Descent (non-definitive title)

Dusty Memories

As consciousness returned to him, he realized that he was choking.

He abruptly opened his eyes and spat a great quantity of water.

It tasted exactly like the one in his dream.

Not only that, but his hair and clothes were soaked.

"What is going on?" He wondered out loud.

He sat on his bed and motioned to get up, ready to receive the waves of pain that standing up would send through his weak frame.

But this time they were not devastating. It still hurt, of course, but it was not near as bad as the past few days. He could even rotate his chest from side to side, even when that did burn like hell.

He lifted up the shirt and to his surprise, the tumorous bulb had shrunk a tiny bit.

"What's happening?" He muttered out loud.

He didn't have any idea why he was now slowly regaining his vitality back, but he didn't care. He might have been a weak young man, but he was nowhere near stupid, and this would be an opportunity he would not let fly.

As he was collecting his thoughts about the matter, he got scared by a centipede crawling up his leg. The first instinct was to hit it off with his hand, but taking into account the latest episodes including bugs that he has experienced, he instead offered his hand, which the centipede took without a doubt.

He dragged the hand closer to his face and the antennae of the tiny insect frantically analyzed the surroundings.

"The Master is pleased," the bug spoke between chirps, "is your illness remitting?"

"So it looks. Who is that Master you all speak about?" He inquired.

The centipede made some weird chirping sounds, as if considering whether he should tell the following information.

"Master... it says that its name is way beyond our understanding... yes..." he chirped some more.

"Well. Is it the one who's helping me?"

"Yes. Master... it's benevolent with the likes of you and me... it heard your cry... and responded."

"How?"

More chirps.

"Seek... and you'll find."

"But where? And how will I know that I've found anything if I don't know what I must look for?"

He demanded, but the small animal was already crawling down his body and disappearing behind his desk.

His guts rumbled. By the gods, he had missed that sensation so much.

First he would eat something, after that he would assess the losses on the family business and finally he would try and search for some information about what was happening at the house's library.

One meal later and he was reviewing the ledger while checking the family's safe.

Broke. His family, once wealthy and respected, now didn't even have a single coin. When he fell too ill to act for himself, anarchy  reigned over the house and the servants took the opportunity to gather whatever they found that could hold some value and flew with it.

All his life he lived in a snake's nest and he didn't know, it seemed.

Exasperated he closed the safe and the ledger and proceeded to slowly walk towards the library.

Opening the doors was more difficult than he expected but after pushing for some very painful minutes they finally gave in.

The room was a mess, books thrown everywhere. It looked like it had also been ravaged by the serves.