Agartha - Quest for the Legacy

The smile did not falter as she lied with a straight face. She bid adieu to everyone as she gathered her belongings and left. Darcy stood there with a glowing face, not knowing what was going on, but Isabella and Chelsea looked at each other, worry etched on their old faces.

Amelia boarded the car and went towards their home in Lower East side. She was thinking about various things throughout the whole journey. She alighted from the car with her eyebrows crinkled. She tried to smoothen the space between the eyebrows and entered their villa. She went straight to the living room, only to find her husband sitting on their couch reading a book without his spectacles on.

She smiled at the sight and then went ahead and knocked his forehead. "Why aren't you wearing your glasses?"

He smiled but did not answer her question immediately. Instead he stated, "You returned."

"Yeah." Amelia removed her heels and propped her legs up on the small table lying in front of her and slowly massaged her feet. She sighed and said, "Wearing heels is hard. You know that, right?"

Stephan chuckled at his wife's antics and then said, "Uh huh. I do. Why do you wear them anyway? You can throw them out and wear sneakers. You used to look hot in those sportswear and sneakers." Stephan's eyes glinted as he spoke. But after that he sighed. He was questioning his lifestyle nowadays. He did not spend time with the mother-and-son pair. Was everything worth it? He had no time to ponder as he heard a loud crash from the room upstairs.

Amelia and Stephan looked at each other and ran towards the bedroom barefooted. When they arrived, they were astonished. Brad's body was glowing. Half of it was red and the other half was blue. They were dumbstruck. They stared at him afraid that something might happen if they approach him. They stood there like a statue, even afraid to breathe out loud.

Slowly, they saw that the lights started spiraling around his body, rose to the ceiling and entered the space between his brows. Everything happened in a moment, that Amelia and Stephan was stunned. Soon relief washed upon them, as they saw that there was nothing out of ordinary.

Amelia slowly approached Brad, who was still lying on the bed unconscious. She poked his arm, hoping that it would move. Hoping that Brad would wake up soon. A drop of tear fell from her eyes, and suddenly Brad opened his eyes. His eyes had the shadow of heterochromatic eyes of Olympia, but it was barely noticeable.

The glaring lights of the bulb assaulted Brad's eyesight. He closed them hurriedly. He blinked a number of times before opening them again. To Stephan, it was like a slow-motion movie, where he saw everything but was still unable to respond. He looked at Brad, who was still trying to adjust his eyes to the light, and then looked at Amelia, who was busy crying. His lips twitched and overwhelming emotions filled his mind.

He went ahead and called out, "Brad, my son, are you okay? Can you hear me?" Even he was stunned at the gentleness of his own voice. Nevertheless, he called out again, "Brad, can you hear your father?" He had a hopeful smile on his face, when he noticed Brad turned his head, looked at him and croaked, "Father, w-a-t-e-r."

Stephan leaped to his feet and hurried towards the kitchen to fetch a glass of water. He brought it to the room and saw his wife looking at her son with a dumbfounded expression on his face. If the situation was not serious, he would have laughed out loud at her. She looked so hilarious.

He took the glass of water and lifted Brad's head a little to make him drink. He was reminded of Brad's childhood. When he was small, he used to cry a lot at midnight, and he would have to wake up at the middle of the night just to feed him. Tears glistened in his eyes but he forced them down. He slowly patted Brad's head and went downstairs.

Soon, Amelia followed him. As soon as she came near her, she asked, "Why were you crying?"

"I wasn't crying."

"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.