The Silver Locket

We edged our way through the bushes and wet leaves. They stuck to my boots as I walked. It was the dead of night, but the moon was bright and we didn’t need to switch on our headlamps yet. I was in the middle, Kate was ahead of me holding the branches back. Brian was behind. I could hear his heavy breathing and clumsy footsteps as he struggled to catch up to us.

“Christ, you didn’t tell me we’d have to trek through the wilderness.”

“You knew it was down the country,” Kate said. “Everything is miles away from everything else here.”

Kate stood up tall and peered around her like a meerkat. Her eyes were alert and I could see the white wisps of her breath against the cold. She was handling this much better than we were. My fingers were numb. I pressed them against my mouth and huffed on them, feeling them tingle and burn as I did so. It was stupid not to bring gloves.

“Any sign of the house?” I asked.

“There’s a car on the road. Hold here until it passes.”

We parked about half a mile back, close to the bus stop on the main road. The house is on a narrower country road. Parking closer or walking on the path would be suspicious. This is the type of small village where if three strangers were seen walking in the night, everyone would know by morning.

I heard the rustling of leaves get louder as Brian crouched behind me. “My hands are all scratched. And I’m freezing.”

“Me too. The wet is soaking into my shoes.”

“Kate, this better be worth it or I’ll kill you.” 

“I can see the gate. We’re not too far.”

She walked forwards, her footsteps light and agile. We trudged behind. It wasn’t long before we reached the gate, rusty and hanging off its hinges. Kate took a firm hold of the handles and pulled it open carefully, like she was handling nuclear materials. It was squeaky and she paused at every sound. She got it open enough for us to squeeze past.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Once we were past the gate the shrubbery diminished. I could see the house at last. It didn’t look promising.

“Kate, this place is derelict.”

“Trust me. There’s thousands and thousands hidden in this place. She’s a proper old-school hoarder.”

Kate approached the front door and put the key in the lock. The bolt clunked open and she pushed the door. Thankfully this wasn’t as creaky as the gate. The hallway was a void, so black it absorbed all the light surrounding it.

“Once you step past the threshold, you’re free to turn your head torches on. Brian, close over the door after you.”

She stepped into the house and clicked on her torch. The light stretched into the darkness, dousing the walls in an eerie white glow. I could make out little flowers on the wallpaper. Kate turned back to us.

“So it’s not that important to keep quiet from this point on. Draw the curtains of any room you are in case the light can be seen from the road.”

We followed Kate into the house. I peeked into the first room on the left, which appeared to be the old woman’s living room. The house was just as dilapidated on the inside as it was on the outside. It was loaded with furniture. Three different couches were crowded into the room, each bookended with little tables and ornamented lamps. The bookcases covered every inch of space on the walls. The floors were littered with piles of books and magazines.

Kate stepped in behind me. “Rosa, you stay here and do this room, me and Brian will head back there. This room and her bedroom will probably have the best stuff. Check the cabinets for coins and medallions and that kind of thing.”

“Right.”

Brain waved as he walked past the doorway. “Call us over if you find a chest of gold.”

I stood in the middle of the room, unsure of how to start. The house was packed with junk, I couldn’t imagine uncovering any secret treasure in here. I wandered in a circle around the couches, peering into the cabinets and at the bookshelves. There were rows and rows of family pictures, many old and sepia and crinkling at the edges. I knew we would be breaking into someone’s house, but the reality of being here was more uncomfortable than I thought it would be. I felt like a peeping tom watching someone undressing, like I was violating someone’s privacy.

This was Kate’s great aunt’s house, a woman who I didn’t know very well. I met her once last year at Kate’s sister’s wedding. She was already in a wheelchair by that point. I watched the nurse wheel her into the church and settle her at the back. She was sickly and bedraggled looking; long grey hair stuck out of her head like straw and she sneered at anyone who approached her. I didn’t hear her speak apart from barking orders at her nurse.

Kate refused to look at her. For the entire party, she ignored her and only spoke about her after she’d left. We went outside to skulk in the carpark and smoke cigarettes. 

“She’s a psychopath. She used to torture me as a kid. She would make me stand outside in the rain in winter when I’d done something bad. She would feed me only these rotten oils and vitamins she had and wouldn’t let me eat anything else. I would come home starving and sick anytime she looked after me. It’s only as an adult I understood how terrible she was. We had a big fight when I was a teenager. Lisa or my mum wouldn’t say anything, they were too scared of her. I told her what a disgusting person she was and how we all hated her. I was nasty, but she literally abused my mum for years and years. She deserves all the misery she’s got. After that, she sent me these baby pictures she had of me. They had all these black scribbles over me and on the back she’s drawn these pagan symbols. She’s really into the occult, thinks she’s some kind of witch. She was trying to scare me. I thought it was the stupidest thing ever.”

Kate focused her gaze on the ground as she told me the story. She sucked hard on her cigarette and rubbed her arms around her. I couldn’t imagine speaking like this about anyone in my family. 

“I’m sorry. Sounds like a messed up childhood.”

I fidgeted with my sleeve. Kate was still lost in thought.

“I hope your mum makes up with her some day,” I added feebly.

“Ha. My mum is a coward. She won’t even acknowledge half of this stuff. You know, that woman is a thief too. She stole a load of jewellery my grandmother left to my mum. Apparently she’s got piles of jewellery and coins, really valuable stuff hidden in her house. She’s got it stashed away and won’t spend it. Did it to spite our family. But it’s what we’re entitled to. I’m gonna get it back one day.”

And now that day had arrived. Earlier in the week Kate messaged to ask me to come over, saying she had important news. I came over after work to the little apartment she shared with Brian. He’s the one who answered the door. He looked tired and not in the mood for whatever this was about.

“I think she’s gone a little crazy. Just wait, you’ll see.”

I walked into the living room and found Kate hovering over the coffee table, surrounded by papers and scouring a map with a highlighter in her hand.

“Rosa, guess what? My great aunt is in hospital. You know, the mad one from the wedding. Brain aneurysm. In a coma right now but not expected to recover.”

Kate looked up and grinned. “We’re gonna get that cow. I have a spare key to her house that I took from mum ages ago, she doesn’t remember that she had one. Sit, sit, here’s the plan.”

I perched at the end of the armchair on the other side of the room and looked at Brian for an explanation. He caught my eye and gave me an expression that could have meant “help me, I’m scared” or “run while you still can”.

“I want us to do a search of her house. We have to do it before my uncles get in there. There’s some jewellery and important stuff that belongs to my mum. We have to get it back.”

“Don’t you think you should talk to your family about this? I doubt your uncles will want to take your mother’s jewellery.”

“Rosa, you don’t know what my family is like, ok? They’re a ludicrous dysfunctional mess. I just want to get what belongs to us.”

She held up the map. “Here’s her house. Right in the middle of nowhere. It’s about two hours out of town. There’s a small village nearby. I think we can park in the village and sneak our way up through the woods. If someone sees a car parked outside her house there’ll be gossip among the neighbours and it might get back to the family.”

Brian knelt down beside Kate. “Babe, I’m not sure you’ve thought this plan through. Why don’t you tell your mother that you want some stuff from the house and see what she says?”

“Because my mother is a simpering little weed Brian, you know that.” 

Kate flung the map on the table and got up to pace the room.  “You guys don’t understand. My uncles will steal this stuff. It belongs to me. She’s a wretched old woman, she’s been trying to destroy my family my whole life. I need this stuff. She has things that are worth a lot of money. Things just sitting in her house and she’s not doing anything with them. It’s not fair. We deserve this.”

I got up and pulled her into my arms. “It’s ok, it’s ok. I understand. When did you want to go?”

And that’s how it happened. I never thought I would be robbing someone’s house, yet there I was pawing through this elderly woman’s bookshelves. The cabinets were old and in disrepair. I walked towards one and opened the stiff glass door. Even the inside of the cabinet was covered in dust. I glanced through the contents to see if there was anything valuable here. I looked closer at the people in the photographs. Most of them were smiling out to me, but several of the faces had been scratched out. 

As I tiptoed around the room, I noticed a few other creepy things. There was a candle holder which looked expensive. One side of it was painted pink and gold, the other side was burnt black. I noticed something in the fireplace. There were piles of ashes, like she was burning through stacks of paper. Inside the fire pit were lumps of material. I touched it timidly. The thought that a creature might crawl out passed through my mind. It was soft, maybe a cardigan, black and shrivelled in bits.

I creeped myself out thinking about the old woman alone burning all kinds of things in her living room. I walked out to the hall to find Kate and Brian.

“Guys?”

“We’re in here,” I heard Brian call out to me.

I stepped into the room. It was clear they had been searching much more thoroughly than I had. All the clothes from the woman’s wardrobe had been piled onto her bed and Kate was in the process of turning an armchair upside down.

“Rosa! We found two of her hiding spots. The floor of the wardrobe is loose and she stashed a load of scarves. There’s some silk ones, I guess they must be valuable or she wouldn’t have hidden them. Also, look, this skirting board here comes away. She has boxes of old coins here. We checked the bed but there’s nothing there. She might have dug out holes in the furniture. Here, help me.”

I grabbed the arms of the chair and helped her tip it over. The feeling that this was a bad idea was gnawing away at me, getting stronger and stronger. 

“Will we have time to put all this back the way it was? We can’t stay parked for too long can we? Someone might notice.”

“Let’s just find more stuff before we worry about that. Brian, can you check the bathroom please?”

“Kate, there’s some stuff in her fireplace in the living room. She was burning something.”

“Sounds like my aunt. I think this room is done. Did you check under the couches in the front room?”

“Um, no.”

“Ok, let’s go back and do that now.”

“Hey Kate,” Brian’s voice called from the bathroom. “Check this out.”

We went into the bathroom and found Brian hunched over a jewellery box.

“Ah Brian! You found it.” Kate excitedly scurried over to have a look.

“I found it behind the mirror, she knocked a hole in the wall and had this lodged in there.”

Kate took the jewellery box and began inspecting the contents. Her face was bright and happy.

“This is going to be a great haul. We can take a few bits, not too much so they won’t notice.”

“I thought you were going to give everything to your mother?”

“I mean yeah, most of it. She’s pretty well off herself. I’m the one who actually needs money.”

I dithered in the doorway for a little while. The feeling of dread was becoming intolerable.

“I’ll start tidying the bedroom. We should go soon.”

“It’s here!”

Kate pulled out a silver locket from the box. It had a long chain, so she held it high above her head to bring the locket to eye level. In the glare of our head torches, it gleamed white and luminescent. It was heart shaped and bulbous, too gaudy to wear, at least in my opinion.

“This is pure silver. It belonged to my great grandmother originally. My grandmother had it inscribed with the names of my mother and uncles. It’s very valuable, they all want their hands on this.”

She set down the jewellery box at the side of the bath and reached for the heart.

“Ahh!” Kate hissed and dropped the locket. She clasped her hands together. “It burnt me.”

“Here, are you alright?” I walked to her and put my hands over hers. I pried them open gently to inspect them. Brian knelt down by the locket and hovered his hand over it.

“How could it have burnt you?”

“I don’t know but it hurts.”

He touched the heart lightly as if he were testing a hot stove. “It’s cold, actually. Like, it burns my fingers with the cold.”

I couldn’t see anything on Kate’s hand. As I pulled her hand closer to me, she bowed her head low and started to tremble, her hair hanging down in tendrils.

“Kate? Are you alright?”

The silence hung for five awful seconds. Brain stood up beside me and we watched for Kate’s reaction.

“Kate?” 

Her legs gave out from under her. In a second she was on the floor, writhing and gargling, like a woman possessed. Her eyes had rolled back in her head and a white foam was starting to form at her mouth.

“Oh Jesus!” Brian grabbed her arms and tried to keep her still. His eyes were wild with panic. 

“What’s happening?”

“She’s having a seizure.” 

I searched in a frenzy, trying to find an object to put in her mouth. I grabbed a pen from my bag as quickly as I could.

“She might bite her tongue, we have to hold this in her mouth. Ring an ambulance!”

Brian was stupefied. Frustrated, I grabbed his arms and made him hold her more tightly.

“She can hit her head, don’t let her move too much. I’ll call someone.”

I took out my phone and called the emergency services. The call kept dropping. Fear was rising up inside me like a pot boiling over.

“There’s no signal, I can’t get through.”

Brian was swaying on his knees as he pressed his hands down onto Kate.

“Brian, Brian, don’t faint on me now. I have to run out to the road to look for signal. You have to stay here and mind her, ok?”

I drooped my head so I could look at his face.

“Brian?”

He moved his head up a little. His eyes were open wide and bloodshot. His mouth was slack and he was dribbling. He stared right at me. My stomach flooded with cold water.

He faltered, whacking his head off the bathroom tiles and shuddering in his own seizure. I jumped back and tripped over my feet in fright. Beside them, I saw the locket. It glistened in a way that it didn’t before. To my horror, I noticed the glistening spread out on the tiles. It was ice -- the locket was freezing the floor underneath it.

I stumbled down the hall and threw the door open, rushing back out into the moonlit garden. The further I got, the faster I ran, rushing and rushing away from the house. My legs were massive pumping machines and I was in too much shock to think about the branches scraping them. I ran to the main road, shouting and gasping. I could see the lights of the village in the distance and I ran to them. 

“Please survive,” I thought to myself. “Please survive.”