There’s something happening in the schools of DarkCorner Land, something secret, something big. The aliens run the schools of DarkCorner Land, and they have high expectations for every student. Imagine having an alien in your classroom at all times, watching you, staring at you. But you have no idea what they’re thinking. Maybe you think your own school is really run by aliens! Maybe you think your teacher is really an alien. Maybe they are… But in DarkCorner Land, you still have human teachers, but what would be the principal for them, they just call them the School Leader, is an alien. Imagine seeing the teacher go over to the alien watching the class and the alien points to you. Then a messenger will tell you what the alien wants you to know, and it’s probably not good.
They are really strict about behavior, and make students do large amounts of schoolwork every day. They challenge every student to succeed, but only in a certain way. If you’re great at art, they don’t care because they don’t see how art offers any answers for the dark illnesses. If you’re great at sports, they don’t care because they see those activities as a waste of time altogether. If you’re great at music, they don’t care because how will that solve the dark illnesses? If you’re great at history, there’s nothing there about dark illnesses so they see that as a waste. If you have really cool ideas, are creative, can make things, you guessed it, they don’t care because they see themselves as far more advanced than us so they don’t see how some kid is going to figure something out about the dark illnesses if they haven’t. They only believe the subjects of math, science, and reading about their civilization are important. They have now unveiled what they call “The Path to Freedom.” It’s a written document sent to all the kingdoms, including the new Cashes Dade. The aliens claim that this is the way to lead all the people to freedom from the dark illnesses that come from the dark spirits who haunt the land. But students like Cade Mayson, Blake Candade, and Drew Marsher think it’s a big lie…
It’s time for the first mystery challenge of the next book coming out this next Memorial Day. It’s going to be epic. This will be a two-part mystery challenge. In this post, we’ll look at the aliens’ document about “The Path to Freedom.” We’ll see how they explain it in their own words, and how they try to prove that they are the ones to save the people from the dark spirits. In two weeks, we’ll see the response from Cade and the other students who believe the aliens are lying. The answer will not be revealed in the posts, you’ll have to read the rest of the series to find out who’s lying. But after the second part, we will reveal a key clue that hints at the answer. Can you figure out who’s telling the truth? The clues will be there. Decide what you think. Leave a comment below if you think you know the answer and tell us what clues you think you have seen. Are the aliens really lying? Could Cade and the ghost strikers be lying, or might they just be mistaken? But maybe the real question is, if the aliens are lying, why?
THE PATH TO FREEDOM
We have the greatest empire in the universe. We saw your planet in our explorations and saw a planet in great distress with many problems. Your schools were a complete mess. You students fight each other constantly. You are so greatly divided, in so many ways. You have contests fighting over who has the best pictures. You hate those who play for or cheer for other teams. You get jealous of those who are popular on stage. You break up friendships about what happened in the past. You ignore those who stand out too much. Meanwhile, you can’t even come together to fight deadly illnesses…
In your dark corner kingdoms, you are haunted by dark spirits. We have captured some of them and put them to work for us. But the others are still free, developing stronger dark illnesses that overtake you. First they give you terrible nightmares that seem all too real. You become scared of what you might become, a loser all alone. Then you see things that aren’t real, you begin to see only darkness and everyone and everything becomes distorted and dark. You look in the mirror and see a twisted, dark reflection that makes you feel inferior to everyone else. Then it shuts you down until you can’t move, you have no desire to do even the things you used to enjoy, and finally it leads to death. But we have the answer. That’s why we’re here, to save you, if you’ll trust our way…
The answer is in our schools. If you have what it takes-intelligence and discipline, you can achieve the high standards that will lead to finding the answer for how to defeat these dark spirits and overcome their dark illnesses. When you understand high math and science, then see how we used that to build our supreme towers and cities, you can discover the answer. You can chase after dreams that turn into ghosts. You can go run around in the mountains or the hills or the fields and play uselessly, finding nothing, there’s nothing to find out there, or you can reach high, sit still and study our way to find the real answer. The choice is yours…
The aliens are working on a secret project. Austin, Ryan, and Cameron are now allies on a mission to find out what the aliens are doing. The aliens claim they have to work on finding the answer before the dark spirits do which is why they must be secretive. They claim they must find the answer without letting the dark spirits figure out how to respond and overcome them. The kids work in the shadows, trying to find their way to gain strong positions to discover what the aliens are developing. Maybe the aliens are developing some kind of new weapon to destroy them all. But the kids are working on figuring out how to defend themselves against any alien attack.
What is a lie? The key point to remember about lying is it doesn’t mean you’re wrong, it means you know the truth but tell something different, something you know is wrong. Those who lie tend to hide. They hide their actions so they can hide the truth. So, who’s hiding? The aliens are hiding their actions, being really secretive, but Cade has something to hide as well. He is keeping a deep secret, and it’s not what you think…
