A Pinch of Memories in my Bowl of Disaster

14 Sacrifices

The bag was still on the floor. It was mocking me, just plopped on the floor like it had no idea of the power it was capable of. What power does it contain? It was up to me to figure that out. Then a thought rang in my head. I pulled my stare from the bag and placed it on Ayden, who was still sitting on the other side of the cell bars.

"Before you said he couldn't heal his foot without the bag of sand-"

Ayden cut in, "Yeah, that means that this bag of sand contains all his magical powers." My first reaction was to swipe the bag from the floor. I held it by the string and twisted in order to make the bag twirl.

"So, how do we use it?" I asked.

He shrugged. "That part I still have to figure out." The bag continued to twirl as I held the string on its end.

"Maybe we're supposed to rub it on our skin?" I offered.

Ayden shook his head. "No, I've never seen him rub it on his skin before."

We both sighed, and I continued to stare at the bag. It continued to mock me. It waved the answer in front of me, yet I couldn't see it clearly. See. Remember. My mind flashed back to a couple weeks ago, when I saw Ichabod with the bag of sand, showing me his magic. I picked up the bag of sand, picked out a teaspoon of sand and tossed it onto the floor. Ayden and I both watched the sand as it sat on the floor.

Nothing happened.

"What now?" he asked.

I poked my finger into the tiny pile of sand and traced a heart into it. "I have no idea," I replied. The jail was silent as I continued to play with the pile of sand.

"I have an idea," Ayden stated, "but it's a little risky."

My silence urged him to continue. "Why don't we give him back the magic sand? He'll use his magic again, and we'll observe how he uses the sand."

"There's just one problem," I corrected him. "That would mean giving up the magic sand, which defeats the purpose of observing him."

This time he was the one who poked his finger in the tiny pile of sand as he replied smugly, "not if we keep this little bit of sand."

I smiled. I couldn't suppress my excitement at the thought of out witting Ichabod. Oh, this will be fun, I thought.

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One hour. One hour was how long it took Ichabod to find the magic sand. When Ayden left, he had placed it on a table near by the entrance to the jail. I sat on the floor, my back leaning against the wall, and waited. I tapped my foot on against the floor and banged my head against the wall. I was becoming impatient. How long did it take to find a bag of sand? Ichabod better hurry up, I kept thinking. I finally heard noises from outside the jail.

I could hear the cries of joy. It sounded like Ichabod. I could picture Ichabod picking up the bag and kissing it. I could hear his voice rambling on about something, probably to one of the men. I inched closer to the bars, attempting to eavesdrop. I pressed my ear against the bars but jolted backwards when I heard a scream and shouting. I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from calling Ayden's name. I scooted back into the corner of the cell. Oh gosh, what just happened? That didn't sound good at all. I began biting my nail and praying that everything okay.

A couple minutes later Ayden walked in with a plate of food in his hand. He picked out a banana and tossed it into my cell. He then sat in front of the bars and began pealing an orange. I was confused by his casual demeanor.

"Umm, what exactly happened out there?" I asked.

He bit into his orange before replying, "Well, he definitely found the sand." I glared at him, so he gave me a better explanation.