Professor Rosevell

Kieren stopped in front of a huge building. He could tell from the outside that the building was built with three stories, the material was made out of fine stone.

Kieren walked through the entrance, many students had to turn their head twice to realize that it was Kieren who had entered the building. Kieren meanwhile just smiled at them.

He walked straight upstairs, as he turned around a double door stood tall in front of him. There was a sign on the outside, made out of wood.

"Headmaster Moriarty's Office."

Kieren's pupils dilated. "He's the headmaster?" Kieren took a deep breath and knocked on the door. 

"You may enter." A deep voice called out, hearing permission Kieren turned the door handle and pushed the door open.

Mr. Moriarty took a sip of his tea, saw the man who entered, then spat it all out, coughing as he choked. 

Kieren held in his laughter by pretending to clear his throat.

"Prof. Rosevell?" Mr. Moriarty asked in disbelief, his hands shaking as he set down his cup of tea on the table.

Mr. Moriarty interrupted Kieren before he could open his mouth, "Sit, please sit."

Kieren nodded to him before he pulled out the chair which was pushed in, in front of the headmaster.

The headmaster's office was spacious. In the center stood an expansive mahogany desk with a tidied surface, on it sat a stack of documents. Behind it sat Mr. Moriarty.

"Tell me everything you can remember. From the beginning."

Kieren studied Mr. Moriarty, who was suited in a crisp white suit, the fabric was well ironed and spotless. A matching top hat was set upon his head, beneath his top hat strands of white hair hung out.

He stared at Mr. Moriarty's young facial features before moving a hand to scratch the back of his head.

"Well, that's the thing." Kieren nervously laughed. "I don't remember much of anything."

Mr. Moriarty paused for a moment, then rubbed his temples.

Kieren noticed his tense reaction, so he quickly added, "I do remember that I was in a cave. That I found out a secret. Before I knew it I was in my bedroom two weeks later."

Mr. Moriarty took off his top hat, massaging his snow-white hair. "Is that so? What do you remember?" Mr. Moriarty asked desperately.

"I can't remember memories from a hundred, fifty, twenty, ten or a year ago."

Mr. Moriarty held his face with his hands.

"How did you remember to come here?"

Kieren pulled out his ID card, even though past Kieren had trusted Mr. Moriarty, he wasn't certain present Kieren could do the same, that was the reason he was reluctant to tell him about the documented records.

Kieren also reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out a stamped document, Mr. Moriarty laughed in response as he flipped through the contents of the document.

"You can return to work, starting today."

Kieren rose and nodded, seeing Mr. Moriarty had nothing else to add, he bid him farewell and left the room.

Moriarty waved farewell with a smile on his face, when the door shut his face turned serious.

He glanced back behind him, outside the window. Some of the students were heading to their first lessons.

In a low voice he suddenly spoke.

"Master. What of Professor Kieren?"

He grabbed the cup of tea sitting on his desk, pouring the tea down to his shadow. The tea instead of spilling on the floor, disappeared into nothing. He reached inside and pulled a bottle of wine out of the depths of his shadow. 

"I can smell a familiar scent from him. Leave him be." A voice emerged from the depths of his shadow, deep and low.

****************

As the double office door closed behind him with a soft click, Kieren let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Professor Kieren…"

Kieren grumbled under his breath. The title still felt odd in his ears. He didn't feel like a professor. He did not even feel like himself.

As he walked through the halls, passing through the curious gazes of the students and professors, he felt as if he didn't belong here. They knew him, remembered him clearly, but he felt a pang of guilt run through his heart, because he didn't recognize a single face.

Kieren moved along the hallway which was lined with doors all the same. Kieren stopped in front of one which said "Professor Kieren Rosevell."

He stared at the nameplate for a while, then slowly opened the door. There were books piled tidily on shelves, a coat on a hook by the door, and on the wooden desk an open book.

Kieren moved closer to the book, his memory finally kicking in. He read what was inside, "History lesson number 1: I have no idea what to teach them... I'll just start lecturing them about cool stuff. Hopefully these kids leave my classes, I really do despise groups of kids!"

Kieren laughed while reading the book, it was what he had used to keep his lessons organized and divided. It was really helpful and efficient. Aside from his unnecessary comments, of course.

A knock on the door suddenly startled him, he coughed and changed his gloomy expression to that of stern seriousness.

"Enter."

The door creaked as a girl quickly entered the room.

The girl looked as if she didn't expect a man to be inside for a second or two, before smiling.

She was petite and thin. Her snow, white hair was cut in a neat bob and her hazel brown eyes were wide with wonder.

"The headmaster asked me to gather students for your class, Professor Kieren." She said with a tone of familiarity. 

She stuttered then added quickly, "I-I have heard about your condition, you had chosen me as your assistant last year. I'm your Assistant Syph!" She reminded Kieren.

Kieren looked at her for a while then spoke in an unurgent tone. "Very well, I will give a lesson soon."

Syph nodded as she quickly exited, shutting the door behind her. "He still has the same expression." She spoke under her breath with a smile on her face.

Meanwhile in the room Kieren, hurriedly grabbed a book and quickly scanned the contents.

As he was scanning through them he was starting to recall every single word in the book, he had already read the majority of these books previously!

Eventually, Kieren selected a topic that he would be discussing in class thoroughly. He got out of his office, grabbing a chalk from a nearby board which was in his office.

There were approximately seventy-five students seated in the class. Murmurs were loud, rumors were flying around like wildfire.

"Rumors have it Professor Kieren is back after 2 weeks of disappearance."

"I heard that he might have been cursed by an evil existence!''

"I heard he's not even the real Kieren!"

"Woah... that's freaky dude."

At the very front was his assistant Syph, who just had a realization.

He's late. Oh no. I think he's lost!

The door slid open, Kieren entered slowly, his coat swaying behind him. As he entered the class fell silent. His eyes scanned the room, but he could not see a familiar face apart from his assistant.

Kieren took a deep breath and walked to the middle of the room, he leaned over a desk and cleared his throat.

"My name is Kieren Rosevell, you may address me as Professor Rosevell."

Kieren went silent for a second, before speaking in a stern tone.

"To answer questions that some of you may have: Yes, I disappeared for two weeks and I'm not going to say why. Or how. Yes, I've lost some, if not all of my memories, I don't recognize any of your faces if I'm being honest."

"I don't remember the last class I gave. I don't remember my office, my books, or for that matter anything else. Which makes this," he paused and rapped on the desk, "as much a first day for me as it is for some of you."

Kieren's eyes tightened as he said in a low voice, "Don't think that this will result in easy classes, or easy grades. I assure that this class won't be easy. Far from it."

Kieren's lips curled up as he stopped and looked at the faces of many students.

"So if you're looking for an easy A and a nap in the rear row, speak up and change classes now."

Kieren said to himself internally, That ought to drive off half if not more of them off!

The whole class was silent, while Kieren was completely left speechless.

There were dozens of eyes on him, not blankly, but with interest. Some students were leaning forward in their chairs, others had smiles on their faces. There was even a girl in the front row writing something in her notebook!

Kieren blinked, utterly surprised.

They definitely have a few screws loose.

"Questions, if you have them, ask now. In lectures, you'll raise your hand and wait for permission."

A brunette girl raised her hand. Kieren turned and pointed at her. "You."

"What are we going to do regarding the material we covered in the previous lessons we had with you, or the substitute professors for that matter?"

Kieren smiled, "That's the neat thing, forget all that you have learnt previously. For the first semester no 'History' exam will be taken."

Most of the students were rightly indignant complaining to one and another, but Kieren cleared his throat and the class fell silent.

"That doesn't give you license to slack off. I will be giving work and mark it."

Kieren paused a moment, looking around the class as he turned and picked up a piece of chalk.

"What is History?" He wrote on the board.

"Anyone?" Kieren asked in a curious tone.

A boy had his hand raised, Kieren nodded at him, permitting him to speak.

The boy asked with uncertainty, "Isn't 'History' supposed to be the truth?"

Kieren paused. "'History' is memory, and memory is vulnerable, unreliable."

Kieren paused, considering for a second before speaking.

"Once upon a time, there was this king who ordered all statues of his predecessor to be torn down, every portrait to be burned, his descendants to be assassinated, every trace was destroyed," 

Kieren paced around the room slowly, emphasizing certain points with his hands.

"then he put up a statue of himself and gave himself the title: 'The First and Only.'"

Kieren stopped and looked at each student, most if not all of them seemed very interested in the story and the point Kieren was trying to make.

"Now answer this. How would we even know that king wasn't the second?"

The silence that followed was heavy, thoughtful.

Whew, I really just made up that story on the spot.

Kieren thought to himself. His fingers twitched, as if he had just realized something.

"I will give you all something for next class. Find a rewritten piece of 'History', then question 'History'. Your assignment is to uncover the layers beneath the version that survived,

Kieren sighed. "Submit your assignment on a piece of paper with your name on it. Class is dismissed." Inwardly he had been thinking about retracting the assignment, grading all of them would be too much work.

As Kieren exited the room, he felt someone's eyes on him and turned his head to look back to see no one. "Huh."

Kieren entered the professor's lounge, where they have free food for the professor's. He looked around, many professor's were chatting with one and another.

Some exchanged a look with Kieren with an expression that was indistinguishable.

He sighed and took a tray which had roasted bread and a cup of hot tea. He sat down alone, placing the tray on the table. He pulled out a newspaper from the ''Daily Times'' and opened it up.

That weird fortune lady said sleep during the day of a blood moon, I wonder why not the night. I might as well read newspapers to see if a blood moon would happen, as well for interesting events. Perhaps traces of secret organizations?

He took a sip of tea, read the first headline and spat out the tea.