Fade

The sun beat down upon me while I crossed the threshold on this final leg of my journey. I was nearly there. One more road to cross and I, whom carried this burden, would at last be free of it. I remember it well, the day of my receipt, the day of my taking, the day I left, the burden that has become my life. At sixteen, I was made the Lord of my father’s manners, he and my mother had passed away in a small carriage accident. I remember the crawling feeling that burrowed deep into my bones, it was as if I was to suffer alone and alone is where I would always belong. The lights went out inside my mind on that day, and I had not once cared what would happen to me, as all that I knew was now gone, lost, carried away by some specter that frightened the horse and made the plummet into the gorge that lined the manner. My parents were not far from home when the scream of the fall echoed through the now vacant and void walls, their lasting cries now all I hear. It would be but a week before one could get to them and upon the burial, I was at once made Lord.

It was upon that day that I was handed a large leather book, it had my name written upon it in dried black ink, though the ink looked like it was freshly applied and forced dried by baking in the sun. I looked it over carefully inspecting the cover alone because it looked odd to me, and I had noticed the small line that ran through where my mother’s once sat and now the line was shown to have crossed her name off as mine was written over it. Why my father’s name was not there I still do not know. Here it was in front of me and at that time I dared not open it. We had just laid my mother and father into the ground for their rest, and it was at once I was expected to remove them from my mind and begin work as the new Lord. I thought it silly that that was what was expected. Thus, I did nothing but sit alone in silence as the servants catered to the whims of what the Head ordered.

It was my life, my sky, it had fallen, and it appeared to me that though the sky was falling, everyone else seemed happy inside the rain that was falling. I began distancing myself more, I answered their questions, but I was not there anymore. I was trying to fade away from the noise and growing thoughts that were consuming me and fading from everyone. I thought things could not get worse for myself… I could not have been more wrong.

The book, as it were, where it sat, stationary, much like my life, as if it were but a shadow hanging over me. It beckoned me, called to me, though not once did I return an answer, for a book to be calling out my name is nonsense. However, the more I ignored it the more and louder it called. I broke down one night, a night that I shall no forget, I broke down and answered the books voice. It begged me to open it and read from its tome, it recalled unto me as if it were but a spoken spell where, if I were to open it, I were to have my hearts desire and return the dead from their dismay. It beckoned me to think that of my parents and their fate, they were falling, and none could save them but, all that I had to doc to save them was open it and recite what it tells me. I did just as it asked.

I read the words aloud and within a moment before me stood both my mother and father, specter only, I watched them float about the study where the book lay, it called out to me once more and said upon reading this passage it would give them life and live once more amongst the living, neither dead nor damned. I partook the book and answered its call once more and at once the book was right and my parents were alive again! I was no longer Lord and no longer alone without them.

My father wrapped his arms around me in a warm and loving embrace, which was the opposite of how he was and though this had been an idea that I wanted more then anything, it did not feel right nor that of reality. My mother grasped my next and how she felt … cold … as if she were entombed in a fridged ice for eons and begged for my warmth… I realized my father too felt the same. They wrapped their arms around me and clung to me as if their life depended on my warmth.

It was all at once that the Head blundered into the study where I was and seen that my parents were at once resurrected. He cried out begging me to run as he were to dispatch these abominations hence forth and ripped me once more from the one thing I desired. The book did not seem to find the gesture kind, nor did I, however, the book took it upon itself to halt the Head from removing my parents and removed him instead. The right light that shattered the darkness was blinding. Once it was gone, the Head was no more. Only ash remained where he once stood.

The book spoke to me once more and told me to protect it and if my parents were at once felled, I too would be felled and in that I were to suffer the same fate tied to them both as well, as such, I took the book and my parents and I took shelter from the servants as they were wandering about looking and calling out to me. We hid.

The sun was shining, and all the stars were brilliantly shining as I walked the narrow corridors and out the house through the passage that I found as a child. I was outside as the sun began to beat down on me. My parents followed. Their steps slowing my pace. I stood as the threshold of the final steps were before me. I stood, waited, I heard screams once more and turned as I watched the servants run from the sight of my parents! They found us, but how? I ran to them and lifted that of my mother and carried her cross the hold to where the servants do not go and inside the room I placed her and the book and went running for my father.

By the time I reached him, he laid still once more.

It was a deathly shriek that emerged from where my mother and the book were.

I ran there at once.

I was stopped by some unknown force and barred from my mother. I stood and witnessed her end as she at once leaped from the open window and landed harshly upon the ground. At once she was still as well. then I found myself at once before the road. I had the book in my hand, and it weighed me heavily. I crossed the road on my final leg of the journey that I undertook and at once I remembered what it was like to serve and be served.