The Mysterious Locket

• Chloe Williams, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2019

Bang! A bomb just dropped over the south of Vietnam, I am so scared. My name is Dao Tien, I am 13 years old, I love in Vietnam and right at this very moment there is a bombing going on. My heart is racing as I run down the street after leaving school to head home (school is finished).
Boom! There goes another frightening bomb at the lagoon, I am running faster than I ever have now racing to my house. I’ve only got a little bit to go from the house I’m so clo… BANG! My house gets destroyed, a second later I hear a deafening screech in my ear. I drop down hard on the rough ground.
A few minutes later, still lying on the hard ground, the bombing over, I stand up, my legs aching. I have nowhere else to go now that my house is destroyed, all around me is flying ashes, destroyed houses and massive holes in the ground from the impact of the bombs. I stumble towards the remains of what used to be my house, I kneel down and start to scavenge through the broken pieces of timber that are piled as high as a mountain.
Rummaging through the wreckage trying to find something, I come across a small locket I have never seen before, I look at the locket wondering whose it is. As I clutch my hands around the round locket, I slowly open it and inside the mysterious locket is a small key and a note that read ‘dear Dao Tien, if you are reading this you will find out everything that is untold, the key will tell you everything, love Mum’. I stand there in wonder looking at the key that is told to unfold everything.
Standing there in curiosity, I look around for anyone who survived the dreadful bombing, but no one is to be seen. Dark fog starts to form all around me as I think of what to do, I see a bright light through the fog so I start to walk towards it. As I get closer, I start to see my father, so I start to run, well more of a limp than a run. I reach out to hug him but he moves out of the way to reveal…my mother, on the ground dead. I stop dead in my tracks, my father walks over to me, hugs me and says, “Don’t worry, we should head to the harbor and leave this war zone.” Upset and shocked I said “Ok” and we left, I looked behind me and whispered, “I love you mum.” Me and my dad ended up living a great life in Australia. Still to this day I wonder what the key is meant for.