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Part I
Chapter 3
Marcus
Something had awakened him. Marcus sat up with a start, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. As he looked around, he wasn’t sure where he was at first. His night terrors had overcome him again. Why was he having those dreams again? Why now, after all these years?
Marcus looked about his room realizing it was only a dream. He relaxed his muscles and let out a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding.
The dream was still fresh in his mind. He could see her face, as if it were in front of his, crying and in pain, then turning to fury and then to blind rage with a distorted face.
He shook his head in order to push the thoughts away. “It’s only a dream, Marcus,” he told himself. “It’s only a dream.”
Marcus turned and put his feet to the floor. His feet felt the quick, cold sting of the old wooden floor. As he brought himself upright, he felt faint and slightly dizzy. Marcus finally made his way over to the washbowl, and proceeded to pour a fresh bowl of water. Splashing his face, two or three times, his dizziness went away as quickly as it had arrived. Reaching for the fresh linen he had laid out neatly the night before to dry his face, his mind flashed to a mountainous cavern deep within the hills of the countryside. In his vision, he saw many people-like animals celebrating and feeding. He shook his head to push away the thoughts once more.
Marcus fumbled around in the dark. He struck a match against the chest of drawers and spotted the candle nearby. The fresh smell of the sulfur filled his nostrils and his eyes welled with tears, as he touched the burning match to the wick of the candle.
Marcus looked around his tiny house in one glance. Still relieved that it had only been a dream, he couldn’t help but wonder again. Why was she haunting him again? She was banished at age sixteen, by the village because the beast had infected her. Rather than have more infections in the village, they sent her away, to the mountains in hopes that she would die and not pass the infection onto others.
He assumed that she had died, alone, cold and starving. Many people of his village claimed to have seen her body and buried it. Others claimed to have seen her wandering around at night feeding on little animals and rodents, vermin.
This was too strange for him, he thought. There has to be an explanation to all of this. He must go visit the Oracle.
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