The Key To My Dream

   "Ella! How many times have I told you to clean the attic? It's been forever since anyone has been up there." My mother yells from the kitchen. I sigh and walk towards where the attic is, grabbing the ladder along the way. I climb up the steps of the ladder and push the attic door open. I cough when I inhale the dust and look around. "Wow, mother was right. This place looks like nobody has ever been here." I mutter to myself as I pick up her broom which was sitting against the attic wall, laying in a pile of dust and tie my short blonde hair into a bun.

   A few hours later, I lean against the wall in exhaustion. I had cleaned most of the attic, all that was left was one corner of the attic. The dirtiest corner. I cringe in disgust when I see a small rat scurry across the wooden floors of the attic. Then I pick up the broom and walk to the corner. There was an object covered in an old, dirty white sheet. I take off the cloth in curiosity and there laid a small wooden chest. I sigh in frustration when I see a lock on the chest. I pick up the chest to shake it when I hear a small 'click'. The lock opened on its own. How is that possible?

   I put down the small chest and open it up, there are many small objects in it. The one thing that caught my eye is the necklace. I carefully pick up the necklace. The necklace had a silver key pendant with two rhinestones at the top but one big rhinestone was missing in middle. It was beautiful. I look back in the chest and notice a enveloped letter. I pick the letter up and read the neat cursive writing at the front.

To: Ella

From: Cinda Mond

It was addressed to me. Who is Cinda Mond? I open the letter read the neat writing,

Dear, Ella

It might be a while after I left when you find this but this letter is important. In that chest, there is a silver key pendant necklace. I left it there for you. You need to understand that this necklace is not ordinary. It is magical. This necklace can take you to a different world. Please take care of it.

     Yours truly,

Cinda Mond

    A second later I find myself on a hill looking towards an old looking town. How did I get here?! A girl about the same age as me appears from behind. She had wavy blond hair and striking blue eyes. The girls soft voice snaps me out of my thoughts. "Hi! Are you okay?" She asks politely. "Uh...Who are you?" I ask her. Her blue eyes twinkled with curiosity. "My name is Tara Mond! What's yours?" She introduces herself. "I am Ella Dubois. Um, where am I?" I ask. I see her looking down at my necklace. I wave my hand in front of her face. She takes my hand and leads me towards the town. I try to ask her again but she wouldn't speak. We soon stop in front of a small cottage. The girl leads me in. "Why did you bring me here?" I ask, getting irritated by her silence. "Tara! You've come home!" A velvety voice echoes throughout the cottage. A middle aged woman comes out of the kitchen who I assume is her mother. "Hello! I'm Cinda, Tara's mother!" Cinda smiles at me. I stare at the woman in confusion. "I'm Ella." I introduce myself. She looked really familiar and now that I think about it, Tara looks familiar too. Where could I have seen them before?

    Over the past few days, Tara and I have become closer but I need to remember this is not my life. I don't even know how I got here in the first place!? Though I know it has something to do with the silver key. It's slowly all clicking into place like a puzzle. "I need to show you something." Tara's voice brings me out of my thoughts. I raise an eyebrow at her. "What are you talking about?" I respond. She fiddles with her thumbs, "I found a chest a few days before you came but it was locked." A chest? Could it have anything to do with the one at home? "Great! I enjoy both adventure and mystery. We have to get it opened!" I exclaim. She laughs at my excitement and nods.

    I follow Tara inside an old stone building. I look around the building which looked like an library but most of the shells were empty. This library must have been really old because it looked like it was ready to fall down. I didn't know Tara stopped when I bumped into her back. "It's right behind the door, it must be important judging by how it was placed in a separate room. I found it when I was helping clean up the library. There was a legend about a certain chest and the power it possessed but I'm not sure if it's the same chest, after all it was a legend and we don't know if it's true. The library is going to be taken down and rebuilt because of how destructed it is so I volunteered to help to move the books. It was my grandfather's library that he built himself for the town a long time ago before he passed away. I was taking off a painting off the wall when I found a door behind it. I decided to look inside and saw the chest." She said, opening the door to the small room. The walls of the room were lined with shelf full of books and a small wooden table in the middle of the room but no chest. "Wait, where is it? I found it there on that exact table. How could it be gone? We can't lose that chest, what if it's the one in the legend? Oh no!" She looked around the room in worry.

    After an hour of searching, Tara and I decide to go back to the cottage when we don't find the chest. "I really hoped we would find the chest but now it's gone. Maybe we can ask my mother. She would surely know what to do." Tara suggests as we enter inside the cottage. Tara's mother is sitting at the table, writing something but that wasn't the only thing I saw. The chest is laying on the table beside her. It was the same one at home. "Mother! You have the chest!" Tara says in surprise and relief. Cinda looks at Tara, "How do you know about this chest? You shouldn't mess with this." Tara explains to her mother how she found it and how it went missing. She looks down at her paper and back at us. When she looks at me, her eyes look down at my necklace. Her eyes widen in shock and a shocked gasp escapes her mouth, "Oh no. This isn't good. You shouldn't have that, honey. That is dangerous and should be taken serious. Wait, your from the future aren't you?" My hands instantly go to my neck to touch the key. What could be dangerous about this anyways? It's just a key and what did she say about the future? "Future? What are you saying, Cinda? I don't understand." I ask. Cinda shakes her head and and looks at me worryingly, "How long have you been here?" She asks, while Tara looks equally worried as her mother. "Um, about 3 days including today." I answer her question. Cinda looks at the key and back at me and says, "Dear, you are my future granddaughter and Tara's future daughter. That key brought you into the past. You're lucky you came to me before it was too late. If you stay in the past for 3 full days, you get erased from existence. Your body will slowly start to disappear and soon you wouldn't even exist anymore. You need to leave as soon as you can," She checks the grandfather clock, "You have about one hour before you're gone forever" Oh no. This is really bad. "But how do I get back?" I ask in fear. I glance at Tara who was holding my hand in comfort. She gives me a smile. "The chest. Inside there's a rhinestone that is supposed to fit into middle of the other two rhinestones but after you get the rime-stone, you can never come back into the past again. You need to open the chest quickly before time runs out." Tara tells me as she hands me the chest. "How do you know that?" I ask. She shrugs and replies, "There are books on the legend. I got curious when I saw your necklace the other day." I look at my grandmother in shock and ask, "Wait, are you Cinda Mond?" My grandmother nods. That means my own grandmother wrote the same letter I found at home!

    My hand meets with the cold wood of the chest and just a second later, we hear a click. I open the top of the chest. Inside sat a glass container with a shiny red rhinestone. I quickly open the container and also take off my necklace. I look up at my grandmother and Tara. "Goodbye. I will miss you grandma. I know I didn't get the chance to meet you before but since I now did, I want you to know that I'll miss you very much and thank you. If it wasn't for both of you, I couldn't go back home. Goodbye, again." I hug both my grandmother and Tara. My grandmother kisses me on the forehead in response. I put in the rime-stone in between the other two and give a last wave to my grandmother and Tara.

    In a blink of an eye, I'm sitting on the couch at home. "Ella! Come to the table for dinner, it's getting cold!" My mother tells from the kitchen. I smile to myself when I remember the past Tara. I can't believe I actually visited the past. I look down at my hands where the key laid. I go to the dinner table and sit down beside my mother who was starting to eat. "What are you thinking about? You look lost in thought." My mother asks. "Just got lost in the past." I shrug as I start to eat.

    I guess everything is possible.

THE END

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Special thanks to @noehen for making the cover for this short story.

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