The Blue Pendant

Part Two

Roman woke up feeling as though he never went to sleep. Groaning loudly, he rolled over in a poor attempt to block out the sun. He was on the brink of falling back asleep when his phone started ringing. After a series of grunts, groans, and curses he finally pushed himself off the mattress and snatched the phone from the nightstand. Mumbling a greeting, Roman made his way to the bathroom.

"Roman? Why are you making that sound?"

"Because it's too early to be having a coherent conversation, Grandma."

"...It's ten a.m." She sounded amused and way too cheery.

"Try me again at eleven. Or better yet, twelve thirty." Finishing up in the bathroom, he grabbed some jeans and a tee out of his suitcase. "Did you need something?" he asked before she could lecture him for wasting away the day.

"Oh, that's right! I need you to clean up the house and be ready for lunch, I'm coming over with a friend and we're going to be organizing the house a bit while you're here."

Roman paused a moment before putting the phone on speaker and pulling the shirt over his head. "We don't need to do that the day after her funeral, Grandma. You can take a day to rest and-"

"Nonsense," she cut him off. "This needs to be done. I'm not sure fragile that I can't take care of my daughter's things."

Heaving a sigh, Roman ruffled his hair. "Alright, I'll tidy up the place and get something together for lunch."

"Thank you, Roman. I'll see you later," she said before hanging up.

"Ah, fu-" Something had zapped him. Grabbing the chain of his mother's necklace, Roman yanked it from his inside his shirt. "What the hell?" His hand got zapped this time. With a sharp tug, he broke the chain and threw the necklace away. It clattered against the floor.

"Thanks for the gift mom," Roman snapped sarcastically.

For the next hour, Roman spent his time cleaning up from the events of yesterday. Halfway through he found himself elbow deep in soapy water trying to get food off a pan that he'd forgotten to clean last night. He wasn't exactly happy that this was how he was spending the day, but if it was for his grandmother, there was no helping it.

As he went around the house, he started to notice that there was nothing in it that related to him. This was where he had grown up and his mother had been living here since before he was born. It was strange that she never kept anything that would remind her of him. People always told him that his mother had loved him, cared about him and that she just had a hard time showing it.

Roman made his way up the stairs, thinking, hoping, that there was something in the house that his mom kept. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and a bathroom. His room was the first door on the left and the bathroom was across from there. Pausing at his door, he ducked in and quickly picked up the clothes he had laying around. In the corner, he spotted the necklace. Reluctantly he stuffed it in his pocket, deciding to give it to his grandma later. Once everything was tidy in there, he walked over to the next door and opened it to find an office of sorts.

The walls were painted a rich, warm green. Against the far wall, beneath the window was an off-white desk with a gray office chair. All the other walls had floor to ceiling wood shelves which were filled with books and spell ingredients in mason jars. On the wooden floorboards, his mother had painted a witch's circle. It was her 'office' alright. It was where she would study when his grandmother couldn't babysit him. And probably where she practiced after he had moved out.

Just standing in the doorway, Roman could feel the magic left behind. His whole body seemed to tingle with it. Stepping out, he slammed the door shut and tried to shake off the feeling of magic. To keep his mind off it, he moved on to the next door, his mom's room. Inside, the room was almost identical to his. A bed in the center with two nightstands on either side and a dresser against one wall.