The Spark: The Crystal (Temporarily, this will not have any cover art)

2

Seth

I sat there, running through my thoughts. Ash, my dear friend, was strong. When I told her, I could see she wanted to cry, but she held it in. Even after I told her it's perfectly alright, she still held it in. She reminded me of myself sometimes. Stubborn. She wasn't shy like I was though. I wouldn't run away from a fight, but I can't tell people about my feelings. She could. She didn't care what people thought of her. I admired her for that. Other things too. She was usually fun and bubbly. Seeing her like this was hard. She decided to go sleep, but I was sure she just needed some privacy to cry.

I decided to go in to see how she was about 10 minutes ago. She fell asleep, and the pillow made it obvious she had cried heavily. I would have if my family had died. We're both 16, so our families are some of the most important people to us. I saw a flicker out of the corner of my eye. I darted my head around to where I saw it. I knew that flicker. That flicker is the flicker of a bomb arming itself. A bomb that I made. A bomb that was going to explode. I woke Ash up carefully, guiding her out of the house without an explanation. Since I had all my supplies in my pack, I decided not to bother risking disarming the bomb. One miscalculation, and you're gone. I told her to wait here, far enough from the house, for my return. I gave her my pack, and I ran back to the house. I had about 7 minutes to do this. This being to grab the most important thing in the entire city. We were entrusted with it, and only I knew where it was. I moved the kitchen mat and opened up a hidden trapdoor, invisible to someone until you looked closely. I climbed down a ladder and found the key for the heavy padlock on the steel door. It wasn't a beautiful door, but it kept the crystal safe. The crystal was what our kingdom was entrusted with. It was the first part of an extremely destructive weapon, used to banish the overseers. The overseers were immortal beings, with magical powers, allowing them to control and, by extension, torture civilisations. Our ancestors developed a weapon to destroy them. This weapon, however, could not destroy them, and instead banished them to another dimension. It was then dismantled, and a different part entrusted to each different kingdom. If it was whole, whoever controlled its power would be the most powerful being to exist. This is why I safeguarded the crystal. Now, with most of the traps disabled, I entered the chamber that held the crystal. On the pedestal, where the crystal would normally sit, was nothing. It was gone.

I ran out, not bothering to re-activate any of the traps. I had forgotten about the bomb, and now it was set to explode soon. I had only a few moments to escape. I clambered up the ladder, throwing caution to the wind. I rushed out the door just as the bomb exploded, throwing me forward onto the road.