The Pendant

The Discovery

Hi. You. Or whoever decided to read this. I truly believe this is going to be the first story that I plan to see all the way through. Even though there's only a couple parts, I would truly appreciate some sort of feedback. Literally anything. If it's good, great! If not, at least I know somebody read it. I have mostly written for required papers in high school, college, whatever, but I used to write short stories for myself on paper all the time. Out of those, this is the first one I have felt comfortable enough with to share with more than just my binder. So if by happenstance you read this and even sorta-kinda liked it, lemme know and I will share more of my strange imagination with with interverse. If you like it, I love you. If not, I still love you but probably less (jk) all opinions are important. 

Enjoy!

She put her hands on her knees and pushed off the ground, slowly standing up. After wiping the sweat off her brow and a black strand of hair out of her face, she dug her fists into the middle of her back and bending backward, illicited a loud series of cracks down her spine. The pristine beaches with turqoise water and sunbleached sand, rocky cliffs, and tan verandas stretching down the coast were a sight she would never get over.

Just like the skeleton she was slowly uncovering.

She was spending the last semester of her college career at a field school in Croatia on a dig site from one of the many battles of World War II. "Kaelinn, kako si?" She smiled at her goofy best friend walking over to her. "Ja sam dobro." Felix gave her a blank look and said, "Yeah, that's about the most of my Croatian vocabulary." Kaelinn laughed and shook her head. She clambered out of the small hole she had dug herself in with the skeleton. She noticed her tan cargo pants were covered in dirt and so was the front of her black tank top. Great, just one more pair to add to laundry day. One whole dollar for the washing machine AND the dryer is way overpriced and these Croats know it. I better not have to do more than one load. As if reading her thoughts, Felix smirked and said, "How many pairs is that now? Six?" With his cropped brown hair, lanky frame, and wired-rimmed glasses, Felix was totally out of his element and they both knew it. The only reason he came to Croatia was because Kaelinn did. It only took one drunken party for him to make the wrong move and he was doing everything he could to let her know he wouldn't make things awkward again. Or try to. She rolled her eyes at him and nodded her head. "Yup, if I need to do two loads, I'll probably crap myself." She checked the position of the sun in the sky, "Is it lunch time already?" "Yes it is, thank God. I'm starving. Crini Rizot is on the menu again." Kaelinn's stomach did a little flop and she felt herself turn green. "If I have to eat squid ink-soaked rice one more time, you might be uncovering my body tomorrow."They walked down the steep, tree-lined path toward the small village near the shore, chit-chatting about this and that. Kaelinn wasn't really listening, though. Was I really up there for four hours already? There's something really strange about this guy I'm digging at. He seems so much older than seventy or so years. Before she knew it they were at the small villages center, with all the other students on the dig waiting in line to get their squid-rice-stuff.

After a meal that actually wasn't too bad, as much as Kaelinn hated to admit, she rushed to wave goodbye and trudge back up the mountain site to where her "friend" was.

Time seemed to do strange things to her up there on that Croatian cliffside with the blue skies above her and the bluer water below her. Sometimes birds would chirp in the trees so loud that it would almost hurt her ears and other times she didn't hear them at all. Slowly but surely, she brushed dirt off the skeletons skull, uncovering eye sockets and teeth. Some teeth would end up coming out of their sockets, and she'd put those in small baggies labelling them with the correct tooth number. She noticed that his skeleton seemed extraordinarily intact. Even fairly young skeletons, as this one was supposed to be, would usually at least be missing a few vertebrae. But the more she uncovered, the more she doubted this skeleton was from WWII. There was bronze armour plating around his chest and, miraculously, leather strips that must have been some sort of pants or battle skirt were still laying around his pelvis. She finally got down to his toes and she noticed that not only was this a complete skeleton, but it was still articulated as if his joints were still stuck together! Something that literally never happens. Kaelinn started to grab tools to start digging at the dirt under the skeleton when she noticed that the dusk was slowly turning into night. Did I really miss the sunset? When I'm literally on the west side of the island? I need to chill out with this dude, seriously. She was only able unbury his front half, so she would have to come back tomorrow for the rest of it. She excitedly grabbed the thick plastic sheet she was supplied with to cover up her work and went to drape it over the site when she noticed something glimmer from under the skeletons left hand off the very last rays of sunlight. Curiousity getting the better of her, she jumped back down into the small hole, very carefully pried the hand off the ground, which still stayed remarkably intact, and wrapped her hand around a small but hefty metal object.

After brushing the dirt off the artefact, she saw a small diamond-shaped pendant. What caught her eye had to have been the clearest ruby she had ever seen. Even thought it wasn't very large, it seemed that if she looked at it too long, she would get lost in a red depth that she wouldn't be able to escape. The ruby itself was set into a sort of rounded cage at the top of the pendant. As her eyes travelled down to the actual pendant, she noticed a very strange symbol carved into the silverish metal, almost like a cross but all four ends had curved into loops so tight it was hard to see the end. Lining the edges were eight of the most beautiful black opals she had ever seen. The more she looked at the intriguing object, the more it just seemed to belong to her. Like it was something she had known her entire life. The pendant was hers, and no one, no matter how hard they tried or what they said, could convince her otherwise. She once again excitedly went to cover up her work and now show Felix her find, but in her frenzy, stepped on a bootlace she didn't notice was untied and caught herself on the edge of a rock. "Jesus Kae, calm TF down," she laughed to herself. As she peeled her hand off the rock, a sharp sting let her know that she had scraped her hand. "Way to frickin go." To top it all off, the pendant slipped out of her fingers and landed on the ground in front of her. She bent down to pick it up, and in the very very last (like two) rays of sunlight, she watched in slow motion as a single drop of blood from her injured hand landed dead in the center of the strange symbol.

When it landed, the pendant strangely soaked it in like it was in dire need for a sip of water. Kaelinn paused and waited for something to happen, but of course nothing did. She shook her head, "Superstitious hag," she self depriciated and bent the rest of the way down, scooped up the pendant, jammed it in her pocket, and finally made her way down the cliffside lost in thought. After a few minutes, she made it to the front door. While humming to herself, she unlocked it, and stepped into the refreshing airconditioning. She flipped on the light switch and jumped three feet out of her skin when she saw Felix sitting on the chair in the middle of the room. "For Fucks Sake, Felix! You literally could have given me a heart attack!" Felix stood up and put his hands on his hips. "Me? Give you a heart attack? That's rich! What about you doing the same to me?! Do you have any idea what time it is?" Kaelinn bit her lip and looked around for a clock, which of course was nowhere to be seen. Literally, these Croats don't believe in ANYthing convenient. "Uhhh...maybe like eight? Isn't that what time the sun has been going down?" Felix let out a humorless laugh and threw up his hands in exasperation. "EIGHT? It is almost MIDNIGHT! What the hell have you been doing? I was, I'm not kidding, LITERALLY about to start a search party. I don't get it. What about dead bodies and fucking skeletons is so exciting to you?" Kaelinn ignored the pang of hurt she felt from his words. "Felix. Jesus, I'm sorry. I found something really cool and was on my way to show you. I honestly didn't realize how late--" Felix rolled his eyes, "I get it Kae. The dead is more exciting than the living. Good for you. Well know that I know you're alive, I can go to bed. I don't know if it bothers you or not, but I would prefer to get more than four hours of sleep before the next grueling day begins." As Felix stormed away from her, Kaelinn felt her anger build up, and she was pretty bad at holding it down. Before she could stop herself she bit out, "Don't forget that YOU wanted to come Felix. I didn't make you. It wasn't me who was on some crusade to turn things back the way they were. So if you're going to bitch about not getting enough sleep, just know the only person stopping you is you." The lanky man stopped in the middle of stepping over the threshold, with the edge of the door in his hand and cocked his head to the side for a second before saying, "Yeah, you know what, you're right. Hope what you discovered is cool. Have fun." And without even looking back, he slammed the door so hard the window at the front of the house shook.

Kaelinn had a shit dream that night.