Stumbled Upon the Dead!

We were walking back to the Adolf mansion and Caleb was still holding my hand. I was tired, thirsty, sleepy, and really hungry. I held onto his hands tighter as I felt a little dizzy.

“Are you okay?”, he asked turning around after I squeezed his hand a little too tightly.

“Yes! I am fine.”, I answered smiling a little. He nodded and focused his gaze back on the uneven land.

“How far did I even come?”, I asked astonished at my own running skills.

“Well, you literally ran into the middle of the forest. Our house is in the very beginning of this place. So, you did travel a nice long way.”, he chuckled.

“Woah! I didn’t even realise.”, I murmured.

“I am just glad we found you while you were still breathing.”, he said without looking back. How can someone say such a mean thing? I planned on ignoring his comment, he is the one who saved my life after all.

“Can we just take a rest for a little while?”, I asked completely out of breath now. He looked at me and after seeing my huffing self, he nodded.

“Guys! Let’s just take a little break now!”, he called out to his friends and wolves. I came to know that moment wolves are intelligent. They understood what Caleb said and stopped right there.

“You trained them well.”, I commented making him look at me in disbelief.

“It is a compliment.”, I defended my tone.

“Uhm! Thanks, then I guess.”, he said in a weird tone and then smiled.

“You can be nice to me one time and just say thanks without the extra emotions you put on a show!”, I was on edge of just screaming at him.

“You are dumb.”, he said and left without waiting for my answer.

What does he mean by I am dumb? He is dumb! His whole family is dumb!

I watched him walk towards his friends and he sat with them. They were laughing and giggling about something. I decided to not intervene and sat on the rock near me facing the opposite side. Mindlessly I watched the trees move and the leaves rustle as the wind passed through them. I looked at the ground to find a bunch of stones were gathered at one place, so to kill the boredom I started to kick the stones away one by one. It was fun.

I was about to kick another stone away when something shone brightly and made me flinch. I looked closer to find it was a necklace. The necklace looked familiar, but it was covered in blood.

I bent down and held the chain and tried to pick it up, but it was stuck. I pulled a little harder, but it won’t budge. Using both my hands I finally pulled it out. The moment necklace was out I looked down and there was something I never expected to stumble upon this randomly. A hand! It was coming out of the ground.

“Caleb!”, I screamed as I fell down the rock trying to make as much space as possible between me and the hand peeking out of the ground.

“What happened?”, a frantic Caleb came running followed by his friends. Shivering I pointed towards the hand. He looked and his eyes went wide.

“Dig!”, he ordered and sat down next to me holding me tightly in his arms, while I was busy sobbing lightly.

“It’s okay!”, he whispered, and his lips made a faint contact with my forehead. His friends were busy digging and I had no courage to see what exactly their findings were.

“Did you find anything else?”, he asked looking at my closed palm holding the necklace. I nodded and gave him the necklace. He took it and cleaned the blood with his shirt.

“The blood is fresh.”, he said and looked at the necklace which was now a little clean. I tried to look at it too. It seemed very familiar.

“Wait!”, I said and took the necklace from his hands. I knew who this belonged to. But I didn’t wish to believe it.

“Do you know whose necklace is this?”, he asked. I nodded.

“Maybe. Is there something written behind it?”, I asked returning the necklace to him. I couldn’t do it. The silver swan pendant with a golden crown, I knew whom it belonged to.

“A. R. Y. A.”, he read the letters one by one. I could feel my heart race as he revealed the engraved name. The moment he said the last letter, I felt my whole world crumble down.

“Arya!”, I whispered and sat down. I was numb.

“Y-your friend- Arya?”, Caleb finally caught on and looked at me. I could hear him talk but I didn’t have it in me to respond. I felt two arms engulf me, but I just sat there staring at the necklace hanging in Caleb’s hand.

Arya was dead?

“It can’t be Arya! This person could be anyone who managed to steal or maybe borrow her necklace! Right?”, I asked looking into Caleb’s eyes. His hands moved to my cheeks and wiped off the tears and he slowly nodded.

“It can’t be Arya!”, I murmured and hugged him again as he held me in his soft embrace again.

I wanted to keep my hope up, but these scary thoughts kept haunting my mind. What if it is Arya? What was she doing in the forest? Did she keep looking for me?

And the scariest thought of all was if that body is of Arya, did she die because of me?