The Flesh of the Gods
I. Words of a Madman
"So, Mr. Bianchi. I understand you're a professor at the Paragon University, correct? Pagan studies, is it?"
I nodded quietly. He consulted some forms upon his bureau and continued.
"You were born Giuseppe Bianchi forty years ago to a single-mother Italian family. You were raised in a very religious setting, Catholic, and you were disciplined sharply in your youth. Yet now you have cast aside your connections with the religion and have retreated into..." He consulted another paper, this one filled with scribbled notes. "'The arcane, studies of magick and ancient history', as you described it to me. At the age of sixteen, you left your mother, denouncing her for her cruelty, and traveled to the United States, where you studied archaeology at Paragon University. At around the same time you severed your relations with your religion, which was not too long ago, and you were observed to have developed a few odd tendencies. Acute paranoia is the main one, although you seem to exhibit minor obsessive-compulsive tendencies, in the words of your former psychiatrist."
I nodded again, taken somewhat aback at this revelation. How dare my old therapist think me a lunatic! I supposed that was why I had come to see this man instead in the most recent days.
He stroked his chin lightly, looking at me thoughtfully through his thin-framed spectacles. Despite a bit of a world-weary look owing to his unshaven face, his sharp eyes and the way he seemed to emanate youth still left a very trustworthy impression upon me.
In addition, his frankness was quite surprising. Perhaps that was why I felt more comfortable speaking with him than with others, psychiatrist or not.
"And what is this 'experience' you have to relate to me? I understand it somewhat explains your sudden shift in countenance?" he asked.
I settled somewhat uneasily in the chair and briefly studied the man before me. Fear invaded my every pore, danced upon my every hair, and coursed through my veins. Nonetheless, I had grown to trust this man, after all.
And so I began my terrible tale...