"This must be it." He said.

"The old bat was right!" She removed her cap, dragged her hands through her dirty hair and flopped to the ground.

He grabbed one of the artefacts out of the box and analysed it. After a few rotations he realised he didn't know what he was looking for. He returned it to the box and checked the others. "They all look the same."

"Let me see." She pushed him out of the way, tore into the box and burrowed around. "What is this junk?" She tipped the box upside down.

"What the hell are you doing?" He tried grabbing the box from her, but she pushed him back. Showing no signs of her smaller frame.

The artefacts fell to the floor, nothing broke. She turned to him with an 'i told you so' smile. Turning back to the pieces, she sieved through them, "This can't be what the witch was talking about? They're just lumps of rubbish." She tossed one of the artefacts over her shoulder in disgust.

The boy rushed behind her to make sure the piece wasn't damaged. He picked it up and examined it. "You idiot! We don't even know what these... Oh my god!" She turned to face him.

The artefact glowed a fluorescent purple. "I think you broke it." He pulled it to his face and stared at it. From purple it flashed green and then tripled in temperature. "Ah!" The tips of his fingers seared and he dropped it.

"What are you doing?" She said. The artefact hit the floor. It quickly returned to purple. The boy waved his hands about, but his fingers still stung. In need of stronger measures he clustered his fingers together and blew on them.

As he emptied his lungs, his body froze. From heel to head he couldn't move. The artefact turned red and pulsed from dark to light.

Not realising the boy had frozen, the girl crept toward the pulsing object. Half a metre away she crouched down. She looked at it closely, "Hey stop messing around and look at this," she moved to within touching distance of the artefact when she froze too.

The artefact rose from the ground and hovered in the air. The girl let out a stifled moan, her fear was clear. The artefact swayed towards her face and stopped. If she had control of her eyelids she would have shut them tightly.

Marks and lines appeared across the artefact. They stayed for a second and then changed direction and twisted into something else. The red cooled to a pink glow and then the marks and lines stopped moving.

A voice oozed from the artefact. "Are you sure?"

Shock silenced the girls moans and groans.

"This is it. This is your story. It all begins here." Said the voice.

A blue light beamed from the artefact and shone first on the girl and then the boy. The moment the light touched them they vanished.