"You were crying. Don"t lie to me Stephan." Amelia said as she looked at her husband in the eye. Stephan couldn"t avert the gaze and confessed, "I was thinking about Brad"s childhood. I couldn"t give time to both of you." Drops of tears fell from his eyes one after the other.When Amelia and Stephan were busy in their conversation, they did not notice a faint shadow standing on the interior balcony of the first floor. The shadow slowly crept to Brad"s bedroom and closed the door. No one could imagine that the shadow had such force to shut the door. The shadow came near Brad and slowly touched his forehead.
His eyelids shivered from the touch and he slowly regained his consciousness. As soon as he did so, the shadow disappeared and Brad was pulled into his consciousness.
"Olympia?" Brad eyed the young woman in front of him. Those pair of mismatched eyes mesmerized him to no end.
"Master. I"m glad that you have returned." Olympia answered with teary eyes.
"Where is Deablo?" Brad questioned.
Olympia pointed at a lump of black ma.s.s floating inside a bubble, with her eyes. Brad followed her vision and it looked nothing like Deablo. He stood there glued on spot. He eyed the bubble and then looked at Olympia again as he asked, "What happened to Shortie?"
"Do you remember that when transferring his powers, he couldn"t and I had to step forward?"
"Hmm. But he was not like this at that time." Brad was still confused, or rather he was forcing himself to be confused. He did not want to believe that Deablo"s conversion was related to him. He hoped that it was not the truth. But life had different plans for him, and Olympia"s next sentence shattered all his doubts and hope. "Master, he sacrificed his power for you."
Drops of tears fell from his eyes. Who said that boys can"t be emotional? Who said that they can"t cry? "AAAAHHHHHHHHH", Brad screamed so hard that the consciousness stream vibrated for a while. Olympia was touched. She knew the gravity of the matter. A consciousness stream can only vibrate due to the pain in heart. She was sure now that Brad cared a lot about Deablo from the depth of his heart.
Brad cried and screamed for a long time before he could gain his emotions under control. He looked at Olympia with his slightly-swollen red-rimmed eyes and asked with a cracked voice, "When will he be okay?"
Olympia lowered her head and answered with profound sadness in her voice, "Master, I don"t know. It can be months. It can be years." She looked away from Brad. She did not want to look at his hopeful eyes.
"Can you cure him?" He knew that Olympia knew something. He probed further. "Can anyone cure him?"
"No."
"I"ll take him to the doctor then."
"Master, Noooo." Olympia screamed as soon as she heard Brad. She scolded him furiously, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know what will happen if you expose him to the outside world? Do you know the consequence of taking him to the doctor? Your whole family will be in danger. Master, how could you be so stupid?"
"I am not. If you can"t cure him, and if there is no cure, I have to take him to the doctor. I"ll bear the other consequences."
"Master, I have a way. But it is too dangerous. I don"t know whether it exists or not."
"What is it?" Brad probed further.
"Derman Mountains."
"Where is that?"
"I can"t tell you now. Anyway, let"s return. I"ll tell you when the time comes."
"Return? Where?"
"Downstairs, you stupid!"
"Oh, yeah. Let"s go." He left his consciousness stream and went to the inner balcony and heard his mother and father discussing something in hushed tone. What they didn"t know was that Brad"s hearing power had increased hundred-folds in these few days. He could listen to the silent whisper. So, their conversation entered his ears.
"... and there was a trap door. Various colors of light were spiraling, and it seemed to be in perfect harmony, as if they were just teasing each other." Amelia recounted what she saw.
"And?" Stephan asked, seeing his wife in deep thought.
"Grandma said that the occurrence is due to someone"s awakening."
"Awakening?"
"Yes. And I"m afraid that the awakening is related to Brad."
"What?"
"Stephan, don"t be silly. You saw the mark between his eyebrows, right? Although it has faded now. You already know that something supernatural is going on, right?" Amelia fired one after the other seeing her husband"s widened eyes.
"I know. But that doesn"t mean it is our Brad." Stephan countered and Amelia sighed. Both of them knew the truth but were not sure what to believe and what not to.
Meanwhile, no one noticed that the transparent red-haired lady standing beside Brad stiffened with their description. Tears gushed out from her eyes, but she forced them down. "Mother… Father… When will we meet?" She stroked the pendant on her neck as she thought.