Chapter 14

“Oh, that doesn’t look bad,” sighed Nicole. She was kneeling in front of Wayne, gently wiping away the blood with some gauze from Albert’s first aid kit and examining the gash. “It’s a pretty good cut,” she admitted, “a little deep, but it’s already stopped bleeding.”

Wayne looked down at himself for the first time and realized that he was not really bleeding to death. He hadn’t bled very much at all, in fact. It had run down his waist and to about the middle of his thigh, but that was all. “Then why do I feel so weak?” he asked.

“Do you ever get queasy at the sight of your own blood?” inquired Nicole.

Wayne shook his head. “Never.”

Nicole thought for a moment. “Maybe it has something to do with those rooms, then.”

He considered this. He did start to feel awful shaky in there. He was still trembling, in fact. “Yeah,” he decided. “I think you’re right. Mental exertion, I guess.”

“You were leading for a long time,” Albert agreed. “Longer than I did.”

Wayne nodded and looked down at Nicole as she pressed a bandage over his wound. “How do you all feel?”

“I’m fine,” Brandy replied.

“Yeah,” Agreed Nicole as she stood up. “A little jittery, but that’s all.”

“Other than that weird attack I had,” Albert added, “I’m perfectly fine.”

Wayne nodded. “Then you don’t think those spikes were poisoned, do you?”

Albert, Brandy and Nicole exchanged uneasy looks. Each of them had sustained some sort of cut, scrape or poke from at least one of those hateful things. If there was poison involved, then they had all been exposed.

“I took a pretty good poke early on,” Albert said, looking down at the dried spot of blood on his arm. “I think if they were poisoned I’d probably be feeling it, too.”

Wayne nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. I just don’t understand. It felt like I’d really hurt myself back there. I could’ve sworn I was bleeding to death.”

“Maybe it was another illusion,” Albert offered. “Like what happened to me, but based on a real injury instead of an imaginary attack.”

Wayne nodded. “That could be right. I guess.” He stood up straight, shaking it off. He felt embarrassed. He couldn’t believe he’d created such drama over such a superficial injury. “I’ll be fine. We should keep moving.”

Albert hesitated. He wanted Wayne to regain his strength before moving on, but the four of them could not remain huddled here for much longer. They needed to keep moving. The blind man had made it clear that they needed to hurry. And he had no doubt that the longer they were down here, the more likely they were to attract a hound. Those creatures might already have grown bored with the underwear and begun to wander farther out into the temple. “Are you sure you can go on?”

“Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Wayne looked out at the tiny spikes on the floor, focusing his thoughts on the obstacles before them. He wanted to put this embarrassing injury behind him as quickly as possible. “Looks like there’s a path.”

There were small patches on the floor where there were no spikes, forming a sort of stepping stone path for them to follow.

“A safe path,” Albert agreed.

“Seems to defeat the purpose,” observed Wayne.

“Not really. This is the Temple of the Blind. The only way to get through those rooms back there was to be blind to the statues. But if you couldn’t see the rooms, you couldn’t see the path.”

That made sense. “You wouldn’t be able to find a way across if you couldn’t see,” Wayne reasoned. “So technically, a blind person couldn’t get through the Temple of the Blind. You have to be able to go back and forth, like we’re doing.”

“Exactly,” Albert agreed. “No one can accidentally stumble through it. You’d have to use something to blind yourself, like Brandy’s glasses, or else feel your way around the rooms in the dark, which obviously isn’t recommended with all these spikes.”

“There weren’t any spikes in the first room,” Wayne recalled. “It probably would have been safe to just feel our way through there in the dark.”

“I don’t think I’d want to feel my way through that room,” opined Nicole.

Brandy giggled. “You could probably still put an eye out in there,” she agreed.

“I suppose you’re right,” remarked Wayne, grinning a little.

“I guess it’s more like the Temple of the Nearsighted, huh,” said Brandy.

Albert laughed. “Yeah. I guess it is.” He stepped forward, examining the path ahead. “I think the rooms were designed to get harder each time. You can’t ever get too confident that way. It’s probably some kind of test.”

“And we passed the test?” asked Nicole.

“Well, we’re still alive,” Albert replied. “I’d call that a pass.”

“Tough grading curve,” remarked Brandy.

“Let’s go then,” urged Wayne. He wasn’t eager to see what the next test would be, but he certainly didn’t want to stay here all night.

“I’ll go first,” Albert volunteered. “Everyone stay back a little bit.” He walked up to the edge of the spiked floor and stepped onto the first “stepping stone” that led across the room. He then stepped carefully from one to the next, grimacing a little at the thought of what all those little needles would feel like if he missed and planted his bare foot on them. It would hurt like hell, no doubt, and probably send him stumbling back and into one of the many larger spikes.

“Be careful,” Brandy pleaded. She could barely stand to watch.

“I am,” he promised. With every step, he expected something more, some nasty little surprise, but there was nothing. Carefully, he made his way past the thorny columns to the doorway beyond.

The final step was a long one, requiring him to jump over the spikes, but it was hardly difficult. Once he was within the safety of the far door, he turned back and beckoned the others to follow.

One by one, the remaining three made their way cautiously across the spiked room to join him.