The place was perpetually dark, no matter which direction she turned. No electric lamp posts spaced out along the paths. No automobiles littered the roads. Old-fashioned grey cobbles replaced the modern tar road. Men on horses cantered around dressed in clothes of the early 1900s. She could smell the oil burning from the handful of street lamps that illuminated the crooked houses on both sides of the street. She turned her gaze to the necklace pendants displayed on the black velvet boxes. She glanced at the man who stood at her side, equally fascinated by the pendants. She glanced at the pendant seller, worried that he may charge excessively. He looked at his two customers with the certainty of a peddler who knew he would have a transaction.
"Each pendant is unique and belongs to just one owner," the peddler said.
She looked at her companion but couldn't see his face or his expression. She felt him gazing at her but she realized he was waiting for her decision. In the next instant, they were walking side by side, trailing the pendant seller to his house right around the corner; it was his workshop. His pendants were crafted in the house and he had all the necessary tools to make each of them their own, distinct pendant.
A woman in a black dress and grey apron said nothing as they entered the house after the pendant seller. He started working on a pendant for her companion. The woman offered no tea or pleasantries. She stood beside the window, gazing out at the opposite house. She couldn't see what the woman was staring at but she could feel the negativity radiating from the woman in the black dress. The pendant seller worked furiously on the pendant without once looking up to see if his two customers were in the house with him. He was absorbed in the creation of another pendant. It was a sure sale. Her companion and she left the odd couple in the house. Without a word, they knew they were going back to retrieve the completed pendants.
She wasn't sure if they returned to the house later or the next night. There was a hole in her memory from the moment they left the house until they were back in the house. Her companion was studiously admiring his completed pendant at a table while seated on a wooden chair. She still couldn't see his face. It was as if only his actions could be seen but she could feel his every thought. It did not come across as peculiar to her. She looked at the pendant seller at his worktable; he was grinning and smiling as he created her pendant. It was close to completion. There was a bell attached to her pendant and she could hear its faint ringing. She was not sure what made her turn to the woman standing beside the window. She could see her side profile in the fire that illuminated the room. She saw a look of disgust and horror on the woman's face as she looked outside. She looked out at the cause of such a violent reaction.
A row of children in blue dresses, white bonnets and white aprons were coming out of a house. A matron in a black outfit stood at the porch, making sure that they didn't trip as they descended the stairs. The children walked in a single, continuous line led by a man on a horse. As they walked across the pendant seller's house, it elicited a sharp intake of breath and hiss by the woman.
At that moment, the pendant seller stood up from his worktable in triumph as he held out the necklace with the pendant hanging on it. She saw that he was a man in his mid-fifties. His face was tanned and leathery with multiple wrinkle lines spread across when he smiled. He shook the pendant and the bell rang out loud and clear.
When the bell rang, a little girl stopped walking, turned towards the house and fell to her knees. The gate leading to the house and the door flung open as her hands clasped together in prayer before her knees touched the ground. She looked into the little girl's face and saw her red-rimmed eyes opened wide. She could not describe the pain and sorrow she saw in those eyes. She had never seen such anguish from another fellow human in her life. The eyes pleaded with desperation far greater than that of an innocent wrongly sentenced to die but begging for pardon until the last breath. Even then, words could not describe the pain and desperation she saw in the little girl's eyes.
Looking back to the pendant seller's face, she heard the voice of her intuition she thought she had lost. It told her that the pendant seller was not what he appeared to be. It told her that the pendant was not just part of a necklace. It told her that she may have just given her soul to the devil.
She realized as she ran out the door beside her companion that she was clutching the necklace in her hand. As she nearly stepped out the threshold of the house, a hand grabbed her and swung her around. She felt the pendant seller's hand hold hers tightly and fear caused her to punch the man in the face to release his grip. The man's smile had changed into a maniacal grin. No laughter emitted from him but the grin made fear eat into her heart. Even the haunting laughter of the evil psychopathic being that chased her previously, appeared inconsequential next to the pendant seller's grin. The second punch caused a crack in the man's face which showed the mask he was wearing. Her third punch caused the lower half of his mask to fall off. However, she was rooted to the spot and could only stare in horror as it was not a face that lay behind the mask; it was an endless fiery inferno that burned. She could feel him grinning at her.
She did not know if it was an outer body experience or she and the pendant seller did turn to look behind her simultaneously. The man leading the children was in a red uniform top and brown hat, sitting astride a brown horse. Again, she could not see the face of this rider but she felt him frowning at the pendant seller while emanating a feeling of safety and protection. She was transfixed at the transformation of the seller's face; from glee to shock and fear. She felt her companion pulling her out of the pendant seller's compound.
Her knees could not hold her up and she slid to the ground in mute relief. She watched her companion throw his pendant to the cobbles; it smashed to multiple pieces. She held the chain of the necklace and flung her pendant to the ground repeatedly. It took her a few attempts before the pendant cracked and finally shattered. The bell had stopped ringing since she left the pendant seller's house. As she realized that the pendant was finally destroyed, she felt tears flowing furiously down her cheeks. A loud sob escaped her lips as she hugged her knees close and slowly rocked back and forth on the cobbles.
She did not know if everyone was looking. She did not know if the little girl was still kneeling in front of the house. She did not know where the pendant seller was. She could not comprehend anything.
She heard the rider urging the horse forward and stopping beside her. She looked up and saw the outstretched hand of her companion. In his palm was a miniature model of a black sheep with white wool. He offered the sheep to the rider.
"Save this sheep. I could feel its fear."
Somehow she knew her future was hanging on that simple gesture.