The Opening

She stared at the locket on her bedroom mantle as She did every morning. Every morning since The Opening, she's stared. For six months now she's wondered how it could happen, why it happened and why it had to be her.

"It was a gift." She muttered to herself as she stared. "He told me it was a gift."

Her eyes burned, as they always did in those days, and the gas mask permanently fixed on her face clouded in steam. For a quick moment, she considered removing the mask to face the painful end that so many faced after The Opening.

"Why not?" She wondered aloud, still staring at the locket. "It's my fault."

But nobody knew that part. Nobody knew where the gas came from. All anyone, in the small town of Hyat, knew was that the gas just appeared one day and disintegrated the flesh and bones of the ones they loved most. Gas that penetrated the eye sockets of 90% of the community, turning the once-beautiful town into a rotting pile of persons.

She stared.

She stared as intensely as the day She received it. The gift. The surprise. The item that, for one day, made her feel desired.

It was a normal day, and one like any other. She awoke with a much needed cup of coffee, and prepared for her routine of work, gym and Netflix. She was proud of her routine and had no desire to deviate from it. Until she saw him. In her normal world of normal activities, he was absolutely abnormal. A man, in her eyes, who was made by the Gods themselves. He was hand crafted and beautiful and staring at her through the window of the coffee shop next to her office. It was no ordinary stare. She wasn’t creeped out or terrified as She usually was when men stared at her. She was on fire. She felt him burning into her soul and before She knew it, She walked into the coffee shop and sat down at his table. He was waiting for her.

She stared.

She stared at the locket on the mantle and could feel the fire from the man she saw in the coffee shop window 6 months ago.

“No.” She muttered softly and shook her head, trying to reconcile the events of the rest of that fateful day. “I just don't understand...”

She stared. But she still felt his fire.

“I’m Luke.” The man said as She sat down at his table, almost in a trance.

“Hi. I’m…” She began to say when he interrupted.

“You’re Her.” Luke said sharply.

She was confused, bewildered and wildly turned on.

“I’m She.” She said proudly, a smile spreading across her face. This was best flirting of her bubbled life.

“I have something I’ve been wanting to give you for a long time.” Luke said, staring into her eyes.

She stared back.

“What do you mean? I don’t know you.” She was locked in and completely enthralled.

“You do. And I know you. I’ve always known you.” Luke whispered as he kept his gaze on her.

She stared.

She stared at the locket on her bedroom mantle trying to snuff out the fire she still felt from that day.

But she decided that this day was going to be different. She stared at the locket, in fear, for six months. Today she was going to touch the locket once more. She weakly crawled out of the bed she had been stuck in since The Opening and breathed heavily as she made her way to the locket on the mantle.

It was a seemingly insignificant locket. Small, silver, and with an ancient looking symbol engraved on its side. Even after The Opening, she still thought it was beautiful. She remembered the first time she saw it.

“This is for you.” Luke said with a smile as he dropped the locket in his hands. It was a small, silver locket, with an ancient symbol engraved on its side. “It’s a gift.”

“For me?” She said, enthusiastically. She felt like they were the only two people in the coffee shop. In the world.

“For you.” He said. “Only for you. If you open it once, you have to open it again. That’s the magic” He ended in a whisper. She found this funny because the lock had no button to open it. It was solid.

She smiled wildly and took the locket into her hands, tightly. He then grabbed both of her hands, as they encased the locket, kissed them, then walked out of the coffee shop, without another word.

The minute he walked out, the trance seemed to fade. She was left confused, with several questions, and with a locket that smelled a little like lemons.

Completing her routine that day took more work than usual. She felt herself being drawn to the locket. It called her the way the man’s gaze called her. Even as it sat at the bottom of her purse, she could smell the locket. She could feel the locket. It felt like him.

As she made her way home that destined day, She stuck her hand into her purse to grab her keys, only to feel the locket grazing her hand. It was almost magnetic. She decided to give in and look at the mysterious locket given to her by the mysterious man.

She placed the locket on her mantle in her bedroom and sat on her bed.

She stared.

She stared at the locket like the man stared at her.

“That’s the magic.” She whispered to herself remembering what the man told her.

She smiled, got off her bed, and sprinted to the locket on the mantle. She took it in both of her hands, smelled it, observed it, even licked it, hoping to taste the man, somehow. With her tongue on the locket, she felt a small divot on the top of the locket.

“Hah, It does open?” She laughed to herself.

She located the divot with her finger, and pushed her fingernail into the small hole, causing the locket to prop open, slightly. The smell of lemons filled the air. She opened the locket fully, hoping to find a message, a phone number, some way to contact her mysterious man, but only got more lemons. Overwhelming lemons. Her eyes began to swell and she began to cough. Then she saw blood.

She quickly realized she could no longer breathe. She dropped the locket on the mantle and ran outside to get air and saw the corner hardware store.

“Breathe!” She said to the cashier of the hardware store as she choked and motioned to her throat. He pointed her to the aisle of masks where she quickly put on the most intricate mask she could find.

With the mask on, she lifted her head to the sounds of people coughing, choking and fighting for air. As she walked to the cashier, the man who just helped her was a pile of flesh on the floor with his eyeballs falling from their sockets.

In horror, she walked outside to see her neighbors suffering the same fate. Bodies lined the streets leading to her home.

She ran and occasionally caught the faint smell of lemons. She ran faster.

She finally reached her apartment, her lemon-filled apartment, took a pair of gloves to close the locket on the mantle and sat on her bed.

“I don’t understand,” She cried hysterically into her mask. “It can’t be. There’s no way!”

It was 3 days before she would remove her mask slightly for a bite to eat and a sip of water. A week before she would venture back outside. And a month before all news and radio ceased transmission. All that was left was lemons.

She stared.

She stared closely at the locket she opened 6 months ago that caused the catastrophic end of the world as she knew it. It was the first time she was this close to the locket since The Opening.

“That’s the magic.” She said again, muffled by the mask.

She was terrified to even be near the locket, not knowing its magnificent power, the person who gave it to her or what it could still cause.

But six months had passed and she had nothing left to lose. The few survivors that she heard on the street were in pain. Dire pain of losing those close to them and not knowing why. The woman she encountered one week after The Opening of the Locket was on the street hugging the disemboweled corpse of who was once her husband.

“It’s time,” She said to herself.

She took off her mask, and lemons filled the air. Her eyes swelled and she began coughing uncontrollably. She took the locket into both of her hands, dug her fingernail into the small divot and popped the locket open, ready for the end.

But there was no end. There were no overwhelming lemons. In fact, there were no lemons at all. Her eyes returned to normal. Her coughing stopped. Her breathing was perfectly normal and the air was...clear.

She stumbled in disbelief and sat heavily on her bed when She heard a laugh outside her apartment. She ran downstairs and outside to find the cashier of the corner hardware store talking to her neighbor about the sale on plywood this week.

She rubbed her eyes and shook her head in disbelief.

“I must be dead.” She told herself, loudly, with a smile.

“If you’re dead, then I’m a supermodel, lady,” an older woman commented while walking past her down the street.

Suddenly, she heard a cell phone ringing from inside her pocket. Still in disbelief, She answers.

“Hell…Hello?” She says with tears forming in her eyes.

“Hello?! It’s 10:30am, where are you? We have that meeting in a half an hour!” It was the unmistakably shrill voice of her partner at the office.

“Oh… I… I’m just a little confused. I’ll be right there…” She said softly.

Quickly, she reverted back to the routine she performed every day before The Opening. She made her coffee, got dressed and walked toward her office, only to feel a familiar feeling. Something she had felt before, strongly.

It stopped her in her tracks, but only momentarily, until she looked up and saw the most beautiful man she had ever seen staring at her from inside the coffee shop next to her office.

Before she knew it, she was inside the coffee shop, sitting down at his table.

“I’m Luke.” The man said.

“Hi. I’m…” She began to say when he interrupted.

“You’re Her.” Luke said sharply.

“I’m She.” She said proudly, a smile spreading across her face.

The End.