D. E. A. T. H.

THE LOCKET

Everyone have a weird thing in their life that they don't want anyone to find out about it. It could be a weird habit, a weird body part or a weird name. Mine is way more weird than anyone else's. My name is Natalie Goldfinger and this is my story.

Ever since I was five, weird things started to happen to me and I didn't know what to do with them. Sometimes I would hear distant screams at night and whispers calling out my name. Since I was five, I didn't think much of it because I was still a kid.

As I got older, I ended up getting used to them and sometimes when I'm bored, I would wait for the voice to whisper my name and respond to it, and end up having conversations with it. My parents thought that I was talking to my imaginary friends and thought that it was normal.

I didn't know who I was talking to but the things that the voice said were really weird and unsettling. Whenever I told my parents about them, they didn't believe me, and I eventually stopped sharing them with them.

On my thirdteenth birthday, I came home from school and went to my bedroom. When I got in, I found a small box on my bed with a note next to it. I thought that my parents were the ones who got me the present since they forgot to wish me a happy birthday.

I opened the box and found a locket in it. I took the note and opened it and it read, "Happy Birthday, Natalie. It's your thirdteenth birthday today and I was waiting for you to reach it in order to give you this locket."

I smiled to myself thinking that maybe my parents didn't forget about my birthday. I opened the locket and it had my picture in it and it kinda warmed my heart. I put on the locket and lied down on my bed. I dozed off and when I woke up, my mother called me from downstairs.

I ran out of my room and went to the kitchen. When I got there, My parents jumped out from behind the counter and yelled, "Surprise!", I jumped a bit but calmed down as they sang to me the Happy Birthday song.

When they were done, my mom put the cake on the kitchen counter and my dad came with a gift for me. I looked at him a little confused because I thought they got me the locket." Dad, isn't that a lot of gifts now? You already got me this locket," I said as I grabbed it and showed it to him.

He looked at me confused and looked at the locket. What confused me more was when he slowly backed away from me, and the gift he was holding fell from his trembling hands. He called out to my mother and she also came and looked at the locket before backing away with a horrified face.

I got a little frightened and I asked them what was wrong but they didn't say anything. They just smiled nervously and shook their heads. A few seconds later, the voice whispered again but what confused me more was seeing my parents looking around terrified as if they also heard the voice, and trying to figure out where it was coming from.

I was about to ask them but they told me to shut up and not open my mouth. I did what they told me. My dad gestured me to take off the locket but when I tried to do it, my neck started to hurt a lot and I stopped.

When I looked at my reflection from the microwave, I noticed a red line around my neck and the voice whispered again, " That locket is a part of you now. If you take it off, your head will fall off. I won't be the only one who suffers from this.",

My soul almost left my body after hearing that. I turned to my parents and they looked at me in horror and they also looked like they knew something. My mother sighs and said," Natalie, we have something to tell you. "

We went to the living room and sat down on the couch. "Natalie, you used to have an older sister, Harper. She died before you were born," my mother said looking down. "That locket used to be hers. It used to be a normal but something happened that made it cursed," my father said as he wrapped his arm around my mother's shoulder.

I looked down at the locket and I asked them what cursed it. A heavy sigh left her mouth before saying," Your aunt, my sister........ Didn't like me or anything that included me. She was told that she wasn't able to give birth to any child and that made her angry, hurt, jealous and hatred towards me. He hated the fact that I was pregnant with your sister, and even gave birth to her. She didn't like that but she was forced to. On your sister's ninth birthday, we got her the locket with our picture in it. When it broke, my sister said she would fix it and she did. What we didn't know was that she cursed the locket that whoever wears it, must keep it on for the rest of their life but since your sister didn't know anything about it, later that night when she was taking a shower, she tried taking it off and that red line appeared around her neck and she cried out loud, saying that her neck was hurting. We didn't think much of it since we went to different doctors and they said everything was fine. During her thirteenth birthday, she came home crying saying that her neck was hurting and it was way worse than before. Later that night, she called us from the bathroom, crying that she wasn't able to turn her head and when she tried, she feels a really sharp pain on her neck and it makes the "snap" sound. We didn't have a clue that it was the locket so when we took it off her neck, her head............. Her head.......... It feel off and rolled down to our feet."

She started crying and tears rolled down her face like a flowing river. My father hugged her and patted her on her back to calm her down. "After that happened, your aunt stormed into our house and told us about the curse. She laughed maniacally as she left our house. We buried the locket and hoped that it will stay underground forever, but somehow, you got it," my father said as he patted my mother on her back.

"So..... That means if I take it off........," my father nodded before I could even finish the sentence. I looked down at the locket and looked back to my parents. "Will I have to wear it for the rest of my life?" I asked while holding the locket. "Yes but every year, things will get difficult for you. Like, you'll start feeling sharp pains on your neck, you won't be able to turn your head, the red line on your neck will get thicker and thicker, also the thicker the line gets, the shorter the locket gets," my father replied.

"But that means that the locket will become too tight that it will cut off my head. Will that even happen?" I asked with a desperate face. "Yes, dear. It will happen but we don't know when it will happen. We don't even know how to lift the curse. We asked your aunt but she didn't tell us anything except that we won't be able to lift the curse," my father said while still patting my mother on the back. "Mom, you said the locket had a picture of you, dad and my sister when you gave it to her. Why does it have my picture in it and not yours?" I asked while clenching the locket tightly. "I don't know how it got in there or who put it there," my mother replied as she wiped the tears from her face.

I closed my eyes and a trembling sigh left my mouth, followed by a tear that rolled down my left cheek. I felt like it was one of my nightmares but the difference is that, I can't wake up from this one. I new that my thread of life was short, but I didn't think it would be this short. I got up and went to my room.

I threw myself on the bed and tried to cry out loud but all I did was to let out a stream of tears. I covered my head with a pillow and let more tears out. While I was crying, I heard a loud tap on my window and when I looked up to see what it was, I winched to the sharp pain on my neck.

I groaned in pain, as I held the back of my neck, while getting up and walking towards the window. When I looked through the glass, I saw nothing but the tapping continued. I was about to open it, when I heard a voice telling me to not open the window. I slowly stepped away from it and the tapping immediately stopped.

I went to my bed and laid down just to cool myself down, but I ended up dozing off. When I opened my eyes, I was in a room filled with darkness. As I looked around, a lot of lifeless bodies appeared out of nowhere, hanging with red threads.

One of them had the same locket I was wearing. As I stepped closer to it, I fell to the ground with my butt and crawled backwards, as I looked at the body with a horrified look. The body looked like me but it was about ten years older. "Soon you'll join us. There isn't much time left for you," All the bodies chanted to me in unison.

I covered my ears and shut my eyes to block out the voices but they kept echoing in my head. I let out a loud scream and when I opened my eyes, I was back in my room and my parents were next to me, looking at me with worried faces.

"What's wrong, dear?" my father asked with a concerned face. "It was just a nightmare," I replied as I was trying to sit up and I was also breathing heavily. "Were there hanging bodies?" my mother asked with a concerned and curious face. "Yes. How do you know that?" I asked while rubbing the back of my neck. "Your sister had that kind of dream after getting the locket from your aunt. It looks like it has already started," my mother said with a trembling voice, while clenching the tissue in her hands.

I hugged my pillow tightly as tears started rolling down my face. I tried to hold them back but I couldn't. My parents stood on each edge of my bed and hugged me, trying to comfort me. Slowly I calmed down and eventually stopped crying. I accepted the fact that my life is about to end. I accepted that I wasn't gonna be alive until the doomsday.

The only thing that was on my mind was the fact that at anytime, my head could fall off I if I take the locket off, even if it is by accident.

Ever since that day, everything in my life changed. Even the whispers that I kept hearing, they sounded like a countdown to my death. It wasn't even fun talking to them anymore because everytime I try to, I think about the locket and when I think about the locket, I think about my death.

I eventually got used to it and accepted that I there is nothing that can be done in order to save me or lift the curse, unless the solution involves sending me to an early bed. The only thing I can do was to enjoy what is left of my life before my head gets cut off.

Now the red line around my neck has covered the lower part of the neck. The pain has gotten way more worse than it used to, sometimes I have sharp pains on my neck for no reason. Other times, my neck starts to bleed and feels a little loose. I also can't turn my head from side to side. I can only look forward. The locket has gotten shorter and a little bit tight. The eyes are slowly turning red. I don't know if it will suffocate me to death or cut off my head, because it's really hard trying to breath now. Wish I could have avoided the voices and everything else because if I did, I think I wouldn't be in this situation.

THE END.......