Chapter 18
My roommate gave me a locket. At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal. I wore it and weirdly enough, I started eating more, sleeping better and slowly gaining weight.
I figured I was finally getting my life together. Then, the day after I got accepted into graduate school, I suddenly doubled over in class with this sharp, unbearable pain in my stomach and out of nowhere, I gave birth. Right there. In front of everyone.
Word spread fast. I tried to explain, I begged them to believe me, but nobody did. My professors, my classmates… everyone just thought I had been lying all along. That I was some kind of freak. I lost my spot in grad school just like that.
Even my parents didn’t believe me. They said I had humiliated them. Told me not to come home. That they were done with me.
I hit rock bottom. I went up to the school’s rooftop and… jumped. I thought that was the end. But it wasn’t.”
After I died, I finally saw the truth. Everything that happened; the weight gain, the weird appetite, the pregnancy, it all started after Yolanda gave me that so–called locket.
Then suddenly, I was back. Back to the day she came home from her trip.
—
“Trixie, I brought you something from abroad,” Yolanda Jay said with a smile, pulling out a red–stringed locket from a little box.
Before I could say a word, she was already fastening it around my neck.
I instinctively reached up to take it off, but she grabbed my wrist. “No, don’t. This one’s special. It keeps you safe. I went through a lot to get it, you have to wear it.“§
glanced down at the locket and for a moment, I just stared.}
The gemstone looked normal at first, but when the light hit it a certain way… I could’ve sworn something like blood was flowing inside.§ “Yolanda, is there blood in this?” I asked, half–joking, half–creeped out.
She just smiled and said, “It’s sacred. Blessed by a real shaman. You’re lucky to have it. Don’t ever take it off.“}
Back then, I didn’t question her. I actually felt touched. Like she really cared. But not long after I started wearing that thing, my period just… disappeared.
I wasn’t sleeping around. I was still a virgin, so pregnancy didn’t even cross my mind. When it didn’t come for three months, I told Yolanda I should probably go to a doctor.
She stopped me. Said, “You’re fine. You’re young, not in pain. Probably just your body being weak. Eat more, rest and it’ll sort itself out.“} I believed her. Every. Damn. Word. And I kept believing until the day I gave birth in front of my classmates and my whole life fell apart. After I gave birth in class, everything spiraled.
The school stripped me of my spot in grad school like it was nothing. And just like that, Yolanda took my place like she had been waiting for it.
She didn’t stop there. She took my baby, too. Said I wasn’t in the right state of mind to raise a child. I could barely think straight, let alone fight back. I didn’t even get to hold him for more than a second.
Then after I died, I found out she got everything she ever wanted. She got into grad school. She marched into the Larkin’s house with my child and he agreed to marry her.
She even had the nerve to visit my grave, all dressed up and glowing, holding my son.”
“This kid is actually the result of a one–night stand between Mr. Larkin and me,” she said, like it was some kind of joke.
*I brought him the baby and he said yes immediately. I’m gonna be Mrs. Larkin next month.“>
She smiled like she had won a prize. Like my life had just been a stepping stone. “I just wanted to say thank you, Trixie. If you hadn’t helped me become a mother without going through the pain, or handed me your grad school spot, I never would’ve made it into the Larkin family.“2
She paused, then added, almost mockingly, “You’re probably wondering how Mr. Larkin and I had a kid growing in your belly, right?”
She tilted her head, grinning. “That locket you wore–that’s how. It transferred my blood and essence into your body. Pretty clever, huh?“} She laughed, then said, “Lesson learned, I hope. Don’t just accept gifts from people.“}
I swear I almost rose from the dead just to slap her. But then, just like that, I opened my eyes. I was back.
“Yolanda, you’re seriously the sweetest,” Xyla said, admiring the locket on my neck. “You got Trixie that blessed locket and brought us snacks? This is too much.”
Sylvia giggled. “I want one too!”
My roommates had no idea. None of therm knew the locket hanging around my neck was pure evil. A cursed little trap wrapped in a red string
That afternoon, I made up some excuse about having something urgent at home and left. First stop: a jeweler. I had them make a perfect copy of the locket, same look, same size, everything.
Then I went to the hospital, praying I wasn’t too late. Thank God. I wasn’t pregnant. Yet.
The next morning, I walked back into our dorm like nothing happened. Yolanda barely looked up from her phone, but the moment she did, her eyes went straight to my neck,
And just like I expected, she reached for the locket. She didn’t say hi. She didn’t ask how I was. She just said, “Let me take a look at that real quick
