Will Quantrill

The Heart-Shaped Locket

After He’d been walking as long as the ash had been falling, and the ash had been falling for over a hundred days. Sometimes rain fell, but always, ash. All around him, a plain of nothing. An abandoned Buick was pointlessly parked at the side of the road, as if the driver were hopeful that they might one day return to it. To the east, a ridge reached its peak, stretching as far as he could see, which given the consistent fall of ash, was not very far.