THE POWER OF TRUE LOVE

CHAPTER 29

CRYSTAL'S POV
"So...where is it" Lucas asked while looking at us. I turned to look at Crystal and she nodded, unzipping her jacket and pulling out the bag. She handed it over to him and he opened it and took the map out of it. He placed it in the middle of the bed and all of us formed a circle around it. He rolled it open and all of us observed it closely. "So according to the conversation that I heard, Tyler and others are on this Island" I said pointing at the Island which was on the top, ascending to the left of the mansion. "Look, I think these are the secret passages that connect the Island to the mansion" Ashley said while pointing at the red lines that connected the Island and the mansion. "But I don't think they are useful" I said. "Why?" Ashly asked looking at me confused. "Because if they were in the condition to be used then the boys would've reached the mansion by now using one of these passages" I said and all of them nodded.  "Yes I agree, they would've turned the Island upside down in search of a escape route" Zoey added and I nodded.  "Then how will we get to them" Sarah asked worried. I took the map and turned it around, wanting to have a look at it's back side, but the moment I looked at it's back side my eyes widened. "Guys have a look at this" I said, almost shouted. All of them turned to look at me and I pointed at the back side of the map. "Is that...is that a riddle?" Daniel asked sounding confused and surprised at the same time. "What does it say" Zoey asked. I shifted my eyes back to the piece of paper and read it loudly:

We have our body, mind and soul in the hands of Jesus...
From the beginning...till the end...

"what is that supposed to indicate?" Rose asked confused.

I read the riddle again. And again. And again, trying to form a image in my mind. What is this indicating towards?. As I was trying to find the answer to the riddle I repeated it in my head once again...

" We have our body, mind and soul in the hands of Jesus...
From the beginning...till the end..."
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I could feel my heart beat increase as a sudden realisation hit me. The answer! It was here, in the mansion itself!. As the realisation hit me, I could feel my feet walking on their own, towards the main hall of the mansion and before I knew it I was running towards the hall like a maniac. "Crys! Crys!" I could hear Zoey calling me from behind but my body was working on its own.

By the time I had reached the main hall, I was desperately gasping for air. I could hear the footsteps of my friends behind me but my eyes were fixated on that particular thing. "Crystal what happened!? why did you run out of the room all of a sudden?" I heard Sarah ask me but I ignored her. "Crystal what is it!" Sarah shouted. Without uttering a word, I pointed at IT. I could feel everyone looking at IT and for a moment there was dead silence surrounding us.

"...what?"  Sarah said confused. There in front of us, was the solution to all our problems. It was a statue of Jesus holding a newborn in one hand and supporting an elderly person with his other hand. I could feel hope rise within me that maybe, just maybe, we will be able to get out of this hellhole together. "but Crys, how is this related to the riddle?". Sarah asked sounding confused. "just read the riddle once again" I said to her, not removing my eyes from the statue, my breathing becoming slowly normal. She took the piece of paper from my hand and silently read it to herself as everyone else gathered around her to have a look at the riddle again. A deep silence filled the hall as they all processed what I had figured out.  I was forced to remove my gaze from the statue by the sound of Zoey's muffled sobs. I turned to her and engulfed her in a big hug. Soon the other girls joined us too and we just stood there holding each other, engulfing the feeling of true happiness, something we hadn't felt in a while. But our moment of happiness was cut short. "guys we gotta hurry, we don't have time" Lucas said looking at us with teary eyes. All of us separated from each other and walked over to the statue, studying it. "There has to be some kind of lever or something which will open the way to the island" Rose said circling the statue, observing it keenly. "let's try and push it" Daniel said. With that all of us gathered at the left side of the statue and
pushed it towards the right direction. The statue made a slight noise as it shifted to the right and all of us paused, waiting for some kind of route to open. Nothing happened. "what if this is the wrong statue" Zoey asked eyeing the other statues present in the hall. "Nope. I am pretty sure this is the right one" I said. "well there could always be a possibility" Daniel said agreeing with Zoey. "Let's examine this statue one more time and if we don't find anything, we'll move on to the next statue" Jacob said and we all agreed.

We had been examining the statue for a few minutes now, pressing and pulling everything that might take us to the way to the island. We even pushed the statue away from it's spot in order to see if something was under it but our attempts proved to be futile. I was starting to loose hope but I wanted to keep searching. Something inside of me was telling me that this was indeed the statue mentioned in the clue. As I stopped for a moment to catch a breath, I placed my arm on the stick of the old man, so as to get some support. But the moment I placed my arm on it and leaned back, the stick moved and i almost lost my balance. Sarah caught me by my other arm before I could fall to the ground. "what happened?" I asked as I regained my balance. I turned around to inspect and my eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, in the place where the statue stood only a few seconds ago, was now an entrance to what seemed like a vast tunnel which was plunged in darkness.  The tunnel was carved in the wall behind the spot where the statue was just seconds ago. We had seen that wall so many times before but we had never ever imagined something this big. We could only see a few metres into it, thanks to the lights of the mansion. The statue now stood beside the newly found gate...as if it was a gatekeeper, guarding a secret. "I guess it's not just a statue anymore huh" I heard Zoey said beside me. Indeed, it was Jesus himself, reuniting the ones that he had made for each other.

I could already feel Tyler's arms around me. Hang in there guys. We're coming!

Hey guys! So this was chapter 29. I hope you all enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading!
Bye!❤️