Where The Dead Ones Go Book 2 -Republic-

Chapter 1

"The president of the Republic of Anoixi feeding his house guests with microwaved and cheap take out food..."

I was horrified when I heard my cousin said that as we are in the middle of eating our dinner.

He didn't even bother thinking of what he will say, and that's the reason why I didn't manage to stop him.

Mr Atomo just hung his head in embarrassment as his son continues eating as messy as usual, "I have no excuses. We never have guests here in our home, and we usually eat at the office before leaving."

"You didn't even bother preparing in advance knowing full well that you will host someone in your house?" Morris continued as he forced himself to eat the understandably disgusting heated sisig, an Anoixian dish made of sizzling pig. I am now looking forward to eating the properly cooked version of this knowing full well that the heated cheap one tasted like bitter rubber spread over rice.

I bit my lower lip as I try to force myself to eat the meal only out of respect to Demeter, the goddess of sustenance and the one who will be very angry that a mortal will refuse free food no matter how unsavoury it is.

"It is actually filling, at the very least," I conceded as I finally finished my meal with great difficulty before probably drinking more water than what I usually do to wash away the bad taste hopefully, "You should finish your food, Morris, rather than complaining. The more you talk, the slower your torture will be."

The son of the god of death just let out a few choice words in our minds before gulping and continuing eating with his eyes closed.

However, Kairos seemed to not care about the taste.

Actually, I doubt he cares for the food at all as long he is eating something.

He is oddly still wearing his shades even though he already changed to his boxer shorts and a tank top that showed off his lean but muscled arms.

Weird.

"I swore by tomorrow when you returned from your tasks, I will serve proper meals for you two," our host promised as he squeamishly finished his own dinner with great difficulty, "Just vow to me that your foster mother will never hear about this or she will have another thing to diss me over. As if she doesn't have enough as is."

We heard a painful groan, and we saw my cousin finally cleaning his plate with utmost hardship, "I've lived in the streets for years and have eaten things not suitable for human consumption, but hands down this is the actual worst of them all. What makes it more unbearable is that you have to pay for this thing. Unbelievable."

"You lived on the streets?" the son of our host asked after finishing his own dinner and looking at Morris' direction.

"Yep. Hard but I don't resent it. It actually helped me a lot more than it hurt me. Homelessness is something I never wished for myself but am thankful for the learning experience all the same. However, it still doesn't change the fact that this meal is one of if not the worst I have eaten in my life, and that's saying something."

He then thought of the fact that he was from the past and have technically lived for eons, but I just laughed with him in our thoughts.

"I didn't have to go through that now that I think about it," Kairos said thoughtfully as we all look at him, "I was found in a river near a secluded hamlet at the edge of the republic's borders with Auralia a little over a year ago by the villagers."

Mr Atomo nodded nostalgically as he closed his eyes and leaned on his seat comfortably, "He was taken off by the locals lavishly. They live in native conservation, and their people can be said as one of the pure-blooded Anoixians. Their lineage can be easily traced back to the Golden Age back when our country is a mere province of a greater whole, and they settled there after the fall of the lost age in seclusion. The republic swore to keep their settlement in utmost secrecy and security for thousands of years. Kairos stayed there for a month or so as their most prized possession before a messenger from their hamlet appeared in my office one day and told me about a curious child suddenly appearing out of nowhere in their hamlet. It is my sacred duty to take care of him as if my own."

"They are a rather superstitious bunch," Kairos muttered as he looks at his own hands, "The people there said that my arrival was foretold and they gave me my name for I know nothing at all. He, the elder, said that their people have lived there for countless years to await my prophesized arrival and deliver me to the chosen of Zephyrus. They treated me like I am not human at all, and they are almost always in tears when they look at me in the eyes as if I am the proof of their existence or something."

I don't know why, but I laughed out loud when I heard what he said that made him understandably scandalized.

"I am sorry for laughing, but I am laughing at my own predicament rather than yours," I said honestly as he raised an eyebrow at me. At the same time, Morris just chuckled because he already knows what I am about to say, "You woke up knowing nothing and the ones who found you treated you like a king when Ms Irene just took me in and the very next day, made me work at her company."

The president chortled and started laughing so bad he is already crying, "That is Irene for you. One moment she is very caring and softhearted, the next, she will make money out of you. Typical. Just. Typical."

"You may be the reason why our foster mother is adamant about not letting us do our immersion, Mr Atomo?" my cousin asked carefully as we are obviously treading on dangerous waters judging by the sudden shift of expression of our host from happy to angry.

"I'd rather not answer that, Morris," he replied dismissively before looking at the wall clock that says half-past ten in the evening, "Anyways, you better get some sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow."

We all nodded as we stood up from our seats and began to enter the room given to us in the expensive but utterly messy condominium flat of Mr Atomo.

It is not dirty or smelly and gross.

I stepped on something, and when I looked down, I saw black underwear that the president quickly picked up and threw at the face of his son.

"I am sure you have no idea how disgusting it is for a decent self-respecting young woman like our guest to step on your underwear, Kairos?" he asked seriously but not to his surprise, his son just look at him ignorantly, "Why am I even talking to you? You are hopeless."

Our host looked at me apologetically as I smiled at him kindly, "This really looks more of a man cave than a regular home, Mr Atomo," I said pointedly that made him scratch the back of his head, "Ignoring the lack of proper food and underwears scattered around, this house is just like the opposite of Ms Irene's but for men. Why even my cousin is already enjoying himself."

I then pointed at Morris who is now grinning at the television with a sort of electronic contraption for playing something.

"Wow, I never knew that these technologies survived!" he exclaimed as he pointed at the black console thingy under the screen, "These things were all the rage back then, Vivet!"

Kairos stepped beside him awfully close for comfort as he studied Morris with keen interest, "I've learned from my foster father that you two are from the past. Specifically, the lost age. The Golden Age of humanity."

"Well, yeah. That's the long and short of it. Although Vivet barely remembers any of her time back then."

I nodded and touched the controlling mechanism of the console as if I am hoping that it will bring back even a sliver of memories that I am yearning for.

"Indeed. Although our class spent a short time when we were blasted back to the past," I answered as I close my eyes and reminisce what we have seen and experienced, "You should have seen it, Kairos. Flying metal birds, iron snakes travelling at the speed of sound and even steel contraptions capable of reaching even the stars above."

"I know..."

Morris and I looked at him as he smiled at us sadly as he continued speaking.

"The people that sheltered me possess a lot of ancient carvings, statues, even photographs and mechanical things of the last Golden Age. I've seen what you have seen as if I was there myself. They have this weird visor-like equipment called Virtual Reality Headsets that can make you enter a fantasy world as if it is true and experience things that were once in the past."

The son of Thanatos blinked at him as I saw in his memories the very thing that Kairos was saying just now.

"That was the latest invention of Hephaestus built with the help of Morpheus and Hypnos! It is called in its other name as the Dreamscape! They have a lot of things from the past back in that hamlet, Kairos?"

Mr Atomo's son nodded slowly, but he suddenly looked annoyed and angry, "Yeah, they have a lot of things I don't even know what they really are or what they do. But why are you interested in them anyway?"

"What do you mean? Of course, I am interested! I am ancient! My home, my time was taken away from me and the next thing I know, I am already here in this time."

Kairos shook his head back at him, "You are already in the present, Morris. Why bother with the past? What's important is now, not from an age long lost and dead."

My cousin suddenly grabbed his neck as his anger get better of him, and I screamed as he lifted him slowly, "The past is my life, Kairos. Watch your words, for you may be as dead as my era."

"You don't scare me, son of death," he replied in a quiet voice as his shades fell from his face to the floor, revealing his whole look for the first time.

Now I know why he wears it even if there's no sun at all.

His void black eyes are intoxicating and addicting in its timeless beauty that only made his face more godlike than it already was.

Imagine when you are doing something boring, and you are waiting for the end of your shift or class.

You keep on looking at the clock, keep on glancing and staring and the hands, instead of going faster, suddenly seemed to slow down even more.

So you keep on looking at it even more until you wasted your time just by staring at it.

That's the nearest explanation of what I am feeling now that I am looking straight into his eyes.

Wait, that's it...

"Time."

I looked at Kairos who muttered those words, and I felt something unseen happened, but I didn't realize it until I saw our host frozen and unmoving.

I glanced at Morris, who is still angrily grasping and constricting the neck of Kairos. He doesn't seem to be affected, and neither am I.

However, I looked at the wall clock, and it is not moving.

Outside the window of the condominium, the world just stopped frozen at the moment like someone hit the pause button in the video.

"So this is who you really are, spawn of Khronos!"

I looked back at my cousin, who is tightening his grip at the neck of the calm boy as he summoned his scythe in his left hand from the shadows.

"No wonder you don't understand the importance of time for mere mortals for your father is time himself. You bastard..."

Kairos blinked and just looked at his aggressor curiously, "You are not affected by my ability," he said before looking as well on my direction, "Even her. Why?"

Morris laughed out loud as he threw with all his might his captive which unsurprisingly, instead of falling down, he just stood motionlessly in the air, not hovering nor flying.

Just halted for a moment...

"I am the son of Thanatos, the god of death. Death is timeless. Time delivers all mortals to death. He is as sure as Khronos himself," my cousin said in almost a whisper that made Kairos blink in surprise, "She is the daughter of Elpis, the goddess of hope. Like her brother, she is eternal, timeless, and as long as someone exists in this world, immortal or not, hope will endure. You may not be scared of us, but we can say the same to you."

Kairos seemed to be offended by those words as he summoned two swords one shorter than the other like the hands of the clock itself made of ivory and prepared to attack as my own cousin crouched in preparation.

"Elpis: Chains of Hope!"

From my arms erupted two long fetters made of radiant light that snaked its way through the air and wrapped themselves on the components of the two boys who stopped at the last second.

"Please, enough of this. Why are you two even fighting?"

Morris and Kairos just looked at me in surprise as I coughed in blood when I felt the backlash of the power I have used.

How can my mother endure chaining Thanatos when the payment for such incredible feat is internal pain?

I can feel as though my body is being burned in a stake as I pulled the two closer to me and apart from each other.

But then again, maybe she is not in pain at all.

When the two saw me hurting, they suddenly stopped resisting and rushed to my side that alleviates the pain somewhat.

Thanatos himself is willing to be shackled himself, so my mother is free from any pain at all.

Morris' father looks up to my mother, and I am sure he wouldn't dare pain knowingly on her just as much as his son now is trying to make me feel better.

"Vivet! Take these off! I swear I will not fight anymore. Just don't hurt yourself any longer!"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say the things that I have said. Maybe I am an uncivilized couth after all."

I looked at the two and shook my head slowly as I can still feel the pain coursing through my very being, "Until you two promise not to be at each other's necks, I will free you. I'd rather die than see unavoidable deaths happen in front of my very eyes. Not if I can stop it."

"I promise, Vivet. No matter what he says at me, I will not react anymore. Just don't do this!" Morris promised as Kairos followed suit.

"Likewise, I promise not to say anything without thinking of what you two may feel. If I said something offending, let me know, teach me how to act human."

My cousin and I looked at Mr Atomo's child who is crying right now.

"I'm different than even demiurges. What am I?"