(6) A Message Beyond the Grave

I was swimming. My body was floating up through the levels of cool water that got colder with each successive level. The surface was in sight, but the light above was darker and more like torch light than sunlight. I became more aware of my senses as I reached the surface of the water. I opened my mouth to gulp air the moment I reached the surface, but I gagged on cloth instead.
I opened my eyes as I pulled the thin, white cloth out of my mouth. The cloth seemed to cover my whole body. I stared through it at the stone ceiling above me. I seemed to be in an old cavern. A torch nearby provided light for me to see. I laid there for a moment, wondering what was going on, then a voice started talking to me...from inside my head...and it wasn't mine.

It sounded familiar, but I could not quite place the man's tired voice at first, "Hello, you are hearing me now because of a potion I gave you between the extraction of your memories and your death. Contrary to what the Beasts and even you believed, I was not planning on killing you. I merely made you appear as one who was dead. Your thoughts were conveyed to the Beasts. I hope that you told them only what you wanted them to know. I gave them whatever you thought about. I have been forced into doing the Beast's dirty work for years, but I'm sick of it. I'm going to be long gone by the time you wake up. I'm only glad that I was able to save your life. I'd do anything for John, and I know he'd want you to be protected. This message is almost over. You're on your own now. I won't be able to help you anymore. Just one last thing before I go. Try to stay calm, they're not going to hurt you."

I laid there, staring up at the stones thinking about what this man left in my head. He had saved my life, and I didn't even know his name. He was safer that way, but how did he know about John? I puzzled over that for a moment before I was overwhelmed with thirst. The potion had dried my body out and the cloth had left a musty taste on my parched tongue. I sat up quickly and got dizzy from dehydration. My vision went black for a moment as the cloth slid off my face. As my eyes adjusted back I saw that I was indeed in a torch-lit cavern. I was on a stone table. There seemed to be a lot of other similar stone tables covered in sheets like mine. I swung my legs over the side of the table and looked more closely at the one next to mine. I saw the shape of a body under the sheet. I lifted the cloth, wondering how many sleeping people were down here.
I had to shove my fist in my mouth to keep from screaming.
The body under the cloth was half-rotted and crawling with maggots. The skin was mostly off the skull. It stared ever upward with empty sockets.

I was in a room full of hundreds of corpses.