chapter 4

First, Howard smelled hay in the air. Second, a loud explosion rocked the air shaking the foundations of the house. Third, a high-pitched loud scream came forth from the bottom of the stairs. Fourth, he felt wind rush past his head a millimetre away and he ducked.

"You are one tenacious cockroach aren't you," a voice said above him. He looked up to see a very familiar person looking down at him a wolfish grin on his face. The hale man staring down at him looked like he was in his late forties, but Howard knew him to be close to seventy years old. 

Yet even advanced in aged, Howard knew there was no way he could overpower him. The man knew that too, and that's why he calmly watched Howard get to his feet. He twirled his white cane watching the teenager slowly.

"I believe you have something that belongs to me."

Howard didn't need to be told he was talking about the watch. However, a voice in his mind told him not to hand over the watch.

"I have searched high and low for this item and I will not let some bratty middle-aged idiot take this from me." 

Howard inwardly wondered what this old man was rumbling about. His body could never be confused for anything else other than a teenager's. 

"Ah you must be confused since you don't know what I am talking about, eh Howard, you know I killed you once about seventeen years ago. Though by then you were in your late twenties. Now I do not need to kill a teenager so just hand me that watch in your hand and we can act like nothing ever happened."

{We both know he will not do that, the moment you hand me over, he kills you. That cane he is holding has an instant kill artefact on it, he missed deliberately the first time.}

Howard wasn't shocked to hear the crow's voice in his head.

{Do as I tell you and you will have a fighting chance. I didn't guide you all the way here to be killed by a demigod.}

Howard listened closely to the crow's plan and looked straight at the old man who was watching him. 

"I feel some spatial interference around you, which may mean that the artefact is resonating with you. Now don't be silly and-"

"Time Encapsulate."

Time around Howard stopped and it spread quickly engulfing the whole house in a state of timelessness. He quickly passed the old man who at that moment struck as his eyes glowed golden. Howard fended off the strike with his bare hands. The old man grinned when contact was made but his grin froze in his face when he saw the boy go down the stairs unharmed.

Howard ran down the stairs almost falling over. When he reached the bottom his heart stopped cold when he saw Lynx lying on the floor with a pool of blood around her. He got down to his knees and held her face.

Her eyes blinked and he was surprised. "Run, the house has been poisoned and some bad guys are here."

He started to protest and tried to lift her up but she stopped him, "I'll call my father he will come to get me. Just run I'll see you when I can."

{Better listen to her kid, that upstart is undoing the spatial freeze.}

Howard lowered his head and kissed her on the lips and headed for the door. The door blew back and the wooden shrapnels, hit him lacerating his hand. A cordon of men dressed in heavy armour rushed in and surrounded him.

{I am not letting this happen again. Kid, I know you don't believe in gods but I need you to do something else. Take me and smear blood on my image.}

"A blood bond?"

{For someone who doesn't believe you know a lot. Yes, since that's the ultimate shortcut. Unless you'd rather have a perforated body in a few seconds.}

Howard pulled out the watch and placed it against his bleeding arm. The watch grew white-hot and just as he was about to drop it, a white light engulfed him blinding him.

"Howard buddy, wake up."

Howard groaned and opened his eyes. He winced in pain as he got to his feet. His left arm throbbed painfully. 

He looked up to see a hairy face watching over him and he groaned again. "Where am I?"

His voice felt strange to him.

"You are in hospital, my dear boy,"

Howard looked into the face and recognition hit him, "Cousin Fred, what are you doing here? Where's mum and dad?"

Fred looked at his cousin strangely and felt his head, "Howard, your parents died over ten years ago."

Shock spread over Howard's face and he looked around noting that he was indeed in a hospital room. The white curtains around his bed had been drawn and it was at this moment that he noticed he was fully bandaged across his legs and hands.

"What happened?"

Frank sighed and told him that he had been admitted to the hospital having third-degree burns on his hands and legs. He also told Howard that his house along with his neighbours had burned down and he was the only casualty. 

Howard frowned, still dazed and confused. Did he own a house? Frank saw the confusion on his face and looked at Howard.

"Howard, what is the last thing you remember?"

He shook his head as if trying to clear the fog from his head, "I was at The Glades and I was attacked, I left a friend—"

He went silent as he remembered Lynx lying in a pool of blood and how he started to head for the door only for it to explode in his face. However, he didn't remember there being any fire so how did he get burned?

"How old are you Howard?"

"Seventeen," came the answer. Frank shook his head and held up his open palms. Howard baulked as it hit him. That explained his deep voice.

"I don't know why but you seem to be recalling events that happened over ten years ago, you may need to be examined further."

Howard remained silent. He knew it wasn't a recollection of experiences that had happened ten years ago, this was something that had happened a few days ago. As soon as he could walk he will definitely get to the bottom of things. 

Two weeks later, after being given a clean bill of health as well as astounding doctors at his recuperating speed, he walked out of the hospital. He was used to his new older body which was strangely more energetic and vibrant than his teenage one. 

{It is about time you got out of that zone, it was depressing as hell}

Howard almost walked into a lamppost as the voice popped into his head.

{Funny human, did you think I disappeared? We have a blood bond, remember.}

He felt a warm object on his chest. He willed his hand to it and sure enough, there was the timepiece around his neck.

"How?"

{Concealment is as easy as breathing to you. I've been around your neck these three weeks. I know you have a lot of questions, but we need to get out of the open}

A mental image popped into Howard's head along with directions to it. It was an abandoned bungalow in a relatively affluent part of the city. As he had no money he walked the ten kilometres to the place, and he arrived dusty and parched. 

The bungalow was a red-tiled building having large glass windows at the front. For an abandoned building the grounds were well maintained and the building was relatively clean. He pushed open the wrought iron gate and walked up the cobblestone driveway up to the vestibule. 

A sign at the door read: TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN.

He pushed open the door expecting to find an empty house but was delighted and surprised to find it well-furnished and warmly lit. There was even a dining table that had been set up.

"Okay Crow, I am listening," Howard said taking a seat

He had a flutter of wings and a rush of air as a black crow landed gracefully on the seat across him. 

{I already did introductions the first time we met}

"That was a dream—"

{No it wasn't, you were there physically all three times, and your brain just put it down like a dream. My name is Chronos, Aion, and Kairos, I am three and the three are me. I am the embodiment of time.}

"Ah so I wasn't dreaming, okay so that part about you and me going to fight your son who turned you into a talking bird watch was also applicable?"

The crow snapped its beak twice and glared at him. "Well if I am not dreaming, then that means I am a twenty-eight-year-old orphan, with nothing to my name, no job no money no lover. So why pick me?"

{The blood bond is the reason why. We are now linked until I gain all my powers. That means you need me and I need you. However, yes you have nothing, not even a name or identity. I had to erase that to protect us from those who seek to find us. You no longer exist especially to them.}

"So am I invisible or what?"

The crow swung its head side to side, {Your old identity is no longer there. You never have and never will exist.}

"If I am not existing then why am I here, what is the purpose?"

"To help me get back my powers and visit a certain grandson of mine. To do that, I first need to recalibrate myself, that last ability that you uncouthly called Time Bubble, sapped me of all my reserves. I need two delicately crafted divine items that Hephaestus made for two Olympians, he then hid them amongst humans.}

"So there are other godly artefacts in this world?"

{Divine artefacts, I am the only godly one. Hephaestus then hid them here from 1885. We have to find them in order to continue.}

Howard took this in and looked around, "What are the other dangers involved other than fighting your family? Will I also die?"

{You already died once, I had to restore you back in a different time zone as a teenager but they discovered you. I didn't have the energy to send you to another time zone so I had to directly intervene this time around. Unfortunately, my intervention meant the previous undoing had to be undone and this created this scenario where you are a teenager in spirit but older physically, you also retained memories and skills of your life.}

"Like two overlapping zones?"

{Yes, you are both existing and not existing in the two zones}

Howard couldn't help but chuckle, "I am the living Schrödinger's cat. So to my fellow humans, I am existing but to the gods, I am not? But won't such an anomaly be detected sooner or later?"

{Yes it will be that's why I need the Fabergé eggs to recalibrate myself and properly restore you.}

Howard nodded absent-mindedly, "So time is more like a big ball of wibbly—"

The crow cawed angrily, {I don't want to hear another word of that thing that travels in a box.}

"Wait! Did you just say Fabergé eggs?"