Where The Dead Ones Go Book 1 -Magistracy-

Chapter 19

"Wait, is that..."

We all look at Narcine who is pointing at a boy walking past us with a wire of some sorts in his ears and tapping a weird box in his hands.

The moment he raised his face to look at the metal bird taking off, I screamed in my mind to call him.

"Morris! Morris!"

But I am met with only silence so I ran towards him as fast as I can, "Morris! Your here!"

He looked surprised and removed whatever is connected to his ears and stepped back as if I am dangerous or something.

"Morris, what?!" he shouted as he prepared to run away, "I think you are mistaking me for someone miss."

My companion turns his back on me only to be blockaded by the rest of our classmates who are looking at him expectantly.

To our surprise, he emptied his pockets, removed his bag from his shoulder, and threw it to the surprised Taurei and Avesa.

"Take it! I don't have anything else!" he shouted angrily before looking down at the black box in his hand before deciding to throw it to the twins' direction, "Here, take it. Just let me go!"

Asher just gave him a look of utter disbelief, "You really think we are robbing you, Morris?"

"Why are you harassing me?!" he demanded as he tried to step back only to bump into me, "Who the heck is this Morris anyways? I am not Morris!"

"But Morris..."

Eonia shook her head as she rummaged the bag of the boy in front of us, "He is not Morris, Vivet. His name is Mortis Eoris. Maybe he just look like him?"

I don't know why but I was overcome with emotion and I cried suddenly, "Then, what?"

"We don't want to attract too much attention, guys," Estelle warned as she and Rebie returned the possession of the boy to him and let him go, "Look, we're sorry. You just look exactly like our classmate. We apologize for any misunderstanding."

He just nodded and started walking away warily past me.

I just continued crying before starting to say things about my dear companion.

"Morris loves to eat with his bare hands..."

My classmates just looked at me in surprise as I continue speaking the words I never thought I will share with others.

"He likes showering for long periods of time several times each day. Really afraid of bugs but absolutely likes worms for some odd reasons. His favorite food is fried dried fish and tomatoes with salted eggs. Can't sleep without a pillow between his legs and cries when he wakes up with a bad dream. Afraid to go hungry and always have a biscuit in his pocket just in case he wanted a bite. Poor at math but great at history. Lazy in writing but loves reading. What he likes in girls is that they are respectful but kickass. Girls that have a way with words and have good manners. Dreams to be a teacher but only at home. Biggest problem is the mole in his..."

"Okay, that's just creepy."

I turn around and I saw the boy who looked like Morris standing in front of me with a confused expression in his face.

"I never told anyone about that stuff!" he exclaimed as he shook his head repeatedly, "How can you even know that stuff when I don't even have a friend?! Who are you?! Did you read my mind or something?"

I just cried and walked away towards Gala who is sobbing quietly, "It doesn't matter. He's not you. I'm alone."

"Okay, that's just f****d up. You can't just walk away from me after virtually outing my deepest secrets to people I don't even know and dressed funnily," he shouted and I heard him running towards me before grabbing my arm that made my classmates gasped in surprise, "Who the hell is this Morris and where are you from?! You don't look and feel like mortals. Are you a gang or something? Because if this is just a trick to make me cough up money then fat chance, I am from an orphanage in the Scythian Province."

Vaski suddenly spoke up when he heard the name of his country, "Scythian Province?! Scythia is a province? Not an emirate?"

"Yes, what of it? It is one of the provinces of the empire, of course its a province. What do you expect? What emirate? You drunk or something?" he asked in confusion as he won't let go of my arm, "Now, answer my question, miss. Where the heck did you learn those things about me? Who is this Morris?"

I just cried as Avesa coughed a little and I felt he used the charms of her mother together with Estelle, "I think we just have a little misunderstanding how about we talk all about this somewhere safe and comfortable, uhm, Mortis, was it?"

"Yes, let's all calm down and talk this out cause you know, we are from somewhere far from civilization. Forgive our ignorance, it's our first time in this city, wherever or whenever the heck this place and time is," the daughter of the goddess of beauty as she used her potent allure that worked really well against the boy in my arm.

"The hotel I am staying at has an indoor gazebo that no one uses. We can all talk there privately."

Taurei's sister clapped her hands and pinched his cheek, "Now that I looked at your face closer, you're really cute, Morris, erm, Mortis."

He just nodded and started walking while still clinging in my arms like he always does...

-0-

"My name is Mortis Eoris, mortal from the Scythian Province of the United Empire of Plurinational Alliance Xenocracy. Fifteen years old and an orphan from the Scythian Central Orphanage. I am here so that I can take the entrance exams of the Hellenic Citadel a week from now. The money I am using is the allowance my province gave me as a support for my education. I don't know any Morris Mortheo nor have seen any of you before."

Gala gave me a hug when I sobbed again as I finally realized with finality that the boy in front of me is not my companion.

"I have told you all about me and heard my embarrassing secrets, now it's your turn to tell me who you all really are. You look like students but your clothes are weird. You all act like you don't know what a cellphone or internet is which is odd. Even the bullet train. C'mon, tell me. I am listening."

We all looked at each other and nodded as we let our class president and vice president tell him everything about us.

After a few minutes of silence from him, he started speaking again.

"I don't know why but ever since I can remember, I know when someone is lying through their teeth."

Narcine faked a cough, "The dead speak no lies."

"What?"

"Oh no, nothing," the daughter of Persephone said as she produced a chrysanthemum from her headband and gave it to him.

"You even know my favorite flower," Mortis said in awe as he smelled it, "If what your stories are correct, then this Morris of yours is me but I don't remember?"

"You always begged for chrysanthemums, Morris, I mean, Mortis," Narcine answered as he looked at Rebie and Taurei who just shrugged their shoulders, "But what we said are true. We're from a far away future. An accident happened and here we are."

He just hugged my arm even more as Estelle smiled sadly, "I guess regardless of time, you still act the same, huh?"

"Right you are, Est," Asher agreed as he grinned at the boy and nodded, "Always clinging in the arm of Vivet like she is your mother or something."

He blinked and quickly let go of me, "I'm sorry. I don't know why the heck I am doing it!"

Avesa chuckled and smiled at him fondly, "I can understand the feeling. I am like that with my twin brother as well, Morris, Mortis."

"Just call me by whatever name you want so I won't be confused," he demanded before unconsciously clinging onto me once more, "But what you said scares me. You said that my world, this world, will be gone?"

Eonia looked at Gala and Rebie who just nodded grimly, "Are you really sure it is the right idea to tell him about that?"

"Someone will let it slip sooner or later, Eonia. Might as well just get over with it," Vaski said before glancing at the son of Koalemos who just laughed heartily.

"So this Morris, who is he? What is he to you? Aside from the personal things, I feel that you are withholding a crucial information from me."

We are.

We didn't tell him that he is the son of the god of death. We don't know why but for some unknown reason, we are compelled to keep him pure and untainted about Morris.

If he really is Morris from the past.

This past that we are now.

"He is our classmate and comrade," Zenith said seriously as he looked at Avesa and Taurei, "He helped us save Taurei here and is a valuable ally and friend. But I guess, he just went too far."

"Too far?"

Rebie shook her head, "We can't blame him. If a buffet is in front of a hungry person, will you blame him for eating?"

"Besides, it's neither here nor there," Taurei said with finality, "I just hope he managed to get out. But who am I kidding, with his caliber, it will be easy for him. He must. I still need to thank him personally."

His sister nodded in agreement, "Indeed, brother. But for now, we just have to think of a way to get back before we became nothing but dust in the annals of history.

"I can help you with that!"

We all looked around when we heard the voice of a cheerful man from nowhere.

There's a flash of warm, yellow light and a jaw-dropping handsome blonde boy appeared before us with a grin in his face.

"Apollo?"

The god nodded at Zenith and clapped his back cordially, "It's assuring to know that even after many eons, father is still a skirt-chaser, brother."

"How did you..."

The sun god looked at Taurei and Avesa with glee as he walked around the twins in delight, "My vision is right! The Heavenly Queen did have more twins in the future! Nice!"

"Well, Lord Apollo. "Creations" is more accurate," Avesa said but he just waved her off.

"Different methods, same results," he said dismissively before checking out Narcine and Rebie, "The other queens also have their spawns. Man, I can't believe I'm so right!"

Before one of us can even speak he walked towards each one of us, "Oh, I see. Lytta's regimented son. Koalemos' spawn. Daughter of Aphrodite but Athena's granddaughter, now that's new. Poseidon's son but a Scythian? Weird but okay. Hephaestus' beautiful daughter and Athena's battle-ready child. Aha, now here's a shocker. Never guessed she will ever have a child but here is her firstborn. The demiurge of hope, isn't that right?"

I nodded and bowed my head respectfully, "Yes, Lord Apollo."

"Just seeing you all here gives me great joy. It means that we will somehow survive all of what is to come," he said ominously.

"What will happen? They told me they are from the future and our world right now will end soon!"

Apollo looked at Mortis mournfully, "As you have already deduced, what they told you is the truth. I tried to warn other Olympians and immortals. Even certain mortals but they all just look at me as if I am crazy or something. I foretold that the children of the future would show on the day before the end of the world as we know it as a warning of the coming demise and also as a sign of hope."

"Hope?" I asked the god of truth who nodded at me quickly.

"Yes, Hope, Vivet. Hope that all will not be lost. Hope that we can send our final gift from the past into the distant future to finish what we have failed to do here," he glowed suddenly and the whole surroundings are bathed in his sunlight as it shows us the continent of Tiera in its entirety, "I have foreseen the destruction of our civilization by a monster born from Gaia herself. She resents the Olympians for overthrowing her favorite children, the Titans, and us consorting with humans she thinks of nothing but bugs. An unspeakable army will soon devastate everything we have built and cherished."

Mortis screamed when he saw the vision of his province of Scythia being leveled to the ground by an unknown force as well as the other parts of the empire.

"No matter how dire my warnings are, no one believed me, not a single mortal or immortal does. I guess that's also the result of my idiocy and poor choices that made me look unreliable and laughable," Apollo said sadly before trying to smile a little, "But this is not about me. This is about all of you, inheritors of our legacy. You are sent here because someone yearned for the truth about the past and you got it. If you still want to return to the future and save it from experiencing the same fate as our world will, you have to travel to the Cretonian Province."

Narcine and Eonia looked at each other silently, "Why in Cretonia, Lord Apollo?"

He looked at the son of Hephaestus and sighed, "Because that's where the only existing immortal lives who have the power to send you back from whence you all came."

"But what all of these have to do with me?!"

We all look at the boy who is clinging tightly in my arm.

"If you want to survive and know the truth of who you really are, you will guide them to the temple of the forgotten," Apollo said cryptically before dispersing his light and we see the gazebo of the hotel once more, "You have a big role in all of this. You have a woman to lead and lives to save. Your future is not in the past, Mortis."

Before Mortis can answer, Apollo looked at all of us and gave us his final instruction, "Before you ride the bullet train to Cretonia, you must meet a woman who will be instrumental in your future. If you don't, then there will be no future for you to return to. She should be sitting in the bench on the bus terminal just on the other side of the street from this hotel. If you hurry, you might catch her now before she leaves for the Hellenic Citadel."

He disappeared in a blinding flash of sunlight leaving us all speechless and in shock.

-0-

"Who are you?"

"Ms Peregrine?!" Taurei asked incredulously as we spoke to a woman who looked none other than our adviser back at school.

"How do you know my name?" she asked angrily before standing up and raising her right hand, "If you know my name, you should also know that I am the firstborn of Hebe, goddess of youth. With my demiurge powers, I can simply return you to cribs with a wave of my hand!"

Instinctively, we all took a step back because we are so used to her voice when we know she is not messing around.

But to hear that she is a demiurge just like some of us is a surprise.

She never told us about it at all.

What we know is that she is a child of Hebe.

"What do you want from me?" she demanded before raising her hand threateningly, "You are already wasting my precious time, might as well know what is your objective in approaching me. It's not everyday that teenagers willingly come to me when all my students want to do is run away from me."

Taurei heaved a sigh and nodded, "Yep, she is our adviser all right."

"Excuse me, adviser? Are you students?"

Rebie pushed her close friend back and take a confident step forward, "We are running out of time, Ms Peregrine. Time is a luxury we can't afford right now. I finally realized why he sent us to you, right, Eonia, Gala?"

"Yes, Rebie. We are here to warn you of a terrible calamity that will befall the empire tomorrow," our class president said clearly as the daughter of Athena followed their lead.

"If you want to live and survive, you will have to flee this city right now. Just go somewhere far away from the major centers of population and stay there until the dust settles. We're done here, let's go everyone," Gala said in a hurry before we turn our back to the understandably confused woman.

"Wait a minute! You are not making any sense!"

It is ironically Taurei who faced her and marched right in front of our adviser, "Listen, if in a distant future, you here about Auxiliary Class. Promise me you will get out of whatever retirement fantasy you are living in and teach that class, okay?"

"What?!"

The son of Hera pulled out a bag of gummy worms and thrust it into the hands of Ms Peregrine, "Here, eat this and get going, Ms Peregrine. If all goes well, we will meet again. Until then, stay safe and don't forget my name."

"How rude!" she scowled at her future "favorite" student before he turn his back from her hiding his tears.

"But you always call me by my last name so here it is, Ms Peregrine. Pavonious. Mr Pavonious. Now go! Get yourself out of here and live! Live to get angry at me back at school!"

He then ran back to his sister and friends as we left our adviser who is speechless by what we just said.

Mortis just looked up at me expectantly as I smile at him fondly.

"Something just never changed, huh, Morris?"

He just blinked innocently at me as we head to the train terminal.

I will save you...

Morris.