The Amulet- part VII

" Death came for me once," said the murderer. This surprised Paul and Purity. How could an "eternal being," that could move about in another plane, draw living, breathing souls into a simple, but ornate piece of jewelry, be subject to the ravages of time, and pay a death as any creature does?

" It was when he came for you. You were the one lying at his door, after all. There was no reason at all to think he would not simply reach out and drag you in!"

" But," he continued, that liar, "he wanted me also. You were quite clever to have worn that amulet next to your skin. Who told you of its power?"

The change in expression that overcame her face belied her sudden and intense muddiness of mind. The murderer could not help but laugh.

Her father revealed the whole story to her when she came to him seeking a way to spare the life of her lover. Paul had let her in on his secret, that he was a link in an evil chain, a pawn to be sacrificed in order to bring in the great liar himself, a place-keeper and a tool, like a glass cutter is used in the scoring of glass. And that soon he would be called upon to surrender his earthen vessel, his flesh and blood body, to the great murderer himself.

Her father had but one hope for her; The Amulet. It had been in his families possession for centuries, so long that no one knew of its origin. Even the stones capabilities had been relegated to a myth, a legend used to frighten, told by a roaring fireplace on All Hallows Eve.

Purity had believed that legend. She was convinced that, if worn next to her skin over her heart-- the very instructions given to her by her father-- that her soul mate, Paul, would be spared his otherwise resolute fate. And it had worked.

But her father paid the price for awakening the stone, as he knew he would. His desire was to save his daughter, not only from losing the love of her life, but her soul as well. His eyes were fixed on his little girl as he was taken, his scream stolen by his broken heart as his mortal body slipped into the afterlife; made up of abject solitude, complete darkness and a crushing silence.

Purity had reached out to seize her fathers hand to prevent his slipping into this hell, a taste of which could be seen enveloping him, but Paul held her back. She could not have stopped it anyway and she knew it. It was then that he had first noticed the amulet.

The murderer saw it too. He had been searching for it himself for quite some time and reached out to take it from her. But, as he wrapped his fingers around it the stone exploded with a pure white light that blinded everyone in the room. When Paul awoke, he was centuries into the future and standing in the daylight with a dozen other academy graduates that were uttering the final words of their official oath of duty. He stood confused and still reeling from the journey, shielding his eyes from the sun and nearly fainting from the rapid loss of the memory of his beloved Purity.

Two hours later he was sitting in a cafe, drinking coffee and talking with his new, lifelong friends as if he had been born here. In his mind, however, Purity stood strong and steadfast. She would never leave him completely.

And, just as the essence of Purity remained with him, so did the amulet.