Easton and I walked up to the building. My heart began to race for some reason. I wasn’t scared or anxious, yet my heart felt like it was about to jump out of my chest. 

First, Easton peered through the window, and I followed suit. Inside the dark, dusty place, there was nothing except old furniture that was turned on its side. It appeared the place had been ransacked years before.

Just as I was about to turn around, I thought I saw a dark shadow flitter across the room. A sense of dread came over me as my thoughts immediately returned to Lucien. 

“What was that?” I murmured to myself.

“What?” Easton questioned.

I shook my head. “N-nothing,” I replied, fear gripping me. “Let’s get out of here.” The curiosity I initially had is now gone. If it was possible for Lucien to somehow be in there, I did not want to stay and figure it out. 

“No, now I’m curious,” Easton replied with a smirk. “We should find a way inside.”

“You can stay and look if you want to, but I’m leaving,” I stated bluntly as I turned to walk away.

Easton grabbed my arm. “Don’t leave me here. This was your idea.”

“Well…” I started, “I changed my mind.” I couldn’t tell him why I suddenly had the urge to flee. I knew he would only laugh at me or call me crazy.

“Come on, let’s find a way inside.” He replied, pulling me by the arm behind him.

“Easton, I don’t feel comfortable doing this,” I protested. My phone started to ring as I finished my sentence. Looking at the screen, I announced, “Sorry, I have to take this.”

“Where are you?” My mother’s concern-filled voice asked when I answered.

“I’m hanging out with a friend. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She replied hastily. “I noticed you weren’t in your room… Did you have another bad dream?” 

I paused at the question. “No,” I lied. “I just needed to go for a walk is all.”

My mother let out a defeated sigh. She knew I was lying. “Alright.”

After assuring my mother nothing was wrong and hanging up, I turned back to see where Easton had gone. He wasn’t where I left him. I searched around the entire building, but he was nowhere to be found. Did he find a way inside? The thought made my heart drop. 

I was unable to muster the courage to go inside. I called Eason’s name a few times as I waited for a few minutes. Becoming increasingly uneasy, I decided that Easton must have ditched me, so I left. 

Walking to the front of the building, I started to make my way down the steps. With the city now bustling with many people, I felt like I had just walked into a roaring stadium. I hadn’t realized how much time had passed since Easton and I walked up the steps. My eyes darted back and forth, as everyone’s thoughts started to blend together. 

My breathing became uneasy as people began to notice me. They gawked at me with their judgemental glances. Their internal voices engulfed me. I started to panic as I felt trapped, standing alone on the sidewalk. Every inhale became harder to grasp. I couldn’t move. My heart beating viciously against my chest. A sharp, debilitating pain shot through my chest as my heart began pumping out of rhythm. Tears started to fill my eyes, and my hands cold and sweaty began to tremble. 

I needed to get away from everyone before I passed out, but my feet felt as if they were cemented to the sidewalk. 

“Are you alright, Ember?” Easton’s concerned voice broke through.

But I couldn’t respond. The voices that consumed me had stopped. When did that happen? How long had I been standing here? I miraculously started to calm down. My hands stopped shaking, and my breathing slowly became normal, but I still couldn’t take a deep, fulfilling breath. 

“Ember?” Easton called my name again as he stood in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders. He looked into my eyes for a moment before continuing, “Come on, we need to get out of here.” He placed his arm around my waist to help me move along as we slowly walked away from everyone. 

After a few blocks, I started feeling a little normal. When I finally found my voice, I asked, “Where did you go?”

“I went inside the building you wanted to investigate.”

“But I waited a long time for you.”

He didn’t reply at first, looking straight ahead and avoiding eye contact. “I just went inside to look around. When I came out, I saw you having a panic attack or something, so I hurried to help you.”

I sighed. “It’s not the first time I made an ass out of myself in public.” It always happens when I am caught off guard, not paying attention to the world around me. “But I figured you ditched me while I was on the phone.”

Easton’s face contorted. “Why would I do that?”

I didn’t reply. To be honest, Easton seemed kind of flaky. Even though we were friends in high school, we never really hung out outside of school, and not for a lack of trying on my part. Sara and I tried our best to get him to hang out on multiple occasions, but he never came. We didn’t know each other all that well. Because he was the only person I knew who I couldn’t hear what he was thinking, I knew less about him than the stranger walking ahead of us. To further my case on his “flakiness,” he did vanish without a trace shortly after graduation.

We walked in silence for a while before Easton cut through, “Oh, I almost forgot,” he started as he searched his pockets. “I found this in a room while I was looking around.”

My eyes grew wide when Easton held out a beautiful, white gold locket with an icy blue gem in the center. It looked very expensive. How could he have found something so valuable in a ransacked, abandoned building?

“It’s beautiful,” I responded with a gasp, mesmerized. Taking it into my hand, I inspected the jewelry closely. “Why would something like this be in that place?”

Easton shrugged at my question. “Maybe someone dropped it. Maybe someone stored it there,” he answered nonchalantly. “Anyway, since you like it so much, you keep it.”

“Well if it was stolen, maybe we should put it back. I don’t want anything stolen.”

“It’s not like you stole it. It was found.” He stated, sounding bored.

“And what if I run into the person it belongs to? It looks custom-designed.” I had never seen a gem like this before– not that I am an expert with gems, but it looked otherworldly. I handed the locket back to him. 

He seemed a bit aggravated by my statement as we walked around for a while, stopping at a coffee shop. Easton and I bought ourselves some coffee and sat inside away from the bone-chilling cold. Everything after our little “adventure” was slightly awkward. Our conversation was dry and short as he wouldn’t respond to any of my questions, or add anything to carry on the dialogue.

Taking a sip from my coffee, I looked into Easton’s piercing green eyes for a minute or two. He is hiding something, I thought to myself. He wouldn’t hold eye contact with me for more than 5 seconds at a time. Noticing my gaze, his eyes started to dart around the room.

“What’s wrong with you?” I finally asked. “You have hardly said a word since I gave that necklace back.” 

He didn’t respond, still trying with all his might to avoid eye contact.

“What happened to you over the past three years?” My voice filled with concern. He was the silent type, but he never avoided questions and would at least put a little effort into conversations when we were in high school. 

Easton shrugged his shoulders. “People change…” He replied dryly, “Maybe this is who I am now.”

I stare at him skeptically. “Why do you avoid answering me? People don’t just disappear without an explanation. They would at least lie about what they had been up to.”

“Maybe I don’t want to lie to you. Maybe it’s just better if I don’t give any explanation.”

“Wow… You are just digging yourself deeper into a hole.” I stared at him curiously. “Tell me, did you join a cult? A gang?” I questioned teasingly.

A smile played across his face.

“See, that right there!” I giggled. “You’re only proving my point.” I continued, slightly joking.

Easton grabbed his find out of his jacket pocket. “Ember, I want you to take this. I have no use for it and you are the only person who has tried to be my friend. You don’t have to wear it… but just remember me when you look at it.”

I was taken aback. “Whoa… Is this some kind of red flag? Do I need to call someone to have you put on a 72-hour watch?” 

He chuckled. “No, I’m not that type. Now, I’m being serious Ember. Take it…”

I sighed loudly. Aggravation and defeat wash over me as I reluctantly take the locket from him. “Alright, Easton. If it’s that important to you, then I’ll take it.”

He gave me a half-hearted smile.

“But if this bites me in the ass, then I’m coming after you.”

“Understood.” He replied smiling.

After Easton and I finished drinking our coffee, we decided to part ways, as he had something he needed to do. He wouldn’t say what it was exactly. I don’t know if he avoided sharing details with me or everyone he knew. 

I always had a suspicious feeling about him, but I enjoyed his company because everything faded away around me. I could be normal, or at least focus for the time being. 

Taking the new necklace out of my pocket, I stared at it for a few moments after I had returned home. Alarms were screaming at me about this locket. It was truly extraordinary. The longer I stared into the blue jewel, I began seeing an orange light radiating within, growing stronger and more brilliant the longer I focused I on it. There was also something else… a noise? 

It sounded like a scratching sound as if someone was running their fingernails along the inside of the jewel. The longer I studied the object, the louder this noise became as I became more and more engrossed in its mystery. I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

Suddenly, there was a loud, quick rap at my door which startled me. The quick and abrupt sound caused me to jump and drop the locket, instantly drawing me back to planet Earth.

“Ember, Sara is here to see you!” My mother’s voice called from the other side of the door.

“Coming!” I yelled back. Picking the locket back up, I took a quick glance at the jewel to find that it was nothing more than an ordinary gem. No orange light or scratching noise came from within. Was I imagining it? I wondered as I sat it down on top of my dresser when Sara barged in, half fuming.

“Where have you been?” She asked demandingly, crossing her arms.

“Well, hello, Sara. How are you today? Aren’t we having such nice weather?” I retorted sarcastically. “I’ve only got home maybe an hour ago. Why? What’s up?”

“You were supposed to meet me for lunch, remember?” She replied angrily. “I tried calling you a thousand times!”

I looked at my phone. “It never went off…” I can’t believe I forgot about our lunch plans. “I’m sorry Sara.” I started to apologize. “I woke up early and went for a walk. It must’ve slipped my mind when I bumped into Easton…”

“Easton?” Sara mumbled before landing on my bed as if she had just been punched in the stomach. The color on her face grew pale as her thoughts grew loud and erratic as they swarmed me. 

I sat down beside her and said, “Sara, you need to calm down. What’s the matter?”

She didn’t respond to my question right away. It wasn’t until some of the color returned to her face that she started, “What is he doing back?”

“I don’t know…” I responded questioningly. Why did she care that much about Easton’s return? “He wouldn’t tell me anything. Hell, he hardly even spoke to me, to be honest. There seems to something wrong with him or… I don’t know… He was acting stranger than usual.”

Sadness filled Sara’s eyes as she asked, “Where did you meet him?”

“Why are you so worried about him?” I asked standing up. “You waltzed in here enraged that I accidentally stood you up and no soon Easton’s name is mentioned, you crumble. What is going on?”

Sara shook her head and wore a fake smile as she said, “It’s not important. So, you had one of your nightmares?”

“Oh no, you’re not going to change the subject that easily.” I stated sternly.

She got up from the bed and walked over to the window. “I just don’t want to talk about it right now, Ember…”

“Alright, but you ARE going to tell me about it… One way or another…” I threatened.

Sara spun around on her heel. “You promised that you would NEVER do that!” 

“Hey, if someone you barely knew had this much of an effect on your best friend, I think you would do the same.” I retorted in defense.

“Some things are meant to be private, Ember!” You cannot just pick stuff from people’s heads on a whim! It’s not fair that you can know everything about everyone while you are allowed to keep your own secrets.”