Owl

I have returned!
Is this my current main story? No.
Am I gonna upload regularly? Nope!
Am I even sure I'm gonna finish it? Honestly, no.
If you're still in for the ride - this story is BL with a top male MC. Don't like that? Don't read and complain later, you were warned.

There was a terrible stench of smoke in the air, scratching the insides of his lungs and making him tear up. His ears were filled with the sounds of a crackling fire - a bit farther away, not directly around him - and his own blood-chilling screams.

He knew he was safe from the fire itself. What was burning were the adjacent houses but his in particular was covered in a material that would not catch fire easily. The smoke was wafting over to him, uncomfortable and frightening, but not enough to kill him. No, he wasn't going to burn, and he wasn't going to suffocate, although he was aware the fire was growing bigger and bigger.

However, he had no head to care about the fire or the smoke or the people he heard shouting outside. At that moment, he only cared about himself.

He was screaming and screaming until his lungs hurt while covering his eyes.

They had teared a lot, at first. Then things started to get unclear, became coloured shapes, until finally all colour and shape vanished. The only thing left was a dim ability to see light and darkness… And nothing else.

It was terrifying.

Losing his sight was the most terrifying thing he had ever experienced. More terrifying than fighting against the hordes of demons or hearing the cries of his people when they died fighting against them. A terror he hadn't even known existed, one that froze the blood inside his veins.

It was terrifying because he knew, deep inside his heart, that this would be permanent. No one would work out such a plan to only blind him temporarily. That wasn't worth the trouble.

No, he had lost his sight. Forever. He would never again see the children beam at him when he gave them toys, would not see the relaxed expressions on people’s faces when they reached the temple, would not see the mountains, the lake glittering in the sunshine, the snow, the seas of flowers-

He would not see. He would not see any of it, ever again.

And so he screamed his heart out, all of his terror and sadness. He continued to scream even as his people ran in, worriedly dragging him out and away from the smoke, then touching his face and exclaiming in fear and worry. He should have calmed them, for he was the only one he could, but their fear was nothing compared to the hate and agony growing inside his heart.

“I curse you all!” He screamed his voice at the heavens and the ones that betrayed him. “I curse you! I curse you to suffer forever!”

But the heavens only answered with silence.

Around him, the fire suddenly lost its might and died down slowly. People murmured nervously, looking around and shuddering at the silence that had fallen over the temple.

The world answered him with guilty silence, lowering its head towards the one that should have been under its protection.

***

Fel woke with a blaring headache, as he did often enough. It sure would be nice to have a good night's sleep and then waking up to birds chirping or the sunlight, but Fel thought that kind of waking up was a myth. For him, anyway.

His phone was blinking next to him; half a dozen unread messages that he planned to ignore for now. Yvonne was in a bad mood again. It was early, but she had started complaining last night before going to sleep and must have continued the moment she woke up.

Fel rubbed his head and his eyes. He did not remember the dream, he only remembered the smell of smoke everywhere and flames surrounding him.

He blinked his eyes a few times and looked at his arms.

The scars weren’t too scary, at least. His skin was uneven and white with almost distinct lines on where the marks stopped, giving it the appearance of him wearing something around his arms from afar. 

He was caught in a fire several years ago. He managed to escape, but the backs of his arms were burned and he had a few smaller scars in other places as well. They were easily covered up by long sleeves and he did not mind them too much. Others sometimes stared, which was uncomfortable, but they were more awkward than he was.

What was more troublesome was the fear of fire that remained. He was already scared of heights - this additional fear was an annoyance.

Fel sighed and dragged himself out of bed. There was no need to waste his time making it at least, the bed wasn't his. He had stayed the night to rest in a motel, otherwise the way would have been long to drive in one sitting. Luckily he had his own bathroom, though he knew that some rooms had to use the community baths. Not a comfortable thought with nothing but strangers around.

The shower helped him to clear up his head. Shaking the water out of his longer, ashen brown hair, Fel decided drying it was too much of a hassle. He rubbed it roughly with a towel and glanced into the mirror.

There were dark rings beneath his green eyes. They didn’t stand out too much on his tanned skin, but he could see them nonetheless. He desperately needed more sleep, but he wasn’t going to get any anytime soon. How annoying.

He got dressed with the motivation of a Monday morning, making sure his sleeves covered his arms, then walked downstairs. After a short breakfast, he was back on the road again.

His grandfather had never said a single word about the place and neither had any other member of his family.

Only Fel had been told about it recently. It had been a surprising conversation, to suddenly hear that his Grandpa had a mansion. He had hinted at it to the rest of his family once, but everyone except for his grandmother had shown confused faces. They simply did not know about it existing, but his grandmother did and she stayed quiet.

The letter his grandfather had left him behind asked him not to open the package he got until he was there and gave him quite specific directions on how to proceed along with the key.

Go to that place at least an hour before sundown. Do not lock the door behind you and let it stay open. Sit in the room to the right and open the package first before going into any other room.

The mansion was hours away from his home on a mountain side, meaning Fel could only use his precious weekend to check it out. The path to the place itself was highly suspicious. In the first place, Fel could not remember there being a left path up the mountain, but it was there and he took it.

Who knows how no one had noticed the huge mansion all those years. Especially considering there was a temple nearby that tourists really liked to visit.

Finally reaching his goal, Fel got out of the car and stretched again with a groan. He walked a couple of steps forward and tilted his head back. He stared at the mension for a while. 

It was built in an old style; the luxury of years ago. Well taken care of as it was, it still looked completely new with bright colours and no ivy growing over it. The high metal fence around it was only parted for the winged doors that were decorated over and over with complicated swirls.

It did not creak as Fel unlocked it and pushed it open. The letter hadn’t said anything about it so he proceeded as he’d do with the main door - leave it open a bit.

Maybe others would laugh at him for doing ridiculous things said in the letter of a dead person, but he felt it was right. His grandfather had been a bit of an oddball, but Fel had always enjoyed playing along with his quirks. It made him feel nostalgic to do the same one last time. He rubbed his eyes and entered the building.

The mansion was not even dusty on the inside.

Looking around, Fel noted the only open door to the right instantly and carefully peeked into it. It was a comfortable little room, decorated like an office. If anything was weird about it then it was the door that would lead right back outside by its position, but that he had not seen when he stood before the house. The entrance must have been closed off at some point of time, the door left behind.

Sitting down in the large armchair, Fel placed the brown package on the table and began to unpack it. Only the rustling of paper could be heard within the otherwise silent room.

One thing inside was a neatly folded set of clothes that felt incomparably soft in his fingers as he gently placed it on the table.

Another thing was a fantastic-looking key that had a tiny clockwork built into its body.

There also was a map of the building with numerous comments and scribbles.

Lastly was some sort of list for instructions. They all were covered up, needing to be uncovered one by one. Fel tugged the one with the number one open.

1. Do not skip instructions. Open the next one after reading the instruction and following it, if needed.

He blinked at the black, intricately written words and tugged the next one open.

2. Feed the cat.

There was a small sign next to the instruction that Fel felt was familiar. He switched to looking at the map and found it in the room opposite of this one, on a shelf. Following the play, he stood up and walked over with the instructions still in his hand. It reminded him of visiting an escape room, or a murder mystery setting. Weird, but somehow intriguing.

There were two bowls near a covered up hole in the wall where the animal could probably pass through whenever it wanted.

Redirecting his gaze to the shelf, Fel found the cat food easily enough. Water and food was placed down as he quietly hummed to himself.

“Will you even come?” He muttered softly. “No one has fed you for such a long time.”

Squatting down on the ground, Fel narrowed his eyes in thought. Then, with a sigh, he stood back up and opened the next instruction.

3. Open the curtains. Turn on the lights.

More markings.

This time, Fel walked once through the whole mansion.