Reincarnation

In the wake of the attack the previous night, Sebastian shows up to explain yet another bizarre occurrence and the six get a surprise visitor.

The wind was especially cold tonight outside the hospital at Sheffield and the confrontation between the five boys outside was reaching a head. Sebastian looked at them all for a moment, taking in all of their reactions to what he said. Erik was pacing back and forth, trying to make sense of what he’d heard, seeming as if he couldn’t believe it but fighting the other part of him that did. Max kept glancing between Sebastian and Vincent, seeming wary of a fight ensuing and being ever ready to come between them. Toby was deep in thought, staring at the ground as if the floor were to somehow clear this up for him. Either that or he was just hoping he could close and open his eyes and none of this would be happening, he’d just wake up in his dorm room and go to class as normal, none of this ever taking place. Vincent was, of course, only staring at Sebastian, almost praying for him to make a wrong move.

“Okay, what do you mean you’ve been looking for us?”, Erik finally asked.

“Well, I follow stories about sightings of paranormal or supernatural stuff. Anything that was similar to… what I am. Everything was just either rumours, urban legends or videos with horrible quality and no background information. Eventually, I found the video of a supposed werewolf sighting Rotherham, though it just looked like a huge dog. I followed the signs and trails from social media and it brought me here to Sheffield.”

The story was baffling and quite detailed. The worst part for them was that it was believable. Sebastian showed the four boys the forum posts about this particular sighting and newspaper articles about bodies found in woods and fields, along with the video that he originally saw. It did, indeed, look a lot like Jacob’s work. Vincent sighed and put one hand on his face, turning away and thinking about how to deal with the situation now. The silence between them all was broken when one of the nurses came out and said, “Mr… erm… Raskalov? Your friend is awake.”

All five of them went back into A&E and into the room where Jacob had been moved. He had bandages all over his body, though there was little blood. He turned to look at them and slowly got up to a seated position, wincing and holding his midsection. 

“How are you feeling?”, Vincent asked.

“Like I got physically assaulted by a Lovecraft novel”, Jacob laughed, lying back into the comfort of the pillows. He was smiling way too much to be himself and he continued to look around like he was rather fascinated by his surroundings. It seemed strange until Erik noted that he was being filled with morphine, like a car at a petrol station. Still, what he said brought up the topic of what exactly caused all this damage. Everyone looked at Vincent and Sebastian, who didn’t need many cues to start their explanation.

“Me and Jake were out on a hunt and we heard screeching in the woods. We went to investigate and got attacked by this… thing. It was like a weird spider-bat hybrid thing. It got us both bad and I tried to kill it but then he arrived”, Vince explained, not even looking at Sebastian anymore.

“If I’d gotten there in time, this probably could’ve been avoided. I’m sorry Jake”, Sebastian quickly added, looking down at Jacob in the bed. He didn’t even notice the apology until suddenly turning to Sebastian and snickering a little, waving his hand in the air and shaking his head as a way of saying it didn’t matter.

“You’re lucky he’s drugged up so much or else he would jump out of that bed and rip your head off”, Vincent muttered under his breath. Sebastian ignored him and just looked around the hospital. 

“Well, I don’t know why his wounds aren’t healing as quick as usual but he should be fine after a night. We can come back in the morning and check on him. For now, I think we all need some sleep after this”, Erik said and everyone agreed and began walking out of the hospital. Max got into his car and took Toby and Erik with him. As they drove away, Vincent stood outside to call a taxi.

“You don’t mind sharing, do you? I mean, you gotta get your car back anyway”, Sebastian said quietly. Vincent looked at him for a moment, slightly in disbelief.

“Oh, I know that you two were actually stalking me first. Before all that stuff happened”, he said again, looking out to the streets where the taxi would be coming from. Vincent just stood there for a while, not knowing how to respond. He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt slightly guilty for spying on Sebastian and didn’t want to say anything more about it. Though, it didn’t mean he suddenly trusted the guy. All of his senses were still telling him that something was off, regardless of how sincere he seemed. He had that look in his eye again, that distant look like he was up to something or expecting something more to happen next. Vincent didn’t like it one bit but he shook the thought out of his head when the taxi arrived.

The drive back to Sebastian’s place was awkward, to say the least. The driver kept trying to drum up conversation and failing miserably, being met with only grunts, murmurs and the odd ‘yeah’. Soon enough they pulled up to the apartment building where Sebastian quickly paid for the taxi before Vincent could. The two got out and there was a brief moment of silence as the taxi drove away. Vincent didn’t say anything and immediately began walking to his car but as he opened the door, Sebastian held it, stopping it from opening any further.

“I know you don’t trust me Vincent, but you can at least try to believe me. I want to find out what exactly made us what we are. I can’t do that without your help. You and your friends. Just give me a chance, yeah?”, Sebastian asked quietly. Vincent was stuck staring directly into Sebastian’s eyes and, somehow, amidst all the caution and distrust, he did see some sincerity. Sighing and only giving a small nod, he got into his car and quickly drove away.

The next day, a purple-black Aston Martin pulled up outside the hospital and Max got out, heading to the reception desk. The hospital was very quiet on this particular day, apart from the surrounding coughs and a few noses being blown here and there.

“Hello, I’m looking for Jacob Mortimer-Baines. He was admitted last night to accident and emergency”, he said calmly to the receptionist. As soon as he mentioned the name, some of the doctors and nurses immediately looked at him for a brief moment before continuing on with their work.

“Erm, yes. He’s in the same room as yesterday but I don’t think he’d be ready to leave yet…”, the receptionist replied, though sounding extremely unsure.

“Well, I’ll just go pop in and see him and he’ll probably check himself out”, Max replied with a smile before heading further into the ward and searching for Jacob’s room. Soon enough he found him as expected, tying his shoelaces and picking up his jacket.

“How are you feeling?”, Max asked.

“You need to ask? After all these years?”, Jacob replied in his usual grumpy tone and put on his jacket, heading out of the door. The two made their way out as Jacob was ripping off his bandages and throwing them in the various bins on their way out.

“Hold on! Sir? You can’t leave without being discharged!”, one of the doctors shouted after them. Jacob sighed dramatically and looked over to the receptionist.

“What do I have to do to get out of here?”, he asked loudly. The receptionist froze, stuttering a little and seemed a bit too scared to even reply. The doctor who spoke walked up to him and took his wrist, examining the paper around it.

“Mortimer-Baines. Yes, the man with multiple lacerations from… BB guns you said?”, he asked searchingly. Jacob sighed as the doctor took out his flashlight and shone it in both his eyes. He then took a pulse and blood pressure test and asked to see the wounds for confirmation of their healing. After doing his check-up, he went to the receptionist to make the discharge. Jacob turned quickly and ripped off the wristband in the process.

“Oh, Jacob. I know you won’t tell my sister what really happened, but I’ll tell you that those marks are going to be fairly difficult to hide”, he shouted after them.

“Bye, Uncle”, Jacob shouted back and walked briskly out of the door.

“It’s still weird that your uncle is a doctor. Does he always patch you up after your solo hunts?”, Max asked, opening the door for him. Jacob stayed quiet and got into the car. The drive was a fairly quick one back to Max’s house and the two got out of the car to see Erik waiting for them outside the door. He had a mixed face of unhappy and worried at the same time as he stood there, hands in his pockets and watched them arrive at the door.

“What? What is it?”, Max asked as he arrived in front of Erik. He simply shook his head and motioned for them both to come in. The three entered the huge house and looked around, everything was normal except for the sight in the living room. On the sofa sat Vincent and Toby talking to each other, whilst Sebastian was leaning against the wall. They all turned to see them and the boys got up, getting ready to welcome Jacob back, but he had other ideas. As soon as his eyes set on Sebastian, Jacob strode quickly towards him, grabbing him by the neck and baring his fanged teeth. His nails elongated slightly into sharp claws and his eyes widened as a slight snarl escaped his mouth.

“You lying little s**t… I knew there was something off about you but I never would’ve guessed this”, Jacob growled, tightening the grip on Sebastian’s neck. Though it was a situation that he brought upon himself, the number of times Sebastian had his neck wrung recently was enough to even make Vincent pity him slightly. Vincent grabbed Jacob’s arm, looking him directly in the eyes.

“Jake, hold off. He’s got a good reason to be here”, Vincent said quietly. Jacob frowned, even more, getting angrier before aggressively pulling his arm away. Sebastian bent over slightly, holding his neck and coughing. Jacob backed off but continued to keep his eyes on Sebastian, fangs and claws still wary of any false moves. Sebastian nursed his neck and cleared his throat, looking around to see if anyone else had any fun ideas.

“Now that’s out of the way… I’m here because of the whole thing last night. I think I know what attacked us… and everything that’s going on”, Sebastian said quietly. Everyone sat down and listened to what he had to say and it was quite a story.

The night before, when Sebastian went home, he’d just gotten out of the shower after the long night. As soon as he came out of the bathroom, only wearing his towel, he saw one of his lecturers in his apartment. It was the strangest visit he’d ever received, especially considering it was almost 3 am and he didn’t even hear anyone coming in through his locked front door. The teacher didn’t say anything at first, despite Sebastian constantly asking what he was doing in his apartment. Turning around slowly, the teacher looked at Sebastian and he noticed something off immediately. Half of his face was vibrating as if it was not part of him and trying to escape. In the vibrating half, Sebastian could almost see someone else, but the image was faint. The teacher’s eyes were glowing red and his eyes were bleeding, pouring down like tears to his chin.

He explained that he was looking for Sebastian and the rest of the boys, pertaining to the monster they wounded in the woods that night. Sebastian tried to get more answers but got almost nothing from him, only to gather them all in one place and he would appear to them again to explain everything. As soon as he said that, the teacher began shaking violently as if he were having a seizure, and collapsed on the floor as the vibration began to get stronger. Soon, the vibrations completely separated and, for a brief moment, Sebastian thought he could see a full-bodied person in it, with a head, body and facial features but it just as quickly flew out of the window.

“The lecturer is in the hospital now, he’s okay though”, Sebastian said as he finished the recount of the night. Everyone was quiet, taking in the details of the story.

“So. You brought us all here to face this thing. You have no idea what it is, who it is or even what it either wants from us or wants to do with us, and you thought you’d invite it over for tea?!”, Jacob yelled, getting angry again. Vincent couldn’t help agreeing it was a dumb move but Max, who was silent since entering the house, gave his own opinion.

“Well, maybe it really is here to explain things. I mean, how long have we all waited for someone to answer all of our questions? Maybe it can even fix us. Maybe that’s what it’s here for!”, Max replied, seeming to get more and more cheerful with each word.

“I’m sorry Maximillian, but that is not the case”, an old voice said from the window. Everyone turned in shock to see Dr Reveroux standing before the window, inside the house. He was the same as the last one, red-eyed and bleeding. Everyone was ready to fight but Reveroux held his hand up and shook his head.

“If you try to hurt me, you only hurt your teacher”, he said.

“Who are you? What do you want?”, Toby asked.

“I am the Augur of Debilis. I have come to take you all home”, he replied. Everyone just stared at him for a few minutes, not knowing exactly what to say or do. Even Jacob looked like he was insanely confused and had no idea how to deal with this. What in the hell was an augur? Furthermore, what even was Debilis? It seemed, at first, that those words were made up but with everything they knew and had witnessed so far, anything seemed possible and believable at this stage.

“I’m sorry, the what of what?”, Max asked.

“It’s a lot to explain in a short time but let’s say for now that I’m from where you all should be right now. So if you wouldn’t mind, we are behind on schedule and need to be making way”, he interjected, walking into the middle of the room. He took a deep breath in, some of the blood rolling down his face going up his nose in the process, and curled up his fist. He slammed it down into the centre of the living room and the wooden floor appeared to shatter like glass. A huge hole was in the middle of the room with shards of glass, which looked like wooden floor, floated around inside it.

“What are you doing?! How do I explain this to my parents?!”, Max yelled.

“Oh don’t be so sad. They’ll never notice. Now, if you’d all like to follow me, we need to be making tracks”, he said as he walked around to the other side of the hole and stepped in, revealing an invisible staircase.

“This is another level of nutty, I’m not going in there”, Max said adamantly, crossing his arms and standing his ground. Dr Reveroux turned to face him and just stared for a while.

“Well, my boy, it is entirely up to you whether or not you come in. Though allow me to ask you this, how long have you and your companions here lived your lives without explanation? Hm? When was the very first time you had to sustain yourselves in this sub-par environment? A few years ago? Yesterday? Perhaps when you were all simply little children rolling around in the grass and fields?”, Reveroux asked, emerging out of the portal and walking toward Max.

“That doesn’t matter… I’m not leaving”, Max continued to be adamant and didn’t move, though felt fearful for the first time.

“Oh but that’s where you’re wrong. Do you know what I think? I think it does matter and it matters to everyone here but especially to you. You’ve spent a lot of time trying to make sense of who or what you are and now, here, in this moment, when the possibility of real truth is laid bare in front of you, you pretend not to want it but you fear it. Am I wrong?” Reveroux asked. Max was left silent and speechless for the first time in a very long time and had no idea what to say. He didn’t want to give the puppet master any indication he was right but, he was. Max didn’t know what he was going to discover in that portal, about this augur person, about his friends or about himself.

“There is nothing to fear when in the face of the truth. Only enlightenment. I promise you will all be better for it”, he said quietly before motioning the path to the portal, which Max reluctantly walked. All six of the boys began walking down the invisible stair, Vincent in the lead, Jacob behind, Max and Toby close together and Erik at the end. Reveroux began to follow when he was stopped by Erik.

“Where exactly are we going?”, Erik asked. The man inside Reveroux simply smiled as he looked at them all with a small glint in his eye.

“Arura.”