Part I: Six Packages, Six Journeys, One Big Wooden Door

14 15 The Chosen: Battle with a Cerberosian Prince The Package Taking a deep breath, he attempted to process everything. He opened his backpack and dumped the contents onto the passenger’s seat of his car. There it all lay—his future—to be determined in the next few moments. He couldn’t do both, could he? A large part of him hoped he could, but he knew he had to choose one. On one hand, he had the opportunity of a lifetime, a full-ride scholarship to the college of his choosing, something he had worked towards his entire life. On the other hand, a mysterious package that came out of nowhere, filled with more question marks than answers, a location he knew next to nothing about, yet intriguing enough to make him consider following up on it. For all he knew, it could all be a prank. But his friends weren’t capable of pranks of this magnitude, were they? He quickly grabbed the passport and credit card and started analyzing them. The problem was that he had never owned either of those two items, so he had no point of reference. How do you know a passport is real, he started typing into his phone. He spent the next 30 minutes in his driveway trying to investigate the authenticity of the passport and the credit card. It was all legit. Well, this entire situation was very suspicious, but everything of importance was up to standard, internet standards at least. He made up his mind: I’m going for it. He put everything back in the backpack, started his car, and drove out of the driveway. He decided to leave his car by his friend’s place until he returned. Not knowing how long this trip would take, he thought it would be easier, and cheaper, not to leave it at the airport. He remembered his uncle’s monthlong rants about how ridiculously expensive it was leaving the car at LAX a few years ago when they had gone on a family vacation. Before he left his friend’s place, he asked him to cover for him in the off chance his uncle would call asking for him. TJ’s plan was to tell his uncle that he would be going on a pre-summer training camp with the team, a camp that would be used by the team to confirm the players they actually wanted on the team. When they have a large pool of great players, they use this camp to choose the cream of the crop… “OK, that sounds good,” he said. Knowing his uncle’s perceptive and meticulous nature, he knew his story needed to be airtight. Once he had his story straight, and his friend was on board, he opened his ride sharing app and booked a ride to LAX. Surely enough, within a few minutes the driver pulled up the driveway and TJ was on his way to the airport. Unfortunately, Friday afternoon in LA, headed to the airport, was always going to be a nightmare on the freeway. “We’re gonna have to take the 105 to the 405. There’s no way of avoiding this traffic,” the driver said. “No problem,” TJ replied. “I’m in no hurry”. He knew this would give him more than enough time to process everything that was happening. “OK, first things first: text Uncle Seymour.” This took a while, as TJ had to choose his wording carefully, running through his story over and over in his head, making sure there were no plot holes. When he was done texting his uncle, he put his phone back in his pocket. With his head against the thick, warm car window, TJ stared out at the partially stationary cars on either side of them. As he gazed into the distance, looking at the vast construction on