Cleansing Memories in Ғɪʀᴇ

[Chapter 3] Haunting Memories

"It's what you do with those second chances that counts."

~Dave Wilson

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The man was indeed alive as Wolfgang lowered him down to Notch, who gently took him and laid him on the ground. He was covered in grey dust that formed a blanket on his shirt, long pants, shoes, hair, skin and face, making him completely unrecognisable. His chest rose and fell in tiny gasps and if he was hurt (and he almost certainly was), they couldn't tell but he was thin, painfully so, as if his body had slowly starved while he had been trapped in the stone.

"How is he still alive?" Steve asked, kneeling down next to the man and pressing two fingers against his throat. The skin was cold but a heartbeat pulsed hesitantly underneath his fingers. "I thought you said he was trapped in the stone 600 years ago?"

"At least," Wolfgang said slowly. "But if he's a sorcerer... maybe that explains part of it?"

"You know more about magic and the human body than we do," Notch said, kneeling on the other side of the man. "Do you think you can bring him back to health?"

"I can try. But don't hold your breath."

And so the man was carried to the building where Wolfgang taught and trained the other sorcerers who lived in the kingdom and placed in a bed that was permanently set up in a little alcove in the building. A thin dark grey curtain that could be drawn across it to hide the occupant. Wolfgang instantly started to nurse the man, washing off the dust and tending to the cuts and stab wounds as they made themselves known. The man was completely unresponsive, making it very hard to Wolfgang to feed him. But that wasn't the biggest worry that he faced. A bare two weeks after the man had been taken from the stone, Wolfgang called his two friends into the alchemy building and ushered his students out.

"What's the problem?" Steve asked, noting how Wolfgang tapped his foot a little on the ground and the hurried way with which he had called them. Wolfgang was almost never worried, so when he was, there was a good reason.

"It's the man we saved from the stone," Wolfgang said, moving over to where the curtain had been drawn across. "It's Herobrine."

Both of the brother's expressions went to varying degrees of shock as Wolfgang pulled back the curtain. The man was still painfully thin and wrapped warmly in blankets, but no one could mistake him. He was almost an exact replica of Steve, save the long scar going down his left cheekbone, a scar the brothers knew he had gotten when he had been 9 and they were all growing up together.

"That explains why he suddenly disappeared without reason," Steve said quietly to his brother.

"But who trapped him in?" Notch asked. "And why?"

"Does it matter?" Steve asked. "He's here and he's hurt."

"I just want to know if there's another threat out there somewhere."

"We haven't had anyone doing major attacks on us for quite a few decades," Wolfgang said. "I highly doubt someone will suddenly start now."

"So what are we going to do?" Steve asked.

"We're not going to just throw him out!" Notch said, an incredulous tone to his voice. "He's hurt, he'll die in a second!"

"That's not what I meant," the younger sighed. "I meant, what are we going to tell people? If they know he's here, it'll cause panic; old habits die hard, you know that."

"Then we won't tell anyone," the King said, then added with a glance to Wolfgang; "You can keep this from your students, right?"

"Please, when have I ever blurted out a secret?"