These tunnels were nothing like the ones we were just in. They were much more narrow, claustrophobic, and looked like they hadn’t been properly maintained in at least a century. Dirty, rough brick threatened to scrape each of my shoulders as I walked, and Gerald had to grab a torch to light our way through. I regretted my decision to go through that trapdoor immediately.
We walked for at least fifteen minutes through identical-looking tunnel — dark, damp, and red. The people in front of me didn’t say a word. If I couldn’t see their figures in the shifting flame, I wouldn’t have even known they were there. I started to feel like I was going insane, that I would walk through these tunnels for the rest of eternity, when we finally arrived at a set of double wooden doors that took up the space in front of us. Gerald knocked on them with the butt of his torch, and they slowly creaked open, pulled by two more crooked-toothed baldies.
The chamber had better lighting, at least. That was about the only superlative I could give it though. Actually, I might’ve liked the dark, cramped tunnels better. Torches lined the walls of the chamber, and a huge fire contained in a black bowl illuminated the middle of the room. Forty or so baldies sat in a circle around it, and the ones that had accompanied us shuffled to join them. Gerald and I were the only ones still standing up.
“Welcome to our little clubhouse!” Gerald said in a commanding voice, addressing the whole chamber. “We’ve been hoping, praying that someone like you would come along some day. We have studied the occult, the dark arts, and the forbidden magicks for years, but, until today, not had any tangible proof of their existence. And then, you appear, like an answer to our prayers, searching for us only a short walk from our headquarters. You have dark magick inside of you, don’t you, Derrick?”
This was going so much better than I thought. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they started fuckin’ bowing to me at this point. I decided to play along a little. I held up my arm and pulled down my sleeve to show more of my mark.
“Yes, yes I do!” I said proudly, then shot a glob of slime into the fire, causing it to flare up and touch the ceiling. The baldies smiled like children having a coin pulled from behind their ears. Gerald smiled too and turned to his minions.
“You see that? The Others have finally answered our calls, and sent one of their own! Here he is! Derrick Flemmings: our Messiah!”
The baldies all started slapping the stone floor and chanting something in Latin. God, I fucking hated them. I needed them to like me though, so I shot some more slime into the fire, making it roar wildly and almost scorch all of their shiny white scalps. They laughed and clapped with delight.
“What do you know about my mark?” I turned to Gerald and asked. “Why should I allow you all to follow me?”
“In all of our reading, we have not seen a mark exactly like yours, but it is clear that it’s extremely powerful, and certainly not divine,” Gerald started. “We have come across accounts of something similar, once or twice, but anyone who was imbued with its power was devoured by it within days, or even hours. We’ve never heard of someone harnessing dark magick the way you have while preserving your life, let alone your mental faculties. You are truly remarkable, Lord Derrick.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Lord Derrick? Give me a fuckin’ break.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I’m pretty goddamn great. Now can you point me to where you read about all of this? Is there a library in here or something?”
Gerald seemed taken aback by my sudden change in my tone, but he didn’t say anything about it. “Yes, it’s down that hall over there, just past the bathrooms.”
“Cool.”
I walked to the other side of the chamber towards the hallway, walked past the bathrooms, and found a set of doors with a sign that said “Library” in ridiculous old-timey font above them. They opened with a deep groan.
The library was almost twice the size of the chamber I was just in, and rows of old books took up a majority of the space. An old man with the worst hunchback I had ever seen in my life scurried towards me, alarmed.
“Who are you?!” he grumbled angrily. I could barely hear a word he said, but he sounded pissed.
“I’m the new Messiah. Just got in.” I pulled up my sleeve again to show off my mark and shot some slime at a nearby torch. “I need any book you have about my dark magick or whatever the hell you want to call it.”
The old man’s mouth hung open for a moment while he was processing everything that just happened. His face went from a look of bewilderment, to anger, to suspicion, and back to bewilderment in the span of about five seconds. He held up a finger, acted like he was about to say something, but then turned around and disappeared into the book stacks.
I sat there, tapping my foot on the floor, and Gerald came through the library door behind me.
“You seem very curious about your abilities,” he said. “Is that why you sought us out? Do you not know what you have here?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” I said. “I’ve gotten a lot of practical experience with it, but no real knowledge about what’s on my arm.”
“How fascinating,” he said. “You were chosen by fate and not through your own efforts, it seems. I think fate may have led you here, to me, as well.”
“No, we found you.” I said. “I guess you’re not as secretive as you thought.”
The slightest hint of irritation flashed in his eyes. “We? Who else is helping you?”
“My, uhhhh, disciples,” I said. “I have two of them. Maybe you’ll meet them soon.”
He grinned. Gerald always looked like he was up to no good, but he looked like he was up to even less good when he grinned. “Well, now you have forty-seven more, including me. Ah! Darius is coming!”
The old man shuffled towards us, looking like he was going to tip over from the weight of the books in his arms. He threw them down onto a square table a few feet in front of us and wheezed.
“Here they are, my lord,” he said. “I have never seen anything quite like it, so I grabbed any book that might have something resembling your gift.”
“Thanks.” I grabbed the books and shouldered the library door open. “I’ll have these back to y’all soon.”
Darius skittered after me. “These texts are not allowed outside of these halls!” he said.
“Who’s the goddamn Messiah around here?” I said. I snorted a small booger against the wall and it exploded to emphasize my point. Gerald and Darius both jumped and yelped.
“Apologies for the old man’s behavior, my lord,” Gerald said. “He’s stuck in his ways. Take them if you’d like. We will be here waiting for you.”
“Cool,” I said.
I went through the main chamber and out of the big wooden doors without saying anything to the baldies, climbed back into the Fatty’s Taco’s freezer, and got the hell out of those tunnels.
----------------------------------------
I scattered the old books onto the dining table in the apartment. Anita and Caleb hovered over them, looking almost afraid to touch them. Eventually, Anita gingerly picked one up at random — a black leather tome with a silver star on the front cover. She opened it up and quickly closed it. She grabbed the others and did the same.
“Gus, you idiot,” she said, and pinched her nose bridge between her fingers.
“What?”
“These are all in Latin.”