Legacy Of Altherion

Late evening at St Marks Hospital, following a routine inspection, Sarah Milestone exited a room labelled M-1. She walked across the corridor, flipping through pages on a clipboard, checking names and their assigned refrigerator units.

The morgue’s corridor had two doors on either side, M-1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Sarah walked down the corridor entering the rooms one after the other, ensuring that staff would have a easy time come morning.

As she finished her assessment of M-3, she was startled by a loud noise - Bang! She turned towards the direction of the sound, then heard another thud. Puzzled, she continued walking down the corridor hoping to find the source of the sound.

"M-4?" she said under her breath.

Hesitantly, she reached out to grasp the handle, then at that time, five quick and deafening thuds caused her to shriek in fright.

"Shaun I know it’s you, stop fooling around!" she said, opening the door.

She looked inside the room and found it empty. The thuds escalated abruptly, becoming more ferocious and rapid. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and a cold chill slid down her spine as she realised that the noise came from inside of one of the refrigerator units. She screamed and ran back into the corridor.

A male colleague sprinted towards her. He found her terrified and hyperventilating, only able to point into the room when he asked her what happened.

As soon as he entered the room, the noise started up again - Bang! - Bang! - Bang!

"What the hell?" he said.

He glanced back at his colleague, paralysed in the corridor.

As the thuds continued, he clenched his fists to find his courage, then shuffled towards the animated refrigerator. The unit's door bulged due to the force being exerted onto it. He reached for the latch and pulled it towards him, with that action the noise stopped.

He took a deep breath.

"No, Shaun. Please don’t...don’t." Sarah said.

Shaun opened the door, immediately something slid out and jumped onto the cold tiled floor.

Sarah fainted. Shaun gasped in fright at the sight of a naked young man shivering and cursing at them.

He appeared to be in his early twenties, of average height with short dark hair. Shaun stared in horror as the young man attempted to walk towards them. He collapsed and hit the side of his face on an autopsy table, then vomited violently. The abrupt exposure to bright light, as well as the sudden movement left him disoriented, causing him to expel what should have been empty bowels.

Shaun shook his head to break out of his stupor.

“Hey, are you?”

He tried aiding the young man in getting to his feet, however, the man shoved him away with brute force. Shaun hit the wall behind him with a thunderous impact, and lost consciousness.

The young man stumbled out into the corridor, bumping into walls as he attempted to run. He had no idea where he was nor how he got there, all he cared about was getting out of the building. He noticed a white lab coat at the end of the corridor, which he promptly snatched and placed over his shoulders. Fortunately, he did not encounter additional hospital staff, thus allowing him to stumble out of the hospital uninterrupted.

The young man filled with adrenaline, ran at a frantic pace. He headed in the direction which he believed would lead to his home. He didn't know why he was placed inside a refrigerator, his best guess was that they wanted his organs, he kept running as fast as he could, fearing that they might still be after him.

He arrived home and noticed that the lights were out. He knocked a few times, however, no one came to the door. He knelt down and removed the spare key from the mouth of the wooden dog at the door and went inside.

"Mom! Dad!" he said. "Where are you?”

Upon realizing that his parents weren't home, he decided to take a shower. As his adrenaline levels lowered, so too did his body temperature, leaving his limbs feeling numb.

After warming up in the shower, he walked towards his bedroom to search for a set of clean clothes. Upon entering, his expression changed to that of shock as he discovered that the entire room was not how he remembered it. He backed away from the doorway and looked up and down the corridor.

"This definitely is the correct room." he said.

"When did it become a storage room?" he said, surveying the various boxes and bags filling his former bedroom.

He then remembered that he had moved out a few days prior to attending University. He searched for additional memories, unfortunately, they were too hazy to create a clear mental image.

"Why can't I remember?"

He decided to get clothing from his father's closet, luckily he and his father were of a similar build, so he wouldn't have any issues regardless of what he wore.

Entering his parents bedroom, he found it neat and tidy as usual, nothing seemed to be out of place. He removed a black T-shirt and blue jeans from the closet, taking care not to touch his bruised face when pulling the T-shirt over his head.

The young man went to the living room and sat on the couch next to the land line, then searched through the hardcover contact list beside the phone. His parents still believed in writing down the contact information of friends and relatives despite owning mobile phones, their response to his jokes were always the same.

"It's easy to lose a mobile phone or to accidentally delete a number, but nothing beats pen and paper."

They even wrote down their own mobile phone numbers. At first he found it hilarious, at that moment however, he felt truly grateful for their quirkiness. He found his father's number and dialled it, unfortunately, it went straight to voicemail. He then tried his mother's number, however it too did not ring.

He flipped through the book and looked for the heading labelled C. He managed to locate the contact information of the person he sought. He called the number and let out a sigh of relief when it rang.

"Hello, who is this? " a shrill voice said.

"I've called the police and sent them to your location. How dare you enter my sister's house!"

"Hello Aunt Chloe, it's Logan." he said.

The woman gasped.

"Aunt Chloe are you still there?”

"Logan dear, is that really you?" the woman said, her voice quivering.

"Yes, what's going on? Why did you call the police?" he said. "Are my parents at your place by chance? I tried calling, but I can't get hold of them.”

Suddenly the woman broke down crying and yelled "Bill, it's Logan! He is at Julie's on the land line, it's really him!"

"Logan!, I knew he was alive, I just knew it. Let me talk to him." a raspy voice yelled in the background.

"Aunt Chloe what's going on, where are my parents? Please just answer me!" he said as his frustration mounted.

"Logan where have you been? we've been searching for you all this time." the man known as Bill asked with a shaky voice.

"Uncle Bill, I...”

"Never mind, stay where you are, we're heading there now. We'll be there in a few hours." uncle Bill said.

‘Why do they need to come all the way here?’

"No, that's not necessary, I'll come to you." he said then hung up the phone.

Logan went back into his parents room and opened the door of his father's closet. He pushed the clothing aside revealing a safe embedded in the wall. He entered the code and removed a few stacks of money. He proceeded to the kitchen, removing a set of car keys from the key holder next to the back door, and headed towards the garage.

As he entered his mother's car, those words replayed in his mind. “I knew he was alive, I just knew it.”

He thought back to what happened to him, but he refused to believe, he couldn’t.

"It can’t be.”

He looked into the rear view mirror and glanced at his bruised face. He shook his head, resolving himself to drive four hundred Kilometers to the town of Bracken, where his aunt and uncle would be waiting for him.

Two hours passed since the sun first warmed the cold and wet roads. Logan arrived at the welcome sign, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Finally.” he said.

He continued driving until he reached a familiar landmark, Bracken High School. Logan’s heart raced, he knew that it wouldn’t be much further until he arrived at his aunt and uncle's home.

As he approached the driveway, he stared at the peach coloured house with large windows, and examined the balcony. He smiled as a childhood memory flashed in his mind.

Logan exited the car and strolled towards the door. At that moment, it swung violently, with two people running out and diving him over onto the ground.

His aunt and uncle embraced him tight with unreserved tears. They rocked back and forth repeatedly, stating that they were happy that he was all right.

Logan stared at the door in anticipation of additional figures joining their heart felt reunion, however, no one else came.

He smiled and took a deep breath, then released himself from their embrace.

"I'm happy to see you guys too, honestly I am. But I've come here for answers, now please." he said.

"N-no you should get some rest and have some food. You've had a long trip, so you need to get some rest!" aunt Chloe said.

Logan considered declining her suggestion, however, his body betrayed him and agreed with his aunt.

He agreed hesitantly. With their promise to tell him soon after he rested, he went inside without further resistance.