"He's way too trusting," Charlie sighed. He slumped into one of the open chairs and stared at the lantern he found. It had no lid, no screws, not a single opening to light the wick inside, and the glass was too foggy to see inside. It only had a small metal knob positioned where the wick is held. The young man started turning it slowly, not wanting to break anything. The knob had a slight resistance to it, it must control the length of the wick. He studied every inch of the lantern, every inch of the metal exterior was a dark patina, not a speck of grime or caked-in dirt to be seen, however it was very dusty. So, using some paper towel from the kitchen and some water, Charlie began to remove the layers of dust on the lantern. He found out that the glass could not be cleaned from the outside, whatever made it so foggy was inside it. The second thing he found was an etching on the top of the lantern.
"Αρχηγός ψυχών πέρα από τον ποταμό Στύγα"
"What?" Charlie was dumbfounded. He began to clean even more, wiping away all the dust he could find, trying to find one more hint as to what this lantern could be. After 10 minutes every piece of dust was removed from it, with nothing to show for his efforts other than a clean antique with a professionally etched passage on the lid in a language Charlie has never seen before.
"Now that is a piece I have not seen in years." Charlie almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance of Cornelius at the top of the stairs. The old man was wearing a dripping yellow rain coat and a small, slightly damp, paper bag full of groceries. As he placed the bag on a counter and began putting away his rain gear Cornelius looked at the lantern on the table. "A curious piece if I do say so myself, I never could find the one who donated it to my store. It just appeared on my doorstep one morning, as if it was waiting to be let in."
"What does this writing say?" Charlie inquired, he pointed at the etching on the top of the lantern. Cornelius began scrounging around his pockets and found a case, once opened it revealed a pair of spectacles which he donned upon his nose.
"Hmm... Curious, very curious." Cornelius gently picked up and thoroughly investigated the lantern, raising it to see under the base, tilting it this way and that to look at every inch, and finally tilting the top towards himself while readjusting his spectacles.
"I haven't the foggiest idea what it says, but I can tell you what language it is in. This is Greek." Cornelius placed the lantern back on the table, eyeing the used dirty paper towels left there. "If you're so curious about it, I would wager my left knee that there is a primer on Greek downstairs among the book shelves. Once you find it we can try and translate this passage over dinner. Do you like beef stew?"
"I love it." Charlie responded as he descended into the store again. While the staircase that led to Cornelius' living area was in the back right-hand section of the store, the rows of bookcases caked with dust was located to it's left. The aisles were just as cramped as the rest of the store, but it felt more claustrophobic due to the walls of books now in front of him. Even the stool used to reach the upper shelves was only allowed an inch of leeway. There was no real organization to the shelves other than general themes, which made it a chore to search through, although the themes did help narrow the area.
"Languages." After 2-3 minutes of searching he found the label he had been searching for, although now the job was just starting. After arduously searching row by row, cleaning caked off dust from the spines of books, he finally found the book he was after. A Greek to English dictionary. Pulling the book out from the shelf he began making his way back up to Cornelius.
"I found it!" He exclaimed, climbing the last few steps. Cornelius was standing next to the stove, stirring the pot of stew.
"Wonderful! I'm just about done." Cornelius raised the spoon he was using to stir up to his lips, sipping the stew. "Perfect." He placed the lid on top of the pot and turned off the burner. He turned away from Charlie as he opened the cupboard to look for the bowls. It was at this moment that the lantern began emitting a pale green light again. Charlie looked with surprise and picked it up, curious how it somehow lit itself.
"Cornelius look..." Charlie raised the lantern towards the kind old man as if showing off his prized possession for show and tell, the pale green light fell upon the elder and cast a bizarre shadow on the wall, for it was not only the outline of the same kind old man. Thin strands of shadow that were connected to his shoulders and his head were shown in the outline, and as the old man finally looked at Charlie the once soft eyes he had were replaced by bleeding black pits. Charlie stood still, shocked, his mind was racing, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He began to hear faint whispers as the walls began to melt, the once homely apartment is now turning into a scene out of Salvatore Dali painting.
"What's wrong my boy? Is everything okay?" Cornelius inquired, his voice became a duality of noise. The once kindly old man had another voice coming out of his mouth, one that was more raspy, wheezing, calm and calculating. Charlie's mind was burning, he could feel his grip on reality slipping from his grasp, the scene was cut by deep voice whispering into his ear.
<"Don't show fear, they eat it like honey. Stay calm. You have more power here than you think.">