The Broken Pieces novel Chapter 35

Room 235, I thought as we stopped.

Camara panted as she snatched her hand back, her cheeks stained red. "Why?" She choked out as she leaned over and tried to catch her breath.

I shrugged off her question as if it was as light as a feather and took a deep breath before calmly - and gently - knocking on the door.

A few second seemed to past, which felt like forever before an airy voice said, "come in."

I slowly opened the door with a welcoming smile on my face. "Hi, Ms. Dixon?"

Behind me, I could hear Camara cursing the universe and Earth, itself, for the likes of "selfish humans" and "exercise," or something like that.

I walked into the nicely decorated room. It's wasn't small, but it wasn't big either. Equipped with a nice twin sized bed, dresser and mirror. Small miscellaneous things laid on the dresser; a comb, chapstick, a shirt and a framed photo of a younger looking Fredrick hugging a woman with shinny, gorgeous blonde hair, a bright smile on her face as they stood behind the opening gates of Disney World.

I allowed myself to get swept up into the picture before breaking out of my trance when the airy voice spoke again. "You can come in, no need to hid in the doorway." The voice jokingly teased and I blushed before walking fully into the room.

Sitting in a small rocking chair tucked into the corner of the room was a petite woman, any trace of hair disappeared from her head as a vibrant yellow sundress fell down her skinny body.

She smiled brightly at me, and pointed to the corner of her room where flowers and cards laid. "The presents go over there, it's okay if I'm sad too." She words fell from her lips quickly as if she's been doing this for a while.

"Presents?"

She nodded, "yes," she paused, the happy smile slipping off my face for a second, "ever since my brother... died, everyone has been sending me gifts. It's not for me though-," she shakes her head sadly, "nor my brother, it's for the people. When they send it to me, it makes them feel better about themselves, because helping a woman with nothing seems better than having emotions." She smiles at me.

"I'm sorry," I bite my lip.

"Don't be," she waves me off, "I'm not mad about it."

Camara grabbed my arm and stared at the item in my hand, her attention soon met with the mysterious eyes of the woman in front of us. "What is this?" Camara whispers, her voice almost engrossed in the silence of the room.

I ran my fingers across the item, my heart pounding in my chest.

"Do you wanna hear a story?" Amber's voice broke the silence around us.

"Prior to everyone believes, my brother was a good man; he had good grades, made time for me, and never got in trouble. That was until my mother died. You see, my father was never around, whenever we would ask about him, my mother's face would turn stone cold and she wouldn't say anything for hours. It didn't take long for us to realize that by asking where our father was; we lost our mother."

Amber took a sharp breath, her hands clenched the colorful fabric of her dress, before continuing.

"Anyways, my mother died and Freddie became the 'man of the house,' he began to work long hours, dropped out of college and began doing weird stuff; getting mad easily and always looking over his shoulder as if someone was following him..."

"It wasn't until I got sick that's everything crashed down on us, to keep me away, Freddie has them lock me up in here and throw away the key," she gestured towards the room around us, "as you can see, this place is expensive as hell. And I don't even know how he paid for this; but I know it's not good. But before he left he gave me that pendant in your hand there." She pointed a long, skinny finger towards the locket in my hand, "open it." She urges me and I click it open with steady fingers.