Jalen Cerame

Mr. Yerkes

English 9

5 December 2018

Hope Prevails

As all normal days started in the city now renamed called “Abhorrius” I awoke to my

alarm clock set on my phone that was facedown on my nightstand. I rose to my feet to open the

curtains of my small living quarters. The street I lived on was absolutely horrendous, abundant of

depressing sights like dark black clouds pouring down rain on people now empty shells of what

they once were. This was once a beautiful street before darkness shrouded the entire world by an

unknown cause no one knew. Luckily, for a few of us we were resistant to this corruption. My

friend Mareclo fortunately was one of those people to be immune to this. Since we're together we

decided to take refuge in a boarded up apartment building. Today we were gonna look for an

artifact that would end the despair once and for all and cure all life on this world. “It is said that

this artifact would cleanse the world of evil and all we need to do is find it!” Mareclo exclaimed.

I had joined my friend with packing hoping we had enough supplies as I gave him the look that

told him, “Hey we got everything, right?” He nodded his head and I continued packing rations

and medical supplies into our survival bags. We had everything we needed and went off to

search for the artifact. Both Mareclo and I ran down the stairs of our safehouse and pushed the

metal door open and took the back alley to make sure not to be spotted by those mindless

followers of evil that patrolled the streets of the city.

March 23, 20XX 

Journal Entry 45: 278 days after the curse. 

Mareclo had led the way to an abandoned section of the city. I followed behind him and 

had questioned where we were going and who we were gonna meet. He said not to worry and that 

the person has got everything we needed. I nodded and had the feeling of hope that we were gonna 

find what we needed, well wherever it was. Both Mareclo and I soon entered a small hut with 

vegetation that has taken over it and within it was an old man who had his hands emitting a 

beautiful energy into a crystal. Mareclo told me this was the person and I decided to believe him. 

The old man told us he was to old and how we were to continue the “influence” as he called it. After 

he told us some more information he gave us what we needed. A crystal and a map to locate the 

coordinates of the place where this curse had originated from.  

I knew this old dude had the thing we needed I just felt it! I showed my respect to him and 

wished him good luck. Right after we left the old man to his business in his old shack. 
 

We were now in possession of both the map to find the coordinates of this place and the

artifact said to bring the life back into everyone again. All we had to do is get back home as it’s

too dangerous to have an important item like this out in the open. Mareclo insert the two items

into his backpack and gave me a gesture to move forward. Again we had to sneak around the

mindless followers, so we are not spotted and captured. Then we went back into our safehouse

and ran up the stairs to get back to our main planning room. My friend pulls out an old wrinkled

piece of paper from the bag “What is that thing?”. “It’s the instructions on how to make the

crystal under our influence so it can be used at the coordinations.” Mareclo replied. I wondered

how to actually change this thing to be on our side first of all since it’s just a crystal. Just a

beautiful transparent rock that shines within this ocean of evil. We wouldn’t be drops of water

lost in this ocean, we would rise and glow bright. A chill went through my body and I asked how

to exactly “influence” this rock. Mareclo read off the piece of old paper “To influence the crystal

one must gather all their positive energy and hope, then reach to the rock using their finger tips,

and if all goes well a bright clear energy will travel into the crystal influencing it to be used for

good.” I set the rock onto a stand and I focused my thoughts, I cleared my mind of negativity that

was in it, and filled it up with hope to save us all from this curse. Mareclo also was focusing his

positive energy than both of us raised our arms and placed our fingertips onto the crystals clear

and smooth surface. I didn’t see it, but I could feel a cold mist of energy being transferred to this

rock. Mareclo and I opened our eyes to see a now white stone shining and glittering in the

sunlight that peaked through our curtains.

March 26, 20XX 

Journal Entry 46: 281 days after the curse 

We were traveling to the coordinates that were given to us by the old man. It was dark 

and unfortunately this was the only way to get to those coordinates. This place had a load of 

corrupt followers guarding it and this was better to do during the night rather than the day as 

we would be spotted easily. Mareclo was ahead of me like always, he’s adventurous and I’m cautious. 

Good thing he wasn’t spotted though or else we’d be in some real crap right now. Ooh! I better not 

forget this moment here! I pushed a large wheel like object and hid behind it to both move and 

stay hidden from sight of those mindless fools! I don’t get too confident in myself, so I guess I 

won’t brag. I think we’re close to the- oh my look at that what a beautiful shrine! 

There it is at the end of the path. Not too far now. 

 The time has come for this to end. My hands are sweaty, knees are shaking, and my

heartbeat increasing the closer we get. Mareclo is next to me getting the same reaction of

excitement and blood rushing through our bodies. We inch closer and closer to the shrine and the

crystal is glowing brighter as we approach it. Both of us crawl up the steps to avoid nearby

guards that I am sure would see us if we were standing up. There it was a gorgeous white

pedestal with a hole on the very top of it, a perfect fit for this crystal. “Aight I’m gonna take the

rock outta the bag ok?” Mareclo asked in a whisper. I replied with a thumbs up and a smile on

my face. He took it out and it was shining bright full of hope and life, and he placed it into the

pedestal’s hole. “One final step.” Both Mareclo and I stood up “Ready to do this, Artori?” he

said with a smile. Together in sync we rose our hands to the crystal and placed the tips of our

fingers on the crystal. Again we thought of all the good things, we forgot about the tragedy that

occurred to everyone, and flooded our minds with hope. The entire shrine started to glow and a

gust of wind blew around us. It got stronger with the light shining and the wind now lifting my

sweater. The guards noticed and they called more of their friends. I heard a faint marching

towards the shrine, but was then swiftly muted by the increasing sound of the wind blowing. A

tidal wave of white then appeared all of a sudden covering everything in sight. We awoke back

home and both of us rubbed our eyes to see all of it went back to normal!