Excerpt: Keys in the Lock

PROLOGUE

Meet Kristi Block
Kristi Block was bored. Not in that college student sense of mundane boredom though, where two friends couldn’t decide on a movie to see or what new X-Box 360 game to play. It was something much deeper than that, rooted beyond layers of interpersonal conflict and therapy sessions. However, none of these came to her mind as she stood in the middle of her living room. Instead Kristi came to the conclusion that she was bored with herself and who she’d become. And it was this thought that allowed Kristi Block, a seemingly normal businesswoman, to walk out of her apartment in Newark that bright November morning, leave her key in the door and change everything.

Meet James and Bryan Lightner
James and Bryan were identical twins…and not in the normal sense that they looked slightly alike. The two brothers were literally exact mirror images of one another. Even down to the hairs on their heads and straightness of their teeth. It was utterly uncanny how indistinguishable the pair was. They lived separate lives on different ends of Manhattan Island, only speaking over the phone when time allotted between sales meetings and dress rehearsals. However, the forces that were acting upon them that bright day in November went unseen as the two of them hurtled cataclysmically towards something that would change their destinies forever.

Meet Pandora
Across the bay on Liberty Island, a young looking woman awoke with a start. The Statue of Liberty stared across the ocean from where she lay. A confused look spread across her face as she looked around at the strange world that had opened up in front of her now waking eyes. This wasn’t the home she left behind. This world…no…this city was new. It was new in the most absolute sense of the word. Wherever she was, it was a far cry from the marble and granite of her home. Steel and glass surrounded her from all the angles, except for where the endless ocean stretched out. It was then that she realized that a small, ornate wooden box lay in her lap.
She wasn't able to even utter a single word to the heavens before she noticed the two security guards running towards her. And with that as her signal, she took to her feet and ran.