The unfortunate adventures of Sarah Richards

Chapter four ~digging into things~

Friday morning, Finn called me. I wish he hadn't. I had been doing so well. I'd even made my parents breakfast and watched the baby and walked the dog while they ate. I was so pleased with myself up until my phone rang and i quietly slipped upstairs to my room.
When i had shut the door behind me, i lifted my phone to my ear and answered Finn.
I was shaking. I sat down at my little desk in the corner.
"Finn?" I spoke first because for a moment, he was silent. "Hey! Sarah! How are you? You know, we left off on an awful bad foot." He just kept talking without waiting for my reply. "Yes, Finn." I couldn't help leaking every ounce of malice i had into my voice. "I do recall walking back into the theatre to see you sucking on my best friend's face!" I hissed. Laughter. He was laughing at me. "Oh, that's a good one." He sighed. There was a sort of condescending about his voice. Like one might have when talking to a child who is younger and dumber than they. (Truth be told, i was older and got better grades than Finn.) "I'm surprised you hadn't noticed sooner." He said. "You what?" I think my heart dropped to my knees. "Oh yeah, that'd been going on for three months now." He laughed. "We have the same necklace, see-" i cut him off. "Nobody has been able to prove the soulmates theory on the necklaces, Finn. Nor any other theory, for that matter." I snapped. "Yeah but it makes better sense, doesn't it?" He was teasing me now. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. "Finn, we talked about the necklaces all the time and all you ever said was that the theories were bullshit..." I sighed. He was rather stupid. I suppose in my infatuation i had overlooked that. "Bullshit or not, i think i'm keeping Britney around for a while." Everything about that sentence made my skin crawl. "Anyway," he began speaking again before i had the chance of responding. "It's been nice talkin' to ya, doll." I hated that he still called me that. "But i have a previous engagement so i gotta run." He laughed and promptly hung up. I set my phone down and whacked my head against my desk a few times. Boys were so frustrating. And Finn had only been my first boyfriend! What if they were all like this?
The part he'd said about the necklaces kept coming back to me. I flipped open my laptop and first googled the date the necklaces started appearing.
April 30th 2020
Black Gnat Kentucky
Echo Lee was born to Giovanni and Anna Byrd. She was a perfectly healthy little girl and everything was normal about her. Except for the necklace. That's right, literally as she escaped the womb she was wearing a thin gold chain necklace with a horizontal ring at the end. Within that ring held a crystal. Coloured the same as fire. The doctors immediately took it off but she cried hysterically until it was returned. Within the hour, reports of babies being born with these necklaces began pouring in by the hundreds from all over the world...
That article and about eighty-seven others only got me so far. I needed more. I pulled up a different tab and began digging through the conspiracy theories. There was the one on government interferences;
Though they deny it again and again, what else could this be but the government pumping some sort of genetic mutation into us. Soon our children will be born with robot limbs!
That report went on to spew more government hating nonsense. There was no way that was the answer so i left that tab. There was the alien attacks theory;
This is clearly the mark of some alien infiltration into humanity! Mark my word, they'll come some day to collect their own and all of us with the necklaces will turn on each other! It's mind control, see...
I was never going to find anything through that.
My computer started running slower and slower due to all the tabs i had open. I needed something more. I slammed my laptop shut and practically flew down the stairs with it and my phone in hand. "MA!" I yelled as i skidded to a halt in the kitchen. "Breath, young one. What is it?" My mother laughed from where she stood at the sink giving Orwell a bath. "Can i-" i paused to catch my breath, "use the secret room?" I panted. My mother gave me a slightly disappointed look. "What for?" She asked. "I'm doing research on something and my computer isn't fast or strong enough to keep tabs on it all." I was still panting. "Research on what?" She now gave me a suspicious look. "The necklaces, Ma. I'm trying to figure out why they exist." I let a hint if annoyance creep into my voice. "Fine. But if either I or your father need the screens, you have to get out." She said. "Thanks, Ma!" I yelled and ran back upstairs without really waiting for her to say anything else.
This was perfect. The secret room's walls were practically lined with touchscreen computers. And the most powerful computer i had ever seen sat in the center of the room at a desk. I first pulled up the articles i'd already found then began to look for more.
I began to feel pain, quoted Burrn. But there was no cause. It was as if i was feeling someone else's pain...
Perhaps the most interesting report i found was the one about people born with the necklaces, feeling phantom pain. And seeing things. Even hearing them. All said it was as if they had tapped into another person's senses.
Then i dug up a report on the soulmates theory.
So far every report of a necklace bearing birth has involved a different colour necklace, but what if some day a baby with an identical necklace to yours is born. What if they already are! Surely there must be some sort of connection there. Our government my be high tech but lets not give the bastards enough credit as to modify our fetuses. And aliens, that is utter hogwash. Now maybe this theory is wrong but wha if the necklaces were some kind of, soulmate beacon? Stating that if you found someone with a matching necklace that meant that you were soulmates. Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time we pull our heads out of the sand! There's magic in the universe. Some divine force, call it what you will, God, Buddha... But something beyond our understanding put those necklaces there. Our country's divorce rates are increasing every year. Wouldn't it make sense for some divine intervention to create this? Why else would people start claiming they could feel a strangers pain?
So far, this report made the most sense to me. This had to be it! On top of that, more people believed this, than any other theory on the stupid necklaces.
Then i found a report on Britney and Finn. They had made it to the press in a matter of hours. There was no way now that the soulmates idea could be proved false. Not once this report sat on the internet long enough for the whole world to see it. More reports kept flooding in on births and theories. I was up in that room for so long that both lunch and dinner were brought to me by my mother and i ate in front of the screens. Every time she'd ask about progress i had a positive answer. I was so close to cracking this, i was sure it was the soulmates idea! I-
My train of thought was completely de-railed by a sudden sharp pain in my arms. Searing hot trails of invisible pain shot across my wrists. No wound. I hadn't eaten anything poisonous. The pain faded a little and then got worse. It was like getting hit by a whip in slow motion only there was no wound and no whip. "MOM!" I yelled and collapsed on the floor holding my arms around my head. "DAD!" I screeched and finally blacked out from the pain...