The Silver Locket is a creepy, sad story from Japan about a young girl whose mother dies and leaves her a piece of jewelry as a keepsake.
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There was a Japanese girl named Ikumi who lost her father when she was very young. After he died, her mother was so devastated that she never remarried. The family did not have a lot of money, so Ikumi's mother was forced to bring up her daughter alone. The poor woman had to work day and night to make ends meet and seldom had a chance to rest.
The mother sacrificed everything to earn enough money to send Ikumi to school. During the day she would wash clothes and clean houses. At night, she would sew clothes and make little trinkets to sell at the market. She wanted to make sure her daughter got a good education and wanted for nothing.
After a while, the days filled with back-breaking work and the sleepless nights started taking their toll on the mother and her health began to fail. One day, when Ikumi was in high school, her mother became seriously ill and collapsed on the floor.
The poor woman took the doctor's advice and spent some time resting in bed. However, as soon as she felt a little bit better, she started working again. Her health got worse and worse and eventually, she was unable to get out of bed.
The mother knew that the end was near and she didn't have long to live. While Ikumi was sitting at her bedside, her dying mother gestured to her to come close. The woman took a silver locket from beneath her pillow and placed it in Ikumi's hand.
"Ikumi, I'm sorry," said the mother. "From now on, you're going to have to try and survive on your own. I know it's going to be hard, so I want you to have this silver locket. If, one day, your life becomes intolerable and you find you can't go on anymore, please open this locket."
A short time afterwards, the mother slipped into a coma and died. Ikumi cherished the silver locket and never allowed it to be parted from her. She always wore it close to her heart and the only time she ever took it off was when she took bath. Whenever anyone asked her about the silver locket, Ikumi told them the story of her mother. Everyone felt sorry for the poor girl who was now an orphan.
One day, Ikumi went to the swimming pool with her friends. When they were putting on their bathing suits in the changing room, Ikumi took off her silver locket. Her friends were very curious and asked Ikumi to open the locket and show them what was inside. Ikumi refused at first, telling them that she had never opened the silver locket. However, the girl began to think that it had been a long time since the death of her mother. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to take a little peek. She decided to open it.
Inside the silver locket, there was a small, folded piece of paper.
"What?" sighed Ikumi. "Is that all?"
She couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. She took out the paper and unfolded it. Scrawled in shaky handwriting were the words, "Ikumi, Die!"
(What do you think about this story? Do you like it? What do you think it means? Can you think of a better ending?)
