The Locket

The early morning light filtered in through the cracked bedroom window illuminating the dusty space. Rebecca knew darkness, so the scant light was no issue for her. Slipping out from under the oversized flannel she’d poached from some trendy vintage shop weeks before, Rebecca rose from the bed and padded towards the window. Outside the sky was a sharp sketch of pale yellow light against a dark grey skyline. The city had never looked this menacing, this stoic before; something about the lack of people made the city feel more like a morgue than the streets she was used to running. The city was empty. Rebecca knew that. When the lights went out and the world stopped, everyone ran. Panicked. Families fled their homes, looters ransacked shops and apartments, and violence surged. The pandemic had made people scared of going outside, of being a part of society, a reality that had made it harder for Rebecca to live the way she needed to. What good is being a pickpocket with no crowd to pick, or a con artist with no naïve tourist to scam? This was different though; the pandemic had made a hard life harder, but now, with the threat of death lurking in the eyes of every stranger, violence in every shadow, with everyone willing to do anything to survive, now Rebecca was scared.

No one knew why everything had stopped. It wasn’t like a blackout; it was like someone hit the off button on everything. Cars, lights, cell towers, electricity of any kind were obsolete. The whole world, at least her whole world, had been thrown into the dark ages. Maybe it was a fluke, maybe it was just the city that was like this and the rest of the world lived on in the twenty first century; but whatever the case, her world was dark now.

Running her hands through her hair and over the back of her neck Rebecca paused. The necklace. She peered down at the dainty gold chain that hung from her neck suspending a minimally decorated heart shaped locket just above the tattered blue of her shirt. In contrast with her bronze complexion, the gold shimmered, catching the sunlight as it bent and fractured through the broken panes of glass. She’d almost forgotten about the simple accessory she had found on the bed the night before. It wasn’t an heirloom piece of jewelry, she knew that by the sheer amount of time she’d spent in her father’s pawn shop growing up, but something about the necklace seemed heavy. Not in weight, as the trinket was unusually light for its size, but rather in presence. Something about this locket held an impact, like a hand resting on your shoulder when you know you’ve been caught.

Rebecca slid her thumb along the heart’s smooth surface to the latch on the left. What could she say, curiosity had overcome her. As she popped the latch on the locket, she felt a wave of dread wash over her. “This is stupid,” she muttered clicking the latch closed again before dropping the charm and letting it bounce against her shirt. What was she doing, messing with some stranger’s cheap gold necklace? The days of pawning this trinket for something she actually needed were gone. No one in their right mind would trade anything for a stranger’s locket when basic necessities were so much more valuable now. With a deep sigh, Rebecca stepped away from the window, back into the shadows of the musty apartment. She knew she couldn’t stay anywhere for very long, especially in the city.

Turning in place she scanned the room. It was small and neatly decorated with the typical teenage girl décor: polaroid pictures of friends, fairy lights hanging from every wall, a few books on a desk, some journals near the bed. Stepping softly around the room Rebecca picked up one of the journals from the small table stationed beside the unmade bed and began flipping through the scribbled on pages.

Mom and dad locked the door again…

Rebecca almost smiled as she read the pages of a disgruntled teenage girl but stopped herself when she heard a latch click beyond the bedroom.

Setting the journal back down gingerly Rebecca slinked across the room to the bedroom door. She’d been smart enough to lock the front door of the apartment figuring it would by her time if someone decided to loot the place. Quietly Rebecca reached for the doorknob to slip the bedroom door closed but stopped when she noticed something odd. The door had no knob, at least not on the inside of the door. Glancing down to where the knob should be Rebecca was surprised to find this door only had a knob on the outside. “What?” she whispered as she wracked her brain trying to understand what would lead someone to only put a knob on the outside of a door. Looking closer at the outer knob she made a startling realization; this door required a key to open it. “They locked her in,” Rebecca breathed before a thud made her jump out of her skin. Whoever was at the front door was determined to get in. Thinking quick Rebecca abandoned the bedroom door, grabbed her backpack off the floor, and glanced around the small room. The window led out onto a small metal fire escape, but that would take too much time and cause too much noise. The wardrobe was big enough to climb into, but if whoever was at the door was here to loot, she’d be found in a heartbeat. The beating and banging of the door grew more intense as Rebecca weighed her options. Without many viable exits Rebecca clutched her backpack and shimmied her way under the bed.

As she tried to steady her breathing the front door gave way rocking on its hinges as it was cast aside. Pulling her bag close to her Rebecca heard it: a set of heavy footfalls. “Darcy!” a husky voice bellowed from the living room. Rebecca could hear him rummaging through papers, knocking over lamps, and slamming drawers as he moved through the room. “I know you have it Darcy! Give it up!” he yelled sounding ravenous, like an animal taunting prey. Before she could think of her next move the footfalls bounded towards her. From her slight vantage point she could see cognac brown work boots caked with mud and deep red speckled streaks. Blood. Rebecca felt her body go numb as the unknown figure clunked his way through the bedroom throwing everything from books to makeup on the floor in his wake. “I will find it Darcy,” he crooned as he worked, “that locket isn’t going to save you, and neither will anyone else.”

Rebecca clasped the locket in her palm, ready to throw it to this unknown figure in hopes he’d let her go unscathed, but she knew better than that. Staying as still as she could Rebecca waited. Her fumbling aggressor was none the wiser to her presence, and he was starting to lose steam. Just as what seemed to be the last garment from the wardrobe fell to the floor, Rebecca heard a new voice, new footfalls. Lighter than the first, but in no way comforting. “Did you find it?” the new voice prodded in a melodic cadence. Though the first did not answer aloud she assumed by the direction of the conversation that he had given some sort of nonverbal reply. “If she’s not here then we need to look elsewhere. She’s not dumb enough to leave the locket behind,” the new voice sang as they moved back into the living room. The farther they moved, the more their voices sounded like showtunes until their sickening melody trailed off and they were gone.

Still clutching the locket Rebecca finally let out her breath. She wasn’t sure enough of her surroundings to escape the comfort of her hiding place, however, she needed to know what she’d gotten herself into with this stupid necklace. Slipping her fingers around her neck, Rebecca unclasped the chain and held the locket in its entirety in one hand. Nervously, she slid her thumb across the heart’s smooth surface to the latch on the left, popped the lock, and opened the locket.

Inside there was nothing. No pictures, no wadded up slips of paper, nothing. How could this be? If there’s nothing in the locket, why are these guys looking for it? As Rebecca studied the lines and curves of the locket, she couldn’t help but feel like something was off. The locket was light, something she had initially chalked up to it being cheap, but that wasn’t right either. One side of the locket was light, while the other side had some weight to it. Peering over every detail of the locket Rebecca was surprised to find a ridge on the right half of the necklace. Slowly, she used the flat edge of the clasp to dig into the ridge which gave a satisfying click before revealing a sliver of white. Paper. Fingering the slip of paper from its dwelling Rebecca opened what appeared to be a fortune cookie fortune; "the truth will set you free," it said in pale red lettering. Rebecca scoffed at the irony before flipping the fortune over to reveal the always bogus lottery numbers, except these were different. Four of the six numbers had been circled, and beside the last number was a message:

Help me.