"Nothing in this world is free."
Marcus let those words reverberate in his head for awhile so that it truly sunk in.
'Nothing in the world is free huh? Yeah that makes sense.'
Marcus recalled his most recent run in with this 'rule'. When he met Gavin, he'd thought their friendship was like his family's relationship, unconditional.
It was foolish when he thought about it.
'I'm an idiot and I paid the price for that mistake with my life, literally.'
This angered Marcus to no end. To think, someone he once called friend ran away and left him for dead.
'Never again.'
He exhaled a breath to calm himself down. He realized being angry with Gavin was useless and unreasonable. He figured the chances of them meeting again was slim to none anyway, so he pulled himself away from that train of thought. It wasn't like he couldn't repay him if they met again anyway. Plus, he needed to focus on this voice and what exactly it wanted from him.
Suddenly, he felt his ability to speak return. He assumed the voice must have granted him permission to speak again after he calmed down.
"So, you revived me somehow? How'd you do it?"
Marcus may have been some country-bumpkin that hadn't seen much of the world but even he knew reviving a dead person warranted questions. He could at least draw the conjecture that whoever the voice belonged to was extremely powerful to accomplish such a feat.
"How I did it is of no concern to the current you," the voice replied smugly.
To this, Marcus could only roll his eyes.
"Fine, can you at least tell me who or what you are? Calling you 'the voice' is going to get tiresome and it sounds ridiculous," Marcus spat.
The voice didn't immediately reply and so Marcus stood there in an awkward silence for awhile as he awaited a reply.
After what seemed like ages to Marcus, the voice finally answered him.
"You can refer to me as your master."
Marcus's face scrunched up at the voices proposal to be called master. Who did this voice think it was to demand he call them master of all things. He crossed his arms across his chest and started to object.
"Master, why the hell should I call-"
Suddenly, Marcus found himself unable to speak for a moment. He reached for his mouth and assumed the voice silenced him again and so he glared at an empty space again to show the voice his dissatisfaction.
"Do not disrespect me boy; I am not your equal. I am your better. If I am to teach you as your master then you will respect me as such. You would do well to remember that."
The voice spoke this in a tone that didn't allow room for negotiation. If Marcus was going to act ungrateful to his benefactor then the voice would find a way to deal with him accordingly.
Marcus once again felt his ability to speak return to him. This time he thought about what to say before speaking. He didn't find it beneficial to him to antagonize the voice who'd pretty much revived him from the dead anyway. Nor did he like being forcefully silenced.
With that in mind, Marcus took a deep breath and responded begrudgingly.
"I understand... Master."
The voice took note of Marcus's attitude when he spoke but saw no reason in pushing the matter forward... at least for now.
"Hm. Well for now I believe it best you flee from this area."
Marcus was confused as to why his new master wanted him to flee. He planned to leave the area anyway but his master spoke as if he was in danger or something.
His master noticed his questioning gaze but didn't bother to enlighten him. Instead, he only spoke a single sentence.
"If you are going to question everything I tell you then we may as well stop here."
Marcus was truly starting to hate this master of his. Couldn't it just explain why it was he needed to flee. That wasn't so hard, was it?
Deciding he wasn't going to receive an explanation to his question, Marcus began walking to the door of the room he'd been kept in.
When he made it to the door and stepped out, a feeling of satisfaction washed over him due to leaving the room he'd been held in all this time. He took a deep breath to celebrate the occasion.
*cough* *cough*
Marcus started coughing uncontrollably, and he immediately regretted his decision in trying to breathe in the stale air. The scent in the hallway was arguably worse than in his own room, and he'd puked and vomited all over that place.
"What is this smell?"
"Hmm... judging by your asking that question only now, I assume you aren't referring to your own putrid and musty scent."
A vein bulged on Marcus's head.
He knew he wasn't the picture of cleanliness right now but that didn't mean it needed to be pointed out. Not to mention, he'd had no choice in the matter to begin with.
Deciding to steer clear of another argument, Marcus asked a question instead.
"So you can see, hear, and smell everything in the area I'm in?"
"Smell? Gods no, I merely hypothesized based off your current appearance and circumstances. From my point of view, you look no different than a pig rolling around in its own feces."
Marcus felt a headache coming on.
"You know what, forget I asked? Can you tell me where I need to go at least?"
"Firstly, when you speak to me make sure you refer to me as master, else I will not reply. Secondly, to answer your question, no I will not be telling you where you need to go. I am not your babysitter. You should stop acting like a spoiled brat who's been spoon-fed all his life and figure it out for yourself."
This time Marcus chose to ignore his master's ramblings and to instead observe his surroundings.
To his left was an empty hallway with all kinds of rodents scurrying in and out of the rooms on either side of the walkway. Strangely, he could see all the way to the end of the hallway where a stairway resided, even though there were no light fixtures in the hallway.
'Strange indeed.'
As he looked right, the same empty and grotesque hallway full of rodents greeted his view. The only difference was that there wasn't a stairway in that direction, and as a result, Marcus decided to head right.
While he traversed the dark halls, he glanced into several of the rooms that had their doors open. He hoped to find clothes inside of one of them, no matter how small the chances were. The darkness was peaceful and soothing to him but walking around stark naked had him feeling more than a little cold.
He crossed his arms around his body to keep warm but that didn't stop the sneeze that was building up.
"Achoo! There's gotta be 'something' around this godforsaken place."