Shadows of the Chain

by: Shveta Agrawal   

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Soon, I’m outside stepping in the long straw-dry grass as I spot the perfect trail to go explore. As I walked further into the path, everything suddenly started getting darker and the leaves turned rustier and drier. I hear some faint distant drumbeats, which pricked the hairs on the back of my neck. As soon as I blinked, it became pitch black for a minute, and I heard many cries from a single girl in whispers, pleading for help. “Help, they’re out to get me. Please… Help… Must find...” I whirled around, to see a body-less dehydrated face that belonged to a woman. The face was full of scars with the blood still fresh and splattered everywhere. Her lips were dried and cracked; I couldn’t tell if the blood on them was from her wounds or lips. Suddenly, I felt a hot breath on the back of my neck, breathing and whispering, “I must find…-“ I turned to see who it belonged to, but there was nothing there. I turned back, only to find that the woman’s head had mysteriously vanished, and everything turned much brighter again.
Was it my imagination, or was something really supernatural there? While I was pondering this abnormal situation, my feet were walking myself back home. I could not keep this to myself; I had to call my best friend Kelly. I walked towards the phone to pick it up, and suddenly saw a woman around my age fly down the stairs wearing clothes much too big for her size. Her baggy eyes with big dark circles read the clear emotion of terror on her thin ghostly white face. She was muttering, “I have to call for help!” She picks up the phone and exclaims, “the line’s dead…”she froze, then looked around horrified, letting out a blood-curdling scream as she slowly disappears from my eyes.

My body is soaked with fresh cold sweat. I drag myself towards the phone, and pick up the phone with trembling hands. The line is not dead! With relief I call my friend Kelly, begging her to rush here at this instant.

I told the events of the day to Kelly, while we were scraping the walls of the kitchen from dust.

“Let’s take a quick walk to the forest, and we’ll see if we’re able to spot the so called dehydrated woman you’re talking about,” She suggested, rolling her hazel green eyes. Together we went to the forest following the same path as today morning. We approached the same destination where I had spotted the dehydrated woman just this morning, except it was sunny, with birds chirping delightfully. We even went beyond, to the end of the trail, and came back without anything out of the ordinary. Kelly and I went back home and decided to munch on some carrots.

“Seriously Amy, I don’t know what’s bothering you. Everything was normal. Maybe you’ve been stressed out lately since you just moved into this huge home all alone. I don’t know why you bought this home, on the count of the fact that this house hasn’t been occupied for over a decade,” states Kelly, while twirling her long golden-brown hair. “Rumor has it that the previous owner was a really successful lawyer, until…”

“Until what?” I ask

“Until, um… uh, nothing, just forget the whole thing. Let’s go some place for lunch,” Kelly said hastily and started getting up, but I stopped her.

“Kelly, until what… This is urgent, I need to know because this whole thing is just freaking me out.” She gave a long sigh and started to speak, but the suddenly, another horrific vision of the same pale woman interrupted my attention. With her quivering hand, she reached out to touch a rock by the riverside (which is right next to the forest), I could see that her expression was a troubled one. In an instant, she let out a loud ear-piercing scream and I saw that something from the river caught the rim of her gown. She shook her arms around and tumbled into the stream with a loud splash.

“Amy, Amy?! Are you ok?” Kelly shook me out of my disturbing trance. My eyes were still wide, full of curiosity of what happened next. Stupid Kelly, if only she didn’t shake me so hard, I could have found out the outcome… Wait a minute… I grabbed Kelly’s hand, and dragged her outside.

“Where are we going,” Kelly shrieked, “Have you gone mad?” I ignored her comment and tried running faster, with Kelly lagging behind.

“Here,” I panted, as we approached the riverside, “is where I saw her drown.” “Saw who drown?” Kelly questioned meekly.

“You know, the girl who I kept having in my visions. I just had another vision, and I saw her falling into the river.” Kelly immediately turned white as some of the water turned red and began to bubble.

“Um, Amy… I think I’d better tell you the rumor that I’ve been hearing…” she shifted around, her eyes still glued to the water.

“Go on,” I urged, though feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“Well, the previous owner died almost exactly 10 years ago. You know how she died?”

“Psh, no, you tell me. You’re the one who knows the rumor,” I rolled my honey colored eyes. She bit her lip and continued, “By drowning in this same exact river. No one from her family or friends heard from her for weeks, so they started getting worried. They searched all around the house, and searched the forests, until they found the head of a woman. They still couldn’t find the rest of the body, until they walked across the river. There they ran into the rest of her body.” She stopped but sounded like she had a bit more to say.

“And then…?”

“Then, they found something crazy. They found a pretty golden locket attached to the area of where the neck would be. No rust, no dirt, I mean, wouldn’t it rot? And it was still attached to the body,” Blood drained out from my face as I touched the locket that was hanging loosely from my neck. I tried to pull it out but it wouldn’t budge. Kelly immediately saw the panic written across my face, and her eyes were automatically glued to my stuck locket.

“Where did you find that locket?” Kelly cautiously asked.

“Well, I was digging underground for my rose bush when I came across this gorgeous locket. Now I can’t take it out.” On closer examination of the locket, we both felt a chill running down our spines. It seemed as if the locket was alive.

“It-it-it didn’t lo-look like this when I first put it on,” I stammered to Kelly.

“Well, what did it look like before? Geez, how could you have been so stupid enough to put it on in the first place? It has an evil looking skull, with two snakelike worms wrapped around it.”

“Kelly, the chain is getting tighter, help me pull it out!”

Kelly used immense strength to pull it, but it was no use.

“Hurry up!”

“Follow me, and we’ll find something to cut it with.” Kelly ran inside the tool shed to look for a plier. I decided to search around the house for something sharp enough to cut through the tough chain. Time passed by and Kelly still hadn’t come back yet. I searched all around the house and in the tool shed for her. By now, the chain with the locket had become unbearably tight. I panicked once again and ran down the stairs. “Must call for help!” I automatically cried out. I reached for the phone. And I almost fainted, for the line was dead.