2 The Death of Alexandros Andreas

Inside the casket, was the corpse of Alexandros Andreas - a healthy man in his early forties, who died from a brutal robbery with homicide three days ago.

Kairo Julius, his son, and only remaining family, was now an orphan at the age of 17. His mother died upon giving birth to him, and now, his father was taken from his as well by a cruel twist of fate.

'Damn the Fates.' He thought.

Alexandros was a professor of Greek Literature at a university, so whether Kairo likes it or not, he learned a lot of Greek stuff from him as he grew up. Never did his father ever consider to remarry, because, according to him, that will 'not please Hera'.

Needless to say, his father was an eccentric man, who was a sucker for anything Greek – be it their food, traditions, culture, religion and their myths. When he asked his father about why he is so fond of these stuff, he only said, "We have Greek origins of our blood, so it's only natural that we learn of the things our ancestors were once taught. Let me tell you more about it….." and the Greek lessons were almost non-stop.

However, these things never made sense for Kairo, because the idea seems too old for the 21st century. Besides, they are not Greeks! The Olympians, or whatever they are, are nothing but myths! They aren't real!

He knew the story of the three Fates from his father – how they made themselves submissive to the Lord of the Underworld, and how they had control over the strings of a person's life. The story says that when the Fates cut the thread that represents that person's life, that person dies and goes to the underworld, where they are judged as to whether or not they will suffer or they will be comfortably at peace. Not that he believes them anyway.

But now, his father is gone, so damn the Fates and their scissors. He can't help but wonder whether his father is currently sniffed by Cerberus or is currently judged at the entrance of that *hell*.

"Come on dad, all these Greek stuff is getting into my head, please let it stop." He chuckled as he uttered those words in front of Alexandros' grave. Everyone already left after the funeral, and only he remained in front of the freshly-dug dirt where his father was now resting six feet beneath. He only cried once this entire time - only when he actually saw his father's bloody corpse after he entered their house that night three days ago, when he returned from the camp he attended at school, where he plays volleyball.

At first he thought it was a trick, but the blood was real, and there's no denying that the body was Alexandros'. That was the only time he wept for his death, and he swore to never cry again if he can help it.

'I'm all alone now.'

When the authorities finished the investigation, they concluded that the victim was stabbed to death 12 times, and apparently, he was holding on to something before he expired. It was forcefully taken from him. Two items were robbed from their house – the first one is the custom-made, leather-bound, book of Greek mythology that Alexandros himself authored, and the second, was a key to the basement of their house, where his father spends most of his free time.

Kairo decided to just wreck that damned basement tomorrow in search for answers. He needed to know what's in that place since his father never showed him what's inside it in his 17 years of existence. Alexandros always tells him that he will know what's there soon, when the time is right. He also told him to never, ever tell anyone else about this place, or talk about it in public.

The police only knew about the missing book, because he never told them about the missing basement key. So whatever is inside that place must be linked to his murder. 'I must figure it out, whatever the cost.' He barely even read, nor listened to the police report.

He left the cemetery after two hours of lonely solitude, with nothing to hear but the rustling of the trees overhead, the soft cuckoo of the birds, and the occasional breeze that the west wind blew in his direction.

"I'm going ahead, dad."

Kairo thought of being alone now inside their empty house. With no one else around him, the place was eerily silent. He passed by the living room, where the television was still on. To the left, was the cordoned room where yellow tapes of 'crime scene, do not enter' was plastered all over. He wanted to get rid of those things, as he wanted to see the house as clean as it was before he left it. But the authorities were adamant in their investigation, and he had to further endure the sight of his father's blood and the outline of his dead body on the floor of that room.

Wait, that is his father's room. How can he realize it too late? He stopped on his tracks and debated on whether to go in or not. Finally, he decided to take a look inside, just for a while, and tried to ignore the scene of the crime before him.

He rummaged through the table and found nothing unusual on it. Next, he opened some drawers and cabinets, looking if something from them was missing, but found none out of the usual from them as well. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and softly muttered, "What would you do, dad, if you wanted to relay a final message while you're dying?"

The moment he opened his eyes, he realized that he overlooked something from the outline of his father's body. Alexandros' index finger was pointed at a certain area – the white wall of the room. Kairo had seen enough of detective movies to know what to do next. He hurriedly went to their storage area to retrieve a UV light. When he got back to the crime scene, he used the UV light to search for traces of any invisible writing. When he reached the white wall, he was greeted with the following characters:

Area 5 – S1 – R2B4 – 3,5 – 5,16 – 68,97 – 9,27

Yes, he barely remembered from the police report, that the authorities also found out about an invisible message written on the walls. He remembered one of them showing him a piece of paper with gibberish writings, asking him whether those written characters make any sense to him. He was not in the right mind to process what was shown to him so he responded negatively. But now…

"Of course…." He copied the text in a separate piece of paper and went out of the crime scene.

Alexandros loved to code things – including their house. 'Area 5 refers to my room.'

Next, Kairo thought about 'S1'. It refers to the things that begin with an 'S' from his room. Seeing the letters and numbers following it, he analysed which things it was referring to, and after a few minutes, he concluded that the code was pointing to his shelf, the fourth book, in the second row.

"Found it." He grabbed the book that the note pointed out. It was the same book that was stolen from his father, also custom-made, but Kairo's exclusive copy only this time.

"3,5 – 5,16 – 68,97 – 9,27." Now this part is easy. It refers to page numbers and order of the word counting from the top of that page. "3-5, means the 5th word on page 3."

Kairo spotted it and the word was "Do." He repeated it for the next three codes and he unravelled the final message of Alexandros.

'Do – Not – Revive – Father'

"Huh? Really? Perhaps I made a mistake? This doesn't make sense." Kairo got disappointed at his discovery.

Tired from his attempt at being Sherlock, Kairo went to bed without changing his clothes. He immediately fell asleep. The moment he woke up, he wasn't in his room anymore. He was lying on the ground, and everything around him was strange. Nothing familiar is in sight. "Where the hell am I?!"