Chronos: Time Warped - Only The Beginning

Page 12

"Ahh, got it! Wait...wait a minute..."

"What, what happened?"

It wasn't the convenience that the book was open to the page he was on last night, but yet that all his materials were perfectly placed near it. But right on Timothy's face there was a blue X, along with small scattered ones around the message.

"Joe? What's wrong?"

Joe stayed silent, observing the drawing. It was highly unusual, blue X's instead of red. It could've meant anything.

Madi stayed silent as well, until she finally decided to speak again.

"Joe..I know this is a bit of a stretch, but do you think Chronos put those X's there to say that  that's not what he wanted us to do? Or do you think it's Timothy declining to help us?"

More silence. He heard Madi, but was trying to figure out the hidden meaning behind the marks. He shook his head and felt them with his fingers.

She sighed. Madi hated to admit it, but the silence was getting a bit annoying.

"Madi, I don't think this is Timothy's doing...this definitely seems like Chronos."

He picked up the sketchbook and brought it to the floor, taking the phone with him. "I-I mean sure, it could be, but these marks are in blue..."

'Which means...?" Madi tilted her head, confused.

"It could mean anything, death, wrong path like you said, I'm not sure! What do you think? Here, take a look."

"I would say ask Maya or Chronos, but I doubt Maya would know, and Chronos would just be an ass about it." She said with a shrug.

She then looked at the sketchbook page Joe was showing, which only made her be even more confused about the entirety of the situation.

"Maya answered, but I'll get to her in a second. I just noticed something...give me a minute..."

"What is it?"

He pointed at the message they wrote and pointed at the words. "He circled some of the letters, but some of them have X's."

"Wait hold up, so that means the circled letters are a message he wants us to decipher!" Madi suggested. "That's my guess at least."

"Correct...I think. Let me read the circled letters first..."

"Okay!" she responded, smiling. Since she was in Joe's body, it looked exactly like how he normally smiles around her. The Joe in Madi's body, however, focused on the page, squinting.

"N...I...C...R...wait no, E...T-"

He stopped himself, his face quickly changing from sincere to irritation. He looked up at Madi and sighed, smacking his face. "Madi, you were right. Guess what he wrote."

"Nice Try?" She laughed. "If so, i figured."

"Yeah. I hate this fucker, I swear." He picked the sketchbook back up and squinted again.

"Chronos you fucking bitch-" she muttered to herself, but of course, Joe heard her.

"This asshole...if anything, the big X through his face probably means he's after Timothy now, which is fucking great. I'm trying to read the crossed out ones now, so give me one quick moment..."

But in that silent timeframe, the phone constantly vibrates. Joe glanced at it before directly looking at Madi.

Meanwhile, Madi was visibly upset, until she saw Joe looking directly at her.

"Hm?"

"Baby, you mind texting Maya for me? I need her to know that I'm not answering cause I'm focused on this."

"I got you covered!" she said, shooting Maya a text.

"Hey Maya, all the stuff Joe's saying from my phone is true, we did in fact swap bodies. He wanted me to let you know that he's not responding because he's focused on something we just figured out."

As Madi answered the multiple texts Maya sent, Joe decided to grab a pencil and started erasing the message. He wasn't sure if it'd do anything, but he just wanted to know.

Madi then fell back onto a pillow but hit the wall first, causing a thud to be heard.

"This- this is how you know I'm angry. I don't watch what i'm doing."

"I technically did...I hit my back and head on your wall. She nervously laughed, rubbing the back of her head. Joe laughed with her as he finished up erasing.

"And this is how you know I'm angry, I don't watch what comes out of my mouth."

"I already knew that." He flicked a finger gun at her, looking over the new message.

"So...what does it say?"

Once again, he was silent. This time he was mouthing something, supposedly reading the message.

"So I erased everything except the letters in the circles and X's, and the ones crossed out says 'Timothy isn't the one'...the hell?"

"It would be ironic if he meant you as the person we need to find." Madi shrugged, semi laughing at her own statement. "Can I see?"

He brought the book up to the screen for Madi to see. But by the time she saw it, her face switched into concern.