A Breath Away

--The Necklace--

                 Everly lifted her head to the menacing clouds above her. The dark uneasy feeling of a thunderstorm fell upon her as she calculated how long it would take to get under cover before the rain hit. Thick, black, luminous clouds filled the grey sky and a cold wind shot through the air.  A brilliant light illuminated the blackened sky. Seconds later a huge boom cracked the air making Everly shudder. Thunderstorms had never settled well with her. Especially after her parents untimely death two years ago. The day of the crash, it had started to rain; rain that had lasted for days. Thunder, black clouds, lighting, hard cold rain; these were the memories of the last time she saw her parents.

                She had seen them, side by side, for the last time in the casket; cold and pale. All she could see around her was darkness and depression. She shivered at the thought and pulled her jacket closer to her body. After a deep breath, Everly began to run the remaining quarter mile to her grandmother's house. She ran down the old dirt road, her curly brown hair tumbled out of the messy bun she had quickly threw together that morning. She ran quickly on what was becoming a very muddy road on the edge of the forest. 

                 As a tall, old, white house came into view, memories flooded Everly's mind. Flashes of the little green eyed and freckled Everly and her parents laughing by the swing, picking berries from the bush on the west side of the house, grammy picking her up off the steps after falling down them, and days of waiting on that rickety porch for her parents to come home. But they never did. Everly stopped her mind from wandering farther; it hurt too much. She concentrated on running to the house. 

                  Her grandmother, or grammy as Everly  called her, had been the one to take her in after her parents death. Grammy loved her as no one else and was the one responsible for where Everly was now: a successful student at Harlington University studying literature. Everly  loved literature from the nineteenth century. She always felt ridiculous explaining it to others, but she loved reading about the castles, the wars, the regal society, and of course the romance. Each time she opened a book, it was as if she were there; as if anything in those pages was possible. She loved to read because it took her to new worlds and away from the one that had caused her so much pain. The death of her parents was not the only mark on Everly's past that made her hesitant to remember. Everly had always been known as the book worm at her school; the geek with glasses. Her childhood at school hadn't been exactly a happy one. Home had always been the place she had found refuge and love. But after that ended.... it seemed like all was lost. Then her Grammy stepped in and saved her. Everly always told her grammy that without her, she would be nothing. 

                 Everly reached the front door and knocked on the peeling door. She made a mental note to ask grammy about repainting it. The door squeaked open and grammy squealed with delight. Everly embraced her and helped her back inside. The two caught up on all that happened for the last week while Everly was at school. After Everly had moved out of the house for college; she didn't have as much time to visit grammy, so each moment she spent with grammy was cherished. 

                 After some lemonade in the kitchen and some catching up, Everly and grammy enjoyed some time looking at grammy's photographs that she often brought out when Everly hadn't been around for a while. As Everly turned the yellowed pages, she observed her grammy's smile, ever present and true through each photograph. Grammy's smile had always comforted Everly in her times of need. There was something about those eyes that sparkled with laughter, love and peace each time her smile lit up her face. As she turned another page, she saw a photograph that she hadn't noticed before. The old photograph was a picture of a painting. It was such a close photograph of the painting that it almost looked like a painting in an of itself. It captured a young woman with long brown hair. Although she smiled only slightly there was obvious happiness in her eyes. The woman stood next to a handsome young man with deep brown eyes and unlike the woman, a full smile that showed straight white teeth. The picture seemed like the others in her grammy's album however there was something different about it. It seemed timeless and joyful. Then Everly noticed the necklace around the woman's neck. Everly guessed it was a locket as she looked to closer to see a symbol she could not make out on it's front.