Past Curfew

I shiver as a cold October wind rustles the leaves on the ground in front of me. I don’t really know why I came out here tonight; it’s not like I’m going to find anything. If the police couldn’t find her with all the ridiculous technology they have these days, she’s gone.

I’ll be in a world of trouble if anyone finds out I’m outside this late. But she went outside past curfew too, and I never saw her again. I have to know what happened to her. Maybe I’m being stupid...maybe what happened to her had nothing to do with being out past curfew. But I suppose there’s only one way to find out.

The moon emerges from the clouds for the first time all night, and something catches my attention from a few feet in front of me. I stop suddenly, my breath caught in my throat before I carefully take a step forward. My heart pounds as I walk toward the shiny object half buried in the dirt.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath when I approach. I kneel down, both dread and hope filling my chest. My fingers tremble as I scoop the silver object from the cold dirt. I brush it off gently, and my heart sinks. It’s the locket.

I sink onto the ground, ignoring the dampness in the grass soaking into the knees of my jeans. I stare at the locket dangling in front of me for a moment longer before opening it. I don’t know what I expected to see, but it wasn’t a tiny picture of the two of us from two months ago. I look to the other side of the locket and see one word engraved into the metal: Always.

I can’t stop the sob that escapes my throat; I just sit there and let the hot tears roll down my cheeks. I tighten my grip on the necklace and pull it to my chest. I don’t know how long I stay there, but when I finally regain some semblance of control over myself, I realize that it started raining at some point. Jesus, I’m soaked. I need to get home before I get sick or something worse happens.

I reach forward to push off the ground, the leaves in front of me slick to the touch. I recoil automatically when I touch something cold and hard. What the heck is that?

Fear pools in my stomach, and I want to walk away, but I can’t. I reach forward, barely in control of my body, and begin brushing the pile of leaves to the side. I think some part of me knows what I’m going to see before I even register it with my eyes.

I empty the contents of my stomach onto the ground the second I see the fingers topped with bright pink nails sticking up from the ground. It’s her. It’s her. It’s her.

They always say you see your life flash before your eyes right before you die, but I see a series of moments play out in my mind, almost as if I’m watching a home movie. The first time I saw her last year, her dark hair swishing over her shoulder as she turned to smile at me. Tanning in her backyard, our cheeks flushed from the heat. Her fingers brushing mine softly as we watched a movie in my bedroom. The first time I kissed her, sitting on the hood of my car while we looked at the stars. Our bodies tangled in the gray sheets on her bed. Dancing through the school parking lot in the pouring rain. Her dark brown eyes looking at me shyly when she told me she loved me for the first time. Her slamming my front door and hopping onto her bike while I watched helplessly after the huge fight we had a month ago. The tap on my window when she came over to make up two hours later. A small wink two weeks ago when I asked her about the silver heart-shaped locket around her neck. The soft brush of her lips on mine when I left her house last Friday, the last time I saw her.

Tears are streaming down my cheeks again. I know I need to call the police, the ambulance, somebody, but I can’t make myself move. I’m frozen, staring at the fingers I’ve kissed one-by-one so many nights. The nails I painted for her while we watched a Disney movie. The cheap plastic ring I got at a dollar store, barely visible on the pinky.

I pull my phone out of my jacket pocket and type in the three numbers that have been drilled into me since I was a child. The line only rings once before I hear someone answer.

“911, stay on the line so we can assess your situation and dispatch the proper team to assist you” the woman’s voice on the other end of the phone feels like the only thing anchoring me to reality.

I open my mouth to respond when one of the fingers in front of me twitches slightly. “Oh my God,” I whisper breathlessly.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” the operator’s voice asks patiently.

“I need help. Please.” I drop the locket and my phone onto the ground and begin digging around the hand in the dirt.

Is she still alive? Please let her still be alive. I pray silently for the first time in a long time as I uncover more and more of the woman I love. I hear sirens in the distance just before I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head. I fall forward, but roll at the last second so I’m facing my attacker.

For a moment, all I see is a dark silhouette, but then a flash of lightning illuminates the face above me. Deep brown eyes stare into mine, and a cruel smile stretches across the beautiful face I’ve loved since the first moment I saw it.