As the hot water and steam started to soothe him, Morpheous slightly lifted his leg and looked at his thigh. It was back to normal. There was no sign of any burn and the pain had vanished as well. Taking a sigh of relief he closed his eyes and started re-iterating the line that was written in Atticus's bedroom but he couldn't find any connection.
He wrapped himself up in the towel and came out of the shower cubicle and stood in front of the mirror. Wiping the fog from the surface of the mirror, Morpheous looked at his own reflection for a while.
Then he shut his eyes close for a second and opened them again and he could see the faint blue flicker but that was gone in a second. He sighed as he was trying to tap on to the powers that had been bestowed on him, the power that he was supposed to use and help out his men. He focussed all his attention and tried to listen, but he couldn't hear a single soul.
But he had failed.
He had failed big-time.
He had been given a chance to save his parents again, but still, he couldn't. Just like they the fire that had engulfed their bodies before, this time the flames of the pyre had reduced them into ashes and there was nothing that he could do.
But now that he was aware of the time transition, he just had one sole goal in life - To go back in time where Leonidas and Nefeli were still alive, where his village was still intact, where his friend Jerome still fought with him and where he got another chance to fight with Nubeous. And the only way to do that was through time travel and the only person who could help him was Balthazaar.
So, taking a deep breath, he came out from the bathroom, with a heart full of resolve but was pleasantly surprised to see the new look of Eva. She was wearing clothes similar to that of Atticus but was more vibrant.
Seeing the expression in his eyes, Atticus said,
"Doesn't she look nice. No one can tell that she doesn't belong to our place," and saying that he gave clothes to Morpheous and said,
"You can change into these and then we go in search of your people."
As Morpheous went inside the bathroom to change, Atticus decided to ask a couple of questions to Eva.
"So who else are we searching for?"
Eva looked at him for a while and then said, "Three people more. Two fallen angels Balthazaar and Damianos and one human being like me named Nicholas."
"Wait wait what? Did I hear it right? My God! Angels? For real?"
Eva couldn't understand why it was so surprising for Atticus to belive.
"Yes!" she replied cautiously as he was looking at her incredulously. And when he didn't say anything further, she added, "When you can believe that God exists, when you remember him in your every other sentence, then why you do not believe that his angels also do exist?"
With his mouth open, Atticus looked at her all amazed for he had nothing to offer as a rebuttal to this little girl. So he shook his head apologetically and asked,
"So how did you time travel? Who helped you?"
"Balthazaar is capable of using his powers to push anyone into the past or the future. He had pushed me and brother once into the past so as to save the tyrant king, Nubeous. And he did the same again but this time he pushed us into the future because pushing us into the past didn't work out. The things had happened, happened again, albeit in a different form."
Said Eva and turned silent for a moment, but then she sensed that the old man was waiting for some more input from her. So she continued,
"My brother had killed Nubeous once. So Balthazaar pushed us back in time, but a similar fight happened again, so..."
"So he pushed you into the future instead!" continued Atticus as he slowly started to get a grip on her story.
"Ermm... but why your brother tried to kill someone. He doesn't look like a person who would do such a thing," asked Atticus.
"Because Nubeous deserved to die. He had burnt my village into ashes. He killed my parents not once but twice in front of my eyes and we could do nothing to save them," said Eva and turned to the side as she heard the bathroom door open as Morpheous came out.
Wearing the clothes of Leonard, he looked like a perfect stalwart gentleman.
Atticus smiled as he looked at him and then asked,
"Ready to go?"
Morpheous nodded and so did Eva. So he picked up with EMP device which was lying on the beige marble-topped dining table and his leather duffel bag, in which he had packed some essentials when the two had been taking bath.
Then opening google maps on his iPad he went close to them and asked,
"See, this device has a map of the entire place." Then he pinched and dragged his fingers on the screen to zoom into Riverdale area and located his daughter's house and said,
"This is my daughter's house and we would search in this peripheral area," saying that he marked a five-mile radius around that place. "Ok?" he asked.
Morpheous nodded but then asked,
"What if the cops found them? Someone else might have asked the cops to help them, right?"
Hearing his question Atticus was astonished as the presence of his mind was way better than his, even though he had learned about how cops worked hardly like thirty minutes back.
Nodding his head Atticus said,
"Yes, we will check with the cops as well," and saying that he pulled out three snicker bars from his bag and offered them one. He then tore the wrapper in front of them and taking a bite he said, "This will help us gain some energy."
Eva gobbled a huge chunk of the bar as she was still a bit hungry and as soon as she had the taste of the chocolate bar, her eyes popped wide open in surprise as she had never tasted something so good in her entire life.
"Brother you have to taste this. It is incredible! It tastes like heaven" she exclaimed!
Atticus bit his lips as to not to laugh.