Chapter Text
The last thing in Derek's life was pain. The thing right before it, somehow much more memorable, was the longing for Avery that was tearing him apart from the inside. Then, after all of that, there was dullness. Emptiness was the thing that came after all his feelings turned off — quite predictably.
The first thing he saw when he woke up were plain walls that appeared grey due to the dim lighting in the room. Then he came to his senses, which he instantly regretted for his senses were vile and borderline unbearable. He held his breath (and it was quite nice for him to realise that he, in fact, did breathe) to avoid whimpering from a brand new sort of pain. It felt like his body was about to crack open all over— or something like that, anyway. It was horrible.
Then he heard a voice, 'How much longer until he wakes up, what do you think?' It was a whisper, but it was loud enough to register since the source of it was not very far away. 'No, he needs some explanation. We're not leaving until we at least try to give him one,' the person continued, still quietly. Derek didn't hear any response between the phrases.
He slowly turned his head to the left of him, careful to avoid inducing his pain. There sat one man. Middle aged, with greyish-purple bags under his eyes, dressed strangely old-fashioned, which would've worried Derek more if he were in a more adequate state of mind. He focused his gaze on the man with an effort and blinked a couple times.
The man seemed to notice that Derek was not asleep anymore and jumped a little. He seemed a bit worried and his eyes were oddly unfocused, probably just like Derek's own.
'A-ah,' The man cleared his throat. 'You're awake then?
Derek tried to respond, but his throat felt sharp and sticky, so the only thing that came out of him were incoherent noises. 'Right. Ah, here, drink,' the man held up a glass of water to him. He tried to lift his arm. He failed. Then he tried again and this time he succeeded; he gulped down the water like his life depended on it— which it, probably, did. 'Better?' Derek nodded, wincing a bit because sudden head movements made it ache more, and let the empty glass be taken from his hands. 'Good. My name is Arthur Lester. I am a private investigator in Arkham. We— I found you in the basement of an old house in a forest while working on a case, unconscious, and did my best to help. Who are you and what were you doing there?'
It was clear the man was a detective. The way he asked questions reminded Derek of interrogating. He stared at him blankly for a couple moments, comprehending the many words that were just said to him and trying to think of a response — all through his horrible headache. When he finally spoke, his voice was so hoarse he couldn't recognise it. But, thinking about it, could he remember what he sounded like before? 'Ehmm... I'm Derek Hutchins. I— I don't know how I got there. I, uhm, I remember... dying. It's all a blur, really. Hard to— to think straight.' He coughed once or twice.
'I see. Well, you did look pretty bad when we— when I found you, Mr Hutchins.' Derek furrowed his brows. He wasn't called a mister very often, due to his age. He inspected Mr Lester with his gaze once more, with more of his mental screws in places. The man did look quite old-fashioned. He was wearing a button-up and a brown vest with a tie neatly tucked in. He had a moustache and a... licked up hairstyle. Looking around the room didn't prove much better. It looked like a hospital ward, but he failed to notice any electronic equipment around.
'What date is today, er, Mr Lester?' he asked.
'April 2nd.'
Ah. So it could be just a weird place, couldn't it? Still, he needed to make sure. He sighed. 'And... what year is it?'
'1935. Don't worry, you didn't sleep for too long.'
'God...' He said aloud, then groaned. First he found a horrible eldritch god in his Minecraft world, that made him swallow all the knowledge there is, possibly die, and now time travel? This was absurd, his life was a horrid joke. Something God would find funny when He was far over the edge.
Speaking of infinite knowledge, it seemed to have gone. He'd never before thought he would be so happy to have no idea what's going on. Well, that's a good sign for sure. At this point, he'd managed to turn his attention to figuring out what had happened to him. He tried to remember, but there wasn't much more than the dreadful pain and Avery.
Avery... A thought sparked a little flame of hope in his heart.
"And..." He coughed, "Was I alone when you found me?"
"Well... Not exactly, no."
"Oh?" The flame grew livelier.
Mr Lester sighed. "Look, I know what you're thinking. None of them looked like they... came with you. They were people I was after... I'm sorry." With these words he blew out the flame.
"Ah. I-I see." Of course. That only made sense. Whatever dimensional crack Derek fell through, it most likely didn't get Avery, who was god knows how far away from him at that moment. Well, that was good, wasn't it? That means Avery stayed where his home was. That means he didn't experience any of this terror. But then why did Derek's heart ache so?
At that point, a nurse stormed in. She startled both of the men. "All right, Mr Lester, the visiting time is over, hurry along now." She was quite tall and certainly very tired. There was something in her demeanor that made Derek a bit nervous and when he glanced back at his rescuer he noticed that it wasn't him alone. She looked up from the papers she was staring at and apparently noticed Derek was awake. "Ah, finally! Thank you for waking the patient up, Mr Lester, but please leave the rest to us." She was hurrying him out.
"Ah, right, of course. I'll leave now," then, right before doing so, he bent down to Derek and whispered "be careful telling people what you saw." And he marched out the room.
Ah. Was there something Derek couldn't remember, then? Or was the man simply clever? He did seem compassionate, though, despite his rough appearance, so maybe Derek shouldn't feel threatened. Maybe.
"So, Mister, how are you feeling? Know your name?"
"Derek Hutchins." Something told him a lot of questions would follow...