The first days before the dreams of the forgotten city and the King who ruled it were terrible. Nightmares would come and go, and Jyushimatsu refused to sleep for several days until he couldn't hide his tiredness anymore.

But the King did not call him again. There was no sight of his enormous figure, no trace of his delirious voice.

-o-o-o-

Almost ten years had passed since the first incident, those fever days nearly gone - but never forgotten. Now a middle schooler, Jyushimatsu had better things to do than to reminisce about those terrible memories. In school, he hadn't had the time to think on the disgusting tattered mantle that almost asphyxiated him to a sure death, nor he had the time to remember the intricate silk mask the enormous Ruler of the Palace wore on what he thought it was his head. Studying and school itself was precious to him, as it was the time of where he was surrounded by unknown people who demanded his abilities outside of his hopes and fears, in his case especially the fears, and so he acquired full marks on every subject he touched. Of all the Matsuno brothers, the only ones who noticed, or better told, talked about this change on his person in front of him were the first and third eldests, the rest never mentioning a word on the matter, probably fighting against problems of their own. Osomatsu, who attended classes on the same classroom than him, never forgot a day of moaning about how boring his younger brother had become and if he wanted to go skip classes with him someday. Choromatsu, who was part of the classroom in front of their own, liked to praise him while patting his head, always saying how proud he was of his study prowess, even when Jyushimatsu could see the green (very green!) envy on his eyes when he got full marks while the third eldest couldn't get past sixty percentage.

He had changed, yes, and he really missed the times where everything was simpler, but. To be fair, he wasn't the only one who had changed mindplaces.

Osomatsu had stayed pretty much the same as when he was a child, only a bit more rowdier with a vicious streak reserved for those who believed they could surpass his title as the best fighter of Akatsuka City, yet his slouch made the fifth brother think that he was getting kind of weary of that weight.

Karamatsu, for much that he intended to stay as equals as his older brother, had taken a sudden love for theatrics. Jyushimatsu knew that it started as a call for attention, but as he saw his older brother's sudden negative on whatever Karamatsu did or did not on his life, it surely confused the second brother to start not being a part of the six man in one act they had done all their lives.

Choromatsu exchanged all his plethora for dominance for a nerdy look. Glasses with no magnifying power, neater looks, strict personality, all he was not. Everything looked like he wanted to be popular trying to get better marks, but he couldn't make his brain work on the level he desired.

Ichimatsu took his usual shyness to a new level, retracting himself from the world. Being far from his brothers, in a classroom all alone, he didn't had friends who could cheer him up, and it seemed like he didn't want them, too. Jyushimatsu was kind of worried of him, so he tried his best to be at his side whenever he needed it.

Todomatsu got over his baby duckling part of the group, growing fully to become a social butterfly. New people meant new new friends, and new friends meant new female friends of their friend whom he could talk with. He became witty, and his words were honey to everyone. But he didn't seem to get near anyone else than his brothers, and that intrigued the fifth brother, just a bit.

...

The inhabitants of the Matsuno house had grown up together, but their path had bifurcated by what they thought it was better for them. That was Jyushimatsu thought, at least. But even though he was worried about some of their brothers state of mind, more worried of some of them than the others, he had chosen to be a model student and a cheerful kid nonetheless, even if it was just to forget. It was his path, and he just hoped it would do him good.

He tried to do his best, he tried to forget, and he almost succeeded.

But he couldn't run from his destiny.

-o-o-o-

Upon what it felt like waking up from a long dream, Jyushimatsu saw himself floating in nowhere. At first, he had no idea where he was, disoriented and shaky for a reason he couldn't remember at all. His first thought was to look at his hands, since he had a feeling that something had been there once. His wrists were red and bleeding, like they had been trapped with some kind of rope, mistreated for a while and then freed. Nothing else in his body seemed out of place, until he tried to sigh in relief. He had no air to exhale, he wasn't breathing, hadn't been breathing for a while. Scared, hyperventilating if he could, he touched his neck. It hurt almost as much as his hands .

Haphazardly looking at his sides, he could faintly notice the place he was. He was floating in a place that was all dark, dimly illuminated by strange, yet very familiar luminescent spheres of all sizes and colours that rounded his body on a wide radius, their eerie luminescence not helping the murky ambient to look any better at all. In fact, it just made the figure in the front of him, who was more standing in its own place of nowhere instead of floating like himself, gleam in all the wrong parts, remarking his bony, unnatural figure. The soft pulsations of color made the yellow mask look more real, like it was a face on its own. The tentacles that hid behind those drapes, gleamed with every pulse of color that dripped over the,

It was the King itself, tattered clothes and darkened skin as eternal as he had lastly seen and how he had always had been. It was the King itself, the spheres who were sentient enough to know what the Owner wanted to do, who shined and stopped following the giant creature's movements and whims..

That place was his, that universe was him. He was on his hands.

Again.

", WE MEeT AGaIN, CHiLD OF MAn ,"- The gigantic King said, his voice as deep as deep as his eternal years, the smooth skeletal lilt altered Jyushimatsu's brain, like it wanted to go out thru his nose.

In that strange world, hurt and ogled by the Ruler of the Universe and all the parts of himself, the fifth son had never felt so alone.

"... Am I dead?" - He mumbled to himself, rubbing his head on his damaged wrists.

", NOt UNtIL WE WIsH SO ," -Was his response, as simple as two plus two. Jyushimatsu, for more intelligence he had, couldn't respond to that kind of thought, because it was true. ", DO YOu REmEMbER WHy ARe YOu HErE IN THe FIrST PLaCE ,"

"... No, not really" - Jyushimatsu said in a muffled voice, with a sudden pain attacking his head.

", YOu DO ,"- The King in Yellow said, and it was true.

-o-o-o-

Slowly, since the fifth son had awaken in that place, he started to remember little things. His name, his last name. Where he lived, who his brothers were. Simple things that escalated slowly to more complex information. The test he had done a week before, the outing his family had done to a camping site near Akatsuka city, near to an enormous forest.

At the King's last words, the throbbing had brought him the last information he needed.

It was Golden Week, the all-full of holidays week on the start of the year the japanese people longed eternally for to have a breath until they had to resume their works again, and the Matsunos had gone all together to relax from their usual boring lives, with the exception of Todomatsu who had been invited by one of his many friends to stay on his house. They were going to camp, catch fish and have fun for two days, slack off for a while in home then go back to their routine, refreshed. But in the night of the first day, something happened.

It started as helping another group of campists to adjust their camping was a simple job. Making the tent go firm, get them some water bottles, no one suspexted anything, and much less when they were invited for some (spiked) beer and refreshments for the beautiful night that would come. The ones in need were a group full of adolescents, easily more than twelve of them. All cheerful and full of pep, all wearing a known yellow sign on a necklace that was well hidden on their bodies. Jyushimatsu knew about this fact later, too late, when he had been captured by his camping neighbours, claiming it was time for their usual monthly ritual, happy their prey were there that easily with no need to search for. Gagged and bound, he was told terrible things. And not even peeing himself was enough to get their hands apart from his body. Their disgusting, terrible hands.

"Your family was unnecessary, we got rid of them for you"

"This will be the first time you will need us as much as we need you, Our Lord"

"You will not need this human body soon"

"I'll dispose of anyone for You, you will not need anyone but us"

"We need you"

"We need you"

"We need you… -"

The last he saw was a flash of silver that gleamed cold in the harsh night, and then he was no more.

-o-o-o-

" , YOu WErE MArKEd, ANd SO THeY CAmE FOr US ,"

"... What mark? You're saying this is my f-fault, or something? - Jyushimatsu said, angered at his very last moments of consciousness. It had been frustrating how easy it was to reduce the proud, happy him to nothing, but worse it was to see himself cry in sorrow after what had been lost for him to be unable to act.

" , IT WAs, AS YOu DId'NT GIvE US YOuR BOdY WHeN I REqUEsTEd IT ,,, BUt HErE I AM, I REmEMbER OUr PAcT ,"- The Eternal Being said, extending his hideous arms. His obscured drapes started to float on their own,an ominous wind coming out of him.

"Our pact?" - This was the first time Jyushimatsu dared to get his face out of his hands, ready to look at the creature in front of him directly.

" , YOu ARe DEaD, ANd WE COuLD EAsILy TAkE YOuR BOdY AS IT IS, CHiLDrEN OF MAn ,,," -The King spoke, stating the terrible facts. " , BUt WE ARe GEnERoUS, ANd WE WIlL GIvE YOu AN AFtERlIFe CHaNCe , "

"... What would that be?" - The injured kid said, rubbing his wrists. "Will it help me restore all to normal?

" , WE CAn ALtER THe REaLItY AS YOu KNoW ,,, NOtHInG WIlL BE NOrMAl AFtER THiS ,"

A strong sound took Jyushimatsu out of the internal horror he had been experiencing over the King's words. The spheres at his side were moving, rounding and sizzling, vibrating so much they formed a circle around them both. Like an insanity egg, their spins and high speed condensed the murky water inside.

" , MElD WItH ME ,"

"No!" - The kid screamed, covering himself, until he was unable to do so due to the enormous drapes grabbing his hands, functioning as a bridge in between them both.

He could see the King getting nearer and nearer.

" , CAlL MY NAmE ,"

" No! No I... I don't want to meld with you…"

" , YOu NEvER HAd A CHoICe ,"

And when tears started to fall down from his eyes, he could see the enormous face of the monster just few centimeters far off his face.

" ,WE WIlL HElP YOuR FAmILy, AS THeY WIlL BE OUrS AS WElL , EVeRYtIMe SOmEOnE CAlLS YOuR NAmE, THeY WIlL CAlL MInE AS WElL , , , YOu WIlL BE MInE , I WIlL BE YOuRS ,"

Jyushimatsu still couldn't say anything else, numbed by his pain and tears. Yet, he listened, thinking that maybe, maybe he could save what he loved the most that way.

Even if it was the only way.

" , YOu KNoW MY NAmE , CAlL IT , JYuSHiMAtSU ,"

And again, as always, it was true.

"Ha-Hastur…"

The enormous mask then fell down. The mask, as if made from china porcelain, broke down in the very instant it detached from the rotten skin.

It revealed a face equal to him.

Red eyes and teethy, but it was still Jyushimatsu.

It was Hastur and Jyushimatsu, a voice on his mind said.

The clothes grabbed then the hands and legs of the adolescent, letting the creature use his tentacle fingers and the rest of his appendages grab his skin. Slowly, like they were over ice cream, they entered the fair skin, pulsing and writhing inside, an horrifying spectacle for only them both to see.

One of the largest tentacles grabbed on Jyushimatsu's mouth when he tried to scream. Trying to bite it only made the appendage release a dark bile-tasting liquid, who numbed the place, completely eliminating his chances to vomit even when he wanted to. He was already at his mercy, and maybe he always was.

The King, not losing anymore time, got from his mouth a long tongue, or what he thought it was one. It entered Jyushimatsu's open mouth, tasting and roaming every single nook and cranny inside. And in one strong movement, he entered inside. Completely, as his gigantic bones and entire clothes were nothing. Even the spheres were able to enter his lithe body, and there was no way how that happened yet it did. Rests of his tentacles were left inside his arms and legs, but the rest of them was definitely inside.

Cough.

Cough, cough.

His brain felt strange, and all he wanted to do was to cough it out.

Was it reordering itself?

Was it accepting the creature already?

Please, have some mercy… were his last words.

And then all went to black.

-o-o-o-

"You were dAring to want us to awAke. Let me give you your rewArd."

-o-o-o-

That Golden Week was deleted from the Matsuno lives forever, and so no one could pinpoint in which point Jyushimatsu became who he is.

And if Todomatsu knew, he said nothing.

Things became a bit gruesome! It will get a bit worse.

Please bear with me.