"Steven it's 9:30 you're going to sleep your day away" his mom yells through the door, but Steven was already up. He barely slept a wink all night. Even the thought of taking another person's life was too much. He knew he couldn't spend his entire life covering his heart and he knew he couldn't give this curse to someone else. There has to be another way Steven thought to himself, but he was at a loss. Here he was standing on a path he didn't mean to end up on. Here he is searching for a way off, but the path just seems to be getting shorter and shorter with what appears to be a dead end.
Steven walks down stairs and sees a plate of bacon that has been out for an hour or two. He grabs a few pieces I'll need all the energy I can get today. Steven walks over to the phone and calls Marcus. "Hanson residence" Marcus's mother answers "Yes, Mrs. Hanson this is Steven, is Marcus there?" Muffled Steven hears Marcus's mom yell for him. "Hey, man what's up," Marcus answers the phone. "Do you think we can head to Gus's together? I still have to go..." Steven says disappointingly, but quiet enough to not upset his mother. "Sure man be here at 8 and we will head up." They hang up after making the plan.
Steven gets dressed and walks out the door "Steven, where are you going?" His father siting in his recliner reading the paper asks without even looking up. "Marcus and I are going to hang out before Gus's get together." Steven walks out the door. I have to be at Marcus's at 8 that means I have time to find 2234 N Willow Drive. Steven heads to the library first to see if they have a map of the town.
At the library Steven is able to see a map of the town at the front and just as he thought Willow Drive only went south of the town. "You've been standing at that map a while young man, is there anything I can help you with?" The librarian says while approaching him. Steven asks about North Willow and if there are roads not on the map "No this is the current map of the town. Everything you see is where it is supposed to be, well since the update about 60 years ago." Before the librarian closed her mouth Steven asks if they have any old maps. The librarian takes Steven to the local history section. "Right here you can find almost everything about this town since it was founded." The Librarian says as Steven rushes looking at the books.
After an hour he finds an old book that dated back to the early 1900's. Flipping through it he sees an old map of the town the town was a lot smaller back then. Checking it out he sees a Willow Drive going north of town. Excitedly he runs over to the current map to compare them. Okay, Willow Drive is here, then it looks like they made it dead end so it's only going south. So technically once I hit the dead end I can just walk north. According to the current map, though it looks like there's nothing but woods for miles.
Finally arriving at the dead end of Willow Drive he parks his car and starts walking. Hours later he must have walked a couple miles. I don't even know what I'm looking for, if I don't head back soon I wont make it to Marcus's in time. He decides to turn around and when he does he sees it. The gazebo?? Out here?? I just walked past there, It can't be the same one, can it? Steven runs up to it and sure enough there was the empty lock box on the ground. Looking around the gazebo much more closely this time, but nothing is strange about it. He takes a look at the lockbox again. There it is Steven saw something etched into the bottom of the box he must not have been able to see during the storm on that unlucky day. He removes the dust over it to see the whole message but when he does it is only three words the light reveals.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Steven rushes back to his car so he wouldn't be late to Marcus's. The light reveals what? What light? Speeding to get to Marcus's on time he decides to try something. His small town only had 2 stop lights. Driving towards the first one, it was green, so Steven decided to cover his heart and the second he did it turned yellow then red. Just once is a coincidence. Driving to the second one from further away he covers his heart and it turns red. Still a good distance away he keeps his heart covered and continues going the speed limit towards it not slowing down. Once he was right in front of the light, he got ready to slam on the brakes if he had to. Right before he ran it he takes his hand off and it turns green. Drip.
Marcus was driving to the party with Steven and he could tell Steven was nervous. "Don't worry man, so many people go to these parties he wont notice you. Also, he spends most of the time during the party outside at the bonfire. Just stay in with me and have a good time. There is nothing to worry about." The two of them pull up to Gus's house. A decent sized beat up two story house. They walk in the front door and right away Marcus starts conversing with other school mates.
After a couple hours Steven asks to leave but Marcus didn't want to leave yet. The entire time Steven stood by a wall and seemed to be trying to hide behind a small fire extinguisher. Right then Gus walks in to the house. "Tantescles? Oh I am glad to see you could make it. My old man wasn't too happy about me missin' school. That's okay though because now I am going to teach you a lesson. The usual boys?" Gus's minions cheered for the usual but Gus wasn't happy with that. "Not the usual bring him to the fire pit where everyone else is."
Steven is dragged to the fire pit. Marcus tries to pull the goons off but it's no use. The students have formed a ring around the fire making it sure everyone could see what was about to go down. Gus's goons threw Steven into the circle so it was just them. Backing away from Gus not wanting to get his ass beat in front of everyone Gus stops him. "Tantescles, I've been waiting to do this all week. I know you tipped off the principal. All week I've been thinking about how I wanted this to go down." Steven had his back to the fire and could feel that he wasn't able to back up any further because of the heat. Gus wound his fist back and stepped towards Steven. Right before his fist made contact with Steven’s face Steven stepped to the side as a natural reaction and made Gus lose his balance. Right then Gus fell face first into the fire. Frozen, Steven just stood there as everyone ran away from the scene and Gus's screams filled the night sky.
Steven ran back in the house to grab the fire extinguisher he saw earlier and told Marcus to call an ambulance. Steven ran back to Gus and the thought occurred if I let him die, will the candle reset? The first part was an accident but me not saving him would be on purpose. Standing there in a trance Marcus comes running out "What the hell are you doing man, spray him!" he yells. Steven snapped out of it and got the fire out and off of Gus when the ambulance pulled up. They stabilized him and got him into the ambulance in what seemed like seconds then sped off to the hospital. Steven and Marcus were silent the whole way back to Marcus's house.