Heart shaped locket

Heart shaped locket

Chatters, howls, and humid viridescent green shocks me into consciousness as I come to and feel a blanket of moist dirt cushioning my unresponsive body. Shafts of golden sunlight filter down to the forest floor where I lie; the primal part of my mind flags that I am vulnerable and exposed.

Not being able to move may have its upsides. I use my newfound hyperawareness of touch to determine that I’m dressed in combat slacks and a shirt, not much but I guess it’ll have to do. Cold, heavy metal weighs down on my chest above my beating heart, seeping a death-like chill into the rest of my body.

A burst of static to my left interrupts my train of thought and the forest becomes eerily silent after a few seconds: all that’s left is the buzzing sound of the object two feet away from me. My chilled heart pumps blood faster around my body in a panicked attempt to become mobile and turn the device off before it attracts unwanted attention, my body however, decides to remain paralyzed.

Crashing this time instead of chattering engulfs my senses. If I could move, I can assure you I would either be running for the hills or frozen in shock, I guess I’m already doing the latter. I braced my mind for the worst and welcomed the idea of death into my system.

The abrupt three words “He’s over here!” ring in my ears as unseen hands scramble at my body, they fade out quickly enough though into a comfortable silence when I pass out again from shock as soon as I’m hoisted upright.

*

“Why did he sign up for this if he knew his body wouldn’t be able to stand it?” a young male voice brought me out of my unconscious state and right into the middle of his conversation.

“I don’t know,” responded another young voice, this time female “but I guess it’s the same reason as any of us.”

“Money.”

“Exploration.”

“Free McDonald’s.”

Three new voices piped up at once. Five people total. Six including me, but it would be great if I actually knew why I was here. Or where exactly I was.

“It doesn’t matter his reasons, he’s one of us and we’ll treat him so.” The female voice finishes the conversation. I opened my eyes and sat up, that in itself was an achievement, passing out again must’ve reset my muscles.

The small group of people sat around a campfire, two women and three men. The youngest of them must have only been about 20, poor lad to be in a place like this. in the fading darkness around the campfire half of me was enveloped by the warm night and the other half beckoned forward to the safety light of the fire.

I decided my captors were a better option than to stumble around a rainforest alone at night, so I shuffled around the back of a figure and forward into the pool of light.

“Where am I?” becomes my bold entrance to their conversation. The startled look on their faces from my voice, which could only belong to a man in his thirties, remains only for a second before I receive a response.

“Earth,” the young female answers. Her face looks golden in the firelight, as does her hair. “Just about a couple of million years in the future.”

“we’re the only humans here now.” States one of the other glowing figures around the hearth. I take a deep breath to give myself time to comprehend this.

“What happened to us?” I inquire, the downfall of man seems like a nice topic to start reaping some answers from. They give each other pointed looks, like they don’t exactly know what happened but don’t really want to share their theories either.

“I suppose we just carried on how we were going and left the world to rot as a gesture of our nature.” One of the older members of the group offers up.

“Anything could’ve happened,” interjects the younger lad “we don’t know anything for sure.”

The figure to my left sighs, not loudly but enough to gather everyone’s attention and give the impression that this is not another repeated argument she wanted to get into. “at least mother nature still found a way to keep on thriving, like always.”

The night ended in a rather disarray of leadership strategies on how to go back to the time period we came from, after a while I grew bored and shuffled back to get some much-anticipated sleep. Apparently, time travel takes a lot out of you.

*

I awake to cold hard concrete seeping chills into my back, as well as cold metal plunging my heart into the same death-like feeling as before, but this time I could move. Reaching up my shirt I found a heart shaped pendant laced around my neck and pulled it out so I could examine it. Polished silver gleamed at me in the early morning sun that streamed through a window, reflected in the pendant itself. A latch on the side of the pendant beckoned my fumbling hands to prize it open until I laid looking at the images of a beautiful young woman and her child.

The sensation of nostalgia and goosebumps I got from looking at the portraits quickly escalated to fear as my gaze wanders past it and catches on to a large silhouette perched atop an empty windowsill opposite, blocking the view of trees outside.

Four legs leap soundlessly down off the ledge into the room, casting a shadow almost as black as the creature itself as it pads forward. A canine like shape of stocky dark mass attach itself seamlessly to a large set of wings folded neatly on its backside. I watch it roam towards me and conclude that I’ve been left to the mercy of whatever Doberman-bat creature I now share this space with.

I shift my body weight and lower the pendant, preparing to make a dash to the nearest exit but snapping sound of its jaws as it lifts it head to attention, sniffing the air just a few meters away from me, makes my heartbeat thumps so loud in my chest that I become acutely aware that this could once again be a moment where I’m going to meet death.

Well. If I’m going to go down- I’m going down running for my life.

In one motion I snap the open pendant off my neck as stand up, the creature immediately pounces for me, but I have a plan. I run and toss the open pendant into the double sized Doberman muzzle aiming for my jugular. The pictures of the woman and child fly into the fang-lined jaw of my attacker, the last glimpse of their innocent faces jogs my memory.

I’m transported back, to a loud party and a girl. She’s stunning and I tell her so. Her name’s Lolita, she’s my light. I follow her through different scenarios; in a dark bedroom she calls my name, a coffee shop, a house- my house. She looks stunning in a wedding dress. Then the screams start, the bright hospital and the sweat, my heart goes through the roof but finally we’re left with a baby. My baby girl, Amara.

This must be what I live for, my life.

The sound of animalistic retching snaps me back to reality, I sprint to the nearest staircase, and I’m half convinced that barreling down the staircase would’ve worked if I didn’t trip over my own feet and send myself sprawling down to the next floor, breaking my leg.

This time there isn’t much escape for me, once again I’m immobilized. I try to claw my way across the floor, but the creature jumps effortlessly atop me. its claws feel like fire in my shoulder blades and its breath pants humidly, raising the hairs on my arms and neck.

White hot pain flashes across my back, triggering another anamnesis. The house fire we started that singed my skin and took my best friend, the virus that locked me away and the agonizing pain of watching the people I love succumb to their illnesses. All the times I drunkenly shouted at my love and raised a fist, my prison sentence and the cries of my girl as they hauled me away and estranged me from her for 15 years.

My body trembled and failed around me, but I didn’t have to feel anymore. No more regret, or sorrow.

*

Hi, my name is Aidan Hayes.

I signed up to this experiment, not because I wanted a better life, but because in my life there is nothing more to live for.

I am here to die, whether you succeed in saving humanity or not.