Jia Xinyue hurriedly made her way through the dense crowd. Everyone was streaming in the opposite direction, eager to go home after a long day at work. She cursed herself for coming out at a time like this. Rush hour was never fun.
Unfortunately, Jia Xinyue had left her notes at school and there was an important test coming up. She would fail the class if she failed that test. Gritting her teeth, she continued to push through the crowd.
From the corner of her eye, she spots a flash of colour fall to the pavement. Jia Xinyue couldn't help but try and look for that flash of colour.
Bending down, she picks up a pendant. The pendant was circular and was a muted shade of light green with delicate white swirls running through it.
Reaching out towards it, she picks it up, marvelling at how it seemed to glimmer under the light of the fading sunset.
It seemed like it was made out of jade, but Jia Xinyue couldn't tell if it was real or fake.
More importantly, where was the owner?
"Hey, has anyone lost a pendant here?" she calls out, but her voice soon faded away with the crowd.
Jia Xinyue stood there, unsure of what to do. She could always just go to the police station nearby and drop it off there...
Her gaze wandered to across the street, where she suddenly locked eyes with a dark haired stranger.
He had a look of displeasure on his face. Jia Xinyue quickly realised that he was staring at the pendant, and not her.
How does someone pick out one stranger from amongst the crowd? Jia Xinyue wasn't sure, but she felt something inside her pull herself towards him.
No, more accurately, it felt like the pendant was pulling her towards him.
Jia Xinyue shook her head.
[No way that's true... I must've not been sleeping enough. ]
[Anyways, he looks like he might be the owner. ]
She stepped over the barrier separating the sidewalk from the road, and looking carefully around her, she began to cross the road.
Fate is a curious thing.
Just as Jia Xinyue crossed halfway through the road, there came a loud, blaring honk. Jia Xinyue didn't even have time to react. As the car collided with her, all that registered on her mind was the pain and the fear in her heart.
---
A few curious teens took out their phones to record the accident. A mother nearby quickly dialled the ambulance, her voice trembling at she spoke. The traffic around them had slowed to a stop, and more and more people came onto the scene.
The distinct smell of smoke assaulted the senses of everyone there.
No one knew if the young lady would make it. Her limbs were sprawled out at an unnatural angle, the pool of blood surrounding her a bright grisly red.
The driver, on the other hand, wasn't hurt at all, just dazed from the impact.
His eyes didn't stray away from the young lady at all. If only if he wasn't speeding, if only if he wasn't stupid.
She didn't deserve this. Maybe, it was her fault, for not crossing at a proper crossing, but did she deserve it? Did she deserve death?
Millions of people jay walked, yet today she was the one to have been plucked from the world.
Jia Xinyue's blood dripped slowly, straight onto the pendant. She had unknowingly clenched onto the pendant at the time of impact, which led to it being safe and sound.
The pendant started to glow with a luminious green shine. As her blood touched the surface it was soon absorbed and a shape; a series of characters started to form. The colour of the pendant changed from a muted green to a startling shade of dark emerald green, the colour pure and clear.
The dark haired stranger's eyes started to deepen upon seeing this. A cold smile graced his face and he chuckled slowly. Hands in his pockets, he sauntered towards her dead body.
No one noticed his presence.
He bent down slowly and picked up the glowing pendant, letting it dangle from his fingertips. He tilted his head and laughed, a sound that would make others feel despair.
"Jia Xinyue....very well. It would be a shame to let you die today." he said, swinging the dangling pendant.
He addressed Jia Xinyue's dead body, not caring in the least that she couldn't hear him at all.
"You're in luck. Existence has been a little bit bland lately. Don't let me down."
Upon saying this, he turned and began to walk away, his figure fading slowly into nothing.
In his hands, he held a dark green pendant with the words "Jia Xinyue" written on them.