The Locket

Pearce Deacon
4 min readFeb 9, 2023

PROMPT: Unnatural life in a picture

I have walked past that antique shop thousands of times, but I had never bothered to look at it let alone walk inside. Today, was different. I felt a strange desire to go check it out. So I entered.

The old man in the antique shop looked up at me as I entered, gave me a broad smile, and waived me in, “Welcome to Corban’s Emporium of Curiosities and Antiquities. I hope you find what you are looking for, or perhaps it will find you!”

Again, I do not know exactly why I entered the shop, but once inside I was enthralled. It was not your normal antique shop. The term ‘curiosities’ in its name was more than accurate. It was filled with the strangest collection of oddities I had ever seen.

I roamed about the shop noticing the shop keeper’s keen observation of my movements.

“Is there something I can help you with?” the shop keeper cheerfully inquired.

“I don’t know. I just had a feeling I needed to come in as I passed.” I responded trying to hide my nervousness.

The old man nodded, and observed, “People sometimes find what they are looking for when they don’t even know what they want. Let me know if you see something that interests you.”

I continued to look around and then I saw it. It was calling out to me. In a glass…

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