomplished.

If it was due to ground-breaking technology, why waste it on a mere art installation for a gallery. He could have made millions with this idea, if he indeed came up with it.

I had to do further research into this, I told myself. I started to contemplate the idea that Douglas had somehow stolen this technology. But then why not sell it instead of making a simple art piece?

Was the concept of such a piece this important to him? Surely not.

Then I thought he simply just bought all this from someone, perhaps a friend in the business of digital media and technology, but then why didn't he want to give out any names? Did he want to keep this all to himself? Was he planning on stealing this?

It was when I was considering these possibilities that I found myself at the door leading into the small staircase on the ground floor.

My mind must have been on autopilot. I had no idea I had just walked all the way down here.

But I'm here now, I thought to myself.

I might as well do this.

There shouldn't be any consequences for doing this, I kept reassuring myself.

It's just a wildly ambitious art project.

So opening the door, I headed down into the dark staircase, seeing that Douglas Day was watching me all the while from atop the overlooking balcony, his eyes fixed on me the whole time.