We all stand in some crazy semi-circle around the four gifts. The one that we opened before, we pushed away to the side so we wouldn't make the mistake of opening it again by accident. After we put the four pieces of the lavapick that we do have back together, we went to check up on Declan and to explain some more stuff to him.

Much to Declans grudging and complaining, the doctor said that he was good to go but just take it easy. So we literally pulled him with us so we could figure out how to get this final piece. Which is the reason why Amber, Declan, Clarence, Clark and I are now all staring at the boxes in some containment room in Headquarters.

"So, what d'we do now?" Amber asks after several moments of us doing absolutely nothing pass by.

"Right," Clarence over enthusiastically claps his hands together, "We should put this bar over the top of whichever box we're opening just incase the same thing which happened to you last time happens again." Clarence grabs a spare metal pole from the back of the room and positions it above the boxes. I understand what he means, if the same thing happens again and we can't move any of our limbs, the box lid should hit the pole when we open it and slam back shut again. 

"So who's going to open one? I bags not me. I did last time." Declan quickly shakes his head so he's not stuck doing it.

Across the room from me, Clark sighs and shakes his head at Declan, "I will."

We all take a step over, allowing Clark to walk forward, towards the bronze boxes. Out of the three boxes that we'll have to open, Clark selects the middle one. I see him inhale loudly before he turns his head to look over his shoulder at us, "Everyone move your arm around or something so we'll know if it's another Brain Wave Disrupter."

We all hold our breaths an mindlessly swing our arms around as we wait in anticipation for Clark to open the gift. Everything seems to in slow motion from here, I see the tips of Clarks fingers graze the corners of the lid of the gift. My arm which is actually moving quite fast seems to slow down dramatically.

But as Clarks fingers fully grasp the boxes lid, the moment of slowness ends just as quickly as it began. The lid slams up in a rush of wind before noisily banging into the pole and slamming back down on top of the box. Through the whole ordeal, my arm never stops spinning in a hypnotic circle.

The only sound that can be heard in the room is our loud breaths coming out of all of our adrenalin filled bodies. "BWD clear." Clark manages to mutter after we all manage to catch our breaths back a bit.

"Then what is it?" Declan asks dumbly, twisting his head up to get a better angle of the box as if hoping it'll tell him somehow.

"As hard as it may be to believe, I didn't get a good look," Clark rolls his eyes at Declans stupiditly as I fight to hide the smile that threatens to fill my lips. "I'm going to keep it open, okay?"

"Okay, go ahead," Clarence gives Clark the nod of approval for him to open it.

Clarks nods back at him before turning to look back at the box. From my angle of view, I can see Clark take a few more deep breaths as his fingers secure their hold on the gifts lid. This time, Clark opens the lid slowly and carefully. As we all try to get a view of whatever the box contains, we realise that Clarks body stands in the way and blocks the view from all of us.

"Well? What is it?" Declan impatiently asks after he obviously gives up on waiting for Clark to share whatever it is with the rest of us.

"Uh," Clark looks at all of our expectant faces and blinks in surprise. He seems confused. I can't help but wonder whether that's a good or bad thing. "It's a torch."

I feel my face contort into one of confusion so it's mirroring everyone else's in the room. "What? A torch?" I sceptically ask Clark.

Clark nods numbly, he seems to be just as or even more shocked than I am. He turns around slowly and reaches into the box. Equally as slowly, he emerges his hand from the gift to give us a perfectly good view of nothing more than a flashlight. It's ordinary, a plain black colour with an average size and shape, the thing seems nothing out of the ordinary, let alone anything you'd expect to find in a gift after you've recently come face to face with a BWD.

"I don't get it." Amber mutters under her breath, her gaze still focused on the torch in Clarks hand.

Declan and I robotically nod our heads at her. I'm pretty sure that we're all completely confused right now. Clarence on the other hand, only shrugs, "Check it."

Obediently Clark rolls the torch over until his thumb find the big black button and switches the torch on. Even with the lights on in the room we're currently in, I can see the clear beam of light reflecting onto the plain white floor of the containment room. Clark waves the torch around the place briefly, watching as the circle of light bounces around the clean walls.

When he's satisfied with the torch working properly, Clark switches the thing back off and unscrews the lid. It opens easily and as he tips the thing upside down letting the batteries fall into his open palm. He inspects the batteries carefully before peering into the hollow torch.

When he raises his head to look at all of us, he looks more confused then ever, "I seriously don't get it. It's just a normal torch. I thought the gifts were meant to help you in finding the piece."

At this Declan snorts, "Yeah I can see how a BWD is gonna help us find the piece."

I watch as Clark opens his mouth to speak, judging from his facial expression, I can tell that he's not used to being spoken to with such low respect. Clarence steps in before Clark has the time to say anything, "Let's not fight. We know now that we have a torch. It would be foolish to not keep it with us just in case we find a purpose for it later on, but for now let's open the other gifts."

Clark once again opens his mouth to protest but thinks better of it and gives a short, respective nod to Clarence before turning back to face the next box. As his fingers brush the lid he repeats the same steps as he did before. The lid slams into the pole before flopping down again, our arms don't stop moving, Clark then opens the box carefully and looks inside.

After letting Clark have a moment to check whatever it is, I decide to speak, "What is it?"

"It's a note." Clark turns around with a small, ripped, browning paper in the flat of his hand. The notes edges are ragged like it was torn from a book long ago. The ink written on the transcripts writing is scratchy as if it was written by an old fashioned bird feather pen.  Unfortunately the language it is written in, is not English. I don't recognise which language it is written in, but it seems familiar somehow.

"Is that Latin?" Amber steps forward and identifies the mystery language.

"Yes, it is." Clarence nods at her and lightly takes the paper from Clarks hands. As he lays it out on the palm of his hand, I look over he's shoulder to see what it says.

Ut in semita fluxam, accipe in egressus, egressus et egressus. Tandem, intromitto in stillabunt accipe vos pro aliquid est ut eam videor.

"Do you know what it means?" I ask, looking between Clark and Clarence.

Clarence nods at me, "Yeah, Gareth was obsessed with the language. He used it a lot of the time for codes and passwords and such. I know both English and Latin. The passage says; As the path bends, take the left, left and left. Finally let the drop take you for nothing is as it seems."

"What?" Declan and I ask in unison.

Clarence looks up at all of our confused faces and shrugs, "Honestly it makes no sense to me either. Like the torch, we'll just have to hang on to this and hope that the fourth and final box will be able to shed some light on our situation."

"Okay, one more to go," Clark mutters to himself while turning back around so he can open the final box. I start swinging my arm around in anticipation for Clark to open the box. This time, when he quickly lifts the lid up, my arm doesn't stop spinning, but I feel myself getting pulled in like gravity suddenly switched positions. As the lid crashes back down onto the box again, I stop being pulled in by whatever it was.

"Anyone else feel that?" I ask looking around at everyone's faces after a moment of silence.

Declan nods at me silently, a terrified look filling his face, "What was that? Maybe we should just leave this box closed and just use the note and useless torch."

Amber raises her hand and gives Declan a light whack across the back of his head, "And what exactly do ya expect us to do with just the note and torch? Huh? Just cause we ain't know whatever that thing in the box is doesn't mean we can just wuss out. We have a duty to our planet and everyone else to find this piece so we can put the lavapick back together."

"Nice speech," Clarence smiles at Amber, "But she's right. If we don't get this last piece then everything we've done to find the others would be a big waste. Clark, open the thing again."

Like Declan, Clark seems a little unsure about this. Eventually he gives in and sighs, "Okay, whatever you say, boss."

I nervously nibble my bottom lip as I wait for Clark to open the gift again. I guess when it comes down to it, we only are afraid of the unknown. Afraid of not knowing what it is and what we can do to stop it if necessary. In this situation, nobody, not even Amber who's practically a genius in this area of expertise, knows what's in that box. Nobody knows which mystical devise is going to be in there, ready to no doubt scare us all.

With a couple of big and extra loud inhales from Clark, he lifts the lid up. Straight away I feel the pull of whatever it is, pulling me towards the box. I dig the heels of my feet into the ground but it's no use, the current of the device continues to pull me as well as every other object in the room towards it.

As I get closer still, I catch a glimpse of the object in the box. It's small. Maybe the size of a slice of toast, maybe smaller, I don't know. It's hard to tell when you're getting sucked towards it. It's a short cylinder shape, with its base sitting on the bottom of the box. Around the edges is a navy blue colour. I don't know how, but somehow the blue seems to be glowing, kind of like glow in the dark goo. The centre of the strange device is black. Nothing more nothing less, no extra colour or a hint of grey to the colour. It's just black.

I hopelessly watch in a strange mixture of fascination and fear as the metal pole that was hovering only centimetres above the box before, now gets sucked down. As it gets closer the thing squishes up slightly so it can fit down the hole of blackness that it's headed for. The closer the pole gets to it, the faster it gets pulled in. Within seconds the thing disappears down into the dark abyss below.

Panicked, I realise that we're all almost up to the box. Still, the closer we get, the faster we move against our own will. In a haze I briefly wonder if I should try to shut the lid before anyone can get sucked in, but as I continue to propel towards the gift I realise that I couldn't even if I really tried to. I'm moving to fast.

The wind makes my eyes water, trying to shut them, but I force them to stay open long enough to watch Clark get squished into a tiny cylinder before getting sucked down into the vast void of the unknown. My heart rate speeds up, Clark is a human, will he be able to survive being squished like that? More importantly, will any of us be able to survive?

Declans petrified scream is the last thing I hear before I feel my own body get squished into a tiny round blob. The excruciating pain doesn't last long thankfully, due to the speeds that I'm traveling at. It feels as if all my bones, organs and everything else that's apart of me snaps into a billion pieces. Somehow I'm still alive. It's like I've been zapped into a different dimension in which my bones and organs are flexible and can't snap or pop when they're squeezed into a tiny, thin cylinder.

I open my eyes again as I finally get completely engulfed by the weird object. All I see though, is darkness. There's nothing except blackness. The air rushes below me, letting me know that I'm falling, but there is no end. There's nothing. I'm lost in a void of nothingness.

These are my last thoughts before my mind becomes black as well as I loose consciousness.

~~~~~~~

A/N:

If you like this chapter or my book, could you please vote or comment. It would be much appreciated and I'd love to know what you think.