Phantom Pain (trilogy)

False Prophet

Chapter 3: False Prophet

The first thing I noticed was that it was still raining.

The second thing was that the hammock beside me was empty. So was the bed, and so was the cot. Oops. I swung to the side, landing smoothly on the floor. From the bathroom there was the sound of running water, it switched off, and Gavyn emerged.

“Good, you're up. I figured that since you're staying in the servants quarters, you might as well help out like I do.”

“You're not a servant?” I questioned.

“Nah, my dad dropped me off here: no idea why. This hurricane started, and everyone started evacuating up to the castle. Lila looked overworked, and I didn't know what to do, so I offered to join the staff. It was only her and Christopher.”

“That was very kind of you.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” He began to riffle through a duffel bag. “Sometimes I regret it. This is the longest storm I've ever seen. I mean, we have plenty of supplies, but people are starting to freak out a little. Like... okay. Apparently they've always had local legends saying that this place was haunted, or cursed, or something. But it's so much worse now that we're all cooped up in here. When we make our rounds this morning you'll see what I mean. ”

He tossed a shirt to me and I caught it in the air.

“Here, put that on. I've got pants for you too. And please, for everyone's sake, don't carry around that sword.”

I'd slept with it beside me, in the hammock. I didn't argue though. Gavyn gave me a pare of dress pants from Christopher's stuff, very similar to the ones I'd been buried in. The white t-shirt was from Gavyn, and so were the boxers. His shirt was a little tighter on me than on him, but it fit well enough.

Gavyn talked pretty constantly as I followed him. He told me that we were going to go ask around for laundry. He informed me how lucky we were that we weren't on food duty. Apparently Christopher was overseeing the cooking teams that had been organized, and Lila was overseeing the distribution. According to Gavyn, today they intended to have another house meeting and decide on the very important matter of cleaning, and even trying to get some contact with the outside world. Both the fire chief, and the sheriff of the town were present among the refugees, along with plenty of other helpful people.

I got the hang of what we were doing after just a few rooms. If the family staying inside were out of clothes and desperately needed something to be washed they would give it to Gavyn, who would put it in the large bag I was carrying. People were surprisingly considerate. They seemed to realize that clothes were not a priority, and we'd finished the entire floor before we had to go down to the laundry room. The machines were out, of course, but there were apparently people on this duty as well; they just weren't around. We dumped the clothes then headed back upstairs.

“Brothers and sisters!” A voice boomed down the corridors of the castle.

“Oh God, not again,” Gavyn hissed, under his breath. “Ghosts were one thing... but this...”