Creative Treasure Hunt

100
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Jamie clenched her fist around the necklace so hard, the edges bit into her flesh. The pain in her hand throbbed in time with her pounding heart. Her lungs and throat burned a counter rhythm with each gasped breath. And her feet pounded out yet another beat. Heart beat and lungs inside, breath and feet out, the beats of her body pounded on as she ran.
And run she did.
She ran until the lights of the food and drink establishments flattened out into the dim lights of the commercial district and the sounds of her pursuers faded. She swerved down alleys, ducked under fences, and at last slid through a tiny window that led into a dark hole.
Her arms shook as she took slow deep breaths through her nose, fighting to keep them as quiet as possible. As her heart slowed and her breathing easied she strained her hearing into the night beyond the window. Safe in the dark she could hear some distant shouts but they were well away from her. And at last she opened her hand and held her prize up to the light that spilled sluggishly through the window.
A half formed memory of pictures in a book came back to her as she looked at the strange creature outlined in blood on the pendent. The creature’s eye gleamed back at her, seeming to glow in the darkness, as the light struck it.
She would have to replace the chain that had snapped off when she had grabbed it.and clean the blood of, maybe polish it up before she could offer it as tribute. But at least she wouldn’t go empty handed.


50
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Jamie eyed the crowd as it shifted, growing and shrinking, pulsating as people moved in and out of the club. The yellow lights on the brick face of the building made everyone look sickly while the bright white lights inside the door alcove washed every one out. Black and white movie characters with splashes of color merging with diseased hordes.
Jamie shut her eyes and willed away the images that thought brought to mind. Images of people rotting where they stood.
“Stop.” Her voice snapped her out of the past and she started toward the crowd. She stayed as close to the wall as she could. The doorman spotted her in the crowd and raised an eyebrow in her direction before reaching out and clearing a way for her.
There were three doors into the club, two stood open for those the doormen chose worthy while the third was firmly closed with a camera mounted above it. That door clicked open a moment after she stepped in front of it.
The corridor just beyond the door was quiet. The noise of the crowd and club sealed away by the closed door. The hall itself was dim, lit from below. The light shining up through the glass floor from small rooms,“The Collection”. A large animal on four legs with orange and black fur was next to a room with a brown pot in the center next to a room with a young woman asleep partly on her stomach and partly on her side with one arm under her head Her tattoos looked fresh and dark, swirling around her legs, up her back, down the one arm that was visible. Her black hair and pale skin gave her that same black and white illusion. It made the colors in her tattoos POP out.
Jamie moved down the hall quickly when the woman’s eyes popped up and looked up at her. She could feel her cheeks flush slightly, feeling a bit guilty for gawking at the woman.
The room at the end of the hall was simple. Four grey walls with a conference table in the center. The dim lights and dark colors made the room feel claustrophobic and far too large at the same time. She dropped the pendent on the table quickly then retreated to the doorway and stood waiting. The silver metal and orange gem seemed to glow on the table while the black leather she has used for a cord blended into the dark table.
“Her name is Sashina.” Hills voice whispered above her right ear just as his hand landed on her shoulder. She jumped and twisted so suddenly that she would have fallen over it not for his large heavy hand. He snickered as he released her and walked over to the table. The pendent looked absurdly small and cheap in his hand as he turned it over and over before turning to her and holding it out towards her. “A trinket?”
Jamie stepped up in front of him and pressed the center of the creature’s shell. Light burst out from the orange eye. Three dimensional images, streams of numbers, text files floated between them, dazzling their eyes.
“Oh.” the shocked look on his face gave way to a grin.

60
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Jamie looked at the painting on the wall above the couch. She was Hills’ own apartment. She was clean, clean for the first time in a long time. In contrast to the offices and Collection rooms, his apartment was full of colors and was massively cluttered. Books and papers and data units and models covered every surface. Maps and posters and blueprints were pinned and taped to all the walls. It seemed as if the area around this one painting was the only clear spot in the apartment.
“It was mother’s” He stood in the doorway looking at her, he seemed less massive and terrifying now. A totally different person almost. “At night we would sit in front of it and she would tell me stories. Stories about spaceships, other worlds; some were true, some were fake. No matter what we collected, or lost, or sold, she kept this picture.”
“I don’t remember it.”
“It was never for you. Be gone in the morning” He said dismissively before turning and leaving the room. She wrapped her arms around herself and did not look at the painting again.