The Brotherhood
Matthew Ryan Fischer
Brother Marcus sat in quiet reflection. Something was stirring,
but he knew not what. The candles flickered as a cold breeze filled the room.
The windows were shut, the shutters were closed. The wind was an abnormality. But
then again, nothing at the monastery was normal anymore.
Brother Darius, Brother Janus, and Reverend Harding had
disappeared. There were whispers, tales told in the shadows, but Marcus tried not
to involve himself in such things. Still, he heard them and could not ignore
the insinuations. The Brothers were gone, but it was said they were all part of
The Brotherhood. Not the one at the monastery, not the one with a reverence for
the Holy, but something else, dark and sinister. Religious men who had faced
temptation and came up wanting. Marcus had read about the darker arts, but he
had largely disregarded them as fables and foolishness. But it was hard to ignore
now as man after man slowly disappeared.
If there was such a Brotherhood, Brother Marcus had not been
invited and had no idea of their desires or machinations.
Marcus went in search of any others. The quarters were empty. The
kitchen was empty. The door to the library was broken and ajar. Evil may indeed
be amiss, he thought. Marcus entered carefully, only to find the room devoid of
others, but the shelves in shambles. Books thrown to the ground, cabinets over
turned, relics smashed against the walls and floors.
Marcus said a silent prayer. Who would do this? Who would be so dire?
What had they been looking for and what could they have taken? He searched the
library for a few select texts, but they were nowhere obvious. Perhaps taken,
perhaps destroyed or lost. He would have to clean and sort the entire room to be
sure. But there was no time for that. Evil lurked and the threat remained and
there was no time.
Marcus went to the desk and took a key from a drawer. It opened a
locked box in the Reverend’s room. He would have to break the door down, but he
needed what was inside. He said a
blessing, took a vial of holy water and headed for the locked room.
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