「故事·听力」My Dad's Last Gift Went Missing

My Dad's Last Gift Went Missing And It Was A QUEST To Get It

This is Karen, and she’s 16! Do you like thriller films? If you do, you’ll definitely enjoy this story!

But before we start, Karen should probably introduce you to her family. Here’s her mom and her little sister, Alice. Sure, she may look cute but, at times, sharing a room with her can be unbearable. And this is her beloved boyfriend and hopefully her future fiancé, Rick. They met at school last year. Her mom and Alice both adore him. He’s smart, handsome, and can be very romantic. There used to be five of then, but her dad passed away six months ago. She’s still getting over it, but sometimes these things just happen in life.

When she turned 13 and she blew out the candles on her birthday cake, her dad kissed her and told her: “Your heart is a muscle! Don't let it get weak! Regardless of what happens, you have to keep on loving and fighting. Always keep going in life! And let this be a reminder of that wherever you go!” And then he handed Karen this beautiful, shiny golden necklace with a pendant-shaped like a heart. His words from that day stuck in her memory so intensely that she'scontinued to repeat them like a prayer ever since, especially when the dark times came after he was diagnosed with cancer and died two years later.

So, everything started with that beautiful pendant. But her actual story took place just a month ago. Karen woke up from a terrible nightmare where there was some evil-looking creature chasing her in the dark. Since there were another forty minutes left until her alarm was due to go off, she turned over onto her side to get cozy and comfortable and go back to sleep, but right before she closed her eyes, she noticed that something didn’t feel right about her room. Like something was missing. At first she couldn’t determine what it was exactly. But as soon as her eyes adjusted enough for her to see the nightstand, Karen realized what it was. Her pendant! She usually wore it around her neck during the day, but when she went to bed she took it off and place it on her nightstand. And now it wasn’t there!

The one thing Karen had always tried so hard to keep a hold of was now gone. Just imagine how frustrated she felt at that moment. She started looking for it everywhere – behind the nightstand, under her bed, in her drawers. Someone was clearly playing a joke on her, she thought. And then she saw her sister sleeping peacefully in her bed on the other side of the room. She always took things without asking. Karen became so angry that she charged towards her, woke her up, and as Alice was staring at her with uncomprehending, sleepy eyes, she asked in a loud voice: “Where is it?” She was all like, “What are you talking about?! I didn’t touch any of your stuff! You’re scaring me!” And then she burst into tears!

So it turned out that it wasn't her, but now Karen felt so desperate, and it was time for her to go to school, so she put her clothes on and went down to wash her face and have breakfast. During breakfast, she was silent. Her mom asked her if there was anything wrong with the food. She didn’t want to tell her that she’d lost the pendant her dad had given her, so she just mumbled something incoherent, got up from the table, and walked out the door without even saying goodbye.

She spent the day at school feeling both sad and guilty, and she kept recalling the moment her dad had given her the pendant. When she opened her locker after classes, she suddenly saw a sticker saying “Go see what monsters live under your bed.” She was totally not in the mood for stupid school pranks, so she was about to throw it into the trash can, but at the very last moment, she saw a small drawing of a heart on the corner of the sticker.

She rushed back home and looked under her bed, but the pendant wasn’t there – just like the first time she’d checked that morning. There was nothing on the floor, except for her old teddy bear that her dad had gotten her when shewas little. She used to play with it a lot, but as she’d gotten older she’d completely forgotten about it. She picked him up and saw that there was another sticker on her poor teddy bear’s belly. This time it was an address. Without giving it a second thought, she checked the address online, and headed over there.

It was a dark and abandoned house a couple of blocks away. Every time she passed it on her way to school, it gave her the creeps. She saw another sticker on the front door. It said “Step inside if you want to take back what you hold dear to your heart.” She was scared, but at the same time she wanted her pendant back so bad, so she braced herself, and pushed the door open.