To be fair, it wasn't my fault. I had it last night. It was right there on my nightstand, next to my half-eaten bag of chips and a history book I was never gonna read. But when I woke up, the pendant was gone. And so was my mom.

At first, I thought she had just gone out for groceries or one of her weird "errands" that she never explained. But the moment I saw the front door cracked open and the faint smell of burnt something in the air, I knew....this wasn't normal.

I checked the nightstand again, as if the pendant would magically re-appear. Nope. I even lifted the history book in case it somehow got stuck under Alexander the Great's smug face. Still nothing. That's when I noticed the closet door .....wide open. My mom never left it open. Ever. A cold feeling settled in my stomach. The room looked the same, but something was off. The air felt heavier, like the second before a thunderstorm. And then I saw it....right in the middle of the floor. A single black feather.