The Lost Dragon King

Chapter 5

Elijah had spent the last night shivering on a cold bench at a nearby park. He didn't have the courage to go back home and face Kathy after everything that had happened, nor did he have anywhere else in the city to go.

​In the morning, he finally picked himself up and made his way towards their apartment, hoping that he might talk to Kathy for the last time, or at least get his wallet and belongings from there so he could survive.

​His body ached with every step, but he forced himself to walk up the stairs. But just as he turned the corner near their door, he froze in his tracks.

​There were several large, black trash bags placed right at the door of the apartment. Kathy was standing there, dusting her hands over one of the plastic bags with an expression of disgust on her face.

​Elijah swallowed hard, his voice raspy as he spoke up. "Kathy... why are there so many trash bags here?"

​Kathy turned her head with an icy glare. "I had to put your stuff somewhere, after all. Now you can take your stuff away and get lost from my life!"

​Elijah didn't even bother to reply to her harsh tone. He immediately dropped to his knees, his hands trembling as he began searching through the open trash bags on the dirty floor. He ripped open the knots, frantically pulling through his old clothes and shoes.

​Kathy almost laughed in disbelief, watching him scramble like a dog. "Ha! What are you even looking for? I haven't kept any of your useless belongings inside the house! There was literally nothing worth keeping in there anyway!"

​But Elijah didn't reply to her taunts. Instead, he kept checking every single bag thoroughly, throwing aside his old shirts and worn-out pants. When he searched through the last bag and didn't find what he was looking for, his heart sank into his stomach.

He quickly got up, moving past the bags to go inside the apartment.

​"Stop right there!" Kathy shouted loudly, stepping in front of the doorway and blocking his path with her arms crossed. "You can't enter my house anymore! You don't belong here!"

​Elijah just stared blankly at the door, his voice barely a murmur. "Something... something is missing."

​Hearing that, Kathy immediately got offended. Her face flushed with anger as she screamed right into his face. "Are you calling me a thief?! Are you insane?! Why would I steal anything from you when all you owned was some torn rags and useless stacks of papers?!"

​Elijah was getting extremely agitated now, his eyes turning red with panic. "Where is my locket, Kathy?! Where is it?!"

​Kathy scoffed loudly, stubbornly shaking her head. "What locket?! You never gave me any locket! Did you even have the money to buy a locket for me in your entire life?!"

​"I'm not talking about a gift for you! I am talking about my own locket! My personal locket!"

​The moment those words left his mouth, something clicked in Kathy's mind. Her eyes widened slightly before a nasty smile spread across her face.

​"Oh!" Kathy gasped out mockingly, clapping her hands together. "Now I remember! You're talking about that useless, ugly locket that you always saved like it was some precious treasure!"

​She leaned forward, sneering right into his pale face. "The same locket you always bragged about... saying that you would gift it to our first son one day! Calling it a family heirloom of some kind! Is that the junk you're crying about?!"

​Elijah couldn't take her mocking tone anymore. He let out an impatient, desperate shout. "WHERE IS IT?! TELL ME WHERE IT IS!!"

​Kathy answered back with a cold, triumphant smile on her face. "I threw it away."

​Elijah froze completely, his entire body turning cold as if struck by lightning. "What... What did you say?"

​Kathy rolled her eyes, completely unbothered by his shock. "I threw it in the trash, Elijah! I assumed you didn't have any use for that fake locket either! Because now our marriage is completely over, so there will be no question of a son or any family between us, ever. So why keep trash? I tossed it right into the dumpster!"

​"YOU WHAT?!"

​A sudden wave of madness washed over Elijah. That locket was the only thing he had left of his real identity and his past. Without thinking, Elijah grabbed Kathy's shoulders with both hands and shook her violently!

​"Where did you throw it?! Tell me, which dumpster!!” Elijah screamed in utter desperation.

​Before Kathy could even scream, a heavy punch slammed straight into Elijah's jaw! The sheer force of the hit threw Elijah off his feet, sending him crashing sideways against the hallway wall. He slid down to the floor, blood trickling from his lip as his head spun violently.

​"Get your filthy hands off my girlfriend, you piece of shit!"

​Jordan stepped out from inside the apartment, flexing his knuckles with a dangerous glare.

"I told you to stay away from her! Next time you touch her, I'll break your arms!"

​Elijah wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. He slowly balanced himself against the wall and forced himself to stand up, his eyes fixed only on Kathy.

​"I don't care about you or this house..." Elijah rasped out. "I will leave as soon as I get my locket! I don't want to stay here anyway! Just give me my locket!"

​"Go to hell!" Kathy screamed at the top of her lungs, stepping behind Jordan. "Go dig through the city landfill if you want it so badly!"

​"Please, Kathy! It's important. It's the only thing I have! Just tell me where you put it!"

​Jordan rolled his eyes in extreme annoyance, stepping forward and shoving Elijah against the wall. "How much could that stupid piece of metal possibly be worth, huh?! 5 dollars? 10 dollars?!"

​He reached into his back pocket, pulled out a thick stack of cash, and threw the bills straight at Elijah's face. The crisp hundred-dollar bills hit Elijah's cheeks and fell around his feet.

​"Take this $5000 as charity and get lost!" Jordan spat out with pure arrogance. "Go buy a hundred cheap lockets with it and stop barking at our door!"

​Elijah looked down at the money on the floor, and then looked back up at Jordan with bloodshot eyes.

​"IT IS MUCH MORE PRECIOUS THAN YOUR DAMN MONEY! I don't want your charity! I want my locket back!!"

​Jordan burst into a loud, mocking laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. "Precious? You? Don't make me laugh, you beggar! You couldn't possibly own anything precious in your whole miserable life!"

​Kathy stepped out from behind Jordan, hissing angrily.

​"He's right! You used to wear that stupid, ugly locket everyday before, and I got totally fooled because of it! I thought it was some royal family heirloom and that you were surely from some rich family! But I had no idea you were just a penniless orphan carrying a scrap metal locket as your so-called legacy!"

​"It's not scrap!" He barked back, “It's not fake!"

​"Don't you dare lie to me now!!" Kathy screamed back, her voice full of rage and humiliation. "I had taken it to the jeweller too, and he clearly told me it's cheap, fake brass worth zero dollars!"

​Elijah stood there, completely stunned and heartbroken as her words shattered his last bit of hope.

​Just as the tension in the hallway reached its breaking point, the apartment door opened wider. Josie, Kathy's younger sister, stepped outside holding something small in her hand.

​She looked at the chaos in the hallway and said, "Here, I found something."