Witches Locket

It was 12 years ago when the girl I loved gave me a necklace with a heart charm, and one day I realized I could open it and a piece of paper fell out. On the paper it said, ‘see our past lives as we live this one's timeline as one.’ It had a list of instructions to see her, by eating a plant and calling her name. Of course I'm aware she is dead and no longer with me but, in this lifetime, I would die to see her again. So I drank the mixture and screamed her name from the mountain top, “OLIVIA'' sobbing. I request, “If I can't see you, send me and let me grow in a different world where I've forgotten you.” I didn't know it yet, but she granted my request.

Sitting around a throne with 14 other people we bow to a severe extent just to show our discipline and dedication to the leader of this nation. If one of us tilts or falls before it’s time that person(s) will be punished for being a trader and sent to the grey room.

I was raised in this country since birth so my dedication to the Vihan shows a true patriot. At the age of 17 we are sworn into the next building and learn to become warriors for this great country. I have three days till my Epoch ceremony, what a great honor it will be, a trance to see if one is worthy to be a close protector of the Vihan. There are three different categories of the Epoch ceremony, the highest rank to get sworn into is the Vidawn. The middle rank is Risan and last rank is Sandusk; all are the same in responsibilities. However, the difference between the three is the location in the capital. Since birth, none within this room has been outside the doors leading to the exterior except the mothers and the lieutenant.

When the day came we all walked in a line through a door that we never were allowed to, but it wasn't the exterior door. Walking into this room we see 14 hospital beds, 7 on each side of the room, neatly placed. They each were slightly bent at an angle, seeming like a chair of some sort. We received our shots and were placed onto one of the beds to start the test. Before I could get into my bed I heard a woman run into the lab covered in dirt screaming “find your heart Samuel, find it so you can find me. PLEASE NEVER FORGET MEEEE!!! OLIVIA, IT'S ME Olivia.” She disintegrated into dust and one of the doctors swept her up and poured the dirt in the trash.

The overhead announcement began, “You will experience hallucinations if you are not strong enough to ignore them, you will be bumped down a rank, later you will experience a complete false reality and if you decide to live in it, you will be bumped down to the last rank. Lastly, you will experience your own death, if you do not fight to stay alive until we wake you up, you will be killed when you come to.”

The words of instructions echo through my mind, have I already been under and im hearing the words from outside my body? Looking around I see a green plant grow through the ground and into the room. It filled the entire room, covering the walls and the ceiling, leaving the floor to vanish. Turning around because I felt something hot on my neck, it’s some being up above me warming my skin. Looking around I see that the building has disappeared and i'm the only one laying in the middle of a grassy land. Is this what the outside looks like, I ask the yellow god “where am I” but this thing doesn't respond to my words. However the floor is so green I decided to take my shoes off and run to the bright being. Perhaps it just can't hear me.

Its been no more than five minuets but I just can't run anymore, and I'm so hungry.

“You can eat the fruit, up in the tree.” she states.

“Olivia, the hallucination? ah Thanks.”

“You've forgotten huh?” she looked down as if she was completely disappointed.

“Remember? You aren't really h-”

“I guess I'll just have to make you remember who I am Samual.” I can hear the anger build up in her vocal cords.

She transformed into a jackle-faced human and grew to a height twice my own. The darker her flesh became, the darker the scene around me grew. Grabbing me by my throat she squeezed and squeezed while yelling, “remember what they did to us Samual, you said you'd never forget.” tears fell down her angry face “Why do you wear that locket around your neck? Tell me you will remember the girl you onced loved.” The story of my past life in this nation struck my vertebrae and traveled to my eyes.

The flashback began, “Look Samuel, this is Squaw root, or, Black Cohosh. They say its properties will give you great powers over the leader of this land.”

Olivia is speaking too loudly, “We shouldn't speak of that.” I politely mentioned it.

“Samuel, no one is here to witness my betrayal except you. You love me too much to have me killed”. She smiled and spun around in her dress as she smelled the flowers she just picked. She truly is a beautiful woman, one that I had the privilege of marrying.

“Let's go home Olivia, I'm a bit hungry.”

Arriving home she brought with her the plants that could harm our leader that she grew in secret. Opening our door the Vihan Himself was waiting for our arrival. I didn't know he would arrive so early to my request.

I bowed my head and said “this woman is the traitor I wrote you about.”

“Samuel?!” Olivia winced.

The Vihan stood up and gestured for the guards to take her craft and force her to kneel before him.

“You, loyal boy. I'll grant you the chance to be by my side under one condition. Give me her heart since it doesn't already belong to me.”

Brought back to reality, I'm still hanging by the throat in an abyss of darkness only lit by a glowing white being that replaced the warm yellow one. Struggling, I'm close to fainting. But then this beast asked me… “what choice did you make, my love?”

Throwing me to the ground she stood tall and held out her hand, “give me the heart you hold dear to you.” she demanded.

Handing her my heart shaped locket, she crushed it and screamed, “you dare give me a lie,” opening her hand once again she said, “give me your heart since I don't already have it.”

“I can't,” a tear rolled down my face. “Can you forgive me my love, for I thought I was sending you to paradise.”

Reaching through my chest she grabbed my beating heart and froze it in its time. Yanking the stopped heart from my chest she placed it into her hand. Swiping a tear from her face she lead a drop to the stiff heart and it transformed into a locket and she then walked away.

Falling to the ground I wake up immediately and see 14 blank faces around a throne. As soon as I noticed this, I relived the pain of having no heart and I fell from my bowing position. The Lieutenant came towards me, standing up, I met the Lieutenant's face and heard whispered into my ear chilling words.“Were you expecting it to be me Sam.” She grabs the weapon she had holstered and places it to my forehead. “You never would've made it to serve the Vihan. You're too weak and have no moral compass. I think it's time to send you to a better place.” Then she shot me dead.

As I fade into the darkness I hear her final words, “who should be my next lover.”

Test? Ha, it was a test from the start. Even before my birth.

Waking up from my death, seeing the mountain I cried on when my wife died in this life. Now I'm crying because I killed her in another. In relief, I think to myself, till the next life my love.