Doomsday Locket

Doomsday Locket

Written by

Robin Edwards

Chapter One

The Sister

I hated that locket, yet I wore it around my neck every day as a reminder. A reminder of what I did. I could feel it laying lightly against my chest. I knew the curve of its shape, the feel of its roughness against my skin without even thinking about it. Sometimes I wondered if I could actually feel it anymore, or if it was just my imagination. It had laid against my chest now for seven years. Seven long years of guilt, seven long years of sadness, and fear.

The hollow wind whistled outside as I lay in my bed. I could hear it scratching at the tin framed building, clawing to get in. I knew one day it would. I remembered as a child how I loved listening to the wind. It had held magic it seemed then. It would swirl about me, coaxing my imagination, urging me to even fly at times! Now it held nothing but bleakness, an indescribable emptiness. A vacuum of death I was sure would swallow me one day.

I closed my eyes, urging myself to sleep. I knew I needed rest, but I also knew I would wake up to a living nightmare again, the same one I always woke up to, over and over and over again. I didn’t know which one I preferred anymore, sleep or wakefulness. It was all the same emptiness to me, just like the wind.

I fell into a fitful sleep. I was a little girl again, twirling in a field of wild flowers as the haze of fading sunlight swirled about me. I tried to grab the remnants of sunlight in my small hand as I giggled. The wind was warm on my cheeks, and ran through my hair lovingly like a gentle hand. It seemed to scoop me up at times just like my mom used to. Then she suddenly appeared, and began twirling me in her arms, smiling at me tenderly as we seemed to spin higher and higher. But a dark, heavy cloud appeared above us as her smile turned menacing. The heart shaped locket she had always worn around her neck snapped off as if by a malevolent unseen force. I quickly grabbed the locket in my hand as it seemed suspended on the very breath of evil. It burned my palm as I grasped it. I watched in horror as my mother fell into an abyss of darkness, her face white as death as she laughed demonically, her wild eyes never leaving mine as she continued to slip farther down. She disappeared into a ring of fire as her tormented laughter rose up on a fierce wind of hate.

I woke up screaming again. The wind seemed to be pounding at the door now in a frenzy of murderous pleasure. Darkness began to engulf me.

Chapter Two

The Brother

“I can’t get in, she’s boarded herself in again”, a voice called out over the pounding of fists on the door.

“Push harder” a voice ordered frantically.

After much cursing, pounding, and pushing, the metal door finally gave way. A young man rushed to the girl’s side.

“Water” he demanded. But no one moved.

“Water!” he screamed, searching the men’s faces wildly.

“Water…please” he begged.

“Get her some water” another man said grudgingly, then quickly added “just a little”. He looked at the man kneeling beside the bed.

“We’re almost out of water. We can’t afford to keep giving your sister water every time she has a bad dream” he spat.

The young man said nothing. He knew it was useless. They had gone around and around about this before. His sister was delusional, he knew that. He held his sisters hand, waiting silently for some water. The locket she always wore was clasped in her other hand.

Things had been so different seven years ago before the bomb went off. They had lived with their mother in an apartment building in Kansas City on the twelfth floor. His sister had loved to listen to the wind as it blew across the room, gently winding its way up and down the old building like silk. His sister would stand on the balcony and let the sunlight drift gingerly between her fingers. Their mom would wrap her arms around his sister as they laughed, the sun reflecting brightly on the heart shaped locket their father had given their mom before he died.

It was such a day as this when the bomb went off. His sister had just ran back into the living room to try and coax him out onto the balcony with them. She had taken his hand in hers, and was tugging on him, laughing the whole time. Suddenly the very earth seem to be shaking as a thunderous “boom” knocked them off their feet. Darkness obliterated any sunlight, then a deafening wind crashed into the building with such force it began to collapse. They heard their mother crying out their names as she tried to make her way towards them, her arms outstretched as she drew closer. Screaming frantically, they reached out towards her, but she began to fall back into the fiery wind. His sister reached out to grab their mom, but only grabbed the locket as she fell from them, screaming as she slipped farther away, a ring of fire engulfing her. His sister’s palm was seared by the locket, but she continued to hang onto it.

Somehow they had made it outside, but it was all a blur after that. They were just kids then, and lucky enough to have a group of survivors take them in. Death surrounded them wherever they went, and the people that were taking care of them wandered in and out of their lives as others took their place. But his sister never got over the guilt she felt when their mother died. She believed her mother was angry with her, hating her, blaming her for their mother’s death. She somehow got it twisted in her mind their mother was a demonic force living in the wind, stalking her, waiting to avenge her death. No matter how much her brother tried to convince her that wasn’t true, she refused to believe him.

Their presence in the group was tenuous now. His sister’s mental state was deteriorating even more. The shortage of water, and food, combined with mental stress, and exhaustion, caused the group to feel little empathy for her. There had been talk of leaving them behind as they planned on moving once again to search for resources. They knew her brother would never leave without her.

Chapter Three

The Wind Beckons

I had heard the men talking to my brother about me as I lay in bed. My brother did his best to take care of me under circumstances he wasn’t prepared for. Under circumstances no one was prepared for. As the wind howled outside, I vowed to leave that night.

I pretended to be asleep as my brother checked on me. He gently kissed my forehead before he headed to his room. The building we had been living in the last year was an old military hangar. It had been divided up, first come first serve. But my brother made sure I got a room to myself. It must have been an office before. There had also been rusted out beds in another area of the hangar, my brother and I had dragged one across the pitted floor to where my room is now.

Ever since the bomb went off, a full day of sunlight was rare. But I knew it was getting late as the wind began to howl even harder. It seemed to dare me to join it, to whisk me away to the pit of hell. It scraped its claws across the awning, while my mother’s voice taunted me in an overly sweet lyrical tone.

“Come to mommy” she coaxed eerily as the wind chimed in. A thousand voices seemed to whisper my name, their voices twisting in the air. I could see the outline of her face now pressed against the plastic tarp where glass used to be. In a daze, I reached out and gently touched her cheek, a shiver running through me.

“Mommy?” I cried out. She nodded slowly, her cheek rising and falling against my hand. I tore at the tarp, desperately trying to tear it away. My fingers jammed against the thick plastic, but I somehow managed to tear a small hole in it. I pushed my fingers through and pulled as hard as I could. The tear grew wider as I continued to pull on it, the wind rushing past me as if seeking refuge. Just as I tore the last pieces of ragged tarp from the window, a hot bright white light pierced the darkness like a sharp knife. Before I could even scream it engulfed me, plucking me through the opening like a rag doll. I heard my mother laughing softly as she pulled me to her, burning my very soul as she wrapped me in her arms.

Chapter Four

The Locket

The room where his sister had slept was scorched. The smell of burnt tin hung in the air, surrounding him like a ghostly mist. He stared out into the vast, barren landscape through the torn tarp. Nothingness stretched out for miles in all directions. The wind seemed calmer this morning, as if somehow soothed by his sister’s disappearance, a sacrifice to the monstrous entity trapped in the wind.

The locket she had always worn was lying on the floor beneath the window when he had entered the room. He had bent down to pick it up, but quickly dropped it in pain as blisters began to form on his fingertips where he had touched it. It was as hot as coals, but looked unscathed.

He realized it was futile looking for his sister. Something told him she would never be found, that she was trapped somewhere beyond his reach. He thought he heard something as he stared out of the window, lost in thought. It rose on the air like a disembodied song, crawling through the mist towards him. It seemed to be coming from the locket as he looked down. It began to glisten, urging him to pick it up once more. This time it was cool to the touch. He swore he heard his mother’s voice as he ran his fingers across it. Yes! It was his mother! She was singing, calling out his name as her voice circled around him. He felt her hand lightly graze his cheek. He quickly placed the locket around his neck, feeling the curve of it against his chest. He knew his fate lied within the locket. It was his destiny, as it had been his sister’s. He could hear her voice now too, entwined with his mother’s. As the wind began to howl like demons, he waited at the window. Their voices swirled around him now in a ghostly frenzy, lifting him off his feet. Just before the hot white light forever trapped him, he saw his mother’s face, as well as his sisters, smiling maniacally as they swallowed him whole, lost forever in the wind.