Melissa and The Allies of Gaia--Part 1

Episode 1-The Pendant

 Melissa did not enjoy thunderstorms very much.

The loud noises and flashing lights, the power outages that wiped your data at the absolute worst time, and the always present (if slim) possibility of a tornado spawning out of nowhere. And tornadoes, as she knew, sucked. They sucked quite hard.

So when Melissa was abruptly woken up from her sleep by the flash and bang of a nearby lightning strike, she wasn't particularly happy.

Oh come on...not another one...now I'll not be able to get a good night's sleep for the rest of tonight... she thought to herself. Wait! I forgot! I left the washing machine on!

She went over to the washing machine, and moved the clothes to the dryer. She realized that she had left some clothes unwashed in the laundry basket. With a sigh, she pulled them out and placed them in the washing machine. One shirt wouldn't come out of the basket. It had a necklace chain tangled around it.

Oh no, she thought. I even forgot about the pendant.

She had received it that morning in the strangest way. The doorbell rang to her room, and she answered the door, only to find a package lying in front of the doorway.

Is this my order? She thought to herself. But she looked at the label, and it was strange.

"Trade Winds Fulfillment Services." I have no idea what that is, but it isn't Amazon.

But the address on the label was indeed her own. Did she forget something she had ordered? Was it a gift? She recalled overhearing one of her coworkers talking about buying a gift for someone. Perhaps they bought it for her?

Curiosity overcame her cautiousness. She cut the tape sealing the box shut, and lifted the flaps. Inside was the sort of fuzzy case jewelry came in, like those inside the little presents from Tiffany's. She opened the case.

Wow...it's really beautiful.

Melissa pulled out a sparkling pendant. It had a sterling silver chain, accented by black onyx beads. At the end of it was a smooth teardrop-shaped jewel, a translucent pale marine blue, like the sea near a white sand beach.

I have no idea what kind of stone this is, but it is very pretty. Could someone really have bought this for me?

She found a card inside the box, but when she opened it, there was no mention of who had sent the gift. Written instead was a series of care instructions. They were somewhat nonsensical.

"Not recommended for persons under 13 or over 65 years of age. Only licensed for public nonprofit use. Not for wholesale or retail sale. Store in a cool dry location.

WARNING: COLD WASH ONLY. DO NOT ALLOW CONTACT WITH WARM WATER. IF CONTACT OCCURS HEAD INLAND IMMEDIATELY!

Trade Winds is not responsible for damages and/or deaths accrued through illegitimate use of this device."

What the heck? This is just a jewel on a necklace! Why does it have warnings like it's a machine?

She put it around her neck. It looked quite fitting, and it felt comfortable too.

I guess I could hold onto this for a while...I'll find out who owns it later.

And that is exactly what she had done, and why she was having to disentangle it from the laundry basket. With a little work, Melissa separated the two.

She was about to put her dirty shirts in the washing machine when an incredibly loud thunderclap burst out of nowhere, and everything went blindingly white, then pitch-dark as the power was knocked out.