The Lost Prince

by P. G. Shriver

  “Give them to me!” The monster bellowed.

  “No, Uncle, no!” John yelled, the first and last time he would call this thing “uncle”.

  “You know I’m not really your uncle, right? We are not of the same place, the same… people.” His face neared John’s, a sneer of satisfaction, a narrowing of his snake-like eyes.

  “No doubt.” John returned smartly. “I have absolutely no doubt about that. I would never be like you, so we couldn’t be related.”

  “Hmm, I heard from the force that you had a smart tongue,” the monster paused before raising the dagger over his head, “Give it to me, now!”

  John squinted into the black slitted eyes of the monster. “Go ahead. Do it!”

  “You don’t believe I will take your life? How arrogant can you be?”

  “No, I believe you can’t use force against me. That’s what you told the force. You know how gossip spreads in the force? Something about a mirror effect?” John narrowed his eyes.

  Thad wanted so desperately to let go and check the pulses of those next to him. He couldn’t believe it would end like this. All this suffering— caused by this thing— for what? Death? He shook his head as he listened to the exchange between John and this demon. Could he and John save the world? Was it even possible, now? Thad knew how weak he really was. How could he even remotely help John.

  The monster disappeared, but the flow of his direction moved the flames, indicating his appearance before Thad. “Your amulet. Where is it? Give it to me, now!” He held out his rough claw, now only hosting three fingers and a thumb.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Thad yelled back. “I never had one of those things!”

  “Oh you are a poor liar…” the monster shook his head.

  “Give them to me!” He whirled and ordered, again flames sought both of the last two Gifted Ones standing.

  “We don’t have them!” John yelled over the commotion. As he turned his face from the striving flames, he noticed the containment of the fire. The barn wasn’t burning. This rotted wood should be ashes, cinder, even in the storm, he realized.

  He faced forward, the flames licking at his skin. There was heat, but no real burn. It had only been their expectation of the fire that brought heat. The monster produced a fire that didn’t burn. Was this…

  “We’re at a stalemate, Thad! Don’t give in. He can’t touch us. That means…” John yelled over the commotion.

  “Shut up! You horrid being. You don’t deserve to protect this grand planet! You’re the worm of all the worlds. You…” The monster stopped in front of John.

  John smiled in his face. “You… lose,” John said calmly.

  “This is winning?” The monster spread his arms at the spiral of fallen still rotating.

  “He’s right! We’re not winning, John. Look around!” Thad didn’t want to give up, but it seemed there was no other choice. He’d already taken ten of the Gifted Ones. As if he’d snapped a finger and dropped them with the sound. How could they win against powers like that?

  To lose is to win, a familiar voice filtered into Thad’s mind. He frowned at the words. Was it a memory breaking forth? The wind energy diminished Thad’s strength, and though he managed to keep his friends upright, he struggled to push back the flames while keeping up the wind.

  “You’re growing weaker by the second.” The wicked smile faced Thad. “Come now, son. It’s time to give up the amulet.”

  Was Thad delirious? His father’s face stared back at him. “Dad?” Thad squinted through the flames.

  “That’s right, son. Just give him what he wants and you can rest.” Thad’s dad reached toward him as if to tousle his hair, the way he did when Thad was younger.

  “I can’t Dad. I can’t let go. They need me,” Thad shook his head, his eyelids falling closed.

  “Sure you can.” Thad turned toward John. John seemed to be struggling worse than before as Thad’s own power weakened.

  To lose is to win, a familiar voice pushed into John’s mind. “What? That doesn’t make any sense.” John argued aloud against the words.

  “What doesn’t make sense?” the monster questioned. “I know you must be delirious. Your strength is failing you. You both can rest, once you turn over the amulets. You can rest forever with your friends and loved ones. Come now!” The creature held a hand toward John. John worked his dry mouth until he found enough spit to show the monster how he really felt about the request.

  “Now, that was just rude!” The monster dried the spittle with a snap of his finger and thumb which brought fire to his face. The fire seemed to suck away the saliva on his features. Then, the creature drew back a claw, ripped off the remaining human skin from its face, and slapped the palm of his talon against his own cheek drawing green blood. When John turned his face toward the monster again, he was looking at a snaky, dragon-like reptilian creature with protruding teeth and flicking forked tongue that now grinned scathingly at him. John’s face twisted with disgust, and he turned away from the creature releasing a scream.

  To lose is to win, the voice repeated. Give him the amulet. It is time.

  “No!” John yelled. “I won’t let go!” It was some trick, John was sure. With Rebecca’s power, the monster could speak telepathically to them.

  Thad craned his neck to see what was happening with John, but he couldn’t see the monster from that angle.

  What was happening? Thad could hear the voice, too.

  You don’t have to let go of their hands. Just visualize, the voice replied.

  Who was sending this message? The voice seemed so familiar to John.

  Think! The voice repeated, To lose is to win.

  John was tired.

  Neka was dead.

  They were all dead.

  He and Thad would be dead soon enough, if not from giving up, then from weakening. They had lost. There was no use. He closed his eyes and saw the amulet in his mind. John envisioned it leaving his pocket to float before his own face.

  John opened his eyes and twisting before him on his mother’s silver chain, as if supported by air, was his amulet. With each spin, it forced back the flame, an ebb and flow of fire reaching toward it, then blowing away again.

  To lose is to win.

  Thad felt the drop in power as John’s amulet splintered before him on the ground.

  The reptilian man produced a guttural laugh of pleasure knowing one amulet remained between him and complete control of everything.

  One last child, one more royal Gifted One, stood between him and all the powers of the universe.

  To lose is to win, the familiarity of the voice tugged at Thad’s conscience.

  To lose is to win.

  To lose is to win.

  Is that why John gave up? Is that why they all gave up on him? They wanted to lose. How could it be possible?

  In what world did losing mean winning?

  They were all dead but Thad. He had been the weakest, the most uncertain, the most untrustworthy of all, and he was the only one left!

  “Yes, Thad. Yes, they all left you to deal with me. You… the weakest. You the most like me. But how could you not be like me? Shed your skin, your human side, and it would be like looking in a mirror. You would look just… like… me!” The reptilian face tilted left to right as its tongue flicked toward Thad.

  Thad narrowed his eyes in return. “Is it like looking in a mirror? Really? Somehow, I think I would be better looking, even as a monster. Why? Because I am better than you could ever wish to be! I would never give up on those who believed in me! Never!” Then somewhere in Thad’s memories he saw it, he saw what the demon was trying to make them see. “I could never be like you, because you will never have what I have… A position of power in our world, a mother who is human, who gifted me with caring, a purpose that serves others and not myself. No, the mirror wouldn’t show me anything similar to you, ever!”

  Close your eyes. See the amulet in your pocket. Free it with your
mind. Dangle it before him. It was the last act that Thad wanted to fulfill. How long had he been weak? To hold out, to bring his friends back— if he could— would take great strength. He didn’t want to give up, now, not on them and not on the mission…

  To lose is to win.

  Why do you keep saying that? How can I trust you? You might be him! Thad answered.

  Let go, Thaddeus.

  To lose is to win.

  Thad couldn’t keep the torrent of wind up any longer. He closed his eyes, visualizing the amulet in his pocket. The chain eased upward, past the opening and the seam, slowly as the struggle to be strong weighed on Thad’s conscience.

  When Thad opened his eyes, the amulet dangled before them, spinning faster, a light within glowing stronger, a bright, golden light.

  “Ah! Yes, I knew you would choose the right path. After all, you are one of mine.” The flames grew upward as the monstrous creature’s heated words fell against Thad’s cheek. The monster snatched the glowing amulet from Thad’s view. “But now, you, too, must join your friends as it is written. You should never have been prince.”

  The creature roared as he prepared the ritual he was given. Visualizing the prophecy scroll, he brought it forth, lay it on the smooth rock, then placed the amulet on top. He positioned the tip of the dagger high above his head. The spiral creaked and whirred in response. He sneered at Thad as he brought the dagger downward.

  The spiral of teens slumped to the dirt floor beneath their feet as the creature prepared to take their powers.

  The wind inside the barn stopped.

  The flames extinguished leaving a dark spiral in the dirt floor.

  The twelve teens limply hovered beneath their lighted spaces.

  A golden glow encompassed the spiral, the teens, ending at the rock of destruction.

  The reptilian being shed every last piece of skin of his human coating, moved to the center of the spiral still whirling slowly above, knelt in the eye, and spread his scaly arms to receive the powers he’d sought for so long. He would soon rule all. He just had to use their powers to press the spiral, open the portal and then…

  As the golden energy brightened, an intense beam of light strengthened above the teens casting a blanket like warmth over the them and the creature at the center of the spiral.

  Soon, the truth would reveal itself to him; within the whirl, each body glowed as it rose and sped around him, golden light filling the teens’ heart spaces, gently working its way out and upward.

  Consumed by warmth, as on cue, each Gifted One awakened from the deep darkness they’d been cast into by the destruction of their amulets, a darkness where no stars shined, that no light brightened, a darkness very familiar to Cheater.

  Their mothers’ forms peered down through the golden light at the center, first upon their children, then upon the man who gave their children life— who modified their human forms to create the beings necessary to protect all that was good— before descending through the opening.

  Each mother rested above their child, features filled with sympathy, eyes sparkling with unshed tears, but not for the man at the center; their tears fell for the people whose lives he ruined, the people who lived in poverty and fear, the people free to express their unrighteous acts and anger upon those around them.

  Their tears shed for the world they swore to protect.

  The spiral slowed and came to a creaking halt.

  The sky had opened up beyond the spiral, beyond the storm still raging around the barn at the edges of the gaping hole in the sky.

  A brief smile passed between child and mother before all rotated toward the inside of the spiral to face the man at the center. There was no longer a need for the magnetic pull keeping their hands together. Their arms rested at their sides.

  “You betrayed us once; you won’t again.” Cai’s mother spoke firmly above her daughter, sadness filling her words over the task that must next be fulfilled. For no good parent wishes to punish their own child, neither does any good being wish to bring death upon another.

  “We told you what would happen, all those years ago when we and the council set this plan in motion after the prophecy of ruin.” Cheater’s mother looked upon the man as though a small, disobedient child crouched before her. Golden fingers rested on her daughter’s shoulders as Cheater raised her chin to the spoken words.

  “Instead of protection, you have ruined many lives.” Rebecca’s mom— as soft spoken as her daughter— allowed a tear to escape her chin and fall upon Rebecca’s crown. Mistaking it for a sign of forgiveness, the monstrous being glanced up at the twelve beautiful women who circled him. This wasn’t the prophecy. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. How could this be?

  Gently, the spiraling wind started again, spinning the Gifted Ones and their mothers; the spiral rotated around the alien below them.

  This was not the end he desired. Destroying that prophecy with the last amulet should have brought him transfer.

  “It is time,” Jaz’s mother nodded to those spiraling with her.

  “Your greed in this world, your cruel desire for power, determined your own fate.” Simon’s mother held out her right hand and the others followed her gesture.

  Their eyes closed, they turned their golden palms down, and in one motion reassembled the broken pendants, raising them to dangle before the teens so each Gifted One could restore their amulet to their neck. All twelve pendants facing inward of the spiral, formed a shining, softly rotating, prismatic light show above the man.

  “No! No! Don’t do this! We can rule together!” The man cried out, understanding his defeat and the sentence. He sought their faces above him, his guilt and repentance too late.

  Unfolding slowly behind each of mother, a set of lightly fluttering, flawless white wings stretched to their maximum capacity filling the wall of the old barn.

  The wings flexed not for support, but to pull the man beneath them upward in a united effort; their wings beat, slowly at first, then built speed as a bird uplifting heavy prey in its talons.

  The monster’s body curled into the fetal position, as if seeking shelter in the egg from which it hatched.

  Levitating at their center, the monster spun in circles to the rhythm of the wings, counterclockwise in a prism of light beams, and opposite the spiral’s force. The increasing pain-filled knowledge of his fate overtook him and he grimaced, his reptilian features pained.

  In unison, the twenty-four powering the spiral spoke as one voice:

  “For your rogue decision to serve only yourself in this Universe, this world— that we sent you to guard for them, for our children and their children and onward— for the lives you chose to take to prosper and support your own plan, for the decision to take all of this and more as your own from its true creator, for your attempt to take the lives of the twelve you helped create in the name of Universal protection, for the Lost Prince, you must spend the rest of your life and beyond in the Darkness.

  “No fire shall warm you, no light shall shine upon you, no being shall comfort you. You shall go forth to a darkness so cold, so full of nothingness, that you will find no comfort. A darkness so still you will know no sound, and in its heart, your mind will be lost to this darkness. The remainder of the reptiles you spawned while here will also be cast away into their own darkness, never encountering each other to rise above what will always be, again.” As one, their words ended. The spiral gained speed; each mother and child closed their eyes to the creature before them, their minds connected, and they created his forever home.

  Within the darkness behind their eyelids, they saw the monster, alone and despondent.

  With a flash, their eyes opened and the evil one was gone.

  Having cast away the one they entrusted to protect this world from the very thing he would now never escape, mother and child looked at each other, the true test for each of the Gifted Ones about to fall on them.

  It had been a difficult decision to trust this one being, to allow him
to rise to such power through his political ranks, but they had planned well for an alternative action. As suspected he defied each of them by taking their lives, leaving their twelve children alone and pining for answers. He had helped to bring the life of each child to this earth from their respective planets, provided each life a human host to gain the knowledge and powers of their children upon seeding, and now the answers would come to the teens.

  Though the teens believed this to be the end of their story— the end of the fairytale— their journys had just begun.

  With a singular thought, the golden brilliance funneled from each mother as their wings refolded into their backs, and beneath each spiraling light, their own children stood facing them.

  The twelve souls descended to the barn floor, standing before their children. Each placed their right hand on the head of their child while covering their child’s heart with their left.

  The Gifted Ones smiled as the winged mothers spoke:

  “These words embed upon your hearts, that you shall be the protectors of this Earth until the end of time, that you have come unto the end of your fairytale, to begin anew.”

  “Powers yet not revealed to you, will be revealed.”

  “You are beauty; you are hope; you are perfection in the Light of all Lights and never shall darkness hide that light or take you over.”

  “You are the gift, half human, of the twelve reigning planets in the Universe, the princes and princesses sacrificed from their homes to protect this planet.”

  “You know your world, your power, your Glory, and you shall forever use yourself to fight the fight of these people on this Earth.”

  “You will remain together, as one, as family, until the end of time.”

  “When it is time for you to shed your earthly abodes, your children will take your place, as you did ours.”

  “Your compassion will reign and rebuild.”

  “Your hearts will fill the lost.”

  “Your eyes will be opened to the colors of evil.”

  “You will never be at peace, for haters and evildoers will continue to arise. Mankind can never just be happy. There will always be those who want more.”