The Eternal Doom

Chapter 15 Sauntered dreams

There was a knock at the door. Stephen blinked his eyes out from the other world beside him; the dreams became so heavy that it magnetized the vision of Stephen into them. It left him to wonder over the mysteries of God. The knock went on, when Stephen approached the door, without answering. There was a familiar face again, as it was the Italian woman. "Mr. Erick and the lawyer are waiting for you downstairs; you'd better come immediately," she said, in her usual accent.

Stephen nodded his head silently. He saw as she jabbered away into the silence, murmuring "Finally the time has come when I have to read the chapters of my past to the lawyer, the mystery of my own, which I haven't figured out yet, the questions which are still belonging to my own self, wondering how I will solve them." He was blundering downstairs with these thoughts all around him. The past was crawling after him; the little fits of pain kept on reminding him who he was. The windows were all open, and the draperies were floating. He was striding forward, watching Mr. Erick sitting along with the lawyer in the distance. The pale leaves were crawling somewhere in the corners of the deserted mansion outside, where the faded dull beams of the silent afternoon would be spilling from the sky, which lay deep in the charm of God. The voices of the lawyer and Mr. Erick were so clear in the hall, but for Stephen, they became dumb, as he was listening only to the silence, which would be meditating on the whispers of God.

There appeared a short pause between both, as he reached over to them. "Hello, Stephen," the lawyer said, with a comical look. Where Stephen replied quietly with the focus of his inner vision, which was still roaming somewhere else in the world. He saw his soul lying in some blurred garden, cast in some strange dim light, with a strange force filled with unseen angels lingering; and there he felt his soul bowing before some unrevealed and authoritative power, which made both worlds cease in His charm, but remained hidden in the mystery beyond the sky. Stephen was standing in the immortal dream, facing the lawyer who seemed intrigued to listen to the answers. he was sitting on the sofa opposite the lawyer. "Stephen, what happened? You seem a little fretful. Your eyes seem dizzy; are you tired?" The voice of Mr. Erick reached him.

He raised his lifeless glance over him, and said "No, I'm not tired."

"So, then, I think we should proceed with some questions which are leftover from yesterday. I think you would have compiled the missing pages of the past by now, isn't that so?" the lawyer interrupted, saying these words in a rather taunting way, with a mirthless smile on his face which seemed a little flippant to Mr. Erick, who was about to say something to the lawyer when the whispers of Stephen made him pause.

He said, "Sometimes the past leaves you with questions which burn your present into the ashes of unsolved questions. The question you longed for the answer, might never be answered; but I will give you the answer, which I have never understood; perhaps you might." Once again silence appeared, with a reluctant expression on the lawyer's face. He did not even take a gulp of his coffee, which was now getting cold. The sound of the wind was coming inside through the windows. Their eyes were constantly fixed on Stephen, who started to whisper the story of his past; and he began its first chapter from the woodcraft shop, where he got the job, and then the guy who was the owner of that shop; and one day he handed him that wooden box which was keeping death inside. The past was again flashing beside him, just as he was describing it to the lawyer; the voice of Stephen started to fill with despair, as he reached the chapter of Chapel Street. The more he started to describe its tragic scene, the more his voice started to be smothered as if he was walking into the fear again. The same street in the world once again rises before him, and once again he found himself chained with the same dreadful nightmare. Again he was gripped by the same feeling which he had at the time of the horrifying sound of the death-jangle in the chapel, and the fluttering of the trembling bats, smeared with the dropping blood, coming over once again in front of him, and the heavy dark crimson sky over his head, marking the last triumph of death in the mortal world, which was soon about to turn into an immortal dream. The song of the orphans vanished with the last goodbye of death to the world. So it was the end of the story, as orphans found their homes in the grave, where they lived happily ever after. That devil was left on the earth in a never-ending search for his world which he was unable to walk again. Stephen ended up with an expression dilated in impassivity; and silence remained between both, filled with grief, where Mr. Erick was sitting with his expression filled with emotion.