The Peculiar Alchemist

74 || Not One Good Decision

It happened without him knowing, but Aubrey had dozed off. He had his elbows resting on the armrest of the chair he had picked, and his cheek felt a bit sore when his eyes blinked open.

Aubrey was woken up by someone stroking his cheek, but he grimaced away from the touch because something about it felt wrong, almost as if the finger that was touching him was soggy. The smell should have been his next clue since it was the main thing that woke him up, but he was still dazed from his little nap to process everything that was happening.

The teacher was right in front of him.

"Honey," A raspy voice came out of the teacher, whose eyes stopped working at one point, but he was a lot less decomposed and rotten than the man Aubrey saw last time. This one is able to speak coherently. "You're still alive."

The whimper which escaped Aubrey was mostly out of disgust as he covered his face with his hand trying to block the smell from entering his nose. Somehow he was able to stand and get away but as he took a few steps back, he realized something very disconcerting.

The teacher's head was following the sounds he was making, he still had his hearing.

"Where are you going?" The teacher sounded disappointed, and Aubrey debated whether he should tell him that he wasn't his wife, but he knew if he tried to open his mouth he'd retch from the smell. Besides, he didn't want to risk upsetting the teacher. "Why do you always leave me?"

Cursing internally, Aubrey found himself in a corner trying to escape the smell. This was what he had been dreading the whole time and of course he had the insane luck of finding the teacher first.

That made him wonder what Kellen was dealing with down in the basement as he simply walked around the furniture and exited the room he was in. Aubrey made his steps as loud as possible to intentionally lead the teacher his way, and he held the basement's door open hoping that the teacher would go there.

"I know I haven't been the best husband, but please speak to me." The teacher pleaded as he shambled his way towards the sounds Aubrey was making, and luckily, whoever was in the basement wasn't being quiet. There were men talking down there, and from what Aubrey could gather, they had just killed Kellen.

How convenient, they saved him the trouble.

"Why are you ignoring me?" The teacher asked, distraught. Whatever was going on with his wife was probably not good, their relationships had some issues judging by his words. Aubrey still did not forget that the teacher was also surprised that his wife was alive, but his attention was finally grabbed by the commotion happening down in the basement.

There was a sway in his movements when he paused at the door, and it made Aubrey tempted to just kick him down the stairs because of how impatient he was getting. He almost did, but the teacher took a step forward before he stumbled and rolled down the stairs since he was blind and not all there.

Aubrey almost felt sorry for him as he closed the door behind him, but he was not Kellen's problem to deal with – and also whoever was down there with him.

Death was always so ugly on people, maybe that's why they're buried before they stink up the place, but Aubrey found the smell to be lingering or maybe it was something else other than the teacher's own putrid rotten flesh. He ignored the surprised exclamations coming from the basement when the teacher dropped himself there, and instead focused on figuring out the source of that strong dreadful smell.

It was always that which gave away corpses, the smell, and the strong smell was coming from the kitchen.

"Well that's interesting." He mumbled when he came upon a very disturbing sight. It was a tiny bit amusing if he were to be honest, but it still wasn't a very pretty thing to see.