Chapter 5 - The Silver Locket in the Rain
The cold autumn rain drummed a relentless, rhythmic beat against the corrugated metal roof of the alleyway. Clara huddled beneath a canvas awning behind a nearby bakery, her teeth chattering uncontrollably. She pulled her wet, light-blue skirt tighter around her shivering legs, while little Lily slept fitfully against her chest, swaddled in a damp yellow blanket that barely kept out the wind.
Clara reached down to adjust the blanket, and her small fingers brushed against something cold and unfamiliar resting in the folds of the fabric. She pulled it out. It was a heavy silver locket, tarnished at the edges, dangling from a broken silver chain. She had never seen it before. It must have fallen from Julian’s pocket during their brief struggle in the service hallway.
With trembling, freezing fingers, Clara popped the locket open. Inside, illuminated by the orange glow of a nearby streetlamp, was a faded photograph of a much younger Julian smiling brightly beside a tired-looking woman with kind, sad eyes—a woman Clara vaguely remembered from her earliest, foggiest memories. But tucked behind the photo was something else: a folded piece of heavy parchment paper covered in Julian’s sharp, distinctive handwriting.
May you like
Clara squint
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