Well my heart didn't actually stop. If it did I would've only had 4-6 minutes to stand there and rethink my entire motive for coming here, and I stood much longer than 4-6 minutes.
What did I care this guy needed my late fathers help?
What did I care if The Box was locked?
What did I care that super mega foxy awesome hot Jacob Henderson knew where I could find Mysterious Phone Call Guy?
I didn't.
Yet I'm still here. Standing in front of Henderson like a complete moron.
"Max? Wow! It's been forever!" He said smiling that butterfly stirring smile. I coughed to see if a butterfly would come out; it didn't.
'Oh yes, we haven't talked since you cheated on me and then promptly moved away to your new private school run and owned by your father who has always hated me. Yes, it has been forever.' I didn't actually say anything although my mouth opened and closed several times. Anne looked at me worried.
"Is there something I can help you guys with? Aside from letting you know the rules of the Ferris wheel."
'Yes I need to know the location of the mysterious phone guy in order to complete my stupid quest.' Again no noise escaped my rapidly moving mouth. It was like the connection between my mouth and brain had been snapped like a uncooked spaghetti noodle. Anne looked very concerned for me.
"M-Max?" Henderson seemed very uncomfortable.
"When do you get off, Jacob?" Anne asked in her confident tone. I was already buying her ice cream for thanks of saving me in my head.
"'Round 11," he said stopping the Ferris Wheel, "Why, what's up?"
Anne explained we needed to talk to him about something, and he quickly told the Ferris wheel rules to the other passengers while everyone climbed into their own carts.

***

We were waiting by Anne's car. She was leaning against it cool as could be; however my brain was running in overdrive which caused me to fiddle with my jackets strings.
He was late! He was never going to show up! He bolted! My quest is over before it's even begun! He hated me! I hated him!
"Look, there he is!" Anne said pointing. My eyes snapped towards him.
He was carrying a small plastic bag that I assumed held his uniform. He had on a nicely tight white shirt that was tucked into his soft blue jeans. His dark hair fell in a nice shape around his almond skin. Two gems of green emerald were set to be his eyes. Honestly this guy was graced by the gods.
My down under was uncomfortably warm. I fidgeted a lot more.

"Hey!" Anne called waving. Jacob smiled. God. His damn smile. He waved back.
"Hey!" He trotted the rest of the distance over.
"So, Max has something to ask you." Anne said, totally throwing me under the bus!!
"What's up, Maxie?"
I froze. I could not do this! Not at all. I couldn't proceed with this so I just glared at him. I'm good at glaring. Anne nudged me.
"Uh" Oh wow, VERY LITERATE MAXWELL!!!
"So Uhm, do you know anything about Uhm...." I could not do this!!
"About, Uhm, well it's hard to explain. See, uh, there's this box, and, and, this guy?" I was flailing, a boat sinking in open seas.
"A box, and a guy?" Jacob asked switching his bag to the other hand.
"No." Dumbass!
"No?"
"Well, yes! But, there was a guy first-and then a box!"
Jacob was very quiet and I was mentally kicking myself.
"Wow...." he finally said setting his bag down.
"Wow?" I asked confusion swallowing the tiny boat.
"Max, dude, congrats." He said averting his eyes.
"Uhm...." I was so confused right now, Anne didn't seem to be in a better spot.
"On the engagement."
THE WHAT?! My mouth stopped working again and I tied knots in my jacket strings. Anne couldn't catch her breath she was laughing so hard.
"M-Max I-isn't getting married!" She stuttered eventually. Jacob looked embarrassed, seriously, HE of all people looked embarrassed! I should be the one with slightly flushed cheeks and that 'oh I'm so stupid' look on my face!
"I'm sorry, I must've misunderstood what he was trying to say." Anne nodded ferociously.
I got fed up with all the confusion and grabbed the box out of Anne's trunk, thank god she never left anything locked. I showed it to Jacob who went quite pale. I'm sure the two events weren't connected.
"We need to find the guy who has the key for this." I say very demanding. Jacob swallowed hard which made my mind spiral down a very dark path.
"Alright." He said, "Come with me." Then Jacob took off down the parking lot, Anne and I closely following (with some difficulty due to my carrying a literal chest.)

   Several blocks of (kill me) running later we arrive outside the water treatment plant. I was 14 the last time I was here. Jacob and I sneaked in after school to check it out.
   The place was cold, damp, and dark. We talked about holding parties there when no one was around. We talked about a lot of things when we were fourteen; Jobs we would have, which girls were hot, which boys weren't. How we imagined our perfect life.
   Jacob and I never talked about "guy things." They never interested us. We asked the "deep questions." Which is probably why I fell so hard for him. I could always be myself with him.
   Henderson walked over and opened up the door with minor difficulty. I almost asked if he wanted help, but then he got it open so I was glad I didn't. We all ventured inside.
The place hadn't changed much since the last time I was there. It seemed more damper than usual though. Henderson led us down some stairs into an awkwardly long corridor.
Much walking later we arrived in a room that was very small. It was circular and very cemented. I wish I had noticed the ladder leading up to the escape earlier in my adventure; however the fact that I missed it was insane. It was BRIGHT RED! I was probably too preoccupied with the very stunningly hot male tied up in the centre of the room.
The ropes were pulled tight around his chest, legs, and hands. His messy blonde hair fell in tangles in front of his sharp blue eyes that met mine as soon as I walked in, and his cheekbones could kill.
"Maxwell." He said in his gravelly phone voice.
"Mysterious phone call guy!" I responded joyfully. I held out the box. He shifted uncomfortably.
"Get that out of here," He said deadly calm.
"Why does he call you Maxwell," Henderson asked walking closer to me. I quickly walked over to Phone Call Guy.
"Why're you tied up?" I started untying the knots. "How could you talk on the phone if you were tied up?" The ropes fell limp around his legs, and within seconds he had me grabbed by the hair. I heard Anne and Henderson gasp.
"Don't you listen, Maxwell," he demanded gripping my hair tighter, and making me cringe. "I said to get that out of here!" He shoved me away from him into the wall. I was starting to not like this guy.
"Hey," Anne shouted from near the door, "What gives you the right to shove our friend around like that! He's probably older than you anyways!" Her defiance made me smile. "You wanted this damn box! Well here it is!"
As if on cue the door slammed shut, and no amount of Jacobs pushing could open it again. A voice rang out from nowhere,
"Well, well, if it isn't Maxwell Orino." A sharp feminine voice. She sounded evil. "Oh no, you can't be Maxwell. He's dead!" Her laugh rang like the church bells. My fists clenched in response. I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder.
   "What gives you the right to speak of Maxwell that way!" Henderson called angrily.
   "Why, my dear boy, because I killed him!" Her laughter struck again, and every muscle inside me twisted together to hold the slowly breaking pieces. "Now, now, Maxie, dearest. Hand the box over!" Anger swelled inside of me. I was a bull ready to break the china shop!
   "IT'S MAX, NOT MAXIE! CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE!" I yelled tears pricking the back of my eyes. Only two people were allowed to call me Maxie, and she was not one of them. 
   "Let's not raise our voices," She cooed. I couldn't stand her, and I hadn't even properly met her yet.
   "COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!" I screamed. I noticed the blonde step up beside me.
   "Do not agitate her, Maxwell. We might get out of this alive."
   "Fight you? Well, if you insist."
  
   So, I've never been adventuring before, but I'm pretty sure most adventures do not include ninjas.
   They propelled down from the ceiling with grace and landed soundlessly. There was three of them, and four of us. We could take them!
   We could not take them.
   If someone asked me what I learned today; the top thing would be, four people without weapons cannot take three people with weapons.
   Well, Ever (blonde boy who used to be tied up) did very well. He was using the ninjas against one another, and basically kicking butt. Until they kicked his butt. Essentially within getting one knocked out and another stabbed the ninjas tied Ever up again.
   I thought this was okay, it meant he was going to stop showing off. Except now they were advancing on us. Whoops!
  One grabbed Anne, and the other grabbed Henderson. The two then moved towards me, I held my box close.
   "The box, kid," One whispered in a very snake-like voice. The other passed Henderson over to the Snake-Bro, and then promptly pulled a knife on me.
   I wanted to go out in the coolest way possible so I applied all of my movie, video game, and book knowledge into this one moment.
   "Why're you doing this," I asked pressing myself flatter against the wall. The Snake-Bro cackled and I saw Henderson grimace.
   "Nice try, Maxie," He cackled, and before I knew what was happening a knife came down on me.

                                                                                        ***  

   "Is he going to be okay?" Anne was walking quickly beside me.
   "Of course he is. It's just a stab wound," Ever commented in his neutral tone.
   "You say that like its natural," Henderson mentioned.
   "J-acob..." My voice was little more than a whisper but he looked down at me worry glazing his eyes.
   "Hey, Maxie. Hey, ssssh, everything is gunna be fine."

                                                                                      ***

   "He's loosing a lot of blood," Ever said.
   "Are we close?" Anne's voice pitched up in panic.
   "God, hold on, Maxie."

   "Stitches"-Ever
   "He's gunna be okay?"-Anne
   "Might die"-Ever
   "God help us"-Anne
   "Maxie, don't die."-Jared

   Everything hurt. I didn't want to move, or blink, or breathe. I didn't even wanna be alive it hurt so bad right now.
   Against my own will I peeled open my eyes with excruciating effort. A pale white ceiling met me. It was dark grey in the current lighting.
   I tried to force myself into a sitting position, I cried out in effort.
   "Max!" Henderson was by my side in an instant. I had channels of tears down my face in seconds into my mouth that was open in loud protest. I tried to say his name but just let out more agonizing noises. Henderson pushed me back down into a horizontal position.
   "Sssssh, Maxie, calm down, you're fine." Henderson assured with calming strokes to my unnaturally sweaty hairline. I was suddenly very self conscious again. I tried to move away from him but was met with more pain.
   "God!" I exclaimed "what the fuck happened!" I thought now would be an appropriate time to use an f-bomb.
   "He stabbed you," Henderson said quietly, "or, she stabbed you."
   "They stabbed me." I corrected quietly.
   "Yea, they stabbed you. You're fine now, though. All stitched up." I nodded a little bit and turned to look at him. He seemed increasingly more hot when he was stressed out.

   The four of us stood in a pretty lounge. It was decorated with red velvet and had tons of marble statues. The slight swaying gave everything a nice underground mafia feel.
   "So you have the key?" I asked regarding Ever.
   We all stood in a semi circle around The Box. Anne was on the outside to my right, and Ever was on the outside to my left. Which meant Henderson was standing right next to me on my left as well.
   "I have a key that Maxwell left to me before his untimely death." Ever pulled a small silver key out of his pocket.
   Ever gently pushed the key into the lock and turned, a soft click was barley heard against the waves gently lapping the boat. He slowly lifted the lid, and I took a sharp intake of air.
   "Is this some kind of joke?"

It was empty...

"Why would Maxwell risk his life for an empty box!?" Ever walked away angrily. Henderson looked up at me with a weak expression.

"Maybe the real treasure was the memories we made along the way?" Anne offered desperately. I felt slightly annoyed at that comment.

"I almost died!" Anne grimaced, and gave me an apologetic look.

"Ah," Ever mused, "Yes that was my fondest memory." I fixed a hard glare on him. Who did this guy think he was? I was probably older than him anyways. Also, what kind of name is Ever? I looked back to the box, and saw Henderson running his hand along the dusty inside. I looked away quickly to avoid any awkward eye contact.

"No," Ever mumbled from near the unlit fireplace, "It's not like Maxwell." I was getting increasingly annoyed with this guy. How could he talk about my dad so casually?

Suddenly, Henderson gasped and pulled away from the box like he'd been stung. Anne looked into the boy and exclaimed a tiny,

"Hey!" Ever was over in an instant and pulling the paper out of the compartment in the chest.

Dearest Maxie:

My dear boy, if you've found this letter i'll assume Ever has gotten into contact with you, which means i'm most likely dead, or M.I.A. I need you to trust him with your life, Max. Trust him. Now I'm sure you have many questions which I cannot answer: however you need to understand the importance of your mission. For the moment I want you to ignore Kyra, that is Ever's mission, not yours, yours is much more important. I am trusting you and Anne, who I assume is with you to venture to the very source of all this. All these awful people who are here taking children, destroying things, and generally gaining more and more power. I've found where they all retreat to when they've been discovered. I have no idea what's in there Maxie. Ever will prepare you for everything. Every scenario there is. This will be very dangerous my boy.

Love, Dad.

I stood in stunned silence as Ever read, and reread the letter. Anne took my hand gently-in a reassuring way. Ever reached into the small compartment, and pulled out; a small leather bound book, two vials of a green liquid, and a hastily drawn map. Ever fixed a glare on me that I thought could've turned me to stone.

"Okay, what did I do?!" My hands flew to my jacket strings to fidget.

"What do you mean?" Ever growled dropping the letter onto the table. Anne quickly picked it up.

"You look like you want me to drop dead." I kept shifting my gaze from Ever to Henderson, but Henderson wasn't making eye contact with me.

"That's just how my face works." Ever then turned and left the lounge.