ACT XI: TEST THE TESTER

"The mind is the hallway of the soul."

"WE NEED TO FINISH WHAT HE STARTED"

Gasping for air, Edgar pushes himself out of the floor. His vision was red as the blood drips from head and flowing into his eyes. With his soiled vision, his eyes wandered and realized he was in a reception area in a big building. Wooden walls surround the whole room, leather sofas in every corner and a big sign in the receptionist's area gleaming a red glow, "CUMBER CORP.", it says.

The computer at the table started flashing pictures of Edgar with someone, a blond woman wearing a yellow dress have been blurred out. Finally, the computer started speaking but have a very loud white noise in its background,

"Hell…...lo ma…asterrr. Heelp! Needed? Tree…at coore meltdown. Pl…ease e-e-evacuate. Stop si-i-i-simulation!", whizzed by the speakers in the room.

Still managing to stand on his feet the air was filled with a cold whisper of a timid voice woman, "Are you sure of what you want? Do you know what must be known?"

With his trembling voice, he replied, "What truth? What must I know?"

"You know what the truth is. You just can't comprehend it." the voice gently whispered as a figure of a woman without a face and with a slender body appears in the mists, "You have come thus far to seek what is hidden. I am a servant, but I am thy master! I will help you but be warned for it is the truth that you seek, the truth that you will see, sometimes lies are better than the truth and the truth sometimes weakens the strong!"

"I'm confused! What are you? Who are you? You are just a ghost?!" Edgar expressed in a weak voice under his deep breaths trembling not from fear but of confusion.

The figure went nearer to Edgar followed by a trail of white mist as she freezes the floor behind her"I am one of them, dear. I am one of those whom you have feared so much that you have lost your way in your journey, but we have guided you till you reach the end. I am a lost memory, All of us. We do not want you to fear us, but because of the truth masked in the darkness of your past, we have been discarded from the light and corrupted. We are here to help you find a lamp that will retain everything that you have lost. We help you and you will help us."

"What shall I believe in? I really am confused on whom I should put my trust in. Everything wants to give me the truth, truth that have been given to me at different times at different instances." He whimpered at the mist while it was circling him forming a diamond shape from the cloud.

"What you have seen, dear is the vision of what must have been and what must be, a picture of what a man desires what humanity cries to see and what the society wants to be right. You are the killer of oneself, let us save what is remaining and reestablish what is destroyed." The mist leered at him.

"The truth is at your hand. You have the power to open or pour it and let it dry with the air. The hallway is always open for whatever you have wanted and whatever you are in your world." The mist uttered in a lowering pitch as the shape slowly decayed until only a thick cloud of smoke was left.

"BOOTING SEQUENCE STARTING" the speakers blared as the red neon lights lit the dark hallway making all the doors lined in alternate arrays.

"BOOTING SEQUENCE STARTED"

"BOOTING SEQUENCE COMPLETED; ALL HARDWARE RUNNING, COMMENCING SIMULATION APPLICATION, SUBCONCIUOS NUMBER A113Z."

The neon lights at the first door turned yellow after a few minutes and immediately the door opened and let out a bright light in the small opening.

"POWER RESERVE AT FULL CAPACITY. POWER SAVING DISABLED. ALL SYSTEMS READY FOR SIMULATION. PLEASE ENTER TO BEGIN."

He cautiously enters the room. He doesn't want to experience more but something is making him go to the door. He can't control himself he can only think of the dreadful experience he has seen.

His senses are filling with great anxiety and very light emotions and as he walks slowly into the room the wind whispers to his ear, "Kylie, a promise; be with me for eternity." With a deep breath, he opened his eye and looked in the window located at the right side of the room. He saw an object of an odd shape, a shape of a four-armed star. The leaves rustle at the wind outside the hot summer morning.

The leaves rustle at the wind outside the hot summer morning and the cool breeze entered the gigantic windows in the room. He continues to examine the room that seems to get bigger and bigger, making his memories flash and expand. A living room filled with cabinets that have neatly placed ornament of a dragon and similar shaped four-armed star with a red band in each arm and spheres in each space that has a yellow and red tinge. He examines the object closely and finds a text at the bottom and it reads, "AMALGAMATION INC." Puzzled from his find he went on to look for other clues. He reached the part of the room where he found a stairway with soft red carpeting. The walls are full of frames of photos, diplomas, and certificates from Universities. The photos have an almost identical face in them; Edgar and a lady with brownish hair, dark brown eyes and short stature, both were smiling. On one of the pictures in the wall he and the girl was holding a cardboard where these words appears, "Kylie and Edgar, 'Till Death Do Us Part!"