Unbound

Sirius began to fade into the void. Taking with him the memory of all those who inhabited the Earth. Dooming the planet to fall into chaos. Billions were killed in the carnage. Sirius gave humanity one last glimpse of hope. Those few who lived the night Sirius’ heart died, awoke the next morning with mysterious lockets around their neck.

The clasps of the mysterious locket were heart shaped. The golden chain gleamed brightly, and it seemed nothing could dim it. On the back was written the word, “preserve”. As peculiar as this was, the most interesting aspect of the locket was its capability to withhold memory. The memory was chosen from the heart of its wielder. One simply had to open the clasps, and they would be able to relive their most precious memory.

Sirius was truly a generous thief. Sadly, it didn’t take very long for humanity to corrupt this treasure.

Rumor quickly spread of a man who called himself Memo. After slaughtering his wife and three daughters, he selfishly took their lockets. Upon placing them around his neck, he realized the memories that filled the locket were now his own. One tyrant after another tried this, and soon that rumor became a cold brutal truth.

The more lockets you had, the more you could remember.

The world was now a hunting ground. Hunters were known as Memory Moguls and they relentlessly chased after the lockets. When they caught their prey they were given two choices; do or die. After giving their lockets away, most joined the Moguls in their quest for more lockets.

Single locket wielders were eventually difficult to find. This made it so Wyla was constantly on the move. She never stayed in the same area for longer than an hour. Especially, during the night when her locket shone the brightest.

Currently, it was midday, and she was resting near a building that was surrounded by mysterious stone plaques. She was enjoying a bottle of syrup she had found the day before. Normally, she was stuck with eating beans and rice. It had been months since she had found something sweet to eat. She had risked infiltrating a hive of honey bees once. The stings were painful and made her move slow. She was almost caught by a Mogul. This made her believe that finding the bottle of unopened syrup was by chance.

She decided to explore the area a bit before moving on. She found a patch of marigolds and dandelions growing near the fence. She collected the dandelions, planning on turning them into a bitter tea later on. As the sun began to set, she began to grow restless. She needed to press on, but marigolds were great bug deterrents. As she plucked the blooms, the night grew dark and her locket's bright light lit up the field.

The night sky was clear, and she could see the great star Polaris shining. She decided to use it as her guide for the evening, and began to follow it. As she walked, there were less and less stone plaques around her. Soon, she was surrounded by vehicles that were being taken over by vegetation. She made sure to tread carefully. One car signal would alert Moguls to her.

She eventually found a large vehicle with its doors open. She climbed on board, and found a seat with the least amount of vegetation. She placed a couple marigolds in her hair and in her pant pockets. She didn’t have much in her possession. She had a locket, bag, rice, beans, syrup, two knives, and a wristwatch. The wristwatch had an alarm that was loud enough to wake her, but soft enough to not wake anybody else. With luck, she would be awoken by her watch and not anything else. She double checked the alarm, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke it was to the sound of crying.

She quickly jumped for her knife. Her locket brightly lit up the cabin of the vehicle, but she could not see anyone around her. She remained alert, checking to see if all the seats inside were empty. When she reached the back of the bus, she gasped.

In front of her was a young girl. No more than the age of five. She had curly blonde hair, and she was holding a teddy bear in her hands. She was crying into the bear's chest. Her locket was shining brightly around her neck.

Wyla turned to run for the exit. Her first instinct was that this was a Mogul trap. Yet, for some reason her heart stopped her from running. Instead she sheathed her knife, and turned back to the girl.

“I have survived this long with my locket, I dare you to try and take it. I am not afraid of a child.”

The child simply continued to cry into her bear. Leaving Wyla to assess the situation. If this was truly a trap, why did she have a locket? Only Moguls wore lockets. She sat for a moment, and figured the only way to determine the situation was to act somewhat vulnerable to it.

“You’re going to draw Moguls with all this sobbing.”

The child began to sob harder.

In an attempt to calm the child, Wyla placed her locket in front of the child’s eye, and opened the clasp.

The memory began with Wyla waking to a man and boy holding a tray. The tray held some delicious looking food. The boy crawled into bed with Wyla, and gave her a giant hug. By the end of the memory, Wyla was wearing more food than she ate, and she sat giggling with the man and the boy. At the end of the memory, the locket closed.

Preserve.

Though the girl's heart was heavy, she laughed at the memory. She wiped the tears from her eyes, grabbed her locket, and revealed her memory.

Wyla was astonished to see the girl's eyes open for the first time. She was being held by a woman with raven black hair. Another woman with short red hair brought her pointer finger to the girl's nose. She giggled. The girl blinked, and suddenly she was a few years older. The two women were approaching her with a candle and a packet of jello mix. They were singing a song about her growing another year older. The child blinked and the memory changed.

The girl’s life flashed before Wyla’s eyes.

The last memory she saw was the two women kissing the young girl on the forehead, as they left her in the cabin. Promising her they’d return. The child had waited almost three days for their return. She had thought Wyla was them, much to her dismay. She even saw the girl viewing her own memory.

Then all Wyla could see was the golden word.

Preserve.

A rush of thoughts ran through Wyla’s head. The locket she held in her hands was truly special. It had held a lifetime of memories, Her locket could only remember a few minutes. At first, she was tempted to take the locket from the girl. She reached for her knife, but something inside her soul stopped her.

Nobody knows why Sirius took the old memories of humanity away. All understand that most of those memories are gone forever. Yet, new memories could still be made, if humanity allowed them to. Right now, it was Wyla’s choice.

Even if the locket was truly different from all the rest, Wyla decided it was not hers to take away, Wyla gently held the girl's hand.

“Let’s go find your family.”