A Midwinter Night's Dream

He sighed as he walked down the street, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Ugh, he hated working evenings... Then of course his boss loses the key to the storage room, so he has to stay until two freaking A.M. At least he got overtime for it. He swore, his supervisor would lose her own head if he wasn't there to keep her organized.

Still, there was something nice about walking home in the dead of winter at this hour. The streets were quiet, nearly empty... It gave him peace to think. A peace of mind. New Paltz, NY was a great town. He was from Illinois, but he'd definitely fallen in love with this eclectic college town. He'd only been there two years, but... Well, he wouldn't mind staying the rest of his life, that was for sure. He wasn't much of a wanderer... More of a homebody.

He raised his mitten-clad hand as a snowflake fell in front of him. A quick glance up at the sky showed that it was, indeed, starting to snow. Great, the snow hadn't melted from last time. He hated winter... Not that he hated snow. It was fun to play in. It was just... he didn't drive. Riding your bike and walking through the snow of upstate New York was difficult, to put it mildly.

His breath came out in a visible white puff, and he raised his scarf up to cover his mouth. Ugh, it was cold... He needed to get home. He could probably cut through the parking lot behind Los Agaves. The young man turned and cut across the snow-covered lawn, his snow boots leaving footprints in the thick frost. As he got past the lawn and into the parking lot, he abruptly tripped, falling flat on his face. Ow.

He pulled himself up, dusting off his jeans and turning to see what he tripped on. A rock? No, a... A box?

He scrambled to his knees and picked up the snow-covered wooden chest. It looked almost like a jewelry box... Did someone drop it here? He should probably take it to the police station... Someone might be looking for it. But what was in it? Yeah, if he was going to report it found to the police, he'd need to know what it was...

Looking both ways as if to check for anyone who might catch him, he opened the box, gazing inside to find... a pendant? He reached in and picked up the piece of jewelry. It was a heart-shaped ruby, set on a gold lattice chain. He held it up to the floodlight shining on the parking lot from the roof of the second floor of Los Agaves. Huh... If he didn't know any better, he'd assume that the pendant was glowing.

Wait... Yeah, it was glowing. It was warm, too. Hot, even. Burning!

He attempted to drop it, but it seemed stuck to his palm now! The lattice chain seemed to have wrapped around his hand of its own accord! The light from the ruby heart started shining and a bright light flashed from the pendant. A gust of wind shot outward from it, knocking him back into a nearby car with surprising . The blow knocked the wind out of him and he struggled to sit up. Ugh, his head hurt. Wait, where was the locket? He searched around for it, finding it gone. Did he drop it?