The Key
I’ll be there in ten minutes came his message. “Ok” I typed back on the keyboard of my phone.
He said he wanted to give me something. It was Christmas night – 5pm to be precise. A present? Maybe. I had just become friends with him a few months ago. My friends didn’t really know who he was – “mystery man” they called him – if that’s what he was. He had promised me a gift and I was hoping for one before school got out – but it would still be ok – it was still Christmas after all.
I got up from my bed and walked to the front of the house – to the dinning room. It had big windows – floor to ceiling. I could keep an eye out for him from there. I passed the living room on the way – my aunt and uncle were sitting on the far coach near the windows – talking, laughing. “Lucy!” My aunt called out. “Where are you going? What are you doing?”
Adults! I said out loud in my head. Why do they ask so many questions!? I smiled and kept walking.
I looked out the windows of the darkened room – to the left and then the right over the snow that covered the yard. Five minutes left. Maybe he’ll be here early.
I kept scanning the yard and the road just beyond but still nothing. Then, I saw them – his eyes – piercing blue but illuminated so they would be as clear to you as lights on a tree. Suddenly, light filled the room. “Lucy” my Mom called out softly with her head just around the kitchen door “what are you doing?”
“Just looking at the outside” I said – hoping that would be all that would be needed to be left alone
“Ok – don’t be to long – you know your aunt and uncle want to spend time with you” she said as she closed the door.
I looked out across the yard but he was gone. Yet I could see the tracks of his feet in the snow moving paralel the house and heading toward the back door.
The doorbell rang. I made like a shot through the dinning room into the bright the bright room that was our kitchen – beating my Mom to the door with a slight hipcheck that caused her to exclaim “Lucy!”
“Sorry Mom” I said with my sweetest smile. “It’s my friend.”
I unlocked the door and opened it slowly – no one was there – but there was a package. It was a small square box wrapped in shiny dark green green paper with silver ribbon and bow. And it had been left at the foot of the door, on the stone walkway.
“My Christmas gift” I said to myself with a smile. I leaned down and picked it up.
“Lucy” my Mother said from the other side of the kitchen “invite your friend in.”
“Oh, he’s gone” I said as I closed the door.
“I see he left you a gift – why don’t you open it up here” she said with a smile.
“Yeah” I thought to myself “like that’s going to happen.”
Instead, I smiled brightly and oh so cutely and said as I walked out of the kitchen “thanks Mom but I’ll open it in my room.”
I ran back to my room smiling and waving quickly to my relatives as I did, and was down the hall and into my room before they a chance to call out to me. The door closed behind me and I sat on my bed. I held the gift in my hands examining it closely. It was then that I noticed the card, which was nestled underneath the ribbon.
I decided to open the card first. The envelope was quite small – maybe two inches square – and the card itself was heavy stock. I pulled it from the envelope slowly. It was a map. But there was more. On the back side was a not written by friend.
“Merry Christmas!” it read. “The gift that I promised awaits you at the point indicated on the map. Use the key inside the charm to access. Tell no one. Be there at exactly midnight.”. It was signed N3. He never told me his real name but he said it didn’t matter because I wouldn’t be able to pronounce it anyway.
I quickly unwrapped the box throwing the paper to the floor. Inside the box was a small jewelry case, which was emitting light from the seems. I opened the box and found a silver starfish charm attached to a necklace – and saw that the bright light came from what looked like diamonds along the arms.
Just then the door burst open. It was my mother and my aunt. I was so focused on the gift I didn’t hear them walking down the hall.
“Lucy!” my mother exclaimed “Show us what your friend gave you.”
“Oh, it’s beautiful” my Aunt Lisa said – having quickly seen it after barging into my room.
“Thanks Aunt Li” I said as I moved the card away from the gift and into my right pocket.
“Is that a card?” my mother asked, having seen me attempt to hide it from their site.
“What does it say?”
“It’s private mom” I said.
“That’s fine Lucy” my aunt said.
“We don’t need to know – right Shirley?” she said to my mom, her sister as she grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room – closing the door as she did.
Still walking her down the hall I heard my mom yell out “don’t stay up too late Lucy!”
“Ok Mom” I yelled back.
Holding the charm in my hand I gazed at its light until I began to feel dizzy and fell back on my bed, closed my eyes, and went to sleep.
I awoke suddenly – sitting up in my bed as I did – searching for the clock. Spotting it I saw the time – 11:50.
Ten minutes I said to myself. I still have time – I can make it.
I jumped and headed to to the window – slide it open as quietly as I could. I grabbed my backpack, threw in a couple of snack bars, the latest book in that vampire series I loved, a bottle of water, and my iPod.
I quickly looked about the room, saw my cat Dex settling into the warm spot I had made my bed. I wish I could take you Dex, I thought, but knew I couldn’t. One last check – there on my desk – a picture of my family. I reached as far as I could, grabbed it, threw it into my bag, and zipped it up. I slide the window shut, turned, and ran off into the night.
Eight minutes later I was within a hundred feet of the meeting spot, which turned out to be a spot, a small clearing, in the thick forest that lay just beyond our home. I figured I was about a half-mile from my house but density of the woods made it seem like we were miles away. I couldn’t hear a thing, except my own breathing.
The path there had been an old hunting trail, not really visible unless you knew what to look for as I did. I used to spend hours in the woods, wondering about, enjoying nature, the trees, the forest creatures. And it was here that I met N3, just six months ago. He seemed to appear out of nowhere one night as I walked along the path.
“One minute” I thought. I better get moving. I started forward, picking up my pace as I did. Thirty seconds. I reached the edge of the clearing. Five, four, three, two, one.
I stepped into the clearing. “N3″ I said.
“Yes Lucy” I am here. “Move forward toward the rock in the middle.”
“Rock?” I thought to myself. I don’t remember a rock. Yet, there it was, right in the middle, large and rectangular, perhaps ten feet high by four feet wide.
As I moved toward it the seahorse charm began to glow. I lifted the necklace over my head and faced it toward the rock. “Press it against the rock” were his instructions in the note.
I did. It glowed so brightly I could barely look at it. In fact, it wasn’t just the charm that was glowing, it was the rock too.
“Just one moment more” I heard my friend say. Then.
Three days after Lucy disappeared, police found the charm in the opening in the woods. There was not rock, though it’s impression was still there. She hasn’t been seen since.
©2010 Patrick W. Murdock. All Rights Reserved.
Posted via web from Micro Short Stories
