The strange events of Rue Ruine

Chapter IV: A Deep Slumber

Raphael was now facing an enormous rat, he jumped on the chair scared.
He looked at the rat with wide eyes, fear and disgust.
He was immobilized, fixed stare at the tiny animal.
The noises of the whole building were slowly morphing into a feable whisper until his heart beat was the only audible sound in the room.
The rat almost appeared to stare back at him, grinning at him with his little mouth.
He looked over the rat, he knew what was there, it happened every time, every single time he saw one, it didn't matter that it wasn't real, it really didn't matter.
Despite that, he looked over and saw them, those tiny hands holding each other, half eaten by maggots and rats, the deseased flesh rotten and consumed almost to the bone.

Then there was a splash of blood: a boot crashed the body of the mouse shooting his insides out of his exploded guts.
Raphael came back to his senses to look up.
A man cleaned his boots against the stone and threw the corpse of the beast in a corner of the building.
"Bloody rats hey!" he said cleaning his hands togheter with a towel
"You okay landlubber?"
Raphael looked back at the spot where there once stood the terryfing animal, but there was nothing there, of course there was nothing, there never was.
He realized that the pose he was standing in, feet on the desk, holding his arms, wasn't very manly.
His face turned red looking at the guy and quickly discended from the desk, he surely didn't manage to appear like a fellow though sailor.
"Ehmm... yes i'm fine... thanks" answered Raphael
"Aye no problem mate" the young man winked at him smiling, he spoke with a familiar accent.
Also, now that he looked at him better, he was rather handsome for being a sailor, short hair cut to the sides, sharp cheekbones and penetrating golden brown eyes the color of walnut's honey.
He stood there for another couple of seconds to check on Raph' tidying himself up, then he went back to his work and grabbed a barrel after another bringing them up with the help of other much less beautiful sailors.
The operation took a couple of hours and when it was done the guy came back.
"Ya english? Ain't ya?"
"Oh... yes, South Empshire"
"I'm from the kingdom as well mate, actually lots of the lads here are"
"Really?"
"Yeah mate, I and me mates will spend the night drinking at Les Faucette, if you want to join us"
"We'll see, thanks for the invite" smiled Raph at the dashing young man
He smiled back and went back to work as did Raphael.
He needed all the concentration he could get to decypher the notes of the last accountant, which would've been an easier job if he didn't also have to constantly clean it from this weird layer of a transparent sticky soustance deposited on the whole book.

After a good amount of time, the light from the only window in the room shifted from bright white, to a shade of orange and now to pitch black.
He cleaned himself of the sweat and then got back to the book, the pages were confusing him, it was like he wasn't studying them: they were studying him.
The pages suddendly turned darker and darker, they felt heavier and wet with ink, his hands felt cold as he went through the pages.
He licked his finger to get a better grasp on them and it tasted like iron: he looked down at it and saw that it was stained with a red substance, the same one with which some of the pages were written.

Raphael tried to use a nearby towel to clean it but all his effort were useless, the substance spread with each attempt  taking over his hand, then his whole arm.
He took off his shirt and saw that the substance was covering him up.
The book pages begun to flip over by themself, like when there's a strong wind.
The sound light in the room shifted to darkness, the only light was from the book, he tried to take it but it felt heavier, far too heavy for him to lift.
He felt drawn to read the pages, to see where that light came from.
Somehow he knew that reading that book was the best thing he could do then. he was about to look at the pages when he heard a voice coming from behind, a fathom voice from under the water.
He turned to see what was calling him and saw the young man looking at him worried.

"Yer good mate?"
Raphael looked at him confused
"Oy?"
"Nothing"
"Whad'ya mean?"
"I mean..." he was sure to have the answer a moment ago, but now the moment seemed long past gone, too far to be remembered, "I don't know"
"Anyway yer good?"
"Yeah... I think, why do you keep asking me that?"
"Ye didn't moved an inch t'least fir an hour"
"Oh... yeah, it's just this book" and he pointed at it "a bloody mess" and he mimiced the wheeling of cogs near his head
"Yeah figures, no shit the lad killed himself"
"Come again"
"The accountant, he shot himself, right between his eyes"
"I didn't know that" said making a cross across his chest
"The boss didn't told ya?"
"No he didn't"
The guy raised an airbrow "I guess the police asked him to not tell anyone?"
"But he told you, didn't he?
"Actually I found the guy. His brain all over the place and a big ol' puddle of blood, T'was a hell of a job to clean it all"
"That sounds dreadfull, why wouldn't the captain tell me?"
He shook his shoulder.
"Anyway... gotta get back to me job"
"Yeah, sorry to keep you" said Raphael as the other one went to deposit a barrel near the staircase
"Hey! I didn't catch yer name yet!" He yelled from near the stairs
"Sorry?" Yelled back from his desk
"YER NAME SCALLYWAG"
"IT'S RAPHAEL"
"ME IS DORIAN"
"PLESURE TO MEET YOU"