James Titus enjoyed feeling the cool refreshing breeze against his neck one final time before closing his study window and sitting down at the grand oak work table. His soft leather slippers squeaked against the wooden floorboards as he reached across the green fabric-covered surface to retrieve a sealed brown Jiffy bag from the table’s far edge. He held the package tightly to his chest and lovingly embraced it as one might do a lover or a child, while a single tear rolled down his leathery cheek.
‘How many years has it been?’ he asked himself. ‘Thirty? Forty?’
Titus revelled in this moment and his mind wandered back through the decades of searching that had led up to this remarkable day. How lucky, fortuitous – no, how honoured he was to be gifted with such an item, and he yearned to know of the sights it must have witnessed since its creation. As to these he could only imagine, but for it to end up in his hands after such a long journey was a miracle in itself, and he took tremendous comfort in that knowledge. It still numbed his mind with a sense of awe to think that something so small and seemingly insignificant was the answer to all the questions that he and his kind had chased for so many years. Yet here it was, all neatly wrapped up and safely in his arms.
Titus caressed the brown package and lovingly ran his index finger along its corners as he contemplated the possibilities of the new world to come. For any other person on the planet, what was to follow and what he was soon to experience would be unfathomable – that is, if one did not know the truth.
‘It’s time, James,’ a voice whispered, and Titus glanced across to see a shadowy figure standing in the study’s open doorway.
The flickering log fire set far back into the stone hearth was the only source of light, but even though he could not make out any features, he knew who it was. ‘I am ready,’ he replied calmly, and placed the package back down on the desk before rising slowly to his feet and making his way over to the fireplace. He then reached down and grasped the handle of a brass poker which nestled between the burning logs, and lifted its bright red tip up towards himself, illuminating his face in an orange glow.
He didn’t feel any fear about what would come next, yet nervousness was getting the better of him and his skin began to tingle and his throat tightened uncomfortably.
‘Will it hurt?’ Titus asked, still without any trace of fear in his voice as the figure glided past him and scooped up the brown paper bag from the table.
‘Yes,’ the figure whispered, now moving to join Titus at the fireplace. ‘But pain has its own rewards, does it not?’
Titus managed a slight nod of his head, and his upper body began to tremble as the mysterious figure plucked the poker from his now sweating hands and then held the red tip of it between them.
‘Do not fear what I bring you,’ the figure rasped, and he moved the blazing-hot implement to within centimetres of Titus’s eyes. ‘I now offer you what you have searched for all these long years, and all I ask for in return is your obedience.’
‘I understand, and I will serve you,’ Titus managed, regaining some of his faltering courage as he clenched his fists.
‘Good,’ the figure hissed, glancing down at Titus’s hands. ‘Now conserve your energy…you’ll need it.’