Chapter 2:

Reminisce II : Encounter p2

When the Eccentrics meet.


I carried the young lad to my room and laid him in my bed. Luckily no one from college was aware of my address. While I carried the boy, there was this air of tranquility around him. Surprising since I expected something grim though I could never have imagined that human beings could have been this weak. Were the Omanoids really under their control in a certain Era?

But more then that, this boy needed some minor medical attention by a doctor. But it was an idea I wouldn't have relied on since doing so would stir trouble. He was starved so the best thing to do was to feed him.

I had some juices which could be fed in such conditions. They were kept in special glass bottles much like that of wine. I took the blue glass bottle attached with a sprayer. The droplets gathered at one point quickly and entered through the 2 holes in his nose. It was possible to control the droplets through some mechanism related to electrostatics. It was a complicated technique where the droplets were oppositely charged to the specific parts of the human body, which enabled transport to stomach under these conditions. Even for a normal person, it was hard to refuse the intake due to this so most medical drinks were made this way.

It goes without saying that venomous drinks were also prepared using a similar method, making it ideal for killing as well. But counter measures did exist so it wasn't at all perfect.

After 5 minutes the lad coughed.

He was conscious.

There was silence but his eyes were clearly questioning my intentions. He did seem like someone who was hard to deceive so I decided to stick with the truth in case he asked regarding my intentions.

"Thankyou"

His voice was filled with pure gratitude again something I didn’t expect in the least and to top it all off, he smiled. It was a smile unlike anything I had ever seen. Warm, enchanting and that made it a bit terrifying...

"Aren’t you...... going to ask me why I saved you?"

"Well I would rather not dwell on the details, whatever your intentions were, the fact remains you saved me."

He said that with a form that could only be described as dignified and elegant.

"If you don’t mind me asking again, what’s your name?"

"Lentas"
The same lad who was dead set on not revealing it before did so now like it was nothing...
the reply was followed by an immediate silence.

"So you live alone?" Lentas broke the silence

"Oh you noticed huh!"

"Well I don’t feel any presence besides you and..."

Before the boy finished his sentence, his gaze was dead struck onto my face. Maybe it was the expression I was giving or something else entirely.

Well truth of the matter was, he wasn’t the same person I rescued a little while ago. There was no question about the fact that it was the same body but the person inside was completely different. Like some new soul was transferred to the body and the lad I rescued only had his body remaining there.

The boy smiled warmly.

"I am sorry; it must have been surprising. I haven’t gotten such a reaction for a long time myself."

I was particularly curious. So I asked

"You are a human being right? so what are you doing here?"

"Well I just woke up in this land and I don’t really recall how I got here nor I am aware of my reasons to be here as well. I do recall everything else though. You can say that there is a minor gap in my memories"

"I see..."

"Well living alone isn’t really half bad though now that I think about it" Ironically he complimented my loneliness.
He quickly gazed around like he wanted to confirm something
"your house has no mirrors as well"

"I hate them"

He must have been taken aback by that. Well I was telling the truth.

"So do you hate your appearance or looking in the mirror?"

"Both"

It was true...

"I am not aware of how I look and as impossible as it may sound, it is the truth. I wear these glasses which allow me to avoid seeing my reflections in the mirrors when I go out."

I said that while touching the lens of my frame.

"They are an outdated product considering they were used for weak sightedness and due to the incredible alternatives, people rarely use them now but since they have a function of filtering the reflections, for me they are more or less an ideal product"

There was a short pause after my reply. Lentas had a troubled look on his face for a second and then he asked

"Does that mean you don’t bath as well?"

"wa WHAAT!!!"

I was taken aback.

"I mean if you are like that, chances are you are not a clean fellow though the room does look tidy so I take it you are at least good in that regard"

My cheeks went purple upon hearing such a response... It was a response I clearly didn’t expect.

"I take care.... of m..y persona...l hygie...ne!!!"

Lentas giggled at my stuttered reply

The atmosphere was unusually calm. I suppose my decision to rescue him was correct.

Well this, the glasses and avoiding reflections was one of the few things for which I was seen as different, I was more or less an oddball after all.
Maybe it was again the expression I was wearing since I caught him staring pretty intensely.
Then after a short pause
"If you think you are odd than I am no different as well"

The boy replied... Was he reading my mind??

"You might deny it but, you do want to ask me regarding the reason for the difference in the boy you rescued and the one who is sitting here in front of you right?"

He smiled.

"I do..."

"I have several personalities."

there was a pause.

"I am trying to keep it simple but well it’s more like I become a completely different person after an incident or something of similar nature. Those 2 beings and me reside in one body though it doesn’t mean I forget about the people I care about but rather my emotions more or less become intense in a way"

"So you have 2 other personalities?"

There was a pause... Lentas went silent but I could guess the answer. It was undoubtedly a

"Yes"

I understood why I didn’t feel the tinge of "grim air" around him now.

but that still didn’t answer why he was being chased or why he was malnourished.
 I took of his shirt to treat his wounds and then another astonishing sight caught me. There were quite a number of scars on his body. Also the blood was red. I had never seen red blood. Blue, green, purple, orange even golden but never red... Maybe that was a characteristic which was unique to human beings.

I wanted to ask regarding them but I bit my tongue before uttering the question.                          Fortunately the wounds weren't to deep.    

After that I silently walked out of the room in order to get some food. The boy simply smiled again and for some reason that put me at ease which was unusual. Now that I think about, he smiled a lot...I couldn’t understand emotions, another reason why I felt like an oddball...

Lentas ate very aggressively. Well it made sense considering his condition.

"So humans do rely on food a lot"

"Muuu huuu"

He was trying to say yes while munching the snacks I had.

gulp

"There is a possibility of dying within a week if we don’t eat. The healthiest of us can survive upto 2 months without food granted there is water to drink"

"I see"

He ate in my mildly lit room. But even in that dark, I felt little specks of gentle light. Maybe I was imagining it. His prescence was really very unusual. I was feeling Happy, tranquil and things which I hadn’t felt for a very long time. Not in several years.

We continued chatting and discussed several silly endeavors.

"So what do you like to do in your free time?"

"I visit several virtual worlds"

"Oh and what do you like to eat? Do you like rain?

"Not really... well yes actually"

The conversation went on.
"Oh you are smiling!"
"Huh?"
Lentas noticed a rare sight I suppose...
"Well thank goodness! I was getting worried for a sec, but do try to wear a smile from time to time... believe me it helps plus it suits you.
I was silent but I wouldn’t deny the fact that, I felt light...
I couldn’t bring myself to respond...But I mustered up my courage and
"Th"

 Boom!

.............
I was interrupted by the sound of an explosion...but Lentas sat like nothing had changed... Only I reacted.

" Dang it... It looks as though they caught up"

He said that... I at that time didn’t understood what was happening till I saw a crack in the roof.

"Runaway Toy no 666, under custody"

That sound made me terrified.

Me?????????

Terrified??????????

I wasn’t afraid of death. But why was I terrified now?

CRASH

And at that moment, the time in front of me became slow. Funny isn’t it? Time travel was still a theoretical concept from what i knew...

Yet it felt as though that time was slow... I heard that people experienced such sensations during very incredible, tense incidents...
I don’t know what happened
but
My hands bled purple as my fingers were caught up in the debris.

There was a robot in front of me. A huge one at that. My glasses were cracked but they weren’t completely broken.

I also saw a lady with scarlet hair on top of that robot. She had pale skin and wore a suit.

But the sight that gave me that supposedly terrified me before was Lentas being caught in the hands of that robot...
He was still smiling even though he was bleeding almost from head to toe...
He was directly facing me.

"Don’t make such a face"

"What face is he?"

"If you are willing,

"Will?"

"If you truly wish"

Lentas took a pause and stared intensely, right into my eyes...

"You will find me"

"What??"
They were leaving and I fainted while staring at their direction. 

I became conscious after a short while... My roof had broken and I could see the clear sun rising now...I read that sunrise marked beginnings and happy endings. But I guess in my case it was different.

It was true I wanted to see that person. I realized that I was in fact lonely. He was different just like me... An oddball
Yet it all felt pretty queer... I had spent a very insignificant amount of time with him... For me that were mere moments, yet they felt much longer. And greater than anything else. I understood something at that time... That the amount of time wasn’t the key factor in when it came to connections. It was the quality and well fate I suppose... Because in the end 
And I was going to rescue him once more.

I found drawings beside the bed and some writings...

"If you truly willed"

Well What I felt right now, was more than just a mere will of sorts... But Was it stronger than a will? I couldn’t answer

Theo
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Yuyu
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