The Red Pendant

Chapter 1

~13 years later~

Aaron called to his sister from the door, annoyed at how insufferably long she had been taking. "Hurry up, Maryanne! We are going to be late. Stop messing around!"

Maryanne stopped the tedious work of tying her shoe and looked at him from where she was sitting. "Why do you care so much? You can go ahead without me. I don't care whether or not I am late."

"Sisters," Aaron mumbled to himself, disgruntled by how uninterested she was as to whether or not they were late. "Always think that they're so perfect, that they don't have to be on time or get ready."

"Come on!" Aaron impatiently said as he roughly grabbed her right arm. "We are going." He stood up and started to walk his way out of the creaky cottage door, his sister dragging behind him.

"Wait! I need my coat!" Maryanne exclaimed as she yanked her arm out of her brother's grasp to quickly grab her woolen coat from off the hangar.

"Well, now you have it," Aaron spat, finally done with her incessant time-wasting. "Now we are leaving, whether you are ready or not."

They started to walk down the matted trail together, a fourteen-year-old boy and a thirteen-year-old girl. People would probably have gotten the wrong idea if it weren't for the fact that everybody knew everyone in the dainty little town of Flowlit. The trail was very worn, as if it had been walked upon a thousand times, which it probably had been. Small blue and yellow flowers were sprouting by the side of the trail, as if making a path of their own to a little wonderland. Aaron and Maryanne could probably have lived here happily, each getting married to someone, forever. But that was not how their story would go for them. Their story took a turn, a dark turn, to be told. They would never see it coming, in this land they have come to call home.

"Aaron," Maryanne abruptly stopped, further filling her brother with more annoyance. "Why do you care so much that I learn magic? I'm good enough, and I know how to stay out of trouble," She looked at her pendant, and twisted it absentmindedly around her fingers. "Anyways," She continued, glancing back up at him, "Mom's pendant will protect me."

Aaron stopped a few paces ahead of his sister, letting out a small sigh. "It's because I care," he placated. "You don't know what's out there, or what took our mother and father away from us. Marcus tells us that they were killed in a small accident, but I don't believe him. The only thing that we know about them is that I look like mom and that you look like dad, other than your eyes. Don't you think that the old wizard is hiding something from us?"

"I think that you are just superstitious," Maryanne stated pointedly. "You really think that Marcus, the person who cared for us, would hide something that big? Anyway, you are the one who insisted that we go to our magic lessons today. What about that?"

"I guess that I am jumping to conclusions," Aaron sighed, defeated. "You were always good at drawing and ending arguments. But I still wish he would tell us a bit more about our parents. Maybe something like their hobbies, where they're from, what they did for a living. You understand?"

"Yeah, I can understand that," Maryanne murmured, her demeanor softening a bit. Then she steeled herself and argued, "But I also understand that he said 'in due time' he would tell us everything. You should just be patient, Aaron. Now look who's making us late."

"Why are you suddenly so interested in getting to Marcus's lessons?" Aaron mockingly jabbed to his little sister.

"Oh shut up," Maryanne warned. "Or I will tell everyone of your 'great fear' of the monster under your bed."

"You wouldn't!" he stammered, shock evident on his face.

"Oh, I would," Maryanne snarkily stated. "Be careful, or it might just slip unknowingly." An evil grin cracked on her lips. "Maybe one of your close friends to start. Jeffery sounds good."