74 The message from another world

Looking at the page with his enquiring eyes and those brick red alphabets that appeared out of nowhere, Morpheous was surprised at first, but then hearing the words of Atticus, he just couldn't keep his patience in place,

"What do you mean? Can you please explain what does it say?"

"It says - I am fine Morpheous. Stay away from the shadows. I will come and find you when the time is right. Damianos."

"It is a message from Damianos," said Atticus and looked at Morpheous with a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

"Oh!"

"Oh! Bless your mouth!" exclaimed Morpheous after hearing those words. Closing his eyes for a moment he breathed a sigh of relief. A tranquil smile etched on his face and his restless mind was tamed in an instant.

Eva came towards the table and she held the piece of paper in her hand with the utmost care and turning towards Morpheous she said, "He is alive Morpheous. He is alive."

Morpheous returned her excitement with a warm smile on his face but in the next moment, he asked Atticus, "But where is he? How did he know that I would be able to read this message if he sent it to this man? I don't even know him."

"It's Conrad. Conrad Wellington!" informed Conrad as he heard Morpheous speak and then silently straightening the bedsheet on his cot.

Morpheous looked at him for a second and then continued,

"Is anything else written on any other page? What about Balthazaar and Nicholas. Anything about them?

"Really! These are the names of your friends or you just picked it from the Rise of the Saviours!" muttered Conrad.

"What did you just say?" asked Morpheous as he heard the boy mumble under his breath.

"Your names I mean! They are very similar to this game I play. Morpheous, Damianos are all characters in that."

"Oh yes! Atticus told us about it. The rise of the Saviour right?" said Eva looking at Conrad.

"There is even a girl Evangeline in the game. Just like you. Pretty honest and interesting!" Conrad said and briefly glanced at Eva before walking towards the bench.

'What is this all about?" he asked Atticus as he saw him tearing page after page from the diary and heating it up on the Edison bulb. Somehow Atticus's anxiousness and irritation, that was growing page after page when nothing was being found.

"You have one at your place...."

"And another one at my daughter's," Atticus completed the sentence of Morpheous and then immediately got up from the chair and turning towards Conrad he said,

"What I am about to say, may not make much sense to you, but just try to keep an open mind for me. Will you?"

"Of course!" replied Conrad.

"These two have time-traveled from the past along with few others. The others are now..."

"What?" exclaimed Conrad and looked at Eva and Morpheous with his eyes wide open.

"Conrad! Patience, please."

"Look! Where the others are, we do not know, but they are trying to send messages through the diary. This one was sent by Damianos. I was sent one too and one went to my daughter. We need to find some clues and help them go back to where they belong. Hope I am making some sense," and saying that Atticus looked at Conrad, expecting him to understand the summary of whatever had happened in two minutes.

But even one of the brilliant minds sat on the bed, looking all stumped. His mouth was open and his eyes were still shocked in disbelief.

Seeing him in such a dazed state, Atticus stood there for a moment to allow him to soak the brand new revelation but seeing that he was still processing it, Atticus said,

"Well, I leave you two to bring him up to speed. Meanwhile, let me fetch the remaining two diaries. I will be back soon. I trust him, so you can trust him as well. He will do no harm and you can understand the game if it can help you out in any way. He is till now one of the top scorers in the game."

Then he walked towards the door, but turned back halfway and looking at Conrad he said,

"Her full name is Evangeline by the way!"

Conrad looked up at him in disbelief and watched him leave through that door, which shut itself close after he left with a slight creaking noise. Now that Atticus was gone, the air between them turned awkward.

Eva and Morpheous stood near the table while Conrad was still sitting on the bed, looking at them as if they were some creatures of wonderment. Then without dropping his gaze at them, he pinched himself just to ascertain the fact that whatever was happening as real.

"Dammit!" he yelled as he pinched himself and closed his eyes tight and opened them again.

"Erm... He was lying right?" he asked looking at them.

Eva and Morpheous looked at each other, unable to understand how to make the man in front of them believe that their story was real albeit an unfortunate one.

"Oh! Come on! There is no such thing as time travel. I mean, there is but its all theoretical right? You would agree with me, right? Morpheous? Eva?" he asked again and looked at them with eyes that were in dire need of support for his hypothesis. But all that he got was a denial in the form of a mild shaking of heads.

Seeing the way the guy was struggling with accepting the reality, Morpheous came forward and said, "As much as it is difficult for you to digest the fact, in the same way, it is difficult for me to explain to you the truth. So when I say that I am not from the realm of yours then please do trust my words. I mean no harm, we both mean no harm to you. We are here just to seek a bit of help."

And saying that Morpheous narrated everything that had happened to Conrad, right from the very beginning.

.

.

"So by - stay away from the shadows, Damianos meant that Nubeous is here, right in our realm? As in now as we speak?" asked Conrad.

"I do not know and I have no way of finding this answer. Maybe tomorrow when I meet that weird woman again, I might be able to know something, but before that, I wanted to understand the game that you play. You mentioned that all the characters are the same, just like our names, right?"

"Not just that Morpheous! Not just that!"

"Then what else?" asked Morpheous.

"There is a character named Conrad in the game as well. That was the very reason I was inclined towards this game because it had a character named after me. But the important thing is about the shadows. In this game, there is something called a shadow of death that takes away all the energy," and saying that Conrad switched on his laptop and opened the game and showed him a scene.

"Tell me more!" said Morpheous.