The broken and the unbreakable

Anna looked down the crumbling cliff of debris as her outstretched arm dangled the heart-shaped locket over the edge by the attached chain. She couldn’t see the bottom. There was a grey fog that concealed the depths like a storm cloud over an island. That was where she once roamed just one year ago. And now she’s moved up a level and there was no difference. The struggle was not worth it. She had found no one.

She wiped a tear from her cheek with her free hand and let out a short sob. The very earth beneath her was fading away and she wanted this locket, this good-for-nothing piece of heart-shaped metal, to join the fading world.

“As long as you have this, there will always be hope.” The words clattered in her mind like loose change.

Yeah, right, she thought. It’s brought me nothing but bad luck and ill fortune. This stupid thing. This worthless–

She screamed and threw the locket as far as her arms allowed given it the perfect parabola as it flew. The silver locket descended in the orange sky and plunged into the depths of the city below.

Anna sat down in the serenity of the world and rested her head on her knees as she held her legs close.

In the light fog, Georgina was rummaging through the remains of a van. It was missing most of the components that made it as such, but it had the basic skeleton and, Georgina hoped, some form of food or water.

She sighed and exited the wreckage.

Georgina was small, despite being in her early twenties. Her head held deep black hair that she cut short. She preferred it that way because it was easier to manage and she could get away without washing it. Not that anyone was around to complain if she didn’t. Perched on her nose was a pair of rectangular glasses. She didn’t need them but she thought they looked good on her. The lenses were missing when she found them on one of her daily scavenges but the aesthetic was all that mattered.

She stretched and grunted with a noise of satisfaction that always comes with a good stretch, as a plopping noise echoed in the dank puddle nearby. She turned just soon enough to see the ripples in the dark liquid.

She walked over and stared at the body of water. It was more of a pond than a puddle and the water was far from clean. She dipped her fingers inside. It wasn’t as deep nor as cold as she was expecting but when she removed her hand it was covered in a grime like the underside of a rock covered in lichen.

She was sure it wasn’t virulent…

Georgina gave the world a blank look and dumped her arm into the water. It took her a little while to sieve through the streams of waste and debris to find it. Her fingers scraped along something shaped like a heart. It was small and there was a chain attached. Georgina grabbed it and pulled it free.

She let it rest in her palm and admired the craftsmanship. It was beautiful and probably worth a fair bit. She wasn’t familiar with her metals. A silver hue meant it was made out of silver, gold meant it was gold, and anything else was a mystery. At least, it was in her mind.

The green drops from the pond slid off onto her skin as she continued to appreciate it. The attached chain was broken - the clip that tied it around the neck was missing.

Georgina slipped the necklace into the bag on her back and looked up at the wall of crumbling buildings piled on one another. They had collapsed along with so many things. It wasn’t quite a sheer drop – it was more like a ramp at an eighty-nine-degree angle. The fog made it unclear how tall it truly was. By the time she got up there, it would be too late. That was, if she took the long way around…

She never thought of herself as an avid climber. Nor an avid anything involving strenuous effort. The first time she tried kicking a ball, her body did some sort of somersault, her shoes flew off, and the ball remained untouched. Ever since then, she made a promise to not to overexert herself. Exercise was for other people.

But someone was up there…

This locket wasn’t the usual debris that fell from the cliff of buildings. This was a belonging and it belonged to someone. If there was another person up there, maybe, just maybe, they were struggling like she was. Though there would be twice as many mouths to feed, companionship was a necessity when trying to fight against the insides of your mind. When alone for so long, you get desperate and start talking to yourself. Georgina, thankfully, had stopped herself just short of the beginnings of sentences emerging but it was getting increasingly difficult. She felt if she started talking to herself, that would be it, the end. That one control wasn’t the only thing that kept her going. The thought of someone else out there was stronger than anything. She refused to believe she was alone in this world. Not when only a few years ago she struggled to find a moment to herself.

It wasn’t right.

Then again, she couldn’t remember things ever being right. But what she once had was far from wrong.

She grabbed onto a protruding rod of iron and lifted herself up.

She always liked to joke. Back when she had friends, she considered herself the funny one in the group. But they didn’t agree. They found her levity concerning but Georgina strove to make them smile. When her friends were doleful, she’d try and cheer them up with a bad joke or two or a story involving dragons (she liked dragons) that turned into a hilarious sitcom. She couldn’t bear seeing people cry.

She climbed.

She remembered the simple gatherings she used to have. Her friends would say she looked lovely no matter what she was wearing. Georgina tested them at one point by going out in her pajamas to see if they would say anything different. In fact, their complements were sincerer than ever. Georgina even admitted she wore her pajamas better than anything else.

She climbed.

Her family was large, to her own belief. She had three siblings; two of which were younger sisters and she had an older brother. She never got on well with any of them but, strangely, not a day goes by when she doesn’t think of them. She didn’t know what had happened to them. Or to anyone. But she missed them…

She climbed.

She was unsure how much time had passed. Perhaps it was a bad dream… No. This felt realer than anything she ever had done prior in her life. There are some things you can change and there are some things you can’t. How she got here was one of them. You can’t change the unknown nor the unseen.

She exhaled, exhausted, her perspiration dripping down her face. Her indefatigable climbing led her to a crumbling veranda. As she landed, there was a resounding, ear-breaking screech accompanied by a viscous rumbling. A cluster of grey mortar fell past. The bricks cracked along the edge and glass smashed, leaving behind a cloud of dust and quiet.

Another house had fallen.

Georgina continued, unfazed. This is easier than–

She slipped.

A sudden chilled filled her as she fell. It was as though time froze. There were no flashbacks of her life – only the reality she lived in.

Her hands managed to grab hold of something sturdy after descending a few feet. She pursed her lips and breathed out a sigh of relief. Her foot suddenly felt cold. She looked down and saw her shoe plunge the distance into the fog below.

Damn, thought Georgina, that was my best shoe.

She pulled herself up to sturdier ground and took a break. It wasn’t as though she was scared of falling. She wasn’t scared of much. But she didn’t want to waste an opportunity like this. Someone was up there and she needed to find them.

She was sure people would call her crazy climbing up this cliff of fallen houses. But sometimes crazy is right. And when the world starts to sink and takes everything away from you, your crazy ideas and actions start to look normal.

She continued.

It wasn’t much farther to the top. She had already climbed a long way. She debated calling out but… if no one was up there, that would mean she was talking to herself and that would mean game over. She absolutely refused to talk to herself. As long as she still had her sanity, anyway.

Either they’re up there or they’re not.

She climbed.

Anna didn’t know what to do. No one else was here, she was all alone. She wanted anything: a person, a dog, a bird. Anything. Something to tell her that she wasn’t alone in this world and there was another life out there.

She had held on to that locket for so long but it never fulfilled the promise that she wished so dearly for – the promise of hope. She remembered the day she received it so clearly. Her father presented it to her as an early gift for her birthday because he wasn’t going to be there the next day. He told her lies like: “this will bring you happiness”, or “this is hope in the form of a heart”. At the time, Anna believed him because she always believed. But, soon, she realized the reality and how ridiculous the whole thing was.

She sighed.

A sudden sound of scratching ripped the air. Anna passed it off as debris falling down. She thought best to move in case where she was sitting decided to collapse with rest. But she continued hearing the noise as she stepped back. It was coming from the cliff and it was getting closer.

She didn’t want to give herself hope. No human would climb up the cliff. It would be insane. No, it couldn’t be anything. She absolutely refused–

A hand…

Someone pulled themselves up and dabbed the sweat from their forehead with their sleeve. Her hair was plastered to her face and her glasses were wonky. The person looked absolutely exhausted as though exercise was a foreign concept. The breathless girl dropped her bag to the floor and collapsed to the ground. Anna watched the recumbent form of Georgina in shock as she rolled over to face the sky. Georgina rummaged in her bag without looking and pulled out the silver locket.

“I think you may have dropped this,” said Georgina, handing it to her.

The morose Anna watched her, her mouth agape. This girl just climbed all the way up here… to bring back her locket. She knelt down, her body overwhelmed and unsure of itself. She cupped the silver heart in her hands and gazed at it fervently. This silly little trinket, this thing that had only brought her misfortune, had now brought her this person. It had brought her hope – the hope her father promised.

Anna squeezed it tightly and placed a hand over her mouth to muffle her weeping. “Thank you,” she cried. “Thank you… so much.” She burst into uncontrollable tears.

Georgina watched her. Though upside-down, she could make out her pain. Then she remembered something.

“Oh, hey,” Georgina said. “You don't happen to have a spare shoe?” She lifted her leg to the sky to show her bare foot and waggled her toes joyfully.

The bemusement washed Anna of all emotions and she tilted her head quizzically.

“What?” she said.

“Perfect,” Georgina whispered.

Georgina smiled and Anna found she was doing the same.