Dean bolted upright, gasping desperately for air as he quickly cast his gaze left and right. His mind raced as memories of the last couple of hours came flooding in. Maria and Nicolas throwing themselves off the roof, the monastery exploding in a massive fireball and finally collapsing in the blizzard. He was sure he had died.
He noticed a black leather-bound book at his feet and leaned forward to pick it up. Something about the book stirred something within his memories, but the sound of somebody approaching interrupted his thoughts.
"Hey, there you are! What are you doing, napping in the garden? We've been killing ourselves looking for you!"
Dean looked up and saw someone who shouldn't have been there.
"Rosetta?" he asked, his mouth agape.
Rosetta gave him her usual withering look and crossed her arms. She was dead. He had seen her body. Words failed him, and he could only stare slack jawed at the appearance of what could only have been a ghost.
"What's with that reaction, and why are you calling me that? You're probably still groggy, aren't you? I told you not to drink the night before our departure. Come on, get up!"
She grabbed his arm and pulled him up. Dean allowed the book to fall onto the grass. Rosetta hadn't seemed to notice it.
Wait, grass?
Dean looked around and found himself in the familiar monastery gardens behind the cathedral. The snow had disappeared, leaving fresh green grass and brightly blooming flowers all around. It looked like spring was in full swing.
"Where's all the snow?" He asked.
"Snow? You really were dreaming, weren't you? Must be nice being all carefree like that while the rest of us run about trying to get everything ready." Rosetta snapped.
There was no doubt about it. That prickly attitude could only belong to one person. He felt tears well up in his eyes and leapt towards Rosetta and took her in an embrace. She went still, frozen in shock.
"Wh-what in the name of the Goddess are you doing, Dean?" She demanded, trying to push him away.
"You're alive."
"Wait, you're crying, what?" Rosetta stuttered.
Shocked by his sudden outburst, Rosetta stopped fighting back. After a while, he regained his senses and separated from her, taking a single step back and feeling more than a little embarrassed. Rosetta looked up at him with an annoyed expression while feeling the wet spot he had left on her shoulder. She placed her hand on his forehead.
"Doesn't feel like you have a fever." She said evenly.
She looked into his eyes, which were probably still red and wet with tears.
"Either you had one hell of a bad dream or you've lost the plot completely." She said, taking a step away. "Come on, the others are waiting."
She turned on her heels, took a few steps and stopped.
"Not a word about this to anyone." She said over her shoulder.
She walked off, and Dean had no choice but to meekly follow. He still had no idea what was going on. Had he really dreamed everything? No, it had been real. He was sure of it. Something wasn't right here.
He followed as she led him around the side of the cathedral, past the guest house and towards the car park at the far edge of the monastery. She didn't say a word along the way and appeared to be walking much more briskly than usual, keeping a significant distance from him.
Gathered in the car park was a large group of people. One of them waved at the pair as they approached.
"Hey, what took you so long? We're almost ready to go!" Matin yelled as they approached.
"Found him out cold in the garden." Rosetta snapped. "Looked like he was enjoying a nice nap."
Matin laughed and shook his head.
"Even on a day like today, you still march to the beat of your own drum?" He said before his voice became stern. "You shouldn't keep people waiting Dean, it's not proper."
"Uh yeah. Sorry," Dean muttered, scratching his head.
His apology surprised Matin, whose eyes widened slightly. He heard Rosetta click her tongue.
"Probably sneaking in one last expensive whiskey. Why didn't ya tell me? I would've joined in." Maria chimed in.
Dean's breath caught in his throat, and his muscles stiffened.
"Maria, you're driving the other car. You better not be thinking of drinking now!" Rosetta scolded.
"Not to mention it's still early morning, you couldn't possibly be considering such a thing, right?" Matin added.
Maria just stuck her tongue out at her friends. Dean looked at the others. Why weren't they saying anything?
"You two really need to learn how to relax. Besides, I was with Nick getting ready all morning. Right Nick?" Maria said, turning to the person who had been hanging around towards the back.
"Don't ask me. You disappeared halfway through and left all the work to me," Nicolas replied in a dull tone.
"I was just getting a coffee to keep me going, is all!" Maria said defensively.
"For an hour?" Nicolas yelled, his temper getting the better of him.
"Oh, come on. Rosetta and Matin had almost everything done by that stage anyway. Can't you give a girl one last chance to say goodbye to her precious home?"
Nicolas' eyes narrowed, but Matin stepped in and spoke first.
"Well, that's true. Leaving a place you've spent your entire life in is never easy, just let her have her time, Nick."
Nicolas inhaled sharply, evidently about to give Matin a piece of his mind but froze when he saw Rosetta giving him a stern look. He shook his head and muttered under his breath. Dean saw Maria make a face at him from behind Rosetta's back. She then turned to Dean and narrowed her eyes.
"You've been looking at me funny for a while now, Dean. Whatever it was, I didn't do it."
His four friends turned to face him. This wasn't right. They shouldn't be here like this.
"Yeah, you've been quieter than usual. Out of everyone, I thought you'd be the most riled up. What's wrong?" Matin asked with a look of concern on his face.
Dean felt a rare wave of doubt wash over him, and he stuttered a bit before getting a sentence out.
"No, uh, I." He looked around once more before taking a breath and continuing, "Has anything bad happened over the last few days like... anyone being... murdered?"
He realised it was a stupid question with everyone being very much alive, but he was worried he'd go insane if he didn't ask now. As expected, his friends looked at him as if he had sprouted a second head. Maria let out a short, loud snort.
"He has been into Oscar's private stash! Hey did you find another substance along with the alcohol? Go on, let me see!"
Dean flinched as he remembered the smell of drugs in the library.
"Dean, maybe you should rest in the car?" Matin asked, taking a step forward.
"I checked his temperature. Aside from a rotten brain, he's fine." Rosetta said.
Dean took a breath.
"Just answer me, did anything strange or unusual happen recently?"
All four of them looked at each other and then back at him.
"Nothing aside from the fact that you and Maria finally convinced these two to move to the city with you." Matin said, gesturing at Nicolas and Rosetta.
"I'm simply going because I want to study at the university. Your suggestion only sped things up a little bit," Nicolas muttered.
"Nick here was the hardest to convince, but I managed to persuade him using my womanly charm." Maria said proudly. "Besides, he told me he'd be lonely if we all went without him."
"Maria, will you shut the hell up!" Nicolas growled.
Maria laughed as Rosetta tried to scold her. Dean looked on, slowly gaining control of his emotions. Perhaps nothing actually happened, and he had simply had too much to drink the night before.
"Now, now everyone. Let's save all that for later. We want to get back before it gets dark." Marianne said as she approached them from one of the other cars.
"There she goes rushing everyone again." Maria complained.
"If Dean here hadn't disappeared, we'd be on the road. She's right to rush us. This time anyway." Rosetta said.
As a group, they approached the cars where Marianne, Oscar and Methaeus were exchanging farewells.
"Be sure to fix the heating in the dining room next time. It was dreadfully cold during mealtime." Marianne was saying.
Methaeus bowed his head.
"It will be done, my lady. May you have a safe trip back, Goddess bless you."
Oscar simply grunted and turned towards Nicolas. The two made eye contact, and there was an uncomfortable silence.
"Study hard, boy. And don't be a stranger." Oscar said eventually in a voice much quieter than usual.
Nicolas nodded.
"Yeah, I will." He said, looking at his feet.
"We look forward to seeing you next year, everyone. Nicolas, Rosetta and Maria, take care of yourselves and be sure to carry the dignity of Mount Moore with you, wherever you may go." Methaeus said, deftly filling in the awkward silence.
The entire exchange made Dean feel even more at odds with the situation. Their exchange had been awkward for certain, but it was much better than what he remembered. Maria was only a little annoyed with Marianne, while Nicolas and Oscar had actually exchanged words.
Soon after, everyone began to pile into the two cars. Even Rosetta, Maria and Nicolas seemed to be coming with them. Were they really leaving this place? He remembered how difficult it had been because of the snow, but with the current weather, they'd have no problem getting off the mountain.
Dean didn't move to get into the car. Instead, he looked around frantically.
"Aren't you getting in?" Rosetta asked impatiently.
"Where are Addi and Cait?" he asked quietly.
"Who?" Matin asked.
"What do you mean, who? Addi! Is she staying here? What about Cait?"
Matin gave him a confused look.
"Who are you talking about?" Rosetta asked impatiently. "Does this have something to do with that silly dream you had?"
"No, I..." Dean paused when he noticed an odd detail.
Everybody had gotten into both cars, and somehow, each seat had been taken, leaving only him outside with nowhere to sit.
"Wait, where am I going to sit?" he asked with a small, nervous laugh.
"There's no space left for you." Nicolas said.
What was he saying? There had to be space for him. They'd been planning this journey for weeks, so there wasn't a chance he'd been forgotten about.
"Ok. You still need to work on your jokes, man." Dean said with a short laugh.
"Oh, he's not joking." Maria said with a smile. "You couldn't save us, so we're going on ahead. You'll be staying right here, alone with your thoughts. It's what you deserve, after all."
Dean opened his mouth to argue but paused. She was right. He didn't have the right to go with them. He had to stay here.
In an instant, the appearance of his friends changed. Their bodies were covered with wounds of various types. Nicolas, Maria and Marianne all looked as they did after falling from the library roof, the backs of their heads smashed open and their limbs broken into odd angles. Rosetta didn't have any exterior wounds, though she was clearly in a terrible state with incredibly pale skin and sunken eyes. Matin's clothes and skin were covered with frost, and his fingers and nose were colored black. He didn't even want to look towards Methaeus and Oscar.
Without warning, the car began to move, and Dean could only watch on as the car holding what remained of his friends disappeared beyond the treeline. He had been a fool to think that everything was going to end nicely. That, after all, was not the nature of this place.
Standing in that open space, he laughed bitterly. Soon after, his vision went dark.
*
The doctors said it was a miracle.
Dean had succumbed to the cold and, while unconscious, someone had dragged him down off the mountain and had called for an ambulance. It would have been impossible to survive out in the snow as long as he had, or so the doctors said. Those who read about the story in newspapers or online called it a miracle. Dean saw it as a curse.
The bodies of all his friends and almost everyone else at the monastery were recovered, and he attended their funerals. All eyes were on him as the lone survivor, and the entire ordeal had been absolute hell. Few mourners spoke to him, but all tried to catch a glimpse of him, their stares slowly chipping away at his sanity.
Of course, as the lone survivor, he was questioned extensively on the events and even suspected for some time after. However, when the police investigation concluded, his testimony was more or less verified, and he had been free to go.
Though he'd been absolved of any crime in the court of law, the same could not have been said for the court of public opinion. Many still believed him to be the perpetrator of the entire event, and harassment was a daily occurrence for him. He often heard jeers whenever he went outside, and his apartment was frequently vandalised.
It was not long before he was forced to move out of the city and back into the countryside to avoid the public eye. His father, who had apparently expanded his businesses greatly since Oscar and Marianne's death, was more than happy to pay for his fourth son's house of exile. Drama was bad for business, after all. Better to have him hidden far away so as not to cause a stir.
Through it all, there was one fact that had kept Dean awake almost every night since; the bodies of Cait and Joan were never found. Even the orphans, Goddess bless their poor souls, had been found in the burnt-out hollow that had once been the guest house. But of the two girls, there was no sign. The police went so far as to look at him strangely, telling him that there were no records of the girls ever being there. Their names didn't exist in the government's databases.
And so, with nothing else left to do, he searched for them. He would spend weeks at the site of the monastery, searching every corner before heading into the great forest beyond. People called him mad, chasing the ghosts of the past, and yet he continued on, for decades.
And so, time went on.
"I heard the master tried to get out again. Some farmer from another village found him collapsed on the side of the road the other morning."
"Oh, Goddess above, is he alright?"
"Hard to say, the man's almost a hundred years old. To try to climb a mountain at his age is just... well, it's just laughable, isn't it?"
"I feel a little sorry for him. Hasn't he been looking for something? Oh, what was it?"
"Nobody knows or cares anymore. S'far as I'm concerned, the old codger's mad."
The gossip of the two servants echoed throughout the otherwise silent mansion, the rain clattering on the windows. The pair only knew Dean at the most basic level. He had stopped trying to have meaningful relationships decades prior and was now little more than a lonely old man who was whispered about by people with too much time on their hands. Who was he really? And how was he able to afford this mansion in the middle of nowhere? Most of all, who were the people whose names he whispered while awake and asleep? It had been going on long enough that he had become a bit of a morbid curiosity for the staff caring for him.
He had searched and searched, but he never found what he was looking for. All that remained of the monastery was a hollow shell of what once was, the people who gave it life nothing more than ashes in the ground. Yet, even as the bricks began to crumble, Dean lived on.
After that rainy morning, Dean could not leave his bed. The servants gave him a wide berth whenever possible. His mad whispers of names long forgotten made them uneasy. When they had to attend him, they did so silently, with their eyes lowered. Dean could not have felt more alone.
He would persist for another five years before finally passing away on his one hundred and fourth birthday, alone and unloved, but finally able to attain peace.
*
"Fuhuhuh."
A laugh, echoing in a small bedroom. He looked down to find a black book in his hands, opened on the last page. Ending and blessed death. A peace he should have longed for.
"That was all a lie. There is no peace for you, even after death, right Dean?"
He was sitting in a chair in what appeared to be a bedroom. It wasn't his. He'd spent years in that room, so he knew it too well. This was a different room. This was...
"It's been a while by your reckoning, is it not? I hope you haven't forgotten yourself. It was rather long for you, but for me it was the equivalent of an afternoon."
Where was he? Who brought him here? With questions rolling about in his head, he bolted to his feet.
"Wait, I..."
He looked down. Yes, he was indeed standing on his own two legs. How long had it been? How long had he been a crippled old man? No, that didn't matter.
"I need to go find them. I need to save..." He turned towards a nearby door and tried to open it, only to discover it locked.
"Still not properly back yet, are you? Oh, what a handful you can be sometimes."
Dean turned to look at the speaker properly for the first time. A hooded young woman with a single missing eye and black hair. Where had he seen her before?
"Open the door! They're out there alone. They need my help!" He asked.
"I could open the door." She cooed. "But I won't."
"W-why not?" He asked.
"Neither of us is leaving this room until you've come to your senses, Dean." She said in a bored tone.
That said, she walked over to a nearby bed and plopped herself down.
"Come here." She said.
Dean shook his head.
"I really need to...."
"You can't reach them here. The ones whom you are thinking of are long gone. Stop being a fool and sit."
Ignoring her, Dean tried the door a few more times before walking over to the window and seeing if he could open it. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't escape the room. Strange, why was all the color so... washed out? And that woman — she was so familiar, she....
He paused and turned around to look towards the chair he had woken up in. On the floor nearby was that same black book, open face down.
"That book..." he said.
"Yes, yes. You just came from the book. Are you coming to your senses now?"
His whole life. His running away and coming back, bringing about tragedy and then spending the rest of his life alone. That had all been another life lived within the pages. Yes, he remembered more clearly now. Without a word, he stepped backwards and sat on the bed next to Tatiana.
"Well, how was it?" She asked, putting her arms around him and whispering into his ear.
"Looking for a review, are you?" He asked with a smile and vacant eyes. "It was everything a guy like me could wish for."
"You're welcome." She replied with a wide smile. "Soon, I'll have another one ready for you, so wait patiently for me, ok?"
Dean didn't say anything, but Tatiana knew he would eagerly await the next tale. He had waited countless times before and would wait countless more times. He wouldn't ever forget why he was here, she was sure of it. As long as she did her part, their tale would continue on forever.