Distance Traveled

Pocket Watch

Prologue 

She usually avoids arguments with her parents, but things couldn't get more intense between her mother and father. The two of them were drifting apart more and more as the days passed on, and she just couldn't take it anymore. They never mentioned divorce or splitting up in front of her and her sister, but she could feel it. 

She saw it in her mother's body language, the sagging of her shoulders and the way she walked like the weight of the world was resting on her shoulders. She saw it in her father's eyes, and when he would leave for days at a time. And, of course, she saw it in the way the two of them fought. 

"Lori!" her mother exclaimed in exasperation, the paper she held in her hand waving slightly as she swung her hand down to rest at her side. "Please tell me that you aren't failing your classes again."

Lori stared at her, her hands folded on her lap as she sat on the couch. "I'm sorry," she admitted, "I just..." 

She trailed off, not sure how to make an excuse for her actions. Her mother raised an eyebrow at her, her mouth set in a grim line as she waited. She expected an answer from her, she expected so much from her. 

"Your father isn't going to be pleased," he mother stated after not getting anymore out of the teen. Lori shook her head, her expression changing from indifference to disgusted. Her mouth lifted up into a sneer, her eyes darkening in anger. 

"Yeah, you can go right ahead and tell father once he's back from screwing the woman he payed to sleep with him tonight." Lori stated, standing from the couch as her mother turned towards her, her eyes flashing in anger. 

"What did you just say?" she demanded, stepping a little closer to her. 

"Oh, please, mother," Lori gritted out, her voice cold and hard, "if I know, I'm sure you know."

"Lorelei," her mother growled, "you will not speak to me like that-"

"-save me the lecture." Lori butted in, walking towards the door and flung it open, the evening sun hitting her face. 

"Where do you think you are going?" her mother demanded, stepping forward, "we are far from done."

Lori just shook her head, pulling on some sandals and walked across her yard and towards the park. Her mother called after her a few times, but didn't follow her. Lori was glad, she just did not need this right now. 

She walked for a few minutes, finally reaching a spot in the park where she just sat down and pulled her legs to her chest. She just stared off into space for a few minutes, mulling over her thoughts and feelings. 

Things were just so complicated, her mother and father's situation, her school work. School, ah, yes, that was something she needed to improve. She shook her head, feeling a buzzing in her pocket. She sighed, sticking her hand into her pocket and pulled out a phone. She paused, reading a few message from her closest friend. 

Samantha, or Sam, had just messaged her about something "awesome" and "super cool" she found in her attic and wanted to show it to her. Lori quickly wrote her reply, telling her where she was. She could use a distraction. 

Lori stood as she stuffed her phone in her pocket and walked towards the edge of the park. A few minutes later, Sam was walking across the grass towards her, a smile plastered on her face. 

"You will not believe what I found!" she exclaimed, coming to a stop in front of her. Lori shook her head, trying to fight the smile on her face. Sam was an interesting girl, that's for certain. When most girls her age were more about boys and popularity, she had her nose in a history book. Sam loved to look at events and people that had significant effects on how things turned out in the present day. 

She also had an odd habit of finding interesting objects. Weither it be a necklace that was passed down from her grandmother to a rock that looked like it had something in it. 

"What is it?" Lori questioned, watching as her friend smiled widely, reaching into her back pocket. 

"Behold," she said, bringing arm forward, her hand still clenched in a fist, "this." 

She opened her hand, and on her palm sat a pocket watch. She seemed giddy, her smile plastered on her face as she waited for her friend to comment on the trinket. Lori stared at the watch, carefully plucking it out of her hand and examined it. It was heavy, the metal was rusting in places. To be honest, to Lori it looked like Sam just pulled it out of a dumpster. 

"Well," Lori started, "it looks...old."

"I know, right!" Sam exclaimed, "I found it in a box upstairs in my attic. The weird thing was that it was placed inside another object. It was luck that the fabric had ripped and the watch fell out."

Lori nodded her head, catching the chain on her finger and let the watch dangle from her fingers for a few moments before handing it off to Sam again. 

"Interesting, does it open?" Lori asked, Sam's expression changing from excited to curious. 

"There's something inside it, like it's jammed shut or something," Sam said, "so far, I haven't been able to get it open."

Sam then attempted to pull it open as if to prove a point. The watch remained tightly shut. Sam sighed, looking at it. 

"I don't think that there's going to be anything special inside this thing, anyway," Lori said, a smile breaking out on her face, "I mean, it's a pocket watch."

"Right," Sam said with a chuckle, "I just want to see if there's any pictures or writing on the inside. But, whoever had this thing last didn't want it opened again, apparently." 

"Here," Lori said, holding her hand out, "let me try." 

Sam placed the watch in Lori's hand and followed after her as she walked towards some trees. She bent down and picked up a stick before sitting down at the base of the tree. She glanced up at Sam as she sat down in front of her. 

"I don't think that it was sealed shut, seeing as you can still see the ridges where the top of the watch connects with the bottom." Lori explained, taking her stick and attempted to take a bit off the end.

She managed to pulled off enough wood that it would fit under the ridge, sticking the wood a little bit inside of the watch. The metal protested a bit with a few small creaks, Lori pushing down on the stick before the top flung open with a click. Lori blinked, staring at the inside. There was a watch inside, the small clock still clicking away. 

Sam leaned over and gently took the watch from her to take a look. For some reason, Lori started to feel sick. A tingling deep inside the pit of her stomach and her head started to pound. She placed a hand on her head as Sam looked uncomfortable as well. 

"Are you...?" Sam didn't get to finish her question before she passed out, falling sideways onto the ground. Lori tried to reach over to check if she was alright, but the world started to blur around the edges of her vision, her thoughts swimming. 

Her eye lids drooped and she slumped against the ground, promptly passing out as well. 

The two girls lay on the ground, the pocket watch open and burning hot as the hands slowly started to turn counter-clockwise.