Chapter 17: The Box and the Cross
"I showed up," Max said loudly as he slowly moved closer to the hooded man. "Good, I have a lot to talk to you about in a very short amount of time,” said the man who claimed to be Max’s real father. Staring right at Max, he started, “You were once part of a sacred race Maximus. We were all immune to the Red Death, and we all went to go live in the mountains. Unfortunately they found us and figured out they couldn't infect us. They locked us up, and found out our only weakness. The weakness was that the only way we could die was by having our heads being chopped off. They tortured our people to find the rest of us, and only your mother and I escaped. She was pregnant with you at the time and we both knew we couldn't raise a child alone in the wilderness. We found your town as we left our home in the mountains. We snuck in looking for the right people to raise you. When we found Max and Betty, we somehow just knew they would raise you well, and as it turned they hadn't had a son yet. We left you with them and when they accepted you as their own, we left to continue hiding. And we’ve been hiding ever since that day. No one else knew about this, not even Mayor George."
Max eyed down the man and asked," Why did you call me Maximus?" The man replied back, “Your name is Maximus Secord. Maximus Secord the Third!" Max didn't completely understand what this man was saying, so he continued, ”You were pre-destined to become a king of our people."
Suddenly, this was starting to make sense. Max began to understand why he asked so many questions and why he somehow knew he wasn't supposed to be living in the town. "I also see that you are the chosen one Max, you have the cross necklace given only from the four men. I will give you one more gift, to help you win this war." He handed Max a small blue box and inside was a note just like the one he found in the glass bottle. "Do not read the note inside of this box until both pieces of paper are combined," the man told Max. "Thank you sir, it’s time for me to go home. My parents think I'm coming back home in five minutes and I don't want to scare them more than they already are. I still am not entirely sure if you’re my father, even though I do kind of look like you."
The man smiled at Max and took off his hood. "I would not expect you to believe me Max, you are very much like me. You do not believe stories or speeches, you need hard, concrete evidence and I think the blue box should convince you." The man shook Max's hand and ran off and as he was running he yelled back to Max, “remember Max, you can always change your purpose!" Max started walking back home, pondering all the things the man had told him. When he reached the porch, he knocked on the door loudly.
Max waited impatiently for his parents to come open the door. He could see the lights on but no one came to the door. He knocked for another couple of minutes, but still no one answered. Max decided to go around to the back and crawled through a small window into the basement. He slowly crept up the stairs eventually reaching the door. He opened the door and saw his mother and father sitting together, not saying a word.
"What’s wrong, are you guys okay?" Max asked as he went over to his mother Betty. He put his hand on her shoulder and knelt down next to her. She immediately burst out in tears crying, “It's the five week anniversary of your sister being killed Max. Why would she leave us Max? Why?" Max stroked her hair as she once did when he was just a small boy. "You’re both great parents, you and dad. You raised us well, but we just both wanted more in life."
"Max we have something to tell you as well," his father announced in a weary voice. "We didn't find you in the backyard like we said we did, you were given to us by a man over eighteen years ago. He told us your birthday, how special you were, that your name was Maximus, and that you were even a king. I'm sorry we both lied to you a few days ago, we just have always wanted to keep things hidden. But we know you'll eventually figure it out, you always do." Max smiled at his father, and decided to not tell them about the talk he just had with his birth father. "Well thanks for telling me that dad, but I don't think I could ever be a king, and I like being called Max a little bit more than Maximus." His dad chuckled and his mother smiled too. "I'll whip you boys up some dinner and then you'll both have to go to bed," Betty told both Max's.
"So dad, what group did you go in for the army?" "’Group C’ son, I don't want to kill anything. But I will help as much as I can." "That’s great dad, were going to need a lot of help. Also we need someone to manage the younger kids and tell them what to do." His father nodded at Max, and sat down at the table reading the newspaper as he always did.
“Dinner’s ready!" Betty shouted as she brought in a huge platter of food. The family talked and enjoyed their meal together. For just a moment they all looked at one another and felt like a normal, happy, family. "Thanks mom, dinner was delicious as it always is! But I need to finish up some army plans before I fall asleep," Max said as he excused himself. His mother gave him a hug and took his plate. He smiled at his dad and then ran upstairs to his bedroom. Max opened the door and pulled out the blue box his birth father had given to him. He moved his bed over and saw the second floorboard was slightly cracked. He removed it slowly and grabbed the bottle underneath the board. He jumped back on his bed and put the bottle and the box next to each other. First he took out the paper in the small glass bottle it read, “You cannot change everything, but the things you can change are the reasons for existence." He then opened the small blue box and inside he found another small glass bottle, which also had a note inside. Carefully, he removed the note and placed it under the note he had just read. The notes infused instantly making a small popping noise and now there were new words on single note. It now read, “You cannot change everything, but the things you can change are the reasons for existence, and sometimes you cannot just have one purpose if you want everything to change." Max grabbed the paper and again the note transformed, but this time it turned into a small silver mirror. Max understood immediately what this meant and said to himself, “If I want things to change I can't just have one purpose. I have to change my life to make things right."
As he said these words he felt the cross on his neck heat up. He took it off and put it on the mirror. The cross radiated a silver tint, and now there was even more writing on the note. "This cross was made for times of great trouble. It gives the person wearing it extreme power, vision, and hearing. It will activate when you need it most." After reading the words the mirror, bottle, and note vanished. All that remained was the silver cross. Max was overwhelmed from everything that happened that day, and he decided to lie down. "I have a lot of days to train before the battle, and for that to go well my mind must be clear." Max thought about his purpose and how he was supposed to be a king. It was all so sudden, but he knew he could handle the situation. He could feel himself relaxing as he looked outside his bedroom window. He closed his eyes and fell into a very deep sleep.