15.
As she approached the earthen crack, Monica thought she saw a glint in the dirt. A bit caked over, perhaps, but it was most definitely a shining token that was either guilded or bronzed. She kicked at it, but it would not loosen. Jenny approached and scratched its outline in the dirt with her hooked toenail.
“Wow, it’s singing,” Jenny gasped. The point of her big toenail rested on top of the loosened item, which Monica now saw was not a coin, as she first thought it might be, but some sort of jewelry.
“It’s a necklace, look,” Jenny said.
Monica knelt down and examined the thick chain and its ornate gold piece, highly polished despite the obsolete style. Impulse drew her hand down to wipe the dust from the center of the disk pendant.
She had felt nothing before like the electrified thrill sent resonating up and down her back, turning the hairs on her arms tiny needles standing on her skin. Monica shot to her feet and commanded her friend’s awed gaze. “We have to go now, Jenny. We have to leave.”
“It was singing for you,” Jenny replied, her soft blue eyes shining. “It wants you to stay.”
“I don’t care what it wants. No, don’t you see, it, Darrowwood is dangerous. But I don’t think you do, do you?” Monica glanced down at her friend’s purple toenail. The fingernail on her own right hand felt as though it were going to burn right off. When she looked up again, her friend’s eyes were pleading. “I am leaving right now, Jenny.”
“I’m not going with you,” Jenny replied calmly. “This is where I belong.”
“No, you’re not staying here. I’m going straight to your parents and see if they can talk some sense into you.” Monica turned and ran, leaving behind all of it, Jenny and the track and the distant school, letting a moist pine wind push her towards town, where she knew Jenny’s family would be.
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