Necklace

Order my first novel 'Necklace'

The Necklace

Pricilla Kim

About the Author

Pricilla Kim is a girl in Seoul, South Korea. She started writing her stories when her family encouraged and admired her writing, and especially creative writing. She likes writing books, and helping her parents cook dinner. She hopes you enjoy her book as much as she enjoys writing them.

Special thanks to my parents, family to help me create this book

P.K.

Prologue:

“Rose, here, I have a gift for you,” Graymist the witch smiled wickedly, “It’s your birthday tomorrow and I can’t go.”

Graymist didn’t wait for an answer and shoved the box into Rose’s arms. Rose beamed and took the box gratefully, but knew something was going on. As soon as she opened the wrapping paper, she squealed and clasped the necklace onto her neck. She hugged Graymist and they both checked out the emeralds jotted down onto the necklace.

“Rose, so… um… What is your favorite fruit?” Rose started to answer but stopped.

Graymist smiled. Her plan was working. A plan to completely destroy her

Chapter 1:

“Bye, Mother!” Savannah yelled as she jumped into the car. Her blonde hair smacked into her face as she whizzed past the street and into her school. Her hair was all over her excited face when she reached the front step.

She smiled at everyone around her, just like a normal day. Tuesday was her favorite weekday, since there was library first, with Mrs. Brown. She beamed as a fresh smell of books welcomed her into the library.

As always, she was the first one who stepped into the big room. Mrs. Brown was munching on her salad as she busily filled out some forms which looked just like a bunch of small letters jumbled together to show a picture of a messed up gorilla.

Savannah ran over to her favorite aisle of the library and started reading, popping two or three mint candies into her mouth whenever the librarian wasn’t looking.

After what seemed like a year, Mrs. Brown bellowed, “SAVANNAH!” at the top of her lungs.

Nope, still going to read this part- ooh- Azima’s saving Max- “SA-VA-NNAH!” Savannah rolled her startling blue eyes and headed over to the teacher.

“Yes, Mrs. Brown?” Savannah said, a little too sweetly, “May I help you?”

Mrs. Brown smiled back and took a deep breath. She tapped the jeweled necklace clasped onto Savannah’s snow-white neck and raised an eyebrow. She stared at her for a long time, like she was supposed to know what she was talking about.

“Where did you get this necklace, young lady?” Mrs. Brown asked in a cold but wondering tone.

“I-” Savannah stopped mid sentence. She desperately wanted to speak, but it felt as if an invisible marshmallow was stuck inside her throat. What’s happening?

Chapter 2:

The door clicked open and a familiar girl with tanned skin and auburn hair stepped into the room, sweating and complaining about how hot the weather was. As soon as the door opened, Savannah’s hair shot down, her eyes blinked back to normal, and her feet thumped onto the ground.

Why is Mrs. Brown staring at me like that? Savannah wondered, looking at the very pale and shivering teacher.

“What y’all talking about?” Emma, Savannah’s best friend shouted from the entrance of the library. She had a Southern accent, and as soon as she saw Savannah, she ran over and complained how hot it was all over again. Savannah could see all the metal brackets of the braces in Emma’s mouth as she stamped her foot and shouted angrily.

Mrs. Brown quickly went back to her teacher mode and scolded Emma for shouting in her class like that. Emma griped that class hadn’t even started, but as soon as she said that a couple of other students filed in.

Savannah glanced over at her teacher, and found out she was still glaring at her. She didn’t know what was going on, but she had to figure it out fast.

Chapter 3:

“Oh my goodness, what chapter did you read to in that book?” Emma asked after school.

She and Savannah were at their favorite sweet shop to have some snacks before they headed home, and were sitting on a bench that was painted yellow, munching cookies and swinging some smoothies happily.

“Savannah? Did you hear me? What chapter are you reading?” Emma said in a crossed expression.

Savannah gasped as her hair pulled her off her chair. She clung onto the table, desperately trying her best to stay on her chair, but it only made her fingers ache. She zoomed into the air, screaming until her eyes went blank and started to glow. She could barely make out Emma, but saw her friend’s face turn into anger, then shock.

Emma started screaming and crying, but as soon as everyone else turned around to see what was going on, Savannah collapsed onto the floor, and was terrified to see her friend’s face blotched in tears. Emma insisted she was okay, but from the look on her face, Savannah knew there was something she had done to make her cry.

Chapter 4:

“Pencil down, please!” Ms. Moore stated a few days later, collecting all the tests her class had handed to her, “Class is dismissed. You may go now!”

Savannah skipped to the door and waited for Emma to meet her down on the stairs. She was surprised to see Emma tapping her foot impatiently, since she was always late to meetings, even to the movies.

“We need to talk,” Emma glared, and continued without waiting for an answer, “Savannah. You’re losing your memory.”

Savannah gaped at Emma, shocked. Then she roared with laughter, the wind knocking out of her as she crashed into the railing for support. As she wiped away tears, she took a glimpse of her friend smiling for a second before it disappeared. It’s then when it hit her. Emma never lied. Well at least, not to her. She was really losing her memory.

“You really aren’t kidding,” Savannah said in a tiny voice, “But do you even have any proof?”

Emma nodded fiercely and held out the phone showing a picture of what had happened in the sweet shop yesterday.

“Do you remember this?” Emma whispered through gritted teeth.

Savannah blinked once. Twice. She rubbed her eyes and pinched herself but didn’t remember that happening to herself. She shook her head in disbelief, her eyes watering with tears.

Why is this happening to me? Why is this- Savannah stopped. She zoomed in on the phone and saw her necklace practically glowing. She knew it didn’t make much sense, but knew it had to be the culprit. She looked firmly in Emma’s eyes. “I think we got our answer.”

Chapter 5:

Savannah rubbed her red and swollen eyes and clumsily staggered into the bathroom. She hadn’t properly slept in days since she found out about the necklace, and the fact that she was losing her memory.

A tear slid off her cheek, and she rubbed it off furiously, murmuring, “Oh, not again!” to herself.

She decided to stay home for today, so Emma told her she would come over to discuss the necklace. She had tried to unclasp the necklace last night, but the necklace had thoughts of its own.

“Savvy?” Emma’s voice echoed across the room.

She ran and bounced onto her bed, but quickly turned her attention to the necklace. Savannah glumly sat down next to Emma, and she gave her a tight squeeze. Savannah told her she tried to loosen the necklace yesterday night, but before she could finish her story, Emma shrieked and slashed at the necklace, leaving a red mark on her hand but no damage on the necklace. She winced in pain and took a closer look at the necklace, clutching her hand tightly.

“We… should… do this next time,” Emma grimaced with pain, “We should just… play.” Savannah hurried over and opened her drawer, revealing some paper and glitter pens. She lay on the bed next to Emma, and wrote with a blue glitter pen:

Things we should do to break the necklace

in big, bold, letters. Emma tapped her chin and scribbled: WITH HAMMER on it with a mischievous smile. Savannah giggled then rolled her eyes, knowing Emma was joking around. Their parents didn’t let the girls use tools, especially hammers, when they were alone. Emma was holding a pen, and was shakily writing, What is your favorite fruit? Savannah stared at Emma, like she had gone crazy.

“Um, Emma? My favorite fruits are bananas. HAVE YOU GONE BANANAS?” she cracked herself up, and Emma howled with laughter.

A second later Emma shook Savannah’s shoulders and grinned. Savannah raised an eyebrow, not knowing what Emma’s point was. Emma shook her head again, looking at the paper in pure disbelief.

“Savvy, don’t you understand? If I write the message down on paper, you don’t lose your memories!” Emma peeped out.

“W-what?” Savannah couldn’t believe it. My favorite fruits are bananas. Bananas. Bananas, whooped Savannah with joy. She felt so jubilant and happy. The two held hands and jumped up and down on the silky bed, shouting and howling as they went. She found a way to bring back the memory. Finally!

The only thing she had to find out was how to destroy the necklace. She dropped onto the bed and wrote and wrote, until she was too tired to write anymore. Emma checked her watch and was shocked to see six hours had passed since she had visited. Savannah smiled as she looked at the paper filled with plans:

Things we should do to break the necklace:

• WITH HAMMER

• Go to Jewel shop

• Use hands

• Use knife

• Use… everything else in the whole wide world?!

• Sharp things

• Pointy things

• OKAY I CAN’T THINK ANYMORE!

Even if they didn’t write as much as they thought they would, Savannah was sure her plan was going to work. Until then, she just needed to make sure nobody asked questions so she would lose her memory.

Chapter 6:

Savannah took a firm grip of her necklace and pulled with all her might.

“Yah!” she boomed as her necklace pierced her thumb.

Her buddy, Tallie, let out an irritated sigh and started whispering to Jasmine, a girl with red hair, about how bothering Savannah was.

“No talking in class!” Savannah hissed at Tallie.

Tallie tucked her jet-black and wavy hair behind her ears and unleashed her devilish death-squint. She told everyone she had read it from a book, but from Savannah’s perspective, it felt like she had seen the squint somewhere. A picture? Huh maybe- Her jaw dropped and tapped Tallie on the shoulder.

“Hey, um, Tallie? What’s your grandmother’s name?”

Tallie stopped glazing her lips with red lipstick and looked at Savannah with a smirk on her face. Savannah had to admit, despite her personality, Tallie looked beautiful. With high cheekbones and perfectly tanned skin, she looked like she had taken a three month trip to Hawaii.

“Okay, so I don’t know what you’re up to, and I’m making this short because recess is almost over,” Tallie droned, “But my granny’s name was Graymist. Yes, she was very pretty and in case you’re wondering, my mom’s name is . Oh and don’t tell anybody…”

Savannah leaned close as Tallie lowered her voice to a thin whisper, “Tallie is my code name. My real name is Feather-Tail.”

Savannah nodded, her face paler than before. She had heard of Graymist before. Her grandmother, Rose, had told about her before she passed away. Grandmother Rose had told her that Graymist was her best friend until fifth grade.

I should've asked her why! Maybe it’s related to me and Tallie’s relationship!

As the bell rang for class, she couldn't stop thinking about what Tallie had told her. She chewed on her nails. She chewed on her pencil. She even chewed on her hair, and she couldn't find one single clue of why Granny Rose and Graymist had been arch-enemies since fifth grade.

She didn’t know what was urging her to find the answers, but she desperately needed the answer. She would need to talk to her mom about it, but she knew that whenever she mentioned the word “Granny”, she would become over-excited and start talking about how they resemble each other so well.

She would have to figure out a way to stop her mother from being like that, but until then, the only thing she could do was to wait and get more information from Tallie. She decided to get Emma and meet Tallie in the Diner for dinner.

Chapter 7:

Savannah and Emma whispered after they ate some very unique food at the Diner. Emma and Savannah were both headed towards Savannah’s house so they could finally break the necklace in half. As Tallie said, they should use “an enchantment” but that was all that she said. She seemed more interested in the food than the necklace.

“She still gave us SOME advice,” Emma said, “But not good ones.”

As they sat on the wooden chair of Savannah’s kitchen, Emma wiped the emeralds with her shirt and saw them shimmer. She thought she had seen someone’s face, and she looked very familiar.

She tapped the necklace and the girl looked at her, shocked. The girl frantically snapped her fingers and she disappeared in thin air. Emma’s suspicions had been right all along. She HAD seen the girl somewhere.

“Savvy, I know who’s controlling the necklace.”

But Savannah wasn’t listening. She was sprawled on the ground, a green glow engulfing her body.

Emma bellowed, then jumped inside the glow as well. The light surrounded them both, and in a matter of seconds, they were in a house, full of potions and mysterious creatures.

“Well, well, well,” a voice smirked, “Who do we have here?”

Chapter 8:

“Who are you?” Savannah peeped.

A woman with thick curls and slightly tanned skin stepped out of the room. She looks familiar, encountered Savannah. She was short too, but had a determined face. She wore a dark cloak that swirled around her feet as she walked. She looked sort of… bored of what was happening.

“My name is… Tallie never told you?” she flicked a finger and knocked a blue potion over.

Savannah’s eyes darkened. So Tallie had been plotting behind her backs all along. No wonder she didn’t want to share how to break the necklace.

Now Savannah thought about it, the girl looked extremely similar to Tallie- almost as if she had a- sister. The girl stepped and gave a look at the two that definitely meant follow me.

Emma hissed and grumpily trailed after her, while Savannah asked questions about her childhood. She rather liked answering questions than asking ones.

“Claud, where have you been?” Savannah stopped asking questions, and stomped over to the voice.

Like she had thought, Tallie was sitting on a white stool, looking bored just like her sister, eating chips and fries like a normal person would do.

When she looked sideways and saw Savannah, her jaw dropped open. Tallie stalked over to her sister and started screeching at her. The others covered their ears as her sisters started to quarrel.

“Claudia! I told you not to touch the portal!”

“You’re not even older than me, and you’re still acting like I’m your younger sister! Listen Feather-Tail, if you’re going to be-” Claudia fumed and knocked the plate of chips over.

Tallie just rolled her eyes and smiled a fake smile at Savannah. When she snapped her fingers, everyone except Claudia vanished from the room.

Savannah braced herself for something terrible to happen, but as she hit the solid ground, she saw Emma yelling, Tallie cackling, and a blast of magic, before she was absorbed in complete darkness.

Chapter 9:

When she woke up again, she saw Tallie and Emma still fighting, but they were in her room. Emma fought fiercely, and defended herself well.

She saw Savannah looking confused and yelled, “Savvy! We need to break the necklace!” “No!” Savannah insisted, “It’s my favorite one! And… and… my grandmother gave it to me before she moved on.”

Emma hesitated, and saw Tallie had stopped fighting as well. Emma knew this was her chance and lunged at Tallie. She didn’t attack her, but snatched the dagger that she used as a sword.

“NO!” Tallie and Savannah cried for different reasons.

Savannah knew Emma was going to use the dagger to cut it in half. She tried to duck Emma, but she had already slashed it, and the necklace shattered. Savannah weeped on the ground and gathered up the necklace.

She looked around for the emeralds, but couldn’t find them. Then, when she found the necklace, she found out that the necklace wasn’t broken.

The necklace wasn’t broken.

Only Tallie was gone. She’s been cursing Savannah this whole time.

Even though Tallie was slowly fading away, she would never ever forget her shocked eyes before she disappeared.

Savannah sighed with relief as Tallie finally faded and the necklace turned to its original shade of green. She definitely thought it was a good thing her parents weren’t here to see this.

As she and Emma flung themselves onto the bed, she glanced over at the necklace that lay in the corner of the room. She wanted to talk about it more with Emma, but she looked like she really needed a break. After all, it is pretty shocking to watch your best friend being controlled like that.

“What are you thinking? Let’s get some yogurt from Jimmy's, because y’all know I love froyo!” Emma cried, grabbing Savannah’s hand and pulling her to the door.

I guess we could worry about the questions tomorrow, thought Savannah.

However, what the girls didn’t know was that the necklace started to glow again…

Epilogue:

“What is it?” Poppy squealed as her mother came to her room, carrying a box with a lock on it.

It looked very ancient, almost too ancient for a six-year-old girl to handle.

“It’s something I had to deal with when I was a girl,” Savannah said, smiling.

She propped open the box next to her daughter and gave her a note to read. Poppy was disappointed that her mother had to go to work, but took the note and waved at her mother as she went out of the room.

Then she unfolded the note and started reading:

Dear Poppy,

When you open this box, you will find a necklace studded with emeralds. I know you’ll be tempted to touch it, but please read this first like I instructed you to.

As I said, the box will have a necklace inside it. I wore it when I was a little bit older than you are now, and I even lost control of it. I can’t give you all the details in this letter, but it is better that you don’t know. Please keep this box in your closet, deep inside, so no one will ever find it and touch it again.

Love,

Your Mother

Poppy rolled her eyes and put the note inside her drawer. She didn’t like what her mother had said, but she liked it when she wrote letters to her.

“Someday I’ll write just like her!” Poppy declared, even though no one was there to listen.

She decided to ignore the letter, as she flopped onto her fuzzy bed, clutching the box tight in her arms.

As she opened it, she inhaled a handful of dust and coughed as she held the necklace. There. That wasn’t so bad.

However, as soon as she tried to open her bag and remember what her homework was for school, she felt a weird sensation spread across her whole body. She screamed as her hair and entire body floated in mid-air. Just like that, she couldn’t think. It was like she was in a dream.

After a few minutes, Poppy went back to normal and bounced happily out of her room. However, She also didn’t know there was a stranger watching her.

“She won’t know…” A mother’s voice echoed inside the necklace as another, younger voice soon joined her.

“No she won’t. Not a lot of people are strong enough to beat us…”