Only after Dian sat down in the emergency hall finally, he could feel his mind and body is realizing the situation. On one side he was "happy" that his guess was right, on the other hand, he was starting to tremble when he thought about how it could have ended up...
"Good evening. They told me you brought Thanos to hospital so I suppose you are Dian," a deep slow voice stopped Dian's apocalyptic thoughts. When he lifted his eyes, his heart skipped a beat as there was Thanos standing over him!
Well, so it seemed for the first look, but the very next moment Dian realized that something is different. He hurriedly stood up and nodded: "Good evening..."
Now he could see clearly that this person was so not Thanos. In a manga, he would be the dark version of the kind and smiling Greek boy. His face lacking the tenderness and warm tone of his friend.
And as his black eyes were piercing Dian through, he started to feel frightened, like the person in front of him was looking for Dian's deepest fears on the bottom of his soul.
Dian quickly understood without a doubt that he is facing Spiros, the older brother of Thanos. But how could two persons be so similar yet so different...?
However, once Spiros spoke, Dian could feel somehow he is really caring for his brother although his voice or gestures did not show any emotion: "The doctor said he arrived in last minutes, they had just time to prepare for a problemless operation."
Dian froze: "So bad...?!"
Spiros nodded. "Thank you again. If he was home alone, he might not call for help in time. Or...," he took an angry breath in: "...at all!"
Dian remained silent, the thought made him anxious.
"A ruptured appendix...if you do not arrive to hospital in time..." he did not need to explain more, Dian was well aware of the consequences, but only now, spoken out loud, the shock was starting to hit on him.
"The boy is so stubborn!" Spiros' anger rose: "He was supposed to go to a doctor the first time he felt the pain...! But he never listens!"
Dian was surprised by the sudden emotional explosion of this man that looked like a rock nobody could move.
He realized Spiros was a perfect example how person's appearance can mislead one's judgement about his personality...
"Here...I wanted to give you Thanos' bag."
Spiros nodded, now calm again on the surface. He took out the car keys and handled them to Dian: "Take his car to get home," his decisive voice made Dian accept them despite him being reluctant.
However, he will leave only after he gets the news that the intervention is over.
A doctor stopped by twenty minutes later to tell them that the operation ended without problems.
Since they carried out a laparoscopic surgery, Thanos will stay in hospital just overnight and Spiros can pick him up the next day. The convalescence at home should take 3 to 10 days, excluding physical exertion and heavy meals.
That night, Dian had his first dream after many months since he left Thailand.
A nightmare about losing his new friend, full of despair and anxiety, but followed by a wake up in the morning light which brought the blissful relief that everything is alright.
And as to reassure him, the phone beeped to deliver him a message:
"Thank you for yesterday, words cannot express enough. T."
And a second one just in few seconds: "Actually they can: I owe you my life."
And a third: "Can I see you soon...?"
* * *
"But wasn't Phobetor the son of Ares, the ancient Greek god of war...?" Dian was wondering loud who would give such a name to a guesthouse. Literally it should mean "fear, panic".
"No, that was Phobos," Thanos smiled at Dian's shyness when he realized he spoke out loud his doubts about Spiro's hotel's name.
"But Phobetor was one of the gods of dreams, son of Hypnos, the god of sleep. He appeared in dreams in the form of beast or bird or the long serpent," he smiled lightly: "So his popularity was also not high."
But before Thanos answered to Dian's unspoken question, he had to ask curiously: "But how do you know so much about Greek ancient mythology?"
"Never underestimate the power of computer games and anime," Dian winked making Thanos laugh about the kinda absurd but true fact.
"Spiros named his hotel like this, because it is his second name."
Now definitely Dian was confused. He looked around the shady yard, to the dark forest that made a mystic wall right after the property's rock walls. The grey guesthouse itself..."Hey, what are you doing!? Let me do--"
But Thanos already put his bag into the car's trunk and close it before Dian could complain more.
"Thank you for picking me up, three days here are far too much..."
"Hmm...? But it is better to be taken care of by the family than staying alone in a hotel room, no?"
"Mah, Elpida, the receptionist, was more caring to me than Spiros. Right now I did not see him for about 30 hours. Not to mention that when he comes, he is scolding me continuously. Even without words, just by looking at me with those black eyes of his, I feel so small..." Thanos pretended he is offended but smiled lightly.
"But he is right, isn't he? You did have the pain attacks before. You should have gone to doctor," Dian was about to ventile out his own emotions of that night.
"That is the worst. I know he is right. And I already told him I took my lesson... At least he persuaded our mother that there is no need to come to Corfu."
Thanos sit down carefully into the car:
"Thank you ag---"
"Please do not thank me again and again. What human would I be if I did not help...?! Just the circumstances wanted it to be me, not a random person in the park. I do not want you to be reminded every time you look at me," he turned on the engine and looked with a light smile on his Greek friend: "But... I am glad it was me and that I was able to help you..."
A tingling feeling froze his heart, but he chased it away. Things are all right now.
"So you said that Spiros' second name is Phobetor...?"
Thanos made himself comfortable on the seat: "Yes. Spiridon Phobetor Pantazis. My second name is Morpheus and my younger brother is Nikolaos Phantasos."
Dian was not surprised about having a second name, they have a tradition of official nicknames in Thailand, sometimes you meet a person with a really crazy one. But he was wondering how somebody can give a name of an sinister ancient god to his child...
"The tradition of giving names of ancient gods comes from my father's family, the Pantazis family from Crete," Thanos' voice slipped into serious tone: "It is kept for some hundreds of years already and my grandfather, uncles and aunts are proud of it...I think it makes them feel as if we were the chosen ones..." Thanos paused for a moment.
"So ridiculous! What were they thinking? Those crazy old men!"
Another minute of silence.
"Like it is not enough to live as a Greek with the sticker of an ancient nation that founded 'the western civilisation' while the today's reality is far from a splendid marble temples and brooding philosophers strolling under the olive trees. We are so not our ancient ancestors! More than 2000 years of mixing the influences of cultures from east and west. Even without being the bordering area of Europe, none of the country and nations can stay the same after so many centuries.
Yet, some people go and stick to mythology that is dead for twenty centuries. Being even proud of it..."
Dian could feel he hit a point that really is bothering his friend. He could only imagine how you live with such a name...
"Of course," Thanos answered again the question not yet asked. "But we were lucky enough to sustain each other as we were in three. But Spiros, with his name and being the oldest one, did bear the burden in full."
Thanos smiled: "I think he named the hotel like that as a recession... It looked so spooky when he bought it. The former owner died and his wife wanted to sell it, but nobody wanted to buy. You saw the place... So he got it for a good price."
Thanos suddenly laugh on some private joke: "In the end it turned out that one will have what he is running away from. Spiros always refused our grandfather's talking that he will one day enter the family business. The Pantazis owe many hotels, small guesthouses, restaurants, souvenir shops. Mostly, the ownership is not full, but they have the decisive word. And, what happened, was that only after Spiros bought the place, he found out that it was actually used as a guesthouse for friends of the owner. Some of the former guests persuaded Spiros that he should proceed with it."
"But I cannot imagine what photos of the hotel could persuade some holidaymakers to rent it...or is my guess that the place has some strange aura right...?" Dian indeed felt there is something different about the cottage hidden in the dark forest.
"Yes, you hit it right. The house stands in some strange point of the island that is out of every signal - no phone, no internet, no radio or TV...not even google maps can locate it precisely."
Dian smiled at the desperation that Thanos must have experienced in the past few days. No wonder he couldn't wait to escape.
"And, additional to that, the guests are claiming that they sense some kind of energy or whatever. Some come here to be cut from the world, some come to meditate in the forest and walk around in the shadows... The hotel is nonstop full, they advertise it among themselves. And..." Thanos remembered another detail: "the former guests say that after Spiros took over the hotel, they are having strange dreams...not everybody, but often they have nightmares. However, the nightmares help them to surpass their phobias..."
"The word phobia was derived from the name Phobetor or Phobos?" Dian tried to guess.
"Well, from 'phobos'. But Phobetor means 'frightening' and actually Phobetor was a personification of nightmares," Thanos paused thinking again about the stupid tradition that imposed such a burden on his brother but than he continued: "The upcoming season was already booked, when Spiros took it over, so he did not want to cancel the bookings. And then, the guests are so silent you almost do not know somebody is there, so Spiros gave up and let it run also the next summers."
"What about you, how do you cope with your name?"
"Mine is neutral. So once the childhood passed, I could live with it using my other name. And because I am lacking any imagination, I named my hotel Morfeus. Nikos, my younger brother, made Phantasos even to his artistic name." Thanos sighed: "But I am not going to carry on with this foolishness."
"Did you have any nightmares when sleeping in that place?" Dian placed the question just for fun expecting Thanos to neglect it immediatelly, but he remained silent.
Dian made a curious look at his friend who was staring through the front window with a serious face.
"Yesterday...I dreamed that you left while I was stuck in Spiros' hotel."
He did not want to look at the Thai boy as he himself was wondering why he stated it so seriously. What were the emotions that he felt just after waking up...?
"I would never leave without coming to check on you. Or at least say goodbye..."
"But you will eventually leave..." Thanos was now fixing the driver and waiting for any gesture or reaction but Dian remained silent. Maybe he just overheard the silent sentence...
On the other seat, the boy was pretending he is focused on the dense traffic of the suburbs of the capital.
What should he reply...? He was already struggling with himself not willing to admit he already likes this place.
Stubbornly clinching to the idea that he cannot stay on one place for more than three months and then leave no matter what...
Blaming this beautiful island for it all was very comfortable.
It repressed the truth that he was actually liking the feeling of having somebody that focused his attention on him. On the Dian he was. Not on some fictional personality combined of all the roles he played on the screen and the 'true' life he was 'living' to blur the borders between reality and fantasy that the fans were demanding.
Once they got through the traffic jam, out of the town and heading south to Benitses, Dian decided to cut the silence: "You said you have also second names. How's that?"
"It was thanks to our mother. She tricked them and gave us our second names secretly. The grandfather found out only some years later after Nikos was born," he sounded proud of her.
"She said she chose for us the most common names in Corfu and in Greece to compensate the strange ones."
"That was very clever and reasonable," Dian nodded.
"And she also insisted that while on Corfu, we should use our normal names. So that is maybe also the reason why Spiros and me settled here and not in Crete. We just feel better and more free here. We are not the men with the crazy names here."
The journey took another few minutes down the coast. Thanos' hotel was a nice building with about twenty rooms. The older woman from reception took him over from Dian like it was her duty to take care of her boss same like for her child. He will be in good hands and additionally, he will have WiFi here!
Dian could not help but smile.
"Ou, I forgot, thank you for the apartment you recommended to me. I talked to Mrs. Papadopoulos and I am already in. We agreed till the end of May for now."
Thanos' face obviously lit up.
Now he was less reluctant to let the boy go for today.
"Go and rest," Dian sent Thanos to his room.
"My words," the 'nurse' stepped into the conversation: "You will see each other later this week."
They both smiled hearing her maternal voice and did not dare to complain.
And they both knew they have now some time...
Till end of May.
And till then...