Chapter 2

Hello to whoever is reading this! It feels rude to start a story without the reader knowing anything of who wrote it. My name is Galen. I have no second name (you’ll find out why in a minute). What you just saw wasn’t what I expected. I know that there are such things as scams but I never thought that it would be to that extent. When one of the psychos cut my leg, a piece of his knife snapped and there was now this metal shard embedded in my thigh. It hurt too much to take out so I thought that I’d use it as evidence to the orphanage that I was nearly killed.  Yes... I am an orphan. My name itself is greek for “unknown”. I never knew my parents and the orphanage told me that the person who found me was in the Everglades and found me in the tall grass.  This is not some Exodus story or a James Bond one! This is totally different! I was taken to an orphanage in Miami and the first thing that I could remember was a massive building surrounded by white walls.  The place felt somehow fore-shadowing of what came soon. From the moment I was taken in the gates, I knew that something bad was going to happen…

When I was at least 8 years old, there was something that  had scarred me forever. 15/7/2016. I always remembered that day. It was Wednesday evening and and the other children and I were playing in the playground. I still remember everything that went on around me: 5 of the girls were playing hopscotch, 7 boys playing basketball and then there was me- Playing tag with my two friends: Erik and Ben. We were having fun and enjoying ourselves as all kids would when they play tag. But then, midway when Eric was tagged and about to tag Ben, my eyes caught something.  There was a small light in the far distance of the sky. Most kids would think that it was a helicopter and its lights but I knew out of instinct that it was something far more than that. A few seconds after Eric got Ben, he saw me staring into space. “Hey Galen,  aren’t you going to join in?” Eric asked.  I continued staring. “ Galen, are you ok?” Eric asked with concern.  Still no answer. “Galen, is this some kind of sick joke?” he asked as his concern shifted to frustration.  He thought that I was just being silent so that when they wave their hand in front of their face, I would jumpscare them.  To this day, I am still confused on what happened at that moment. Eric was angry enough that I was “playing a prank” and said to Ben, “C’mon Ben. Let’s leave until Galen decides to stop pranking with us,”  He walked away with Ben frustrated at that. But he didn’t understand what I saw and felt in that moment. The moment I set eyes on the flash, I saw my atmosphere shift into somewhere in deep space. All of the children playing disappeared and it was just only me in the abyss of space. “Where am I?” I asked scaredly. “What’s going on?” There was a small pause and then a voice echoed in my ears and in my surroundings, making the infinite space feel like a large room. “ You are about to be part of something big. It’s too much to explain right now. There’s not enough time. But when the time comes, you will be ready. I know that you are just a child, but you are about to be so much more.”

I was confused and terrified. “ I don’t want to be a part of whatever you are saying about! What has this got to do with me?!”

The voice boomed in response, “ For eons I’ve searched for the right person to bestow this honour. But no-one that I can see is ready for such a responsibility. But you- Even though you are a child, you are committed and kind. You make mistakes and you learn from them. You may not necessarily be pure and perfect, but you are the best you can be. So go, child. Fulfill your destiny. Become the last Crystal Warrior. “

The last words that he said- I didn’t understand them, but I felt that they were important. In a split second I returned to the scene of where Eric and Ben were walking away and I was staring at the light in the sky. In the blink of an eye, I screamed as I felt the ramming pain through my chest. I fell to the floor and saw the ground near me covered in blood. My blood. The last that I could remember is Eric screaming,”GALEN!!!” as slumped on the ground. Lifeless. For a time that felt like 2 seconds, I saw glimpses of what happened around me: In one of them, I was lying down on a stretcher and staring at the ceiling as I was wheeled towards the ICU. I aslo felt a strange energy. Pusling from my chest. All I could know of where that came from was by seeing a shining blue, crystal shard. About 12-inches thick.  The bottom-half covered in dripping, crimson blood.

I closed my eyes for a brief moment, only to see everything around getting warped into some other situation. Every memory and thought, briefly being erased like footprints in the sand. It kept on being erased until all that was left of my surroundings was pitch-black. Dead-silence. Suddenly, a figure appeared. I felt his body emit an energy. Something I have never felt before. The energy surged through me like electricity and in an instant, I felt an unearthly power. As it I saw an entire universe.  That energy was everywhere in that place. It felt divine. I felt an inner peace after seeing that. That figure looked at me through that dark hood. One by one, more of them appeared like a flash of light. They were encircling me. I felt strange at that moment.  I felt a connection to all of them. I just needed to figure out what that connection was.  It was as if I was part of every single one of them. But then… I felt something. An imbalence. It couldn’t be ridden of.  Nor ignored. It felt a shadow. It would always find you. No matter what.  One by one, each one began to burn. A fire that could never be extinguished. They didn’t move while any of this happened. They simply… stood still. And watched their demise. I felt their aching pain at watching it. I could do nothing either. I wanted to help so bad. But there was something holding me back.  Each one burnt like paper.  Reduced to ashes. All that was left was a burning cloak.  It was coming closer to me.  I felt scared as more and more of them burnt. The flame… it was going to consume me. I prepared to die at that moment but… Nothing happened. I opened my eyes to see that there was one of them left. It looked at me. I felt a stronger connection to this one. It was about to take its cloak off, but then my surroundings warped away. Back to the white ceiling of the ICU.  Who was that? What is happening? All my questions were yet to be answered. But still, I felt a connection to that figure in particular.  It felt like I would meet that person soon...