The Locket (6 page)

Well, she thought to herself. I think it’s safe to say that things can’t get any worse.

***

Later that night, Savannah lay on her bed, relaxing and listening to music. Uncle Tom was at work, Peter was at a summer baseball meet, and Aunt Jenny was out shopping. There is nothing like being home alone, she thought to herself.

It gave her time to think too about life, about her mom, about Marie, about the move, and … about the locket. What was it about that locket that made it so special to her mother?

Turning off her iPod and setting it aside, Savannah made her way over to the suitcases that still lay full and barely touched on the floor. Rummaging through the first bag, she felt a wave of annoyance and slight panic when she didn’t find it. When she did in the second bag a surprising comfort washed over her. Pulling it out, she studied it for the second time.

Never before had she seen a piece of jewelry filled with such mystery as this one. Why was it so special? Why was it so important not to open it yet? More importantly, why was she waiting?

As if fate wanted to stall her again, just as she placed her fingers over the clasp she heard a noise from the living room. That’s odd, she thought. I thought I was home alone. A cold chill ran down her spine when she heard the sound again. It sounded like voices, which was even stranger, because none of them sounded like any of her relatives.

Wearing nothing more than a white tank top and ripped blue jeans, which would do little to ward off any thief when her body was already too small and girly as it was, Savannah slowly made her way down the tapered hallway. A thousand scenarios ran through her head, most of them ending in her running out of the house screaming. She was probably over-thinking, as usual, but one can never be too careful.

At last reaching the entranceway that led into the living room, Savannah peered into the dark and found the television on, yet she saw no one. Okay, now I’m a little freaked out, she thought. You see this a hundred times in horror movies where the main character hears a noise, finds the TV turned on though they’re home alone, then gets murdered. If I start hearing scary music, I’m bolting out the door.

Hearing a roar of thunder, she shivered. And of course there would be a thunderstorm. Great.

Now that she had gotten used to the sound of the television, Savannah could hear the rain pouring outside her aunt and uncle’s one-story ranch. Through the windows she could see lighting every so often making a hiccup of a flash that illuminated the house, not long after accompanied by another rumble of thunder.

“H-hello?” Savannah said, almost in a whisper. When no one replied, she tried again, but this time with more force. “Hello?” Again, nobody replied. “Is anyone there?”

Sneaking closer to the kitchen, scarcely next to the living room, her blood boiled with ice. She could not decipher whether she was getting warmer or colder. Her heart first jumped all the way up to her throat, and then pounded with infinite thuds and speed, because it was there outside the kitchen that she saw the shadow.

She tried to yell a thousand times, but the sound would not come. Besides, who would hear her? Certainly not the neighbors, there was too much space between houses.

Trying to step back carefully, Savannah cursed inside her head when a floorboard creaked beneath her foot. That was all it took for the shadow to whip its head in her direction. It started to move closer, pinning her against the wall in fear. Oh, God.

The thunder rumbled again, following another snap of lightening. Again the house illuminated from it, but the figure was in another shadow, so Savannah only saw the outline of its shape. It was definitely human. And it was definitely headed in her direction.

She squeezed her eyes tightly, praying that if whoever it was was going to kill her, then they could get it done with. The pain in her chest from her rapid heart would not subside, causing her mind to become frantic. The wind shook outside the house violently, the rain banged against the roof.

Then, like a cool breeze relieves hot skin, the sound of a familiar voice rang in her ears. “Savannah?” It was a woman. “Anna, dear, are you all right? You look a little pale.”

Opening her eyes, Savannah took a second to adjust to the dark again, and then saw her Aunt Jenny staring at her in concern.

For a minute she could not speak. Everything had gone so fast. A moment ago, however fleeting the idea, she thought someone was going to kill her. “Aunt Jenny, I—I thought that you went to the market.”

“The market?” Her aunt repeated. She stood there for a second, gazing at her niece as if she had three heads. Then she understood her confusion. “Oh, when I went out to get some batteries? Yes, I left, but now I’m back and I’m watching a movie.”

Savannah stood motionless. “Batteries?”

Jenny strolled over to the couch, gesturing for her to join. “Yeah, I figured the storm would knock out the power, so I bought a flashlight and some extra batteries.”

“Oh,” she sighed with relief. Her heart was still thudding wildly in her chest, but thankfully it would calm down soon enough. Switching her attention to the TV screen, she asked. “So what are you watching?”

“
Stepmom
,” Aunt Jenny replied without thinking. Mentioning anything “mom” related probably was not a good idea for the next couple of weeks; at least not until Savannah lightened up a bit. Her niece lowered her head and frowned. “Oh, Anna—I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” she interrupted. “It’s not like I can hide the facts or anything.” She stood up, suddenly not feeling like watching a movie. “My mother’s dead, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Beginning to walk away, Savannah was stopped by her aunt. “Where are you going?” She inquired lightly.

“To my room,” she told her. “I have to finish unpacking.” With that, she left her aunt sitting alone on the couch, confused and concerned.

Closing the door behind her, Savannah turned back on her music, took out her last bag to unload, and began to unpack. Almost as soon as she got started the power went out, as her aunt had predicted. Letting out a frustrated growl, she promptly fished out three candles from her bag, placed them on her dresser, and lit them with a pack of matches that her uncle had left there earlier.

All was quiet for a few moments as she piled small amounts of her belongings on the bed one at a time and put them away. Just as she had started to pull out her next pile, she felt something cold and small touch her fingertips. It was the locket she had left on her bed earlier.

A bubble of tears choked in her throat at the sight of it, reliving the last moments with her mother. Terror and rage soon began to take the place of her melancholy when she thought about how unfair life had been the past few days. In the end, she did not know if she should scream or cry—so she did both. First screaming with fury, she whipped the necklace at the wall above her bed and then dropped down to the carpet in tears. Embarrassed, she realized that she had just repeated the incident with Marie in her bedroom and that made her cry even harder.

The locket was the furthest thing from her mind, at least for a few minutes. Then, as she decided it was time to stop being consumed by self-pity, she opened her eyes and saw a burst of light through the cracks between her fingers.

Immediately pulling her hands away from her face, Savannah’s mouth opened. A large, rectangular figure glowed next to her bed … where it came out of the locket.

The brightness of its light vibrated off of every wall and object in the room. It was beautiful. It did not take long for her to realize that this was the same light, the same multi-colored radiating light, that shown for her when her mother first handed her the necklace.

Carefully, she slipped on the pair of sneakers that lay scruffily next to her bed, completely fascinated by the figure in front of her. Deciding whether to touch it or not, she picked up the locket, careful not to close it in fear that it would close the opening as well. Cautiously, she stuck her right hand in first, to see what would happen.

It felt welcoming and powerful. The feeling was a bit cool at first, a little bit like sticking your hand in silly putty, but then it heated up. The heat soon spread to her elbow, then up to her shoulder, and finally throughout her entire body. The feeling shortly devoured her so much that she felt the need to stick the rest of herself through the portal.

At first, she was transported to nothing … literally. There was a white light and a lot of empty space. Then everything sped up. A wash of colors swarmed and splashed around her, making her dizzy. Her body felt sick for a moment, and then it felt empowered with energy as tingles ran from her head to her toes.

All of a sudden, a rip in the portal emerged out of nowhere, sucking her into it. She tried to pull back, but the vivid white light was too strong, defeating her.

Then, in the blink of an eye, she arrived.

She was in a world she could never even have dreamt of.

Savannah was standing atop of a large hill, gazing out at the place around her. Meadows and forests stretched out as far as she could see, though there were no trees within a twenty-yard range of her. Some of the trees grew luscious-looking fruit, while some stayed perfect without so much as a twig out of place.

Hills and hills of bright green grass were filled with beautiful, fantasy flowers. From what she could set her eyes on, absolutely none of the colors were fading off of the flowers. Many buds were bursting into bloom, and, simultaneously, none were wilting.

Not one patch of grass had a bare spot, and there were no weeds in sight. Twisting her head toward the sky, Savannah could see that it was a flawless blue, no clouds for miles. What was this place?

Shaking her head, she brought up her hand to look again at the locket. It looked so casual, so normal. Well, whatever it was that just happened, Savannah assumed that by closing the locket, the portal would close and by opening it back up, then it would come back. Going through the portal must have automatically closed the locket for her, so she decided that if she reopened it, then she could go home.

She was wrong.

Oh no, I am definitely not in New York anymore, she mused. Gazing down again at the flowers, she could not even begin to know what she thought of this place. Where am I, Candy Land? The Land of Oz? How am I ever going to get home?

Savannah opened her hand to take a look at the necklace inside a second time. And to think that this all came from one little, locket. I hate to admit it, but Mom was right, you can definitely escape the world in here. She took a deep breath. I must be losing my mind.

But her thoughts were soon interrupted by the image of something, or someone, running straight toward her, arms waving in the air, as if to get her attention. Well, whoever this person was, it had worked.

By the time the person had at last reached her, Savannah gasped, because what remained before her was something completely unexpected.

“I’m Savannah Morgan,” she began, placing a hand out in front of her. When he didn’t take it, she went on, slightly irritated. “I’m sorry I wasn’t who you were hoping for, but I’m kind of lost. See, I just moved to my aunt’s and—”

“Morgan?” He interrupted. He seemed surprisingly interested in her last name by the way his blue eyes widened.

“Yes,” she answered cautiously.

“As in Terrance Morgan?”

Savannah lifted a brow. “Yes. How do you know my father’s name?”

The little man thought about this, moving his fingers through his gnarly beard. “And your mother is … Gwen?”

Now she was getting spooked, and mad. “All right how do you know that? What is this place?! And who are you?!”

Shaking off his wandering thoughts, the man gave her a half-hearted smile, swooping down to take a bow. “Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Lance-a-lot, head dwarf and assistant to the palace and loyal to his majesty, the king. You may call me Lance for short.” Not sure if she was more stunned or amused, Savannah began to laugh. “What is so funny?”

“Oh, it’s just … your name is really Lance-a-lot? No kidding?”

“No,” he scowled at her.

“And you guys have a king? Really?”

“Yes.” Lance put his hands to his hips as he drew his eyebrows even closer together. “I demand to know why this appears to be some kind of joke to you.”

“It’s not, it’s not,” Savannah said, putting her hands up in defeat. “I’ve just never been to a place where there was royalty … or where people are named after Arthurian knights.”