Aspirations

Chapter 32

Sacrifices Suck But Murdering Your Aunt and Then Never Being Able to See Her Again Sucks More

As soon as I came into the light I gasped for the air that was missing from inside that dark hole. I fell into Hyrumn as she pulled me away from the demons. As she did she pulled me close to her, protecting me, and with her free hand pulled the ground around us up like before except instead of a flat ledge, they were spikes. Spikes that skewered the demons and rose them up and up until all that was left was a wall of bloody spikes surrounding us.

I looked up at her with tears in my eyes. She looked back at me. She was rough and breathing hard, but her eyes were full of relief. She pulled me close for a quick second as if she wanted to make sure I wasn't going anywhere before she let me go.

"I don't have long so listen carefully: I've got Amonae occupied at the moment but not for long." She spoke. "I know I'm going to ask a great deal of you but you have to do it or else the worlds are at stake."

She continued, "Remember the plan we talked about in the library before all of this went down? Yeah, I'm going to need you to find what we were talking about."

"B-But I can't find it by myself. I need you-"

"No you don't. I know you can do it, Henry." She took my left arm and began to adjust my watch. "I'm going to set a timer on your watch. In five minutes you must have it ready because once the final seconds count down Amonae and I are going to burst in and you have to have it ready. Promise me you can do it."

"Hyrumn, I..." She grabbed ahold of both my hands tightly and squeezed.

"Henry, it's not a can you or can you not question. It's a you have to." She laced her pinky around mine. "Promise me you will do it." I stared at her. All the worlds were now leaning on me to do one simple thing. But could I? Five minutes wasn't nearly enough time!

No, I have to. If I mess this up I won't ever get to see my family again. Billions of people will die, millions of worlds will become extinct. All their lives are resting on my shoulders, but I know that I have to do this.

I nodded my head. "I promise."

"Good." A faint smile shown on her face. She pressed a button on my watch and it immediately started to count down from five minutes. "Now go. Hurry before it reaches zero!" She pushed me backwards into the spikes but I didn't hit them. Instead everything faded and I fell onto a cold floor. When I looked around, I wasn't with Hyrumn anymore. I was somewhere else. I got to my feet and looked around.

The room was dark and seemed to be an endless hall. But around me were long tables with snow globes on them. All different kinds and shapes and colors of snow globes full of mysteries.

I glanced down at my watch. 4:45.

Right. Just find the one that Hyrumn described. Find the right one. But as I looked around at the endless supply of pocket worlds I realized that four an a half minutes might not be enough time to find the one.

The right one... the one... where was it?

As the seconds ticked down I could feel my panic increase.

Where is it at?!

POV: Aspiration #8: Double-Deal (Hyrumn)

As soon as Henry was gone I let loose a sigh I'd been holding for too long. At least he was out of the way now and I didn't have to worry about Amonae doing anymore things to him. Instead now I trusted him with the job of continuing the plan which might be worse. I've put too much on him. But, could I trust him to do it?