The Amulet
By Digital Rampage, PAT or JK (Patrick Gillespie), Sloat, im local, silence in rage, crzyblackmanguy, and Kevin (in order of first appearance)

Story behind story: This story was created for fun on a message board in a post started by Digital Rampage. It kind of grew into something quite interesting and fun so I thought I’d post it here so more could enjoy it.

Digital Rampage

It was a foggy Sunday morning as the sun rose over a black swamp in northern Georgia, amongst the swamp creatures was a morning jogger enjoying the scenery. After a few laps around the lake the jogger stumbled across what appeared to be a...

PAT or JK

...dead pirate body, fully clothed, and still warm, warm from a fresh killing.

Through his body pulsed with fear, the young jogger couldn't hold back his curiosity. Kneeling down, he rolled the blood soaked corpse onto its back so he could get a good look at the man's face. The old pirate's face was cold and yellow, yet filled with the horror and excitement of a million tawdry tales.

Suddenly its dead eyes tore from their endless gaze and fixated on the boy. The young man jumped back in shock, but did not run away, something held him to the scene, something deep inside that he had not felt in a long time.

"Yee is wise not to run away," the grainy voice bellowed.

"W-what do you mean?" the jogger replied, his voice drenched in fear.

"From thee shakin' in yer knees I can see yer just an innocent young boy, as was I once."

"W-what do you w-wa-"

"SILENTCE!" the pirate screamed, "I don't need to hear none of that whinin'. I'm going to help you see. I know there's this girl you like, a pretty one she is. Take this here amulet and put it around yer neck."

The young man stepped forward to take the glistening object when suddenly...

Sloat

...an owl screeched overhead. He froze in his tracks; left breathless by the owl's piercing call. The jogger gazed upward to see the bird's penetrating eyes staring into his. "Maybe I shouldn't do this," he thought. He tried to speak again.

"L-look, I-I-I think," he stumbled on his words as his eyes moved from the owl back to the man on the ground. "I think this is a big mis--"

The man dressed like a pirate was gone. "Uh, hello?" The jogger looked around as he called out. "Mister?" He looked up at the owl again to see that it's gargoyle-like stare hadn't deviated. He continued to survey his surroundings for the man, but he was nowhere to be seen. As the jogger moved to check behind a nearby tree, a glimmer on the ground caught his eye. It was the amulet; laying there as if it had always been there.

He walked over and knelt down on his left knee to get a better look at it. It was a dark blue jewel, tear-drop shaped. A leather strap was looped through the piece of finely detailed silver attached to the top of the jewel.

The jogger slowly reached out to pick it up, quickly looking back up at the still staring owl, thinking that the bird might voice another objection to his touching the amulet. The owl sat silently.

"No problem this time, eh?" he asked. He looked back at the jewel and grabbed it. "Ah no big deal," he said. He stood up quickly and brushed himself off.

He rubbed the dirt off of the leather strap. "No..."
He rubbed the jewel and silver with his t-shirt. "Big..."
He put the amulet over his head and around his neck. "Deal..."

PAT or JK

Meanwhile, at the other end of the swampy lake, right as the sun was beginning to pierce the night sky, a young woman by the name of Katie begin her morning walk. With headphones gripping her gorgeous head of blond hair, she quietly hummed along to her favorite songs, unfortunately unaware of the strange events that lay ahead.

A smile gripped her face. It had been a long time since she had felt so energetic, so alive. It was almost like something was in the air, something wonderful. The sun was now beginning to rip away all the night’s stars. A sea of colorful red and orange clouds rode above her. It was such a beautiful morning. Walking over to the bank of the lake, Katie suddenly noticed something out of the corner of her eye…

im local

It was the amulet. Could this be the thing she had seen in her dreams every night since she could walk… Katie fell to her knees, what did this mean she murmured. All these years of this dream and there it is, flushed with tears she turned and ran, only to stop dead in her tracks thinking whether or not to turn back to see if this was her destiny...

silence in rage

The agony of the decision wrenched at her young heart. It tore at the very fabric of her being. But slowly, agonizingly slowly, she turned and moved toward the steep bank of the lake. Feeling its power, hearing the sweet whispers faint in her ears. And peering over the bank, she beheld the amulet and the chalk-white corpse attached to it. "There it is," she thought to herself...

With the first touch to the frigid blue stone, she knew: She saw the man bend his head in thought. Saw the sun wither, allowing the world to become again dark, though no stars glittered in this black veil. She saw the pirate's corpse reanimate, its empty eyes staring blankly while it moved toward the man as if pulled by strings - a horrible marionette manipulated by a malevolent force. She saw the knife plunge into the man's back, his gasp of surprise, the careening of his body, and the plunge into the cold waters of the lake.

And there she was, holding the amulet tightly grasped in her hands, her knuckles white with terror, a cold consuming her, seeming to source from the amulet. Slowly relaxing, a smirk presented itself on her tanned face and she raised the amulet into the morning light and watched with piercing green eyes as it's deep sapphire color thickened, changing the stone from it's deep blue into a sinister black.

Placing the amulet around her neck, and letting her hands fall to her side, her raven hair cascaded over her shoulders and the jewel fell between her full breasts. She did not notice the change in her, no longer was the sky and day beautiful, and her hair a golden presentment of the world; no, she had changed but it was to her as if it had always been. She was not made to understand these things now; she understood only the dark power of her amulet. And so with a sinister smile she

PAT or JK

...turned and walked slowly into the water, off to a hidden world that lay beneath the lake.

The cold water bit at her skin as she robotically marched into the watery abyss. Her face was cold and pale, and her eyes frozen in a blank stare. She had been guided here a million times before, every night when she would close her eyes. It had been planned for her before she had even taken her first earthly breaths, and it had waited, waited quietly for her arrival.

With one final step her eyes took their last glimpse of natural light, and her body became fully immersed within the dark water of the lake. Beneath her feet she suddenly felt the quiet sand suddenly start to swirl around her. In a maddening haze it rose up like a hurricane around her and then quickly sucked her down, down into…

Digital Rampage

...a fictional world which one could only dream of. Swirls of multicolored neon light engulfed her body as it faded in and out of ambient colors. Steadily she moved her way through the frigid abyss floating slowly towards a faint light in the distance. The light appeared to be small, round in shape and emitting some kind of heat. By this time the now freezing water had become too much to bare. She was now beginning to show signs of hypothermia, her fingers grew numb and she began to shiver. Fighting to stay awake she exhaled the last breath that lay guarded within her now empty lungs.

The fear of drowning suddenly overwhelmed her thoughts as she fought to swim through the mystery of the light. Kicking and screaming she was running out of time, her body had now been surrendered to an external force that was now carrying her towards the mysterious ball of energy. To her relief, in the blink of an eye it changed from white to green and she then fell out of her nightmare into…

im local

...Reality, On the bank of the lake she lay dripping wet. Sitting up, she striped the amulet off her neck in panic, as it scraped her chin, she felt the cut heal within seconds. She threw down the amulet in fear. The sky cleared, birds chirped, and the warm breeze blew her blonde hair across her full lips. An owl screamed aloud, she looked into the rippling water, and saw the old pirate’s silhouette...

crzyblackmanguy

Resting at the bottom. At that moment she noticed that she wasn’t at her lake. She rose to her feet quickly to get a positive id of her surroundings, but she found that she couldn’t. At the moment she rose to see where she was she felt a small prick in her neck, like a dart or something. Feeling her neck she noticed that it was a dart. Automatically she rose back into panic, due to thinking of what kind of dart it was. "Is it a poison dart, knockout dart, or an explosive one."

As the thoughts crossed her mind there was another thought that crossed her mind also, why nothing was happening to her. So with this thought she felt her neck and sure enough the amulet was sitting right there. She panicked, took off and began to run in some unknown direction without thinking, except the thought of getting as far away from the necklace as possible. While running she fell into a giant.....

silence in rage

puddle, tripping into its expanse of icy putrid green water and dashing her head hard against a flat rock just below the nearly opaque water, immediately plunging her mind into a black abyss of emptiness...

A deep soothing voice, a thatched ceiling, a handsome sun-darkened face telling her to sleep - all momentary snatches of a reality that she slipped in and out of...

"Thank you" she uttered, propped up with a pillow and gingerly moving her arms to receive the small cup of tea the man handed her. Momentarily it occurred to her how silly the little cup looked in his large hands, his long fingers almost fully encasing it, but the moment quickly passed as she let the liquid flow down her throat and fill her with a warm glow. Lowering the cup and looking around she noticed that she was in a small wooden dwelling, spartanly furnished, almost everything made out of a strong light colored wood. There being no wall in front of her, but only behind and to the sides, she could see the sun in its last moments, already sunk behind the tree line, coloring the long stone path in front of her abode a deep red.

Shyly directing her gaze towards the man

Kevin

The man smiled gently, giving Katie some comfort in what was obviously a time of uncertainly for her. She returned the smile, however cautious as if to acknowledge that neither had anything to fear from the other.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions." The man said tilting his head as he spoke. Katie nodded. "You are not dead, and this is not a dream. Although it may feel like it to you right now."

Katie rubbed her forehead as if to ward away some headache that may be approaching. There was also the obligatory moving of the fingers from her temple, along the back of her head and to her neck. No amulet. Thank the maker! The man before her chuckled as if he knew what she was thinking. What she was doing. "What is it?" she whispered.

"You're checking to make sure it's gone, aren't you?" He asked. Katie nodded again. "You may not be wearing it my dear, but the damned thing is far from gone."

"Why? Where is it? Where am I?"

"That Amulet is the reason you are here, my dear Katie. It's the reason I am here. And unless you happen to have a roadmap in your pocket that shows us how to get back to where we belong, I'm afraid that neither one of us is going anywhere fast."

Note: And this is where the story ended on the message board. Below is my attempt at wrapping it up…

PAT or JK

"What? Why?" Katie exclaimed, alarmed at such a bleak response.

The man's face darkened and a small chuckle slipped from his lips, "My dear, we cannot escape because, believe it or not, your soul is trapped inside the amulet, along with hundreds of others."

The blood from Katie’s face seemed to drain out completely at hearing the reply, the man continued: "The hideous contraption plays on your fears and on your weaknesses to lour you into its clutches. Its master, a dark and ancient sorcerer, resides at the bottom of Westfield Lake. He feeds off the souls it captures."

"A-are we here forever? Why does he trap souls?" Katie was starting to panic.

“It is the only thing he can do to keep himself alive. Long ago, long before your time and the time of your parents, he was cursed and condemned to live out the rest of time at the bottom a deserted lake, his only window into the outside world being a small and beautiful amulet he had created in anticipation of the curse. Do not fret though young lady, soon you will forget all that has happened, and your mind will revert back to where it was before the attack. You will live each day, inside your head, thinking life is going on as normal, and each day will be the same, though you will never be able to tell the difference. And though you will be a prisoner, you will be always happy, but you will never again have control of your mind."

Katie gave a look of bewilderment as an unsettling thought crossed her mind, "H-how do you know all of this?"

A dark smile made its way onto the man's face, "Because my dear, I am that ancient sorcerer."