The Locket

Prologue

Alexandria rested her small hand against the cabin’s window, giant raindrops pouring down. The doors were boarded shut, making the 12x12 opening her only source of the outside world. She and her father lived in a tiny, one bedroom cabin deep tucked deep into the forest, tucked off from the mainland. Here, she was able to live in seclusion, protected by her father, and never having to deal with the cruel, outside world her dad warned her so much about. She was seven years old at the time, curious about the outside world. She had a lot of questions at her young age. She had never really left the forest. Her dad never let her. He was strict, but she knew it was for a reason. Her father told her about the way the people live their lives in the city. Her father feared the government, and although he tried so many times explaining to her why, Alex still had many questions. She wondered, what did her dad mean when he said “our society is ruined?” Her father was special, and Alex knew that. He tried to not tell her much, but she understood the gist of it. Her father was strong, handy, and extremely powerful. He told Alex for the first time, when she was four years old, that bad people wanted to come after him for the powers he possessed. He warned her, and told her if she wanted to be safe, she would have to stick with him, always. As long as they were protected in their little cabin in the forest, they would be okay living in seclusion forever. Alexandria was fine with that. Her dad loved and cared for her, more than anyone, including her own absentee mother could have. How could she not want him to be safe, no matter her curiosity about the excluded world? After all, if he was safe so too would Alexandria. She needed to believe this. As a little girl her dad told her when she asked about her mom, how she had left her by the old oak tree. Left her by the thick, protruding roots that had been around for more years than her own parents, who at that time was somewhere in their thirties. Despite the lies her mother told him that evening around the dinner table, her dad had persisted in his doubts. He found her by swaddled by layers of rotting leaves, and the base of the old tree. Her mother was unwell, her dad told her. Mentally unstable, disoriented and confused. She didn’t understand what she was doing when she had Alexandria. She thought what happened to her father, would happen to Alex. She was scared of the powers Alex could possess, so to avoid the situation completely, she abandoned her in the forest... and never looked back. Alexandria had heard the story so many times before. Her father told her almost everything. Her mother had found her Father, and she had lied. She told him Alex had died during childbirth, and there was no baby. But Alex’s dad knew better. That was the last time he ever saw her mom. He then scavenged the forest, searching for anything. A few hours later, he found his baby-girl abandoned underneath the Oak tree. Ever since that day, he has taken care of her, watched out for her, and kept her safe from all the evils of the world. As best as he could.

Alexandria wakes up on her small cot to noise. She can hear it miles away. She hears the sounds of horses running through the forest, and she heard the faint voice of a man saying, “Find them. Find him now.”

“Alexandria!” She turns around, to see his sharp, bright green eyes staring down at her intensely. She looks up at him, and she knows something is wrong.

“Listen to me, Alex. I need you to hide underneath your cot and don’t make a SOUND. I am serious. Bad people are looking for me, Alex. And I cannot ever let those people find you. So I need you to follow Daddy’s instructions, and I promise you will remain safe.” He tells her, and his words make her panic meter rise up. First of all, she never understood why anyone “bad” would be searching for them. They didn’t interact with anyone. It made no sense to her childlike mind. But, of course she nodded tautly. Her father gives her a sad smile, the lines on his cheek more apparent than ever. He looked tired, and she just wish she knew how to fix it. He reaches around his neck, and takes off the heart shaped locket. He’s kept it around his neck for as long as Alex was alive. She’s never seen him taken it off once, not even in the summertime, when he had taken her swimming in the forest pond. Not even when he would chop wood for the fire, and complain about the locket getting caught on everything. Alex thinks to herself, he would look strange without the locket. It was basically part of him. In two quick steps her, he draped the locket against her own small neck. He tightens the clasp, and gives her another sad smile.

“This will protect you. My father gave me this necklace. It’s been passed around our family for four generations, protecting all of us. You know we’re special, Alex. Don’t you?” She nodded her head slightly. Her throat felt tight, unable to make a sound. She heard people outside, and they were getting closer by the second. The sound of horses galloping towards them. Her father looks out the small window, and grabs a cover and drapes it on.

“I need you to hide, Alex. Now. Okay? Can you do that for me?” He asks her, his voice raising a bit by an octave. He was stressed. She could hear it in his voice, and saw the wrinkles on his forehead straining.

“Alex.” He crouches down to her height, holding her tiny hands in his own.

“These people are bad news. They want to get rid of us, and the abilities we possess. I will always protect you, but for me to do that, I need you to hide and not come out until they are gone. Can you please do that for me?” He tries again. She nods.

“Dad, will you be okay?” She softly asks, twiddling her fingers. She always had nervous hands.

“Always. Now go! Hide!” He exclaims, and the urgency in his voice must mean they were close to the cabin. Alex doesn’t need to be told again. She runs to the room she sleeps in, hiding underneath the cot, covering the area with blankets made from animal skin. Right as she went to hide, that’s when she heard it. Pounding on the door. They were trying to break in. They weren’t simply knocking. They wanted in. Unfortunately, they would get their way.

Chapter One

Ten Years Later

She stirred the pot slowly, spice-tinged steam rising to her face. She was making fish soup, with mussels and the larger-than-life blue mushrooms she had collected by the creek. At seventeen years old, she still lived in the cabin she and her father once resided in. But now, she lives alone with only the animals outside as her company. She taught herself nearly everything she knew; how to cook, how to hunt, how to keep herself safe, and as she aged her abilities grew. She spent her days meticulously, studying the experiments her ancestors were part of. The experiments that took her dad from her, which granted her own abilities. Like her dad, she never took the locket off. It helped protect her, blessed by her ancestors before her, to save their bloodline, and keep her protected. She understood what was going on in the world. Her father was taken that night, by the guards. They beat him while Alex watched, biting her own hand till it bled to keep herself from screaming.

They had no clue he even had a daughter. Thank God he protected her until the end. They took him, Alex assumed to do what they did to everyone with abilities like them. To a camp, run by the government. They strip them from their power, making them utterly useless, like an average human. But even after taking their power, they don’t let them go. They are held as slaves, and from what her father told her, and what she had learned researching in her solitude, they keep them in government-controlled labs, testing on them and doing cruel experiments until every part of them is drained. Then, they place them in a small holding cell to where they live the rest of their days as prisoners. In this new world, the government saw anyone with the special abilities, people like Alex and her dad, as being called upon by the devil. Nothing could be further from the truth. The government created the special people, and slowly but surely, became confused by their own creation. So within time, they sought ought to destroy them. Decades ago, they experimented on Alex’s ancestors, and a few other selected individuals. They injected them with chemicals long forgotten, buried with the government zealots working in secret labs whose notes were either burned or buried alongside the dead. Word has it that the electrocuted brain when mixed with the chemicals, induced a new state of being; the special people with immense powers.

Whatever they were doing to those first subjects somehow created something bigger than they ever expected. Mutant beings with powers unimaginable. Realizing their mistake, in creating a superior human, they tried to wipe out anyone possessing those abilities. But, some subjects got away, and were able to find love. Thus, those powers were passed down to the next generation. This is why Alexandria’s father was being hunted. And why Alexandria now possesses her own set of unique abilities. She needed to find her father. She could sense his soul roaming somewhere. He was in so much pain. She had to get him back. The last time she saw her father was that infamous day. She hid, just like he told her. She watched as three male guards busted their doors down, grabbing her father with to much force. They beat him nearly to a bloody pulp, demanding to know if there were any others like him. Her father insisted he was the last one. The last one they hadn’t been able to capture. But he lied. Alexandria watched in pain, feeling her own anger brew as she was forced to watch her father get beaten, then taken from her forever. Ever since that day, she made it her life’s mission to bring him home. Find the truth, maybe even find her mother to get some answers. As time went on, Alex’s abilities became stronger. Her super hearing was impeccable; she could hear anyone, or anything, from up to hundreds of miles away. With the locket her father gave her, she was able to protect herself from any intruders. The locket was able to protect her from any evil-forces trying to reckon with her. It created its own invisible forcefield, that would protect her for as long as she wore it around her neck. During her time in solitude, she trained. She hunted all her food, and became great at surviving on her own. She trained herself to a T, because she knew she would eventually try to find her father one day. That day was approaching very quickly. The more time went on, the more she lost. She needed to act soon. She needed to know if there was a chance her father was still alive. She needed to find out if he was okay, what location he was being held at. Most importantly, she needed answers.