The Rise Of The Saviour - 7 Back into the blazing fire

“Father !!!”

“Mother !!!”

“Morpheous !!!”

These were her last words before she fainted.

“I am going to meet them in the afterlife,” she thought as she felt the air leaving her lungs. A moment before she was hopeful, a moment before she thought that fate had given her a chance to meet her parents again. But definitely this new fate was even worse than what she had before.

So she closed her eyes and surrendered.

.

.

“Eva !!!”

“Eva !!!”

The next thing that she heard was the faint sound of people calling her name.

She felt a pat on her cheeks. She could feel the droplets of water being sprinkled on her. Someone was rubbing her palms vigorously in an attempt to wake her up. And then she could discern a familiar voice.

“Eva get up for heaven’s sake.”

She felt the mild touch of two fingers being placed on the side of her neck and then suddenly she could feel a congestion sprouting in her lungs.

Wheezing out a cough she slowly opened her eyes and muttered,

“Am I still alive? Where are we?”

“Eva,” Leonidas exclaimed and pulled her close to hug her tight.

“Father!!!” she let out a cry and hugged him back.

“My little child,” said a woman and wiped the tears of joy from her face and hearing that voice Eva screamed again,

“Mother !!! You are alive? You all are alive?”

She was going hysterical, unable to believe the sight in front of her. The night before she had seen their charred bodies and today she was embracing them alive, in flesh and blood. A moment before she had the fleeting glimpse of death, of the afterlife, yet now everything seemed normal. She couldn’t be more grateful to God. She couldn’t have asked for a better day in her life. But suddenly that momentary happiness vanished from her mind.

“If they are here, then where is Morpheous,” she thought and yelled,

“Morpheous !!!”

“Morpheous where are you?”

“Where is Morpheous? Why isn’t he here to see me?”

“Don’t worry Eva. He just left. You know how he is?”

“He just left? Left where?” she asked and turned around, trying to locate him.

“He was here until you opened your eyes and then he rushed out to help others,” said Nefeli, Eva’s mother, as she hugged her tight.

“I still cannot believe we all are fine,” said Eva and started crying again.

Her house had been reduced to dust, their crops had been burnt to ashes, but at least she had her family. She didn’t know if yesterday was a bad dream, she didn’t know if today was a dream itself. But at that moment she didn’t want to think about anything else. She just wanted to be comforted in the arms of her parents, whom she thought that she was going to lose again.

Lifting little Eva in his arms, Leonidas took her and his wife a bit away from the raging fire, underneath a tree at quite some distance from their house.

“Wait for me here. I need to help others,” he said and went back into the labyrinth of fire.

Resting her head in the lap of her mother, Eva asked,

“Are you feeling fine mother?”

“Yes my child. I feel absolutely fine,” said Nefeli and ran her finger through her daughter’s hair.

Eva paused for a moment to ponder but unable to tame the question protruding in her mind, she asked,

“Do you know how the fire started?”

Nefeli let out a deep gasp of air and said, “I have no clue, Eva. I was sleeping as usual in the dead of the night and suddenly I felt a bit suffocated. When I opened my eyes, everything was already burning around.”

Eva felt the grip of her mother tightening around her arms as she continued. “I woke up your father and we tried to escape, but the doors were already on fire. It was like a ring of flame around us and there was nowhere to escape. It felt like I was standing amidst an inferno. We had lost all hopes but suddenly someone entered into that fire. I couldn’t see that brave man’s face but his entire body was in flames including the blanket that was covering his face. I was dizzy by that time, but I just remember him sweeping us out of the house before everything collapsed.”

“That was Morpheous mother. He went in to bring you out. I had told him to enter through the backdoor and I had given him the blanket to protect himself,” said Eva with a hint of pride in her tone.

“Even I thought so. That man was as tall as my Morpheous but now that I think of it, that’s not possible my child, because the man who saved us was literally burning. Even his blanket was burning. Had it been Morpheous then wouldn’t he have all those burn wounds on his body?”

“But Morpheous was with you right. I mean before I woke up.”

“Yes, When I woke up, he was there. But there was not even a single hair on his body had been touched by fire. I even asked him if it was he who took us out, but he denied my child. He told it was someone else, someone whom even he couldn’t recognize. That noble man apparently brought us out and left immediately. I couldn’t even get the time to thank him. Couldn’t even treat his wounds. Such a virtuous soul. May God give his best to that man and heal him with mercy.”

“What about father? Did father see that man?”

“No my child. Even your father couldn’t recognize that nobleman. He left us in the care of Morpheous and went away.”

A puzzled Eva thought to herself, “If the person who saved my parents wasn’t Morpheous, then what was Morpheous doing inside? Who was this person whom no one could recognize?”

Her thoughts ran from one corner of the world to another, before tiring her to sleep.