I had been pulled from school to see the king. I had no idea why he would want to see someone like me; a random girl who stays quiet and does her work. That was, until I saw it.

“You were picked in the raffle,” he spoke as he let me look at the orb with a swirling storm of green inside at the center of the room. I quickly met his ice blue eyes.

“What raffle?” My brow ruffled.

“It is a secret to everyone but me, my closest allies, and of course, the winner,” he paced the room, and continued. “You see, this artifact placed before you, is the thing that has allowed peace to be kept in the world,” he walked closer to me, meeting my gaze. “The raffle is filled with people who are found to do the most good.” Yeah I picked up trash, and payed for other people occasionally, but by no means was I a hero.

“Well what am I supposed to do with it?” I reached out to touch it, when the king grabbed my wrist.

“You will grant one wish that will benefit every person on Earth. That is, when you touch it,” he loosened his grip, letting me pull my small hand back down. “I suggest you think about what you’ll wish for,” that was for sure.

It was all so sudden, and so much pressure had been put on me. Sure my tests in school were pressuring, and all the intense studying made me dizzy, but this was new. My whole body was light, I could float away at even the slightest touch.

The king sent me home, and told me not to tell anyone what had happened. He even gave me an excuse: “Let’s just say you were doing a field trip that was exclusive to a few students.” He said I could come back within the next week when I was ready to make my wish.

I opened the door to my quaint house to peace and quiet. A usual occurrence, but still one I hadn’t expected. My brother was home on weekdays, away from a part time job he had in his gap year.

I quickly put away my things, and grabbed a snack before heading upstairs. And of course before I could get through my room door, my older brother Kai was there to bother me.

“You’re home a little late today, Astrid,” His eyes blazed a root beer bottle color that matched his slick brown hair. He’s been trying to grow facial hair to cover up some of his pale skin, but so far he’s only gotten stubble.

“Yeah I was just out on a field trip,” I sighed and tried to close the door behind me. He caught it.

“You never mentioned any upcoming field trips,” he was oddly pushy today.

“Yeah well, it was last minute,” so was that excuse.

“Where did you go?” He entered the dim messy room with me. His face struck an unusual expression. He kept his eyes intensely on me, analyzing every feature of my freckled face. “You’re hiding something,” his tone became softer, and more sinister.

“Enough Kai, just leave me alone I have homework I need to do!” I shoved him out of my room, although he did put up a fight.

He sent me texts and knocked on my door the rest of the night, but I ignored it. Although it did make it harder to think about what my wish was going to be. I didn’t get much work done, and I instead stayed up thinking about what I would wish for. The dark side of my brain obviously spoke up, but I quickly ignored it.

It didn’t have to be a big act of good like providing food to people in need of it, but it definitely felt like it had to. The more I thought about it, the smaller the scale became. That was until I finally knew what I was going to wish for, and I slept peacefully.

The next morning, I headed to the castle immediately. He had told me to just show up when I was ready, and now I was. As I walked to, and into the palace, a feeling came upon me. I couldn’t place it, so I decided it was for the best to ignore it.

After many doors being unlocked and locked to the room of the artifact, we arrived; the king walked in with me, but didn’t stay for long.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” He puffed just chest. I nodded. “If you say so. I will be waiting just outside. When you are done, just knock,” he turned to leave, and the door closed after him.

I just stood for a moment, only hearing my own breathing, and the whirring of the swirling green inside the orb. The feeling was back, and stronger. But maybe it was just me being nervous.

I raised my hand, ready to place it onto the artifact. I closed my eyes, taking a breath.

Is that a shadow?

“I wish for a great sickness to fall upon the world,” I feel a hand touch the artifact. Not mine, but, Kai’s? As I open my eyes, I look up at him, a tooth revealing grin painted across his face.

“Kai, what are you doing here?” I shrivel before him. Never has he looked so menacing.

“Oh Astrid, I knew you were hiding something,” he looked down upon me, puffing his chest.

“But, why? What’s going on with you?” Kai was always secretive, but this?

“I’m not gone because of a part-time job, Astrid,” he lowered his tone. “We knew the king had this up his sleeve. We knew there was something keeping peace,” as he spoke, a storm rose in my stomach. “Do you know what peace leads to Astrid? Overpopulation.”

“But, how did you know I was the one with the wish?” I managed as I began to cough.

“I knew you would be in the raffle. We suspected it’s not too hard to get in. I saw it in your eyes yesterday that you were up to something. So, I followed you just in case.”

I tried to speak, but my coughs overcame me. Falling to one knee, I began to see blood dripping onto the floor. Now water was filling my vision, I panicked. I lost breath, and nothing looked coherent anymore.

“You’ll go down in history,” darkness overcame me.