The Fae Locket

Chapter One

Taking his hand, she led him through the front door, locking it behind her. It was past midnight and the street outside was deadly silent. The cute laughing man who was also drunk, nearly tripped over the mat as he entered the house. The house echoed slightly due to the sparseness of furniture inside. "Am I alright to smoke in here?" he asked, reaching into his coat pocket for a packet of cigarettes.

"Sure, as long as you open a window" Rose replied but wondering why he hadn't had one outside on the walk here. Unsure what to do whilst her guest smoked, she looked blankly into a corner of the room, focusing on a pealing piece of wallpaper near the kickboard. Catching a glimpse of herself in the living room mirror, she tucked her white blonde hair behind her ears, whilst the man carried on smoking out of the window. even though he had opened it to let the smoke out, the smell was still present in the room. Rose wasn't feeling okay today; the smell of nicotine and the copious amounts of alcohol had only appeared to have deepened her upset.

Today had been an emotional day, she'd buried her grandmother, the last of her family, and now Rose had nothing left in the world but the small number of belongings upstairs in her bedsit room.

Rose was nearly 30 and had left an abusive marriage behind her and because she'd left her ex-husband so quickly to escape his violent fist, she'd left behind most of her old life too. Visions of him appeared in her nightmares, her ex-husband used to come back from work, nights out, whenever and beat her to a pulp after the slightest thing went wrong. Rose was his punching bag and one day, he broke her nose and a rib, so she went to the police. Within months, she lived in a bedsit and whilst she was pleased to be away from her ex-husband's fist... she missed her house.

The bedsit house she lived in wasn't terrible, but the wallpaper was peeling, dated décor, it had a musty smell, mismatched furniture and she shared it with a lady called Sarah. The other rooms in the house seemed to have more transient people live in them, students and people in-between houses but Rose had lived here for the best part of two years. She had hoped to go live with her grandmother after her marriage went sour but unfortunately, her grandmother got dementia and went into a home. The house her grandmother lived in had to be sold to pay for the care she was getting in the care home.

Watching her grandmother forgetting her and having to fit her life into a box room when all she wanted to do was have someone to talk to who loved her was heart-breaking.

All she could do to forget how much today hurt - was drink. It wasn't the best coping strategy, but Rose knew that she would be forgiven for drowning her sorrows today of all days.

Sitting watching this stranger hiding behind the net curtain smoking was doing nothing to take her mind off the thoughts in her mind. The living room started to spin as she sat perched on the tatty brown couch arm. Deciding that another drink would be the perfect tonic for making sure she got over her current maudlin mood, she got up and walked to the kitchen. She tried her best to not hold the walls as she walked, her towering black high heeled shoes softly tapped against the grotty looking carpet below her feet. It was slightly bumpy due to its age, so Rose had to try hard not to trip over various lumps as she walked to the kitchen. On the safety of the 80's red and black tiled floor, she opened some dated looking cupboards, various foods, mismatched plates and packets of microwavable rice with Sarah's name scrawled on them. Finally, after pulling most of the food off the shelf, deliberately tucked away behind a selection of tall boxes she found a box of wine, it wasn't vintage, a cheap dry white wine that probably tasted awful but at least it had alcoholic content. Grabbing a tumbler glass from another cupboard, she set the box of wine up, piercing the box and placing it over the side of the countertop. Watching it with all her concentration that she didn't spill over the sides, especially when she lifted the very full glass to her lips, "Do you want another drink?" Rose asked loudly between gulps of the cheap tasting wine.