Daniel is your average 16-year-old. He has straight black hair and wears glasses. He also has deep blue eyes. He is average height and average weight the only thing that is not average about him is his wits. He always longs to just blend in with everyone but that's not possible as the schools' bullies just choose to pick on Daniel this time.
"Hey Scumbag," They said, snivelling and approaching him. He just zoned out and let it happen. He went home with just one bruise on his arm. He hid it from his mum whilst walking up the stairs to his room. But today would prove to be the day where his life changes drastically.
He opened his door and saw something on the desk. It was a small grey box about the size of his palm. He went to open it and saw a silver ring and a note. The ring was silver with streaks of platinum. It shined in the sun brightly as if it were a star. The note was in a folded piece of paper, the note said:
"The day is young,
The night is old.
Change the shape,
and you will get the key,
to your solutions.
It is one of many."
Daniel laughed, "What the hell is that meant to mean" and scrunched the note up into a ball. "The ring does look pretty cool," he thought to himself.
He slipped the ring on, it fits snugly on his ring finger. It felt cool to the touch and subtle now that he wore it. He felt like he was in an adrift on a shaky raft in the ocean.
He looked back on the desk and saw in the ring box that there was a golden chain in the box. He jerked it out and stuffed it into his pocket without much care, it was just a plain old chain anyways. Dan laid down in an attempt to sleep early for once, he was tired of volleyball at school.
He woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. You could hear crickets chirping outside the window. His body felt heavy and hot as if his muscle fibres were being torn apart and his chest was tight. He looked to his hand at the ring where the platinum streaks were and saw they were glowing a deep shade of red.
At that moment Daniel knew what he had to do, he didn't think it was just instinct. He lifted his left arm with all his might, gripped the ring, and hurled it across the room. It felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. His head was spinning. The ring wasn't glowing anymore. It laid on the floor motionless.
It was obvious. The ring had a secret. He swiftly leaped to his desk and re-read the note:
"The day is young,
The night is old.
Change the shape,
and you will get the key,
to your solutions.
It is one of many."
He repeated it to himself many times quietly trying to understand it. He grabbed the ring with fear of what may happen and dropped it into his drawer with his quivering hand. He put the chain in along with it and locked it.
Thoughts were racing in Daniel's head "How is the day young?" "How is the night old?" "Did this happen because it was night?" All those questions were left unanswered. He thought about these things the whole night, the sun was rising and he could hear the birds chirping outside on the tree.
He didn't open the drawer and went to have breakfast. While he was eating his toast his mum said with a disappointed tone "Where were you last night, don't tell me you were causing trouble again"
He replied confidently "What? I was in my room"
"Sure, so that's why when I went in there was nobody there?" she replied sarcastically.
"Bu-" he was beginning when a thought came across his mind which he was certain of, that this had to do with the ring.
He knew this so he just gave up "Sorry..." he said knowing it's no use fighting when it had to do with the ring. His mum sighed not a sigh of relief or exhaustion but one of sadness, his mum was on the verge of tears but of course, she held it all in. She was like a dam that was about to burst and let a raging flood engulf a town.
He left the house to go to school. It was Spring and the grass was wet from last night. From the trees to the road to his neighbour's cars, everything seemed vibrant and vivid. He thought to himself "I spend too much time at home". The fatigue from yesterday seemed to have mostly left Daniel other than the fact that he got no sleep due to the terror of the ring and whatever its true nature may be.
In class, all he could think about was the ring, about what it could do. After some brainstorming, he had a couple of ideas for what the ring does with the most likely one being it turns you invisible.
The thing about Daniel is that he isn't easily confused nor tricked, he is clever and usually scores top of his year in exams. This isn't a coincidence however, beyond the tip of the iceberg he used to study most of the time for hours on end until he couldn't hold a pen, after a week of studying his hand is full of blisters and paper cuts. Everyone just assumes that he is talented at all subjects, where in fact he was less capable than the average person which is why he studied so intensely for years.
However, now he can't understand anything about the ring hence why he made a plan on how to understand the ring's "Powers". First of all, he wanted to solve the riddle about day and night. Secondly, he was going to research rings and Invisibility. Thirdly and the one he was the most reluctant to, was to wear the ring and try it to see if it works.
When he got home he spent hours on the riddle when he finally understood parts of it. First, he tried crumpling the paper to see patterns in the letters, then he poured water on a copy, he folded it into a plane, burnt it, froze it, cut it. Nothing. Nothing worked. Coincidentally he laid his eyes on the box and remembered the ring and chain, he fumbled with his key but curiosity got the best of him. He opened the drawer.
He took everything out and stared at it. He evaluated what he had. A silver ring with platinum streaks, a golden chain, the original note, and the grey box. He inspected everything. The ring, the chain, the note. Until he got onto the box and noticed, the top part of the box has an irregularly shaped polygon and realised. He put the note in there and was ecstatic to understand more about the ring. He lined up the paper with the gaps in the box and when he read it he was left dumbfounded. It said...
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