Not Geoff's Locket

As with so many of those updates offered in those days, Korrin turned down a free enhancement, but this was one her family dug into her about. It was no small fight either - every one of her sisters, hell, even her brother added the locket upgrade in the right-before-Christmas annual update to their bio-code, but Korrin was the family killjoy, bringing down the holiday spirit by rejecting the heart-shaped code.

Sitting in the dark, mostly damp, makeshift, grotto-turned jail, Korrin squeezed her eyes tight. Small, hot tears made clean tracks down her grubby cheeks as she forced the memory out of her mind, picturing instead where she left her actual locket just two days ago. A tiny piece of dented and smudged heart-shaped gold dangled from its chain on a piece of driftwood not a half-mile down the beach. But the thoughts of that last week of her normal life, crowded back in as her mind played the scene out again for the thousandth time.

“I don’t see why, Kori - you’ve done so many other downloads - what difference does this one make?” Jack squinted at her from across the room. He always loved to pick a fight in front of their parents - Korrin thought it stemmed from a need to make himself look more strong as the youngest sibling of three older sisters.

Korrin sighed. Her folks’ faces were so hopeful when each of them opened the tiny red boxes containing the download instructions and turned crestfallen when she said she wasn’t going to participate. They all knew funds were tight, rarely having the money for anything that was new. Even when it came to their Enhancers - every one of them had a pre-owned version.

Ever since they were kids, Mom and Dad (let’s face it, it was always mom, with dad nodding along) gave each of their four kids a small “love present” in the 12 days leading up to Christmas. Sometimes the gifts were inside jokes, but mostly they were little tokens to remember each other, especially since these days they were spread all over the country with school and work.

“Because I said so. This one seems silly - and really, kind of pointless.” Korrin continued to argue as chewed on her bottom lip. Looking for a reprieve from her exasperated brother she shifted her line of sight only to see her father’s dejected expression. She hated disappointing her dad, he worked so hard so she could go to the school she wanted. The memory of the feeling chided her: ugh, why was she so bad at arguing?

Melly, who was sitting next to her on the lumpy sofa, was imperceptibly bobbing her head. At the time, Korrin thought she had an ally, her younger sister nodding in agreement with her. In actuality she was listening to some new Tfang track set she likely scarped from one of the backchannels on DeNet.

Korrin started in again - hoping Melly would agree. “Haven’t you noticed that lately? All these updates are so...meaningless and don’t help any of us actually do anything.” She tapped at the edge of her jawline, where the tiny scar right in front of her ear - the only physical indication one would ever know that anything was implanted in her brain. Everything else that told her about who she was or who her family was all neatly labeled, and publicly available within the bio-indicators directly available on DeNet.

Melly stopped bobbing her head, crossed her arms, and huffed, “Ah, no, Korrin,” She glared at her. “Ah...and I think you should give the conspiracy talk a rest until after…” Melly trailed off, as she usually did because, on top of her Tfang track playing, her DeNet feed was probably swarming with numerous invites to Christmas parties and boys from second-school wanting to hang out, now that she was home for a few days.

A faint clip-clopping sound roused Korrin out of memories of that final family get-together, thrusting her back into her present cold horror of being kept prisoner by the things feared the most. Her stomach tightened. Of everything that has occured in the last few months, this rogue band of equi'ki tossing a net over her in the one, single moment she let her guard down to bathe at the ocean’s edge, was the dumbest thing she could’ve done.

Those memories don’t matter anymore, she whispered to herself, rubbing her arms to warm herself in her cave prison. In the end, there was only here and now, not the past - and certainly not any of her family. They were gone and she was brooding. She needed to figure out how to get out of this grimy-covered cavern and get that locket without being noticed.

This particular equi'ki before who paced up before her rudimentary jail was new. He wasn’t with the group that galloped up from the brushy shoreline after they flung that sour, fish-smelling netting over her. He must be one of the leaders, she surmised. Equi'ki did usually not possess many human characteristics, but this one looked like a straight-up Centaur. He possessed the typical horse body, which was a dark, gleaming, espresso color, coordinating with his upper human-half of olive-toned skin. He was tall too, maybe eight feet, complete with great curved horns curling around wind-mussed hair on his head.

Most equi'ki she knew, were restless, their feet constantly dancing and moving, but when this one stopped in front of her, his feet were still.

“No, I’m not.” his voice had a gravelly, almost pleasant sound to it.

“What?” Korrin slid back into the shadow of the cave. This equi'ki looked as if it could swallow her whole.

“No,” he cleared his throat, “I’m not equi'ki, and I’m not here to hurt you.” His dark eyes flashed an appraising look in the direction of the darkest shadow that made her only hiding spot.

“I’m here to release you.”

Korrin pressed her body farther back between a crevice of wet rock in the farthest corner of her dungeon. She didn’t believe a word he said - not that she’s even had an interaction with equi'ki or anything else in months. The world erupted after that unfortunate so-called “beautiful” update her sweet parents tried to give each of their kids, none of them knowing that it was the final update before the whole world would collapse - those having heart-shaped code enhancements being taken out first. Her family, her world, everything, gone. The memories threatened to slip in again, a flash of her stomping off after everyone tried to convince her to download the locket code, another memory flash of a tender knock at her bedroom door, the glint of a different kind of locket hanging from the hand of her father. It was the kind you hang around your neck, instead of code designed to trap things in your brain.

She choked back a sob. What was wrong with her, lately? She had successfully blocked all this out. She was right, they were wrong, and they were gone. It was down to using her own wits to stay alive and stave off whatever the hell this non-equi'ki-centaur creature was going to do her.

A quiet moment passed. Korrin stared up at him. He stood motionless, save for a soft ocean breeze swaying the end of his long tail.

He shuffled backward a few steps in the opening of the cave, startling Korrin.

“Look, as I said, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m not equi'ki. I’m...Geoff. My name is Geoff. He rummaged around a leather pack cinched around his torso.

“Here. You dropped this.” Geoff pulled out a shining piece of something and stepped forward holding the thing up in the dulling light.

Korrin’s stomach unclenched simultaneously as she flexed her jaw. Of course, this Geoff, horse-man-alien-whatever found her locket. Shit. She thought. Shit shit shit. She had to get that back from him. If only he knew what that locket could do to him.

It was her turn to slide forward, but just to the edge of the fading shadow. With the sun setting, the whole cave was turning into a darkened blur, but she could make out the shining edges of the one and only possession she cared about.

“Ahh, dude, it’s ok.” Geoff crooned when he saw her tear-stained face. “Seriously, I want to make a trade - but no matter what I won’t hurt you, ok?” He rested his opposite hand on the crude wooden fence in front of her.

Korrin scrubbed at her face. She wasn’t crying over this lumbering idiot. And what was with “dude?” Where had he picked up that archaic language?

“I’m Korrin.” Her voice was hoarse. She had to think fast. Wiping her hands down her pants, she stood up to her full height and moved toward Geoff. If she was going to play this right, she couldn’t be afraid. She heard they could read thoughts and clamped her mind down. Nothing more could be thought about lockets - present or past. If he got even the smallest sensation of the power he held there, there could be worse consequences than dying.

“Do you have any water?” Korrin’s voice crackled as a glimmer of an idea took shape.

Geoff grinned. “Yeah, of course.” He pulled out a water bottle from his pack. It was pink with a logo on it, faded and worn. Korrin could see the words spelling out e-l-l. A bright shard of memory sliced within her. She knew that particular water bottle because her sister had one just like it - a blue one, with the brand name, S’well, covered in ridiculous Swarovski crystals.

No, she thought, pushing the memory away. She reached out, but Geoff rolled the bottle forward in the gap between the fence and the stone floor until it stopped in front of her boots. She opened it and sniffed, attempting to look at Geoff without him noticing.

“Oh, I swear it’s not poisoned.”

“How can I be sure?” She rasped, squinting in the near-dark now to see his face.

“I mean, that would be pretty dumb of me to go through all this,” He raised the locket in his other hand, jiggling it up and down, “just to poison you with my water bottle.”

Keeping a blank face, she looked down at the water as if deciding.

Geoff sighed, a chuffing, knickering sound - which Korrin took as frustration.

“Here, give it back, I’ll prove it.” Geoff stepped up the fenced grate and reached out. Korrin took this as her opportunity, flinging herself toward the wooden gate, slamming her body against the splintered wood hard enough to make it crack, lunging for the locket.

Geoff chuffed again a horse-like noise changing to a human-like grunt. He deftly stepped aside, the locket swinging above and away from her grasp as the gate gave way, her force and the slick, wet stone causing her to slide as she fell sideways, slamming her shoulder into the unforgiving rock.

The pain of impact seeped into her body, radiating from her shoulder. Geoff tilted his head sideways. “That’s weird. I usually know when one of you are going to pull stunts like that.” He frowned, ducking his large horned head toward her.

“Looks like you freed yourself. But at any rate, you won’t get out of here with equi'ki swarming this place.” He nodded toward the mouth of the cave. “I may not be able to read your thoughts, but I can read theirs - and they don’t have anything good planned for you.”

Korrin groaned easing over to her back. Geoff loomed over her, handing her the water bottle again. Wincing as she sat up, Korrin mentally tucked this small piece of information away: He can’t read me! her inner voice sang, and took the water bottle. She knew when she was outplayed, but it was something. A start in finding yet another way to exist in this new world.