The Girl in the Locket

Chapter Four

Five years ago

My breathing was rapid for about ten minutes. I just laid there as my body caught up, fighting the air around me for oxygen. I listened to the storm in the distance and the roar of the ocean, the water lapped at my feet and threatened to drag me back in to the dark. It was then from the side of the lighthouse that there came a humming. It wasn't long before I caught sight of a helicopter, it had a huge light on the beach ahead of me, and it whipped around as quickly as it had arrived tracing the water again carefully. I got up to run to it but it swung away in the opposite direction. Tears fall down past my cheeks and into the crease of my lips. They were salty. I wiped the tears away and walked slowly along the sandy beach. I was lost, in every sense of the word, with no idea where or whom I was. I didn't even know where to start.

I dragged myself along, becoming increasingly aware of the pain my body was in. It was only as I got closer to the trees that were bordering the beach that I noted the lights flickering through from behind the branches of the trees.
Intrigued, I followed the pathway forming along the tree line. Pine cones and foliage dotted the way along the path, and I cursed and winced in pain as my bare feet stood upon a fallen cone. The pathway led to a little row of beach houses, some had lights on in their porches, and all were either pink or blue in colour. I walked up the small driveway and tried the door of the first, it was a wooden built home, and freshly painted in baby blue. There wasn't an answer, and so I kept knocking ok the neighbouring homes, but it was the same with the other four. Nobody seemed to be home. I walked, limping now on my right side to the last pink house on the end of the row. This was the nicest looking house of the bunch, and they even had a private dock with a little white boat, which was currently bobbing up and down on the waves violently. I pushed open the screen door and pressed the doorbell.
I couldn't hear it ringing inside. I thumped my fist on the front door instead, and it opened with the force. I peeked my head through the crack, it was dark inside. I pushed myself into the house, blindly feeling along the wall until I flipped a switch. The front hall came into view, coats hung on the pegs and shoes were neatly lined up beside them. I looked to the end of the hallway, a mirror the size of the wall showed my first true reflection. I staggered towards it slowly with not much strength left in my wobbly legs, and I reached out and touched my face. Light green eyes, it was me in that picture. My hair was dark and wet, clinging cold against my skin, and the bruise on my lips and cheek had grown larger and angrier looking, they were covering one side of my face in a dark red mass. The cut on my lips was so sore to touch that I flinched at the sting my touch had inflicted. There was a searing pain on my right hand side, it throbbed, and congealed blood was evident through the hole in the dress.

The dress I was in was now light brown in colour, and I guessed it had to of been white or ivory judging by the bits that still resembled the original dress. There was no denying it was a beautiful gown at one time. I looked around and realised I was shaking violently with the cold, and the fear of the unknown. I felt like a newborn, dumped on a doorstep, with no note attached, no name or history and no way of knowing why.

The downstairs of the house was still shrouded in darkness but the upstairs light shone down the stairs. I walked up the stairs slowly and found myself in the master bedroom. I flicked on the light, it was a floral and bright yellow room, and obvious that a woman lived here. I moved my fingers gently, still shaking, over the clothes laid out on the bedside chair, and without thinking I grabbed the ladies cardigan that was neatly pressed and laid out with care. I probably didn't have much time, so I tore at my dress until it came undone and pushed it to the floor. I was instantly drawn to the newly revealed and expensive looking underwear. There was a lacy garter placed on my thigh too, and it was beautiful. I opened the wardrobe and flicked through the hanging clothes quickly, grabbing a long white T shirt and a pair of maroon trousers which were baggy but fit with the help of a belt. I wrestled the belt shut, grabbed an elastic band on the dresser and pulled my hair up and away from my neck. Now that I was dressed I picked up the phone beside the bed and went to dial, but it hit me, where am I?