Finding the Unknown

Chapter 1- How It All Started

A knock sounded from my door and I strode up to it and pulled it back, hard. With a few creaks, it flung open. I came face-to-face with my best friend Zoe.

“How are you?” She asked cheerfully, in her usual mood.

“Alive.” I answered flatly. I wasn’t the happiest person in the world.

My apartment’s shape didn’t help, and knowing that I could live back at home made it worse. My mother offered to let me move back in when she saw my apartment’s condition, but because of my being stubborn and prideful, I was forever stuck there it seemed. There was no way I could move back home after that.

“Are you okay?” She asked. I gave her a questioning look. “With your Uncle’s funeral happening yesterday…”

I looked at her grimly. “I decided I’m going on the hunt. The attorney guy, Nathan, gave me this flyer or whatever and it looks like something I can do.”  

“I didn’t think you’d want to go on it with all your Uncle’s friends going and how you acted yesterday.” Zoe said slowly.

I sighed. “I can’t live in this place anymore. I need the money. Uncle Aaron would want me to move on anyways.”

Zoe nodded. “Well I’m going with you.”

I blew air out of my mouth, causing my bangs to lift slightly. “I don’t think you’d want to travel all over the state.”

Zoe stood her ground, shaking her head. “I don’t care. I want to go. It will give us some girl time anyways.”

I could see right through her. She thought I was a ticking time bomb that would go off any minute and she wanted to make sure I could handle myself. Catching a quick glance at my small clock with a crack running down its screen, I realized that I was late for The Hunt and that if I didn’t get there on time, I’d miss out on Twenty-five million dollars. I couldn’t afford that. Literally. “Fine. Meet me at my car- wait, never mind- your car, in five minutes.” Zoe nodded, walking off. Shaking my head, I closed the door and got ready.

Running into the backyard of my deceased uncle, Zoe and I arrived just as the attorney seemed to have finished speaking. Crud! What if we missed something important? A few people came out of the mansion with what looked like paper, and started handing them out to the thirty-some friends of my uncle.

Sorting through my head, I realized that they were giving out the maps and clues we needed. One person handed me one, offering Zoe one too, which she declined. We were working together.

The clue we had gotten said, ‘Altar,church,Living Christ.’

Zoe gave me a puzzled look after reading the clue. “What is an altar?”

“How should I know?” I said. “Sounds churchy though. Like all that Bible, Jesus stuff. It even said church on the clue. ‘Living Christ’, I think Jesus’ name had a Christ in it. So it has to do with something involving that.”

“Yeah, but what is an altar?” Zoe asked again.

“I don’t know!” I exclaimed. “I told you I didn’t know!”

“Well how are we supposed to figure out the clue if we don’t know what something on it means?”

I sighed irratably. “Just Google it, okay?”

“Fine.” Zoe said, huffing. She typed into her phone and stared at it for a minute.

“Well?” I said, crossing my arms.

“It’s a table.” She said.

“Seriously?” I said. “Let me see that.” I swiped the phone out of her hands and looked at it.

al·tar

ˈôltər/

Noun

1.    The table in a Christian church at which the bread and wine are consecrated in communion services.

·         a table or flat-topped block used as the focus for a religious ritual, esp. for making sacrifices or offerings to a deity.

“Well it sounds like something that would be found in a church then.” I said. “’Altar, church, Living Christ.’” I repeated to myself, then something hit me. I looked at the clue again, and sure enough I was right.  

“Hey Zoe, look!” I said. “Living Christ is capitalized. That means it’s probably a name of something. I bet it’s the name of a church!”

“Wow, that’s true!” Zoe said. “I’ll look it up.”  I waited a while as she looked up the name on her phone’s slow internet. Finally we found exactly what we were looking for. There was a church called Living Christ nearby. Bingo.

As soon as we got to the small church, we went inside and looked around for a table. I noticed a pastor standing by so I walked to him. “Where’s the altar?”  

“Would you like to be saved and know Jesus as your personal Lord and savior?”

“No.” I said, letting out a laugh. I didn’t care about Jesus being my savior at all. “I actually just wanted to go up to it and kind of see it.”

“Oh, I see.” He said, smiling kindly. I was taken off guared by that. No one was nice to me after I pratically just mocked them. I felt kind of bad for laughing at what he said. “It’s over there.” He pointed to a table that was under a large cross.

I thanked the pastor. Zoe and I walked over toward the altar. Right underneath was a clue. It was a pretty silver colored paper that sparkled in the sunlight. Up until then, I hadn’t even noticed just how pretty the church was. It wasn’t a very big place, but it was roomy enough.

The altar was a wooden table with shiny yellow ribbons tied around its legs. The ribbons sparkled in the light. It reminded me of how our clue looked. That reminded me about why we were there in the first place. I turned my attention back to the clue. Seeing it folded up, I estimated that it was about an inch in height and about two or three inches wide.

The clue read, “In Hinesburgh, big yet small, lies yet truth.”

I thought about it for a few mintutes. “Zoe, is it just me or does Hinesburgh sound like a town’s name?

Zoe thought about it, slowly nodding her head in agreement. “Yeah, it does sound like a town’s name.”

I pulled the map we were given at my Uncle’s yard out of my back pocket, slowly unfolding it. I beckoned Zoe over to me and together we examined the map for a town called Hinesburgh. After a while we found it. It was a small town surrounded by two big cities.

I turned to Zoe with a huge grin. “One hour in and we’ve already figured out the first clue and are onto the next! I’d say we’re on a roll! Let’s get going before someone else gets ahead of us!” Zoe nodded her head eagerly.

We walked back up to the front of the church where the pastor was. He smiled at us and I gave him a look. “God bless. I’ll be praying for you.” He said.

“Okay then… Bye.” I said. 

We walked out of the church and I got into the passenger side of Zoe’s car, which was parked at the front of  the church. We knew we wouldn’t stay any longer than we had to. Zoe plopped herself into the driver’s seat and started the sleek silver car. She put her keys in the ignition and it roared to life immediately. Soon we were out of the small church’s parking lot and speeding down the highway.

“To Hinesburgh we go!” Zoe said happily. 

-Author's note-

Hello peoples! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Since this is a finished book I'll be uploading chapters weekly, so be sure to keep an eye out for the new one. Feel free to leave a comment! I'd love to hear some opinions on the book. 

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