Time To Die

‘Shari help me'.

It pierced my blissful dreams. I sat up with a start.

‘Mum?’ blinking my eyes, I could slightly make out my mums blonde hair through the darkness of our cabin.

‘Shari help me’. She repeated her voice sounding scared, as I heard the floor creaking. I spun around and turned on my torch and shone it where I could make out her voice.

All at once, I could see her, but she wasn’t alone.

Standing behind her with one arm around her neck and one arm around her waist was a masked figure.

‘Mum, what do I do?’ I yelled as I jumped up and ran to her, my arms outstretched.

She grabbed my hands and with tears welling up, she mouthed HIDE IT and motioned to my hands, and then she said ‘I will miss you honey, please be strong Shari’.

Then she was gone, dragged off into the darkness. I stood dumbfounded. What did she mean hide it? Hide what.

Glancing at my watch, the neon green shone 2:00AM. Something didn’t feel right. I turned my wrist around and there tucked into my watch band was a small, gold heart-shaped locket. What the!! Mum must’ve slid it there when she grabbed my hands.

Racing back to my bed, I slipped under the covers with my torch and examined the locket. What does it hold I wondered? Why was mum mouthing Hide It.? Why did I have to hide it?

This wasn’t the first time that circumstances similar to this had puzzled me. 5 years ago, when I turned 10 my dad, mysteriously went missing. We never saw him again. It had been just mum and I since in this run down cabin.

Not long after his disappearance I remember asking mum where dad was, all she said was it was his time. We lived in a small community of run down cabins next to a lake. No one ventured out after dark, not that we wanted to. We had all heard stories of what was out there. Some said the world had ended and now life itself was up for grabs. I didn’t believe it.

Now at 15, I believed it. Mum’s life had been taken. It was said that when your children or kin were old enough you had to be sacrificed so that the Life Gods wouldn’t hurt the community. The Life Gods were as the name states the Gods of Life, they could give life as well as take. We had learnt to not cause trouble in order to earn our spot. Mum had told me to stay good and I would be safe.

All of sudden she was gone. And here I stood alone with a locket.

Did I dare open it? No.

I looked around for a place to hide it, unfortunately everything I laid eyes on didn’t seem safe enough. It was like, I needed it on me. A small, glint on my mum’s bed shone at me. I bee-lined for it. It was a tiny knife with blood marks. What the? Then it dawned on me, mum had done what I was planning to do. Make a small incision in my skin and hide the locket inside. Scrambling for some scrap material, I then raced back to the safety of my covers.

I pulled my sleeve down to show my upper arm, wincing, I sliced a small line and as tears rolled down my eyes in pain, I swooped up the locket and using my fingers I pushed it in as far as I could. Using the materials as a makeshift bandage I bound it tightly around the cut and prayed I wouldn’t bleed to death. Pulling my shirt back to normal, I took a few breaths and laid back down in bed. I am doing this for you mum, you can trust me I thought, I will survive.