The Locket (34 page)

Walking up to the freshly mounted dirt, Savannah took in a sharp breath and prayed. She placed a single yellow rose before the tombstone, wishing with everything she had that her mother and father were reunited and happy.

About an hour later, the crowd had thinned so that all who were left were Savannah, Marie, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Tom, Peter, the minister, and a few scattered guests. Another service continued close to them, erasing Savannah’s hope for solitude. Savannah, who had been thanking everyone for coming as they left, had let out an overdue breath as the last guests made their way to their car. Glancing over at Marie, who offered a comforting smile, Savannah once again made her way to her mother. There were so many things left unsaid and so many questions unanswered; it was almost as if there were a hole in her heart from the mystery that would never be solved.

“Mom,” she began, placing a hand on the headstone. “I miss you. You left me so soon. It isn’t fair, because I wasn’t ready for you to leave. I know I cannot dwell on the past, because you and Dad are together now, and that’s all that matters. But there are things that you haven’t explained that I can’t begin to understand. Why did you give me that locket? Did you just want me to see where you came from? And if so, why did you hide it from me so long? I don’t know why everything had to happen all at once, I wasn’t prepared for that.

“What kind of plan did you have in store for me, Mom? If it was for me to stay here, in the real world, doing whatever it is that I would be doing, I’m not sure I could. I would be resentful, confused, and alone without you or Dad. But if you planned for me to go back to—to wherever I was before—I don’t know what I would do. There, I would be scared and away from everything that I’ve known, everything that I’ve always lived with and by. I just don’t know if I could do it.” She finished her words on a whimper. At long last, a stream of moisture escaped from the corner of her eye, and she didn’t care if anyone saw it.

“I don’t know what you had in store for me, Mama … I’m just so confused,” she sobbed into her hands.

While her back was turned, Marie had been making her way toward her. Hearing her last statement, she put a hand on Savannah’s shoulder and allowed her to turn and cry into her arms. “I don’t know what your mother had in store for you either, Anna. I know that she wanted you to be happy and that she doesn’t want you to live your life bitter and sad from wishing you were in the past.”

Savannah composed herself and accepted the tissue Marie offered when she pulled herself out of the embrace. “Oh, Marie, how did I let things get so bad? About a month ago we were having sleepovers and staying up all night watching movies and talking about boys while my mom would constantly nag us to turn the volume down. Now my mother is dead, you live hundreds of miles away, and I’ve turned into a blubbering fool who’s acting like a psychotic escapee who belongs in an institution.” Wiping her face from the fresh tears, she astonished herself by having a shaking hand. “My parents are both dead, and there are times that I wish I were too. I think I just want to move on and forget everything.”

Marie raised an eyebrow. “If you want to move on and forget, then why do you still keep this locket?” She hid the amusement that rose when she watched Savannah’s eyes widen as she pulled the necklace out of her pocket. “Listen to me, Anna. There comes a time, maybe many times in a person’s life when they go through big changes and they must make difficult decisions. You can have anything in the world you want, you just can’t have everything. So the advice I’m giving you is this … choose wisely. What is it that you want? What decision are you going to make?”

Savannah took a minute to allow Marie’s words to sink in and to think about them. What did she want? Before her adventure in the locket, she thought she knew exactly what she wanted: to live with her mother in her childhood home across from Marie, go to college for some kind of business degree, play softball until time wouldn’t allow, and finally, learn about her family and where she came from.

Of course, things change, just like Marie said. She had gone through the locket, had her adventure, and was now unsure of what she wanted. Knowing what was available to her in that world, she couldn’t possibly stay in New York. Living in her childhood home was no longer an option and New York was not all that appealing, even though Savannah knew that if she wanted, she could make it work. Going to college would be new and exciting, but there were new things that excited her even more now. And now she knew where her family came from, or at least a little bit. If she wanted to find out more, it wouldn’t be a possibility to ask anyone here.

Though the most important change, and the most frightening one, was that she had fallen in love and was willing to give anything to be with him.

And then it hit her; she already had given up something, she just wasn’t willing to admit it. What she had given up was the one thing that was holding her back all these years from being the person she knew she was deep down … her cynicism. Ever since she returned from Revalia, she denied herself that newfound imagination she knew Christian had helped her find. She denied it because—well, because it wasn’t something she was comfortable with yet. From the day her father died, she had become so comfortable with her pessimism and the belief that if she shielded herself from all of the disappointments in the world, she would never get hurt.

But you can’t always protect yourself from being hurt, and that’s okay, because that’s life. That was one thing she had learned over the course of the past few days. If you don’t take big risks, you cannot get big rewards. She allowed herself the big risk of trusting and falling in love with Christian. Yes, she got hurt, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t gain something much more valuable from the experience.

“I want him to be happy.”

Marie smiled. “Good. Now go make him happy.”

“But I can’t! I mean, he’s probably already married. Time there is different than here, and by now he’s bound to be on his honeymoon, and I can’t—”

“Savannah.” Marie placed a hand firmly on her friend’s shoulder, demanding her attention. She landed her bright green eyes onto Savannah’s, proving that she was in control of the conversation now. “Do you love him?”

“Yes.”

Marie let her hand fall from Savannah’s shoulders and let both of them come up as she shrugged and asked, “Then why are you making this decision so hard? If you love him, then you go and tell him. If he loves you as much as he says he does, and I believe he does, he will make it work.”

Nodding, Savannah needed a moment to calm her nerves. Should she go back? That would mean leaving behind everything she loved and everything she’d ever known.

It was then that she was hit with another thought—what if this was her plan? What if her mother’s Leukemia set her destiny in place by showing her this new world that she could be happy in? Things would have been very different if her mother had lived and shown her the locket years later. If that happened, Christian would have already been married, the kingdom might have been destroyed by the war, and she never would have learned what she knew now. And even if Christian weren’t married and they still fell in love, she could never have made the decision to stay, because that would have meant possibly never seeing her mother again. That was a decision she knew she could not make if things were different.

Marie grew impatient waiting for her to make a choice. Growing up across the street from Savannah, Marie had developed a love for her friend that she knew would be difficult to find with anyone else. But she also knew that when you love someone, you have to be willing to let them go if that was what was best for them. And going back was what was best for Savannah, she could feel it. It would be heartbreaking, and it would be beyond tough to get over, but it would also be rewarding to know that her best friend in the entire world was where she belonged.

“Are you ready to go home, Savannah?”

Savannah looked at her, recognizing a pain in Marie’s eyes she rarely saw. They had been friends since she could remember and become unrelated sisters. She had never known a time without Marie and was suddenly sick to think that she would have to if she went back. Moving was bad enough, and now the thought of being a dimension away instead of a few miles made her heart shatter. Though her best friend, like her parents, would only want her happiness, and Marie’s question proved that.

She knew what she wanted, it was suddenly so clear. It was hard and was going to be even harder later for both of them, because she knew that her friend, her second half, was going to have to live this life without her.

A grin crept across Savannah’s mouth, widening in response to Marie’s. “I’m driving.”

The two of them jetted across the cemetery, racing toward the only familiar car left in the parking lot since Aunt Jenny and Uncle Tom must have left. “We need to get to somewhere where no one will see me open the portal. Since that other service is still going on, it can’t be here.

“Okay,” Marie agreed. “But where?”

“I don’t know, somewhere abandoned obviously. We’ll find a place; we just have to hurry to stop that wedding!” she said as they ran passed her cousin.

“Hey! Where are you girls—hey!” When they didn’t answer, he ran to catch up, watching as Marie got into the passenger seat and Savannah made herself comfortable in the driver’s seat.

“Peter, give me the keys.”

“What?”

“Now!” she yelled, not in the mood for answering questions. Quickly digging into his pocket and tossing his keys, Peter rushed to switch seats with Marie. As Savannah had started it up, she left almost no time for Marie or her cousin to put on their seatbelts before she shot her way out of the parking lot and into the street.

“Where are we going?” Peter asked, wondering if he was going to live to find out.

“Anywhere that’s abandoned. We just need to get there fast!”

Savannah flashed a fleeting look of distress toward him before making a sharp turn onto a side street. “Oh, man, that’s right, you don’t know. Okay, stay with me and pay attention as I talk. On the day that my mother died, she left me this locket that she planned to give me when I was older. A couple of days ago, the locket opened while I was unpacking and turned into a vortex, so I went through it,” she explained, making another sharp turn and squashing both Peter and Marie against the window. “There, I ended up meeting the prince of the kingdom I traveled to, went on a journey to help the kingdom avoid a war, and fell in love with him. The thing is, he is either getting married, about to get married, or somewhere on his honeymoon—but I don’t know which because of the time difference. It doesn’t matter though, because whatever happened while I was gone, I need to tell him that I love him before he forgets about me or falls in love with someone else!”

Entirely stunned, Peter leaned back in his seat toward Marie. “Have you been slipping things in her pop again?”

“No, Peter, it’s the truth! If you don’t believe me, just think about where my mom and dad came from. There is really no explanation for how they got here. And where have my grandparents been all of these years, hmm?”

“Look, Anna, I know you’re upset, but,”

“This is not about that! None of this was about that!” She made a third sharp turn onto another road as Peter decided that it was useless to be the voice of reason. So what if he died? At least he wouldn’t have to go to jail for letting his unlicensed cousin drive his not-yet-registered car, going what felt like seventy miles over the speed limit.

“Anna, you do know that this is illegal in all fifty states, right?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, just checking,” he replied, sitting back in his seat as they passed an empty alleyway. Hearing her make a noise of excitement, Peter cringed as they made a U-turn in the middle of the road, cutting off at least eight different cars.

Pulling into the alley, Savannah brought the car to a screeching halt and hopped out, just barely snatching the keys out of the ignition. Not wasting any more time, she swiftly unwrapped the locket from her neck and opened it, allowing the portal to open once again. “Now do you believe me?” Aiming a serious look at Peter, he nodded his head even as his eyes never left the display in front of him. “Good, because I’m going to need you to do me a favor.”

Slowly, he switched his attention from the tie-dye rectangle to Savannah. “Tell Aunt Jenny and Uncle Tom that I love them very much and I appreciated that that they had taken me in.”

“Had?”

She nodded. “Please, either Marie or Peter, tell them the story of what happened. Marie, I believe that you know it better. But I also want you to tell them the story of my parents; I think that they deserve to know everything.” Marie nodded. “And if anyone else asks, I moved to a distant place … it doesn’t matter to me where you say, just as long as you both say the same thing.

“Tell all of my friends that I will miss them. Peter, I love you and I will miss you so much. I’ll never forget any of the good times we had or any the family events we tormented each other during.” She went over and gave her cousin a fierce, yet firm hug as he smiled.

“I’m still dumbfounded from everything that has happened in the past five minutes, but I love you too, Anna. I’m not sure if I should be letting you go or if I should chain you to my car and bring you to a psych ward, but you’re my cousin and I trust you.”

She smiled at him in return and gave him another hard hug. “And, Marie … thanks for everything. I couldn’t have gone through life without you because you have always been my twin sister. I will love you forever, and no matter what happens we will still be best friends.”

“I know,” she replied during their tight embrace. “I’m always here for you if you ever decide to come back. I love you too, and I’m glad you’re doing this, because it’s for yourself. I’m not one for sappy goodbyes; you know that. So go before time runs out!”

Savannah nodded with a smile, and after taking one final look back, she was gone.