Mom shook her head. "I'm not trapped here. I choose to stay here."

My brows furrowed. Confusion circles in my eyes. "What--what do you mean?" My friend must have known this was a personal moment because they backwarded away.

"I'm not like you. No, that's not what I mean. We are family." She gently grabbed onto my upper arm. "We share the same blood." A red flag set off in my brain. Mom sighed, her hand slipped from my arm. "Lukas." She looked straight into my eyes. She wouldn;'t let my eyesight go. "I'm a ghost. I'm dead. I cannot touch the gemstone. If you touch it you will be returned to Earth. If I touch it I will be too, but when I get there I will be a soul and sent to the afterlife. We won't be together..."

"B-but, the moonstone. Hunter said it gave immorality," I spurted nonsense.

Mom shook her head. "It doesn't. They don't remember. Lukas dont forget me."

"I'm not going to leave then," I announced.

"No. You must leave. Lukas, I'll be with you on Earth. Do you remember the book I read to you?" I nodded my head. "This is a retelling of that children's bedtime story. Read that book every night before you go to bed and remember me in your dreams."

"Now go." She pushed me away. "Go save that man and go back to Earth."

I skidded to a stop in the path. I turned behind me but Mom was gone. How that woman got away so quietly I'll never know. The raging river is more present as the sounds of water crashing against itself were to my right. I turned and saw Hunter. He had Mr. Lowe in his fist. The librarian looked frightened. He looked afraid for his life. I was in the same boat.

SOmeone put their hand on my shoulder. It was Theo. "What do you want to do?"

To be honest, I wanted to help Mr. Lowe. The man had helped us today. I didn't, no, couldn't believe that someone could trap Miss Adams for a materla prize. This wasn't anything like a fight for immortality. This was something else. "I think we should help him and go home."

"Me too," Theo said.

Theo stepped forward and got into a boxing stance. "Hey, Hunter! If you let that man go then we will give you our gemstone."

Catching on to what he was doing, I proudly held up the gemstone. Hunter let go of Mr. Lowe, but didn't let him run away. "I accept the challenge."

Sailor and Yasmin cleared the path for a ring-like clearing for them to fight. I've never seen Theo fight before, nonetheless one on one. I was scared for him, but he looked confident.

The fight went quickly. Theo started it with a jab which Hunter blocked. Returning it with a cross. But when Theo did a left hook on Hunter the adventurer fell down. Fight scene

When Hunter was down, I ran up in front of Theo. This wasn't part of the plan. I didn't want to hurt him, just to stop him. Theo seemed to snap out of it and Hunter looked grateful. Hunter's hands went up to try and grab the moonstone from my hands, but Mr. Lowe, who was behind him, grabbed it first. Raising it high above the adventurer.

"Run," Yasmin ordered and we all followed her. Somewhere in the middle of the Amazon rainforest we regrouped. "Sailor, Theo, Lukas, and Mr. Lowe. Everyone's here."

"Are we sure that we want to let Mr. Lowe come back with us? Can't we just leave him with Hunter Hunter?" Sailor said, moving her hands to engage us with her words. Mr. Lowe's raised his eyebrows.

"No. That's the final answer, no," I said this straight at her. "We cannot leave Mr. Lowe here. We are here to rescue Miss Adams. Why would you want to let someone get trapped here?" My voice raised by a few decibels, but it was something so unheard of me that it felt like I was yelling.

Sailor was left speechless.

She looked down in shame. "You're right. I'm sorry..."

A frown formed on my face. I didn't like making my friends sad, but I couldn't leave Mr. Lowe trapped here. It was wrong.

"Also, Sailor, you are being hypocritical," Yasmin added.

I slowly unwrapped the mystic moonstone from my mom's bandages. It saddens me knowing that this is the last time I'll see my mom and I didn't get to say goodbye. "Ready?" I asked. Everyone nodded.

"3...2...1..." We all touched the new fully undercover Moonstone. A bright light blinded us making all of us blink and darkness took over our sight.

"...goodbye, Mom."

***

When we opened our eyes we were back in the library. For the moment I opened my eyes I knew something was wrong. My leg was in pain. I looked down and my fire ant bites were back. Maybe it was because of the different times from Earth and the book world, but...

"Guys...I'm having... another.... allergic reaction." I tried to make my voice calm, but I couldn't because I could barely breathe.

Sailor reached into her pocket and brought out an epi-pen. It was the same she had used in the book and so it was empty. "We have to take you to the emergency room," Yasmin said. "Mr. Lowe!" The librarian got up from his chair. It seemed that classes were i sesion, because no one was in the library at the time. Mr. Lowe spirited to my side. "He's having an allergic reaction. He's allergic to fire ant bites." I showed him my leg, hives were already forming.

He turned away in disgust, but quickly ran to the library's phone. He pressed three buttons and waited for someone to pick up. "Hello, I'm the librarian of __ Highschool and we need an ambulance now. One of our students is having multiple allergic reactions."

Mr. Lowe grabbed me which was something weird, but I understood why he did. Sailor, Theo, and Yasmin speed walked behind him as we made our way to the front doors of our school.
We waited for what felt like minutes until the ambulance arrived. By then a big group of students had surrounded us.

I was put on a stretcher and sent away to the hospital. The last thing I heard was, "You won't die" which I think was yelled by Sailor. I chucked a little after hearing it. I held the moonstone in my hands.

Why is it always about death?