We Are the Undying

“No.”

“C’mon, Jared, class=GramE>what’s gonna happen? It’s just a crappy map.”

Jared shook his
head, “But you don’t know what it’s a map of, or where it could lead. Besides,
I don’t like the looks of those markings on the sides. Looks
wrong.”

“You’re just
scared, aren’t you? Go on, admit it, you’re scared of a map that looks like it
was drawn by a fourth grader.”

“I’m not scared,”
Jared argued, crossing his arms over his chest, “I just don’t mess with what I
don’t understand. That and all things illegal.”

“Except for that
one time…”

“Shut up, Pete.
That was one time and we both know I felt guilty. I’m not gonna do this and you
shouldn’t either. I’m going home and not thinking about that map ever again.
Leave. It. Alone.”

Pete watched as
Jared turned and left, heading back home with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
Despite their many differences, Pete and Jared had been friends for several
years. Jared acted as Pete’s conscience, and in turn Pete acted as Jared’s
mildly annoying rebel streak.

Dismissing his
friend’s refusal as fear, Pete turned to his three remaining friends, “C’mon,
guys, the map says we only need four anyway.”

“Actually, Pete,”
came the voice of their forever-nervous friend Sean, “it says you need a total
of five. Any four you want, and then number five has to be one who, and I
quote, ‘has prior knowledge of this map and its treasures’.”

“So we have to
find someone who already knows what’s at the end? But if that’s true, then he’s
probably taken the treasure already!” Pete argued, “Besides, where could we
even find someone who would know? Can’t be anyone in this
dump of a town.”

“You boys seek a
power that you have no hope to ever control.” Came a
rasping voice from behind them.

Turning around,
the four of them saw what had to be a hunched-over elderly woman, wearing a
violet cloak that hid everything except her pale, gnarled, brown-spotted hands,
which gripped an equally gnarled staff that stood even with her shoulders. She
hobbled a few steps closer, seemingly examining them from beneath her hood.

“Who’re you?” Pete
asked, wondering where the hell she’d come from.

“That doesn’t
matter,” she snapped, clearing her throat, “that map leads to great change.
Alas, I am not allowed to partake in your… search. I may, however, tell you
this: the fifth member of your party must be a man full grown. He has blond
hair, sharp green eyes, a love of mint candies and the color purple, and of
course, a hatred for Lady Mercy. You may find him in the library at the
computers and don’t tell him who sent you. Just show him the map. He’s looked
for it a long time.”

With that, the
woman was gone, and the four of them blinked confusedly at one another, Sean
asking what was on all their minds, “Should we do it?”

“Why
not? It’s the library. We can just walk in, see if he’s there, show him
the map, and take it from there,” Pete proposed with a shrug, “what’s the worse
that could happen?”

Little did Pete
know that he would very soon find out the answer to his question.

Thunder sounded in
the heavens in anticipation and warning.