“Excuse me.” A young woman said as she approached a small group of people. “Are you the Richards family?”
Erin was about 5’ 3’’ tall and looked like she was 16 years old. Her dark blonde hair reached her elbows when her arms are at her side. The fringe was covering the right eye completely, but her left eye appeared to be a bright amber colour. In her left hand, a crutch to support the injured body. Because of the long skirt she was wearing her legs couldn’t be seen properly, making it hard to see why she needed a crutch.
“Yes, we are. Who are you?” The father, a man in his late thirties, replied.
He seemed to be worn out and fed up with everything, but put on an act to keep his daughter from worrying. The woman, his wife, standing by his side seemed the same, but their daughter seemed happy. She looked like she was only ten years old, so she probably can’t remember what happened.
“Mind if we talk somewhere private.” She demanded.
“Sure.” The father was weary, but went along with Erin.
After that, no one else said anything. Erin led the family somewhere, and would occasionally see the mother interacting with her daughter and comforting her out of the corner of her eye. She was probably scared of Erin.
The four of them arrived at an alley behind some buildings. No one was around, making it the perfect location.
“I’m sorry it took so long, but I’m glad I finally found you.” Erin apologized, and it was about to become clear why.
She turned around to the family and smiled. Raising her free hand, she reached into the top of her dress and grabbed a chain. She pulled it until something popped up out of her dress. A pendant. It was shaped like a typical diamond, but was 2D. It was emitting a faint blue light, with a cog in the center spinning like a coin. Inside the cog was a sphere, the origin of the blue light. No matter how the family looked at it, it wasn’t normal. But still, the necklace seemed familiar to them.
“It’s time to wake up, Joe.” The young woman whispered to her necklace.
With that said, the cog in the center stopped in the perfect position to make the pendant flat, and the light grew brighter. The light then moved itself beside Erin and started to take the form of a human. After it had completed growing to the correct size, 5’ 9’’, the light instantly evaporated, leaving behind a human.
A man, aged twenty-four, stood there. His short, light brown hair moving ever so slightly because of the calm wind created from the blue light disappearing. Wearing a business suit, just like the day he had gone missing.
Joe opened his blue eyes. Just a few feet in front of him stood a family. His family.
“M-mom…?” Joe looked at one of the three people in front of him.
He then moved his eyes left until they were focused on his dad, and then down to his younger sister. For the first time in four years, Joe could see his family once again. He was so overjoyed that tears started flooding his eyes. Without thinking about anything else, he just ran at them and threw his arms around his parents.
His mother and father were both confused, but they knew that it was their son. They wrapped their arms around him with tears streaming down their faces.
Erin smiled, but didn’t say anything. Instead, she took the necklace off and handed it to Joe’s little sister.
Once everyone had calmed down, Erin spoke. “Once again, I’m sorry it took so long. I had a few issues to deal with as well as trying to track your family down.”
“It’s fine. Thank you for doing this.” He looked at her, smiling.
“I guess your family has many questions though, so we should answer them.”
So, they all stood in the alley, talking. Erin explained to the Richards family that she was a magician who was in trouble, but Joe had saved her four years ago, which cost him his life. She tried multiple times to resurrect him, but each time it took something from her without succeeding. First her left leg, then her right eye, and finally her ability to grow old. She was now trapped in a young girl’s body until the day she dies. In the end, all she could do was trap his existence in the pendant.
Once she had said everything she needed to, she turned around and began to walk off. “Keep the necklace safe. I made sure it can’t be broken, but it can still get lost. He can only project his body a few metres away from the pendant, just to let you know.”
As she was walking off, she raised her right hand to say goodbye. Joe waved, even though he knew she couldn’t see him.
He then turned his attention to his family. “Let's go home.”
Well, there you have it. My first attempt at writing a short story. I hope it was enjoyable for those that read it. There were so many things I had to cut out of it, which ended up getting to the point where I thought it was bad in this state, but the word limit was 800 words. If a bunch of people like this short story, I'd definitely consider putting all of the original content back and add new stuff to make it a regular story.
Thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of your day. Unless you are reading this at night. In that case, enjoy tomorrow!
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