Necklace

• Sovannie Krich, Grade 9
• Poetry
• 2012

The house was old and unstable. The walls and ceilings looked as though it would collapse on us any second. Skye shivered beside me as a cold breeze danced around us. Pulling her close, we both observed the mansion.
The floor boards squeaked even when no one walked upon it, and doors creaked open when no one opened them. The tattered curtains billowed around from the breeze that ran through the windows, the wonderful marble staircase leading up to the unknown. In every corner there was dust and cobwebs, the paintings on the walls seeming to watch us.
“Can we go back, Jake?” Skye begged me, tugging on my shirt while burying her face further into the thin fabric.
“We can’t, Skye,” I murmured, moving away from the eerie paintings on the faded walls, “If we go back, they’ll hurt us. We have to get that necklace for them.”
“Why of all people did they have to get us to do it?” She muttered.
I shrugged, “I guess we were just there,” I reasoned. She nodded as though that answered everything. “So where do you think the necklace will be?” I asked.
“Do you want to try upstairs?” I nodded and took a few steps towards the staircase. Looking up the long flight of stairs, we tried to determine what was at the top, but all we saw was complete darkness.
Skye took a step.
“Wait!” She whirled around and jumped into my arms again.
“What? Was there a ghost behind me? Why did you say ‘wait’? Jake, I’m scared!” she sobbed, and I laughed a little, causing her to look up at me in confusion, her tears smothered on her face.
“I was just going to ask if you had a torch. Nothing was wrong,” I explained and rubbed her back, trying to sooth her as a smile played on my lips.
She glared at me, “I thought I was going to die! And do I look like I have a torch?” She said with annoyance in her voice, gesturing to herself as she said that last part.
I nodded slowly, “Point taken.”
Still annoyed, she huffed and turned back towards the steps. Before she could take a step though, a tinkling noise started to sound and she leaped back towards me as something landed in front of her, causing her to scream.
“Jake, help!” She yelled.
I looked in front of her to where a delicate yet small object lay before her. The necklace.
“It’s the necklace! Skye, we can go!” She looked up at me in surprise then quickly whirled around and picked up the chain, grinning when she realised I was right.
“Let’s get out of here!” she shouted, and started jogging out. I followed her, looking back once more at the staircase in wonder. Where had it fallen from? From this far, there was no way I didn’t see the small and thin shadow of a figure slither away into the darkness.