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Hope and love

Remember me with this locket

By Yoallitl C MorenoPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
1
Hope and love
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

Waking up, Banetha looked out at the dull, grey city. She reached over to the table near her makeshift bed and picked up the small joint she had made from herbs she found in a garden. Lighting it up, she opened the window just a bit as she placed the tapered end into her mouth, taking in a few puffs before leaning her head against the window. She looked up at the shiny, gold locket swinging in front of her, letting the memories flood back in.

A younger Banetha, around her teens, is sitting alone near the corner of a cage. Another female comes up to Banetha, her face is blurred in the memory but some features are prominent. A cute button nose with freckles all over the bridge, varying in sizes and color. Her eyes were a sea-foam green and blue with flakes of gold closer to her pupils. Banetha looked up at her and smiled.

“My name’s Jess,” she said softly, still keeping a bit of distance as mingling or talking wasn’t allowed at the camps. Jess started to pick at the grass, glancing out the bars and into the forest. “How long have you been in here?”

“Not sure anymore.. I lost count after a while. Though I wasn’t part of the first ones. They are gone now,” Banetha said, a hint of sadness in her tone as she hugged her knees up to her chest. “My mom was part of the first women in here. She died trying to smuggle me out a few days after I had been brought in.”

“Fu- Sorry… That must’ve been rough. I…,” Jess’s voice cut off after a guard came by and hit her across the face with a baton.

“You ladies should be careful. Talking will get your tongue taken away.” After he left, both girls kept their distance. Every now and then they would exchange small waves and gentle smiles. At night, Banetha would move closer to Jess and talk to her in whispers. What seemed like just a quiet friendship forming, it slowly started to bloom into so much more between the two young females.

The memories stopped as Banetha jumped back a bit, hearing a loud bang outside of the window. She pulled at her makeshift curtain and looked out, reaching for her handgun on the table near her. Cocking the gun, Banetha continued to scan the buildings nearby and the kept her gun near the window. The glint of a sniper rifle came to view almost too late. Ducking out of the way, only the noise of the glass breaking could be heard. Banetha rolled onto the ground and panted while trying to stay out of the view. Quickly putting on her pants and shirt, she grabbed her rifle and put away her handgun.

Outside, the sniper cursed under her breath as she missed hitting her target. She looked into her scope again and searched the window. She spotted something moving and immediately shooting towards it. More glass shatters and a figure in the window speeds far from the window, no longer visible from where the sniper was. She quickly picked up everything and ran to another side of the building, taking out her pistol.

Banetha, back in her room, quickly grabbed the locket moved far from the window, just before another shot shattered the window a second time. She ran out of the room and started climbing up the stairs. Getting to an open window with a fire escape, Banetha climbed out. Careful as to not get seen, she got up on the rail and jumped to the next building. One of her hands slipped and she yelped, gripping with her other hand and slowly bringing herself up.

The sniper ran towards the edge of the building and looked around. She laid down and rested her rifle onto the small platform for support. Peering into the scope, she quickly turned towards the yelp and looked around, scanning for her target. She saw Banetha hanging on the rail and shot at her. With the swinging, Banetha only gets her arm grazed by the bullet. The sniper loses her after trying to reload her sniper and snarls softly, looking down at her watch.

Banetha runs up to the roof and keeps her handgun at the ready. She spots the sniper lady and gets low, using anything for cover as she pants somewhat heavily. “Who are you?” Banetha screamed out and peered over her cover.

“That’s none of your concern,” the sniper called out, her voice raspy and low.

“Well what do you want with me? I know you’ve been looking for me the past few days. Not very good at covering your tracks.”

“That’s fine. All you need to worry about is me killing you.” Banetha slowly gets on her knees and crawls to the next cover between her and the sniper. She runs towards the cover and trips her gun with the locket sliding across the rooftop. The sniper saw the glint of the locket and looked into the scope, trying to get a better view of it.

“Where did you get that locket?” She called out, her hands shaking for the first time in ever. Never has a target made her feel scared. Banetha looked towards the locket and while her memories played in her mind, she sighed softly and tears started to form in her eyes.

“It was given to me… by someone I lost years ago,” the last of her sentence trailing off. Without a response, Banetha looked over and saw just the legs of the other coming closer. She readied her dagger and her heart started to beat faster. The sniper leaned down to the handgun and slowly picked up the locket. A small gasp could be heard and she turned around to look at Banetha.

“You..?” her voice was shaking and she the tears at the corner of her eyes started to stream down, “I thought you died back at the camp.”

“Jess?” Banetha stood up and pulled down her mask. She looked into Jess’s eyes and recognized those same sea-foam eyes from the first time she saw them. Gripping at her bleeding arm, she walked up to Jess. The two stared at each other in disbelief, dropping their guns. “I thought I would never see you again… after.. after they took you away,” her voice being muddled by her sobbing. Jess came up to her and wiped away the tears from her cheeks, looking down.

“I know.. but I made sure to stay alive… in case I would see you again,” her voice going quiet. They looked at each other for what seemed like almost an eternity. While Jess softly kept her hand against Banetha’s cheek, her eyes widened and a small gasp escaped one of their mouths. “I’m… so sorry… I needed to finish this job,” Jess whispered, tears spilling out of the corners of her eyes again. Banetha’s face turns red, blood coming out of her mouth.

Looking down, Jess has a knife jabbed into Banetha’s abdomen. Those sea-foam eyes that once filled her with hope, now filled her with pain and heartache. Jess wiped her face and scoffed softly, dropping the knife and locket as she left and picked up her sniper rifle. “You know what would’ve happened if you stayed too hopeful..”

Banetha listened to Jess walking away and continued to cough up blood, here eyes fixed on the heart locket, now somewhat covered in blood. She reached for the handgun, screaming in pain as she pointed it to Jess. She fired one, two, three shots before completely collapsing onto the ground as she saw the other collapse. Banetha’s memories creeping back in.

“I know we shouldn’t be doing this, but I like you a lot..” Jess spoked softly as she slowly slipped something into Banetha’s hand.

“What is it?” Looking down to see what exactly was in her hand, Jess covered it before anyone else could see.

“It’s a locket my mom gave me before we were taken… I want you to have it and if we’re apart, I want you to remember me and think of hope and love..” Jess said with the most hopefulness in her voice. They laid down together and looked up at the stars, the world seeming to disappear around them.

“I hope we can be together forever…” Banetha whispered, clutching the locket to her chest and closing her eyes as she tried wishing it to be true.

Sci Fi
1

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