“As you wish. You are now my apprentice. You will refer to me as master. That is, if you survive. I hope you do. You are much more interesting than the bland men and women before you. Some of them were even foolish enough to refuse my offer!” The man laughed heartily at this, as if an extremely humorous joke had just been told. Jeffery found no part of peoples’ deaths funny, but decided to play along to be safe.

The man suddenly became very serious. “Now, it is time,” he said. Jeffery was suddenly scared. It dawned on him that you only become truly scared during the moments leading up to something like this. Before that time, you think you understand, but only when the time comes do you realize how wrong you can be. This was that time.

The man raised both hands above his head and closed his eyes. He drew in a breath, and as he did, the darkness that enshrouded the room lifted. His face very tense, he looked down for a moment. “They’re never ready, even when they seem to think they are,” he said quickly.