THE VALLEY OF THE FOUR GIANTS: SURRENDER

I fumble with the knot. She stares at me over the gag. My fingers slip as I try digging into the fabric.

The wind rushes from the trees. The pile shudders. Then, again, the same racing, whooshing sound. I've heard it before somewhere. There's no time. Something else though. A cracking noise underneath.

The knot loosens. The gag falls around her neck.

"It was a trap!" she says, suddenly, gasping for breath. I'm confused. Then... another whoosh. Another arrow jabs into the pile, now spitting with fire.

Wisps of smoke rise up through the shuddering wood pile. The truth hits me.

"Quick!" she cries. I loosen the rope around her arms and feet and she slips away from the pole. Whoosh. The arrows come thick and fast, thudding into the pyre. The flames lick the base, smoke now billowing into our eyes.

"We have to jump!" I say, over the noise. Another fiery arrow. The air is hot and unbearable.

"It's too late," she coughs, "We can't make it."

Through the smoke, dark figures are emerging from the trees, tall and menacing. She looks at me, astonished. I look at her. These silhouettes are familiar to me, standing high against the sun. They are my giants.

One. Two. Three. Four.

They tower over us, their features peering through the sparks, glowering over the pyre as it leaps into life. I can see their glistening eyes:

Hopelessness, Lustfulness, Loneliness and Uselessness, back from the dead.

My head rages.

How? How did they? I? I don't understand.

Hopelessness laughs. His voice crackles like the flames, dancing with the glee of victory.

"You then!" he sings. He's roaring with delight, like the fire in front of him.

"You lost!"

The Photographer watches me. I look back at her for a moment.

"She can't help you," says Uselessness. "Not this time. No words will save you now. You fell right in!"

"No words! Ha! What was it he said Uselessness? I am loved!"

The giants squeal with delight.

"I am loved!" mocks Useleness, "He thought that would be it! It was not though was it! It was not enough! And you had no idea that I was not done. Love. Ha! Where has that got anyone? No words is right."

"No words and no music!" cries Loneliness. "You thought you'd won against me! Imagine. But where are your friends now, little spider?"

The Photographer reaches out a hand, as if to make a final point. I take hers, trembling. The smoke piles higher  around us. It is becoming clear to me.

"No love indeed, my friends." Hopelessness is pacing now. "And no hope either. You see, there never was any ... hope, was there? Not against us. Did you really think you'd win? Did you really think you'd beat us?"

She grips my hand a little tighter.

"It was all a waste of time! And where did that false hope take you? Only ever here. To the end. To your end. You see! Hope is useless to you, just as your friends have proved to be, and as cold and useless as your empty shouting in the woods. Even the Maker has left you. Trusting in Hope was your undoing. It was your trap and your downfall."

Squeeze. My mind is racing. Hope had led me here. I had always thought it would be protection; a tiny photograph given to me, my great weapon against these four giants. Yet Hopelessness was right. They had won. And I had lost.

"You never got it," says Uselessness.

"You never understood!"

"What a loser."

My thoughts leap quickly. The flames lick higher.

But if not hope then what? Why had the Maker given it to me at all? What did it all mean? I could never have beaten these enemies. I should never have taken them on. And yet, I thought I had, I thought I had done it.

"Let's watch them burn!" cries Lustfulness. Her voice is high and sweet again, like Ivy's. The smoke billows around us.

"Burn! Burn! Burn!" cry the other giants. They circle the fire. Hopelessness's sword catches the light. Uselessness thumps his staff into the earth and Loneliness, reunited with her bow screws an arrow head to a shaft.

"Matt," whispers a voice next to me. "I can't hold on much longer. You have to..."

"What?" I ask. She bites her lower lip and looks away.

"I can't. You have to...do... something."

Everything is racing. The flames grow higher and my skin is burning with the heat.

Her. The Maker. The Hope. It had always been the Hope that Hopelessness wanted. That was what this was all about. Hope. The Photograph. It couldn't protect me, but maybe... maybe that wasn't what it was... for... Maybe it was more about... her.

I glance sideways. Her eyes are closed. The giants sing as they circle. Quickly, I reach into my bag. My hand slips past the piece of broken record, past the slip of paper and reaches for the Photograph, the Hope I had clung to all along. Its texture has changed. It feels new.

"Quick," I whisper. "I have to give you this."

She looks at me, suddenly smiling. She lets go of my hand and reaches for the Photograph with the other.

"But!" I say, "It's not for you." She nods. "I'm giving it the Maker, I'm surrendering it. That is where my Hope belongs. With him. And you came from him. So..."

She blinks and looks down at the small square of photographic paper fluttering in her hand.

"I know," she says, now confidently in the moment. "Now, Matt," she leans in and kisses me once on the cheek. "Use what you have."

In an instant she's gone, vanished through the smoke into nothing.

The giants fall silent, staring. The flames leap towards my feet.

And in that moment I  stand there, trapped on top of a burning bonfire, with no hope left and no friends, surrounded by giants. My hand reaches into my bag once again.

"Use what you have", says a voice, resonating inside my head.

My fingers clasp around the broken record. I know what to do.