The Chest of the Lost

Chapter 14: The End

"Guards!" The man shouted as e re-entered the room. Griffin shot a blast of force at the man and he, too, flew back and hit the wall. Suddenly, guards came running in from every entrance. "Get them!" The man pointed to Griffin and I from the ground and the guards surrounded us.

"Griffin!" I shouted though I knew it wouldn't do anything. The guards wrestled Griffin's arms behind his back and he stood in front of the man, who I now realized was Alonzo Hawthorne. I was still tied to the wall, so the guards just positioned themselves on either side of me. I held my Crystal tightly in my hands, my knuckles burning from the grip. Hawthorne walked up to Griffin, looking him straight in the eye.

"Rebellious too, huh? Well at least you tried," he said mockingly, not breaking eye-contact with Griffin.

"It's better than giving up," Griffin replied.

"Is it? Because the way I see it, if you know you're going to lose, you don't fight anyway. That's how countries lose wars- they choose to fight even when they don't stand a chance. It would be better to just give up and surrender," he said.

"At least in fighting you have a chance to win, even if it's a small chance. It's better than no chance at all," Griffin said.

"Yes, but either way you lose. You just chose to lose the hard way," he said. Then his gaze shifted to me. "So this is the girl in your Prophecy?" he said, a cold edge laced his voice. "I'm interested to see whether your Crystals share the same tragic ending."

"What do you want?" I asked the confidence in my voice surprised me, contrasting the fear I felt.

"Nothing you can give me," he said. "I've already got it." He walked over and yanked the Crystal out of my hand, examining it as if trying to decide whether it was real or fools gold. Then he went over and took Griffin's Crystal too, pulling it out of the projective device that was still attached to it, and replacing mine inside of it. Griffin flinched as Hawthorne carelessly tossed his Crystal onto the table.

I was interested and scared to find out the rest of my Fate. He set my Crystal on the desk and this time, images from my past reflected onto the screen. It played all parts that had also been on Griffin's Crystal, which included parts with both of us. Then it showed me coming to the island on the coast guard boat, with Griffin swimming across the water after me. The water looked cold and dark and I couldn't believe he swam a mile through it just to save me.

Then, a mirror image of what we looked like now flashed across the screen. The scene looked and felt dark and hopeless.

Then it went dark.

Hawthorne's expression changed to show confusion. "What? What happened?" he asked angrily as he walked over to see what was going on. "Why does this keep happening?"

"Good job," Griffin whispered, a smile evident in his voice.

"I didn't do that, I thought you did," I said, panic rising inside of me. Why did it stop after that moment? That scared me.

Hawthorne disconnected my Crystal from the projective device and inspected it. Slamming it down on the table, he stormed over to me, stopping inches from my face.

"What did you do?" he asked, shouting loud enough that his voice echoed off the walls.

"I didn't do anything..." I replied, leaning back against the wall.

"You didn't do anything?" He repeated unconvinced. His voice was filled with a level of anger I hadn't ever seen before. "Then how do you explain the fact that you don't have a future?!" He stopped. "You don't have a future...hmm." He walked slowly back to the table where mine and Griffin's Crystals lay. He picked up Griffin's Crystal, turning it over in his hands.