The Necklace

(A novella a Short Fiction Workshop órára készült három hete, nem volt megadva kritérium)

"I'm leaving", I said after an especially lazy afternoon. She was lying on the couch starring at the wall. Her voice was neutral, as usual. 

"Be my guest" 

She hated me from the beginning, it was obvious. She's never told me, but there was no need to say it loud. She hated me from the second we met in the sewers, under Rockbridge. But I had the gun. 

"This time for real, Evlyn" I was bluffing, she knew it and I knew she had known. She couldn't stand the drama, so I gave her as much as I could. 

"God help me Josh, I will kill you with my bare hands if you don't leave now." 

"You will need that skill. I still have the gun." 

I moved to the window and stared out to the city. The ruins of the hospital lay across the street. We moved to this place to raid the building, but that was almost two months ago. There was no medicine left there, but for some reason we stayed where we were.

She sat up and caught my eyes 

"I should have killed you back there", she said with some nostalgia in her voice. She wanted to be there, then, but not to kill me. 

"You miss the old times, don't you?" 

The moment was gone. She lied back to the couch and pretended as she hadn't given me a damn again. 

"Who doesn't?" 

I looked to the hospital again. It might have seemed cold and dead for any other spectator, but we learned the hard way that it's not the case. The building was overrun, and we were lucky to get out there alive. 

"What are you thinking about?" I asked and felt like an idiot immediately. Why I'm even trying...? She didn't answer first, just lied there like the most desirable pack of shit I have ever seen. She looked amazing even in these conditions. I met her only after the thing happened, with oily hair and smelly clothes, but she got me. It took some time, but she got me. 

She moved her hand to her neck to grip her necklace. But it wasn't there. 

"Home" 

Her answer was shockingly honest my heart missed a beat. I knew what she meant. The necklace. She was wearing this cheap, kind of cheesy necklace day and night, she didn't take it off once since we met. And now, it was gone. 

"I'm sorry." 

"You should be", said she quietly. 

“You can’t blame me.” Oh, I knew she could. In fact, she was right. But she forgot that at the end of the day, I saved her life. 

It happened about three weeks ago. We were running low on supplies, and the hospital was our best bet. Though we have searched the place twice before, there could have been something we missed. I was nervous: returning to the same place twice is bold, but returning three times is stupid and dangerous. I insisted on moving on but she was relentless, so we prepared ourselves and entered the hospital. 

The building was abandoned and more importantly as dark as a skillet. We went through the first floor but found nothing so descended to the basement. I was searching a cupboard when suddenly everything went bright as the sun. We knew we were in trouble. 

For some reason they can’t stand darkness, that’s why we always moved during night and underground. But they have this machine to light up the dark places, and we could do nothing but pray never to face it. The machine was running on some unknown energy source, which is more powerful, reliable, stable and portable than nuclear energy, so we could never feel safe about it. 

We were trapped and the only way to escape was to use my last EMP-grenade. It bought us forty-two seconds to get the hell out of there. We barely made it, but the second I caught the glimpse of the exit door into the pitch black night, I felt safe again. Then I heard her screaming behind me. 

I turned around in horror to see her lying on the ground struggling with one of them. It must have been a very special specimen of its kind, because even the horrifying darkness couldn’t ease it’s lust for blood. I drew my gun and even though my hands were shaky, pointed it on the creature and fired. The bullet hit the upper side of the body and it fell on the ground but it wasn’t dead. 

I grabbed her hand and pulled away from the thing. She was shocked: the brave and loudmouthed amazon was gone, only a little girl was standing in front of me. She moved her hand to her neck. 

“The necklace…” 

“They heard the shot. We have about ten seconds to get out of here.” 

She didn’t listen to me and I had no choice. She was struggling bit I managed to drag her into the apartment. She was crying all night in her room. Then she stopped and hates me even more since. 

“You really want to go over this one again?” I knew I would just make her angrier, but what difference would it make? 

“It’s mine business whom I blame. It happens to be you.” 

She turned her back to me and fell asleep. 

I was sitting there for some more hours looking into the building and contemplating on things. I remembered Rockbridge. Funny, how I’m using the new name, but I guess there’s no need to stick to the old one: Brooklyn was destroyed, only the bridge remained in the middle of the rocky desert. 

When it came to the night I stood up, grabbed my gear and left the room. 

I didn’t know what to expect: this was going to be my fourth trip to the building of the hospital, but the shortest one so far. The necklace had to be around the exit. I planned to quickly enter, skim through the area, find that freaking necklace and leave. 

As I entered the building, I noticed the smell, their smell, but I couldn’t be sure what that meant. Last time we didn’t smell anything, though they were there, so I wasn’t convinced that they have not left the building left. Whatever was the case, I had to be quick. 

The necklace was there, right where I shot the thing. The creature must have ripped off of Evlyn’s neck when it grabbed her. The necklace was a bit dirty, but still intact. I sink it into my pocket and turned around to leave. 

But the door wasn’t there, like it never existed. 

I flew into panic. I knew what happened. Then I heard the voice. 

“Oh little human, you are here. Is it me what you can hear? Please don’t be so much afraid, you will have what you have made.” 

The Rhymer. I have heard about it. I became another guinea pig to be tested before gets killed. I pulled out my gun without thinking. I knew if I give myself a slightest chance to think, I get chickened. 

So I pulled the trigger and ended it.