Emilia's Moonstone

The sun grazing the crown of the trees struck panic in young Emilia Townsend. What once could be considered a peaceful time, watching the stars, observing the bright moon, the dark night brought agony to the humans still alive. She and her stray friend, a German Shepherd who remained nameless, hid behind a smashed brick wall, ruined by The Disaster, as she called it; the day the world came to an end.

Smell of fire brushed her nostrils before she saw the wind drift the smoke overhead. Emilia reached out her arms and held the dog close, rubbing on its nape to calm it down. It let out small whines of fear she hoped the Peacekeepers couldn’t hear over the sounds of their own destruction. She peeked from behind the wall and counted the fully armed men.

Seven, that’s how many were looking for her. They held torches, burning down the buildings that still stood. Nobody else resided in the small village and she never had assumed the government would look for her here, miles away from her home.

Leaning back against the wall, Emilia looked deep into the dogs’ brown eyes. For the first time, she wished it had a name. Never wanting to name it, she felt as if she didn’t want to get attached. She rubbed her thumb inside its standing ear and kissed its nose, knowing this would be the goodbye she avidly avoided.

From the back pocket of her jeans, Emilia pulled out a pendent, wiping off the lent. The last moments of her father’s life he had told her to protect this piece of jewelry with her life, and never let the government have it. They will come for it, he told her, and when they do destroy it. Only twelve at the time, she hadn’t any idea as to why the necklace was important. It wasn’t until Emilia turned thirteen, the night of the first eclipse since her father had made the pendent, that she realized he created it to end the world.

Emilia didn’t recall the exact how’s to what happened, only that the pendent held responsibility. She knew it in her bones, as if it told her itself. A large moonstone, wire wrapped in an old fashion, had the shape of a deformed heart. At one point, she only assumed it was a heart that had been dented from her back pocket. With a slide to the stone, it opened, something she hadn’t any idea that it did. The words ‘omnia causa fiunt’ had been engraved inside the locket. She didn’t know the language, or what it said, but she knew that time was running out.

Footsteps and voices came closer. Emilia laid the locket on the ground and found the closest rock large enough to fit in her hand. Destroy it, the words her father spoke came back to her. Moving the dog out of the way, she rose her rock, crashing it down on the pendent. Each time the moonstone lit up a light blue hue, but destroying it failed. Picking it up, she looked over the stone. It held together without a scratch, only the wrapping around it scuffed.

Emilia knew she had to make a choice, either run across the wide clearing to try making it to the tree line or face the Peacekeepers as they would soon find her. She knew all too well she wouldn’t last in the forest at night when the monsters would come out.

“This is it,” Emilia said to the dog, scratching its ear once more.

Tearing away the bottom section of her shirt, she bundled up the locket within the cloth. She tied the cloth around the dogs’ neck and pushed it to go. Without hesitation, if it knew what she had wanted, it ran for the tree line. Emilia knew the monsters wouldn’t hurt animals, only humans were the prey.

She looked around the wall once more, the Peacekeeper fixated on the dog, one aiming down his sights, and she couldn’t let that happen. The dog had to escape with the locket, even if Emilia’s life depended on it.

Walking out from behind the wall, she held up her hands. The Peacekeeper’s fixated on her movements as she paced forward. Emilia shook with fear, knowing this was the moment she had been running from. She wanted to talk, but knowing none of what she said would matter, she kept quiet. Only the wind could be heard, the sounds of the footsteps or the burning buildings faded away. Emilia fell to her knees, watching the ground turn red.

She had neither felt nor heard the shot.