The Locket by Hope Huggs (Part 1) An Original Story

She saw the barn owl out the corner of her eye, but when she turned around to look at it directly, it had gone.

She wondered if she had imagined it, as the adrenaline of the escape was still pumping through her veins, but as she looked across the field the ghostly silhouette was hovering poised ready to grab a meal.

She felt relieved that she wasn't going completely crazy, instead, she chose to feel honored to have been allowed a glimpse of this precious sight - it had taken her mind off why she was catching her breath in the middle of nowhere in the darkness of the night.

The sound of a car made her dive into the cover of grass, in doing so she startled the owl but it would do her no good to be seen now. She had got this far and there was no way she was going back, even if all she had in this world was packed into a small rucksack and the locket on her bracelet that she clutched at every time she was nervous and needed to feel brave.

The pictures in the locket were the reason why she was doing this. She would have to wait until the morning and some light to look at these pictures with all the love they deserved. Unfortunately, the lock of hair had been lost a year before when he had tried to get rid of her precious locket. He should never have made her choose. The decision had killed her inside then, but now she could change that. She would change it.

It had taken a lot of luck even to get this far and without her car too, as he would have noticed if that had gone right away. Instead, she took the opportunity whilst he was tinkering in the garage to run. He had forgotten to lock the back door, so she had snuck out, called a taxi to go from no. 54 down the road. She got in it and paid the taxi driver her last £30 to take her as far away as possible till the fare ran out.

After she got out the taxi, she had continued running, but she took a left here and a right there and now she was gloriously lost in the countryside somewhere. But free.

She felt the rumble of her phone her back jeans pocket. Her hand quivering, she takes it out and looks at the text "I know where you are".

She drops the phone and starts running some more.

Tonight, she realized, she wasn't going to be able to rest.

To be continued...