Catalyst

325 40 0
                                    

Nate continued to type quickly into his slate as the sweat on my palms began to gather

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

Nate continued to type quickly into his slate as the sweat on my palms began to gather.

Think, Valen. What could possibly be the code?

Behind the sounds of the chaos was getting closer. It was all clouding my mind. Making me unable to think anything other than blood and pain. Was Mat okay? Did Evee need my help?

Think, Valen. They need your help here. This is it. This is your...

Purpose.

It made my hands shake over the buttons of the controls. This was everything I had been waiting for, but again I was too afraid to move. Waiting for something to happen when it all waited on me.

"Valen, the shock signal is deploying," Nate turned to me and said, "If we don't get this train out of here in thirty seconds I'm not sure Gen will be so patient with us after this."

"I'm not - I'm not," I stuttered and felt pain at my side.

I touched the flesh above my hip where the book had hit me. It hurt much more than an old book should I have. What could possibly be in that stupid book -

"The book," I whispered and turned sharply from the controls.

"Valen!" Nate shouted as I ran back into the next cabin, "Where are you going?"

I dashed away from the controls and into the next cabin where the book had fallen. I picked up its leather bind and ran back to the controls with the silver letters in view.

"To My Catalyst," I said aloud.

I hovered my hands over the keypad of the controls and typed out the words.

A red box flashed on the screen.

"Incorrect. One Entry Remaining", the screen said.

I typed into the controls again, this time just spelling the last word.

C-A-T-A-L-Y-S-T

My finger hovered over the enter key beside the letters as Nate rushed over to my side.

"Valen," Nate whispered as the heat of his breath hit my sweating neck, "Are you sure ?"

"I'm going to have to be," I said and pressed the enter key.

X-Marks: Rising ShadowsWhere stories live. Discover now