Harmonia

When I was little, my mother gave me her most cherished necklace, as she lay dying. It was a beautiful necklace. The chain was the most exquisite gold. The jewel on the necklace, was breathtaking. It was an emerald. At least, when my mother wore it. She once told me that everytime the necklace changed owners, the necklace would change its stone. But when she wore it, it was the most beautiful emerald the world had ever seen. The stone itself was as big as my five year old thumb. Maybe bigger. It was one of the happiest and saddest days of my life. My mother had worn that necklace everyday. Even if it was just under her clothes. She said she couldn't bear the thought of taking it off. She said it was to remember her mother by, who had died when she was only ten. She had cried when she took it off. But it was a different sort of crying. I didn't know it then, but the crying I saw, was a painful fear.

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I was sixteen now. The tenth anniversary of my mothers death was approaching. Two weeks. For the next two weeks, I would have to watch my father mope around the house. In the past, I would try cheering him up. It never worked. If anything, it made it worse. So over the years I have learned to just deal with it, or as I usually do, avoid it. I grabbed my breakfast of a granola bar and headed out the door before he saw me. Not like he was going to notice I was gone anyway. I had on my black and red shirt with my boot-cut jeans and my favorite white, rainbow-laced converse. Of course I had on my mother's necklace. And just like she said, the stone on it did change. I looked it up online when I was ten to see what stone it was. I was wearing one of the most rarest gem stones in the world. It was called painite. It was a beautiful red-violet color. Mostly red though. These stones are only found in about three places in the entire world. I have never actually seen one quite like mine though. It just seemed... different to me.

I walked outside and imediatly a cool breeze off of the coast of Lake Michigan, hit me. I lived on Steams Drive in Ludington, Michigan. Yeah, it was beautiful only, I had gotten over the view a long time ago. After my mother died, it was never the same. We would watch the sun set together down on the beach. Now, I always make sure to miss it. Too many memories.

I walked down my road till I got to The Dwelling. I entered and immediatly saw my friends, Adelyn James and Holden Lakes. "Sophronia Adelpha Castellanos! Where have you been?! I have been waiting for you for like.... a whole seven minutes!" Adelyn explained, looking at her non existant watch.

"Sorry. I wanted to sleep in today. And trying to avoid my father today was horrible. It was like he was around every corner!" I answered her. I looked over to see what Holden was doing. He was just wittling a piece of wood, like we weren't here. "Holden? Why are you always doing that? You know how me and Adelyn complain about the wood dust you leave! Its annoying and it smells bad."

"Its Adelyn and me, plus its called saw dust. Not wood dust," he chuckled, not even bothering to look up from what he was doing. "And if you must know why I do it here...." He trailed off.

Adelyn and me stared at him, waiting for more. "Well? I do want to know, you know," said Adelyn. Holden looked up, but his face had gone grim. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter. If you want, I will do it some other place," he replied, putting down the wood. Adelyn was obviously annoyed already with his behavior and just sighed.

"Anyway back to what I was saying before Sophia rudely interrupted me while wanting to know an answer we will never get," she said looking at Holden, "Boo-hoo for you. You still should have gotten here sooner. I would have liked company for my 8 o' clock tea."

"HA! Tea my ass. Just say it was coffee because we all know it was!" I say grabbing a seat on a log we had dragged in one day. "Besides you probably finished it on your 2 block walk here!"

Adelyn looked up at the broken boards above us. "Sigh," she said. "How do you know me so well Miss Sophia? Hmm.... is it a) you stalk me, b) you stalk me, or c) you follow me?"

I just laughed and picked D. it must have been correct because she smiled. "Hey do you guys want to go some place else?" asked Holden, after looking at his phone.

I eyed him and replied, "Um... not really. Why? Is someone coming?" You see, we weren't exactly welcome in here. I mean, it was just an old building. Nothing special.

"Not that I can hear or see but I have a feeling. What is today?" he asked again, looking at his phone.

I pushed my long, black hair behind my ear and pulled out my phone. "Its July 15th. Its a Saturday." Then it clicked. The people who did own this run down, hunk of junk, came to check in every second Saturday. They thought they were more likely to catch the homeless people (meaning us, who they thought were homeless people) living there, if they came in the middle of the month. "Crap!" I yelled out. Holden quickly grabbed his wooden piece and pocket knife off the little log table along with his bag. Adelyn hadn't realized the day yet and just sat there like we were idiots. "Come on!" I said, grabbing her by the wrist. She jerked up and didn't even have time to grab her empty coffee cup from Starbucks.

"Sophia! They are going to see my cup! I have to go get it!" she hollered, pulling out of my grip. I looked back at her and then forward. They were only two blocks away. Shit, i thought to myself. I yelled in to hurry her up. She didn't answer though so i ran off in the direction of Holden in the alley next to the building. I scooted beside him behind the dumpster.

"Has she come out yet?" I asked out of breath from the sudden dash. I looked around the corner to see if I saw anything. The men were walking in now.

Holden, looking out of the crack between the wall and the dumpster replied, "No. She is stuck in there. Unless she followed you out, she has no chance." Crap. We stayed behind the trashcan and waited to see them drag Adelyn out. Fifteen minutes later, the two men walked out with nothing. It was silent as they walked by the alley. I looked over at Holden, who i saw was as bewildered as me. There was no place to hide in there. We had tried before when we were younger and hide-and-go-seek was actually amusing.

"Where the hell did she hide?" whispered Holden. I just shook my head. We stayed there another minute and then quietly snuck back inside.

"Adelyn! Adelyn!" I whisper yelled. I didn't hear anything back though. "Adelyn! Its us! You can come out now! They are gone!" I said. I looked around to see any movement. All I saw was Holden's brown hair behind a hole in the wall. And then I realized she wasn't in here. "Holden..." I said, a tremble of fear in my voice. "Holden, come over here."

I saw him start walking over. "What?" he said, not happy with me talking so loud after the close encounter. I just pointed down and when he looked, his face went pale white.

Where Adelyn had been sitting before our close call was her coffee cup. And a small puddle of blood.