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Sam takes a break and watches from the side with Bernie Kosar.
“You’re better than that, Johnny. Show me the good stuff already,” she says after she upends me when I threw a sloppy roundhouse kick.
I charge her, closing the gap between us in a tenth of a second. I throw a left hook but Six blocks it, taking hold of my bicep and using my momentum to toss me over her head. I brace myself for a painful landing, but she doesn’t let go of my arm, instead twisting me back over her shoulder so my feet hit the ground.
She wraps her arms around my arms; my back is smashed against her chest. She sticks her face against mine and playfully kisses me on the cheek. Before I can react she kicks the back of my knees and my butt hits the grass. My arms are swept out from under me and I’m flat on my back. Six easily pins me, and she’s so close I can count the hairs on her brow. Butterflies flood my stomach.
“Okay,” Sam finally interrupts. “I think you got him pretty good. You can let him up now. ”
Six’s smile widens, and mine does, too. We stay that way for a second longer before she leans back and hefts me up by my shoulders.
“My turn with Six,” Sam says.
I take a deep breath, then shake my arms to rid them of their jitters.
“She’s all yours,” I say, making a beeline towards the house.
“John?” Six says just as I reach the back door.
I turn, trying to tamp down a strange fluttery sensation at the sight of her. “Yeah?”
“We’ve been in this house for a week now. I think it’s time to lose whatever sentimentality or fear you’ve been holding on to. ”
For a second, after what just happened I think she’s talking about Sarah.
“The Chest,” she says.
“I know,” I say, and I enter the house, sliding the door behind me.
I go to my room and pace, taking deep breaths, trying to figure out what just happened out in the yard.
I go to the bathroom and splash cold water on my face. I stare into the mirror. Sarah would kill me if she caught me looking at Six like that. I tell myself again that I have nothing to worry about because Loriens love one person for life. If Sarah is my one love, then Six is simply a crush.
Back in my room I lie on my back, fold my hands across my stomach, and close my eyes. I take deep breaths, holding each one in for a five-count before exhaling out my nose.
Thirty minutes later I open the door and creep down the hall, hearing Sam and Six milling about in the living room. The only place I could find to hide my Chest in the house was in the utility closet, on top of the hot water heater. I struggle getting it out, making as little noise as possible. Then I tiptoe back to my room, gently closing and locking the door behind me.
Six is right. It’s time. No more waiting. I grab hold of the lock. It quickly warms, then squirms against the palm of my hand, taking on an almost liquid form, and snaps open. The inside glows brightly. It’s never done that before. I reach in and remove the coffee can containing Henri’s ashes and his letter, still in its sealed envelope. I close the lid and relock it. I know it’s stupid, but I feel like I’m somehow keeping Henri alive by not reading the letter he left behind. Once the Chest is open, and once the letter is read, he’ll have nothing left to tell me, nothing left to teach—and then he’ll become nothing more than a memory. I’m not ready for it yet.
I open the closet where my clothes sit in a pile, and I bury the coffee can and letter under them. Then I grab the Chest and leave the room, hovering in the hallway to listen to Sam and Six streaming a show online called Ancient Aliens. Sam is asking Six about all the alien theories he knows and Six quickly confirms or denies them based on the teachings of Katarina. Sam furiously scribbles answers on his legal pad, which then breeds more questions that Six patiently answers or shrugs her shoulders at. Sam eats it up, drawing parallels to what he already knows.
“The pyramids of Giza? They were built by the Loric?”
“Partly us, but mostly the Mogadorians. ”
“What about the Great Wall of China?”
“Humans. ”
“Roswell, New Mexico?”
“You know, I’ve asked Katarina that once and she had no idea. So I don’t know either. ”
“Wait, how long have the Mogadorians been coming here?”
“Almost as long as we have,” she says.
“So, like, this war between you two, is it new?”
“Not necessarily. What I know is that both sides have traveled to Earth for thousands of years; sometimes we were here at the same time, and from what I understand, much of it was spent on friendly terms. But then something happened that ruined the relationship, and the Mogadorians left for a very long time. Beyond that I don’t know much, and I have no idea when they started coming back. ”
I cross the living room and plop the Chest in the middle of the dining-room floor. Sam and Six glance up. Six grins, again giving me strange flutters. I smile back, but it feels insincere.
“I figure we might as well open this thing together. ”
Sam begins rubbing his hands with a crazy look in his eyes.
“Jeez, Sam,” I say. “You look like you’re about to murder somebody. ”
“Oh, come on,” he says. “You’ve been teasing me with this Chest for almost a month now and I’ve been patient and I’ve kept my mouth shut out of respect for Henri and everything, but how often do I get to see the treasures from an alien planet? I just think about how the guys at NASA would die to be sitting where I am right now. You can’t blame me for being so into this. ”
“Would you be mad if this whole time it’s been full of nothing but dirty laundry?”
“Alien dirty laundry?” Sam asks sarcastically.
I laugh, then reach down and grab hold of the lock. My hand instantly glows when touching the cold metal, and the lock again warms, shaking and twisting in my grip, protesting the ancient powers that keep it closed. When it clicks open I remove the lock, set it aside, and place my hand on the Chest’s top. Six and Sam both lean forward in anticipation.
I lift the lid. The Chest is yet again ablaze with light that hurts my eyes. The first thing I do is remove the velvet bag holding the seven orbs that make up Lorien’s solar system. I think of Henri and how we watched the light glow and pulsate at Lorien’s core, showing that the planet is still alive, albeit hibernating. I place the bag in Sam’s hand. All three of us peer down into the Chest. Something else is lit up.
“What is that glowing?” Six asks.
“No idea. It never did that before. ”
She reaches down and plucks a rock from the bottom of the Chest. It’s a perfectly round crystal no bigger than a Ping-Pong ball, and when she touches it, the light brightens even more. And then it fades, and begins to slowly pulse. We watch the crystal, transfixed by the glow. Then, suddenly, Six lets it drop to the floor. The crystal ceases to pulse and resumes its steady glow. Sam reaches down to pick it up.
“Don’t!” Six yells.
He looks up, confused.
“Something doesn’t feel right about it,” she says.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“It felt like pinpricks against my palm. When I grabbed hold of it I got a really bad feeling. ”
“This stuff is my Inheritance,” I say. “Maybe I’m the only one allowed to touch it?”
I bend down and carefully pick up the glowing crystal. Within seconds it feels as if I’m holding a radioactive cactus; my stomach compresses and acid climbs up my throat, and I instantly toss the crystal onto a blanket. I swallow. “Maybe I’m doing it wrong. ”
“Maybe we don’t know how to use it. I mean, you said Henri kept you from seeing inside because you weren’t ready. Maybe you’re still not ready?”
“Well, that would be pretty lame,” I say.
“This sucks,” Sam says.
Six walks into the kitchen and returns with two towels and a plastic
bag. She carefully grabs the glowing crystal with a towel and drops both into the bag, which she then wraps in a second towel.
“You really think that’s necessary?” I ask. My stomach continues to gurgle.
She shrugs. “I don’t know about you, but the feeling I got when I touched it was bad news. Better safe than sorry. ”
What’s left in the Chest is everything comprising my Inheritance, and I’m not really sure where to start. I reach in and grab an object I’ve seen before, the oblong crystal Henri used to spread the Lumen from my hands to the rest of my body. It comes alive and bathes the dining room in its bright light. The crystal’s center begins swirling with what looks like smoke, twisting and turning back on itself, as I have seen it do before.
“Now we’re talking,” Sam says.
“Here,” I say, giving it to him. The crystal falls inert when it transfers hands. “I’ve already seen it. ”
Also inside the Chest are a few smaller crystals, a black diamond, a collection of brittle leaves bound with twine, and a star-shaped talisman the same pale blue as the pendant around my neck, which tells me it’s Loralite, the rarest gem found only at Lorien’s core. There’s also a bright red oval bracelet and an amber-colored stone in the shape of a raindrop.
“What do you think that is?” Sam asks, pointing to a flat, circular stone the same milky white color as a pearl that’s stuck in the corner.
“Don’t know,” I say.
“How about that?” he asks, this time pointing to a small dagger that looks to have a blade made of diamond.
I lift it from the Chest. The handle fits snug in my hand as though it was made for it, and I suppose it was. The blade isn’t more than four inches long, and just by seeing the way the light glints along its edge, I can tell it’s far sharper than any razor one might find on Earth.
“What about that thing?” Sam asks again, pointing to something else, and I have no doubt he’ll ask the same question over and over until he’s inquired about every object inside.
“Here,” I say, setting the dagger down and removing the seven orbs in an effort to keep him occupied. “Check this out. ”
I blow on them, and tiny lights flicker across their surfaces. Then I toss them up in the air, and they instantly spring to life, spinning in orbit around the orange-sized sun in the center.
“It’s Lorien’s solar system,” I say. “Six planets, one sun. And this one here,” I add, pointing to the fourth orb, which remains the same various shades of ashen gray as the last time I’d seen it, “is Lorien as it looks today, at this very moment. The glow at its center is what’s left. ”
“Wow,” Sam says. “NASA dudes would be crapping themselves right now looking at this. ”
“And watch this,” I say, illuminating my right hand. I sweep the light over the orb, and all at once the surface changes from its depressing gray tones to vibrant blues and greens of the forests and oceans. “This is the planet as it was the day before the attack. ”
“Wow,” Sam says again, staring in awe with his mouth hanging open; and while the rotating planets have him transfixed, I look back in the Chest.
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