Prologue

I lie on the cool stone floor

The hard flagstones digging into my back

Thoughts flow through my mind, rushing like water

I lift my head, and then drop it. Crack.

How did I get here? I think to myself

Alas, my memory gives me no answer to this

I crawl to my knees, pain lances through me

My ears prick up as I hear an ominous hiss.

After an age I drag myself up

Looking around, I let out a gasp of awe

There are stone walls all around me

And smooth stone covers the floor.

I spot a darkened passage

Tentatively I take a step inside

What I see chills my blood to ice

And leaves my jaw hanging wide.

There is a huge cavern, filled with hundreds of shelves

They are stacked with dusty tomes, book upon book upon book

I reach for one, and change my mind; these books feel wrong

For now, I will simply look.

Staring at the ceiling, I see thick, dirty grey webs

Stretching across the entire cave roof

Great spiders roam on these, their legs angled menacingly

But it is with horror I learn the truth.

These spiders are skinless, their eyes are white

Milky and filmy, these spiders are blind

I take a step back in terror

And now a book I find.

I tumble into a shelf, which tips alarmingly

It settles safely, but a book falls out on me

I carefully pick it up, and open the pages

I begin to remember, to see.

I know what I have lost, I remember who I am

A child of eleven, I was playing with my friends

I ran off and got myself lost, and forgot myself

But now it all makes sense.

Clutching the book tight, I turn to leave

When all at once, there’s a sound behind me

I turn, and take in the figure

An old man, blind, no eyes in his sockets, he grins at me.

His voice is like silk, like the webs of the spiders above

Yet like the webs it hides something worse

“So, you’ve remembered now,” He hisses

“This time is not your first.”

He strides towards me, I am frozen with fear

I can do nothing but stand there in place

He reaches out his hands, his long bony fingers

One finger touches my face.

“Forget,” He croons. “Forget all you know.”

My arms and legs become heavy as lead,

“It is time you slept again, child” He says

I cannot argue, but I am filled with dread.

I fall back to the cool stone floor

The hard flagstones digging into my back

Thoughts flow through my mind, rushing like water

Then they fade, as all fades to black.