The Mnemophobic

Chapter 35

A red sun will set

Its shadow will spread

In to the silent water

Where your beloved lay dead

"You okay?" He snapped his fingers in front of my face. "Oh? Umm yea."

He knew I was lying because I could barely concentrate on what he was saying.

Beloved lay dead?

What did that mean? In the far corners of my heart I feared it had something to do with Swari. My mind kept coming back to her without solid reason. When she went missing her parents sent search parties out for her, the news spread like wild fire throughout the whole town. I had to see her parents, the once previously known power couple, breakdown till they had nothing but misery left.

I always knew that James had something to do with Swaris disapperance however I had no evidence to suppport my claim. If I had gone to her parents with my suspisions than James would have done the same or even worse to me. I was afraid, so very afraid and everyday after the incident till I accepted Ryan into my life, I felt alone in a world of 7 billion strangers. That may seem hard to understand but even with all those people here there was no one I could call my own.

Swari had been more than my friend, she was my inspiration. After looking at her I knew no matter how bad of a day I went through there would always be someone to lend me a hand, carry me through. When I could not do anything for her a sense of betrayal flooded my heart. She had been an undescribable friend and in return I was the reason she did not walk among us today. I was damned and spread that to everyone around me.

Elaih advised me against going down that road, he told me to honor her, where ever she may be. Her parents lost hope after my trial and had the case closed. What brought them peace was the thought that she was in a better and happier place so after a year of intense searching we celebrated Swari moving on out of our world. Her parents adopted a baby in her name and raised her as their own but they moved from Kingsview, for they could not bare walking the same streets their daughter once walked on.

Did the creek have something to do with her disappearing?

There was only one way to find out.

After a heavenly lunch I sneaked outside without telling anyone and walked along the Kinsview lake. It was a unorthodox lake. From an aerial view it had the shape of a pinwheel, there was a main circular body of water further in to the dense forest and 4 elongated branches of as extensions from its circumference which looked like a river before joining the main circular body. Our clubhouse was on located on the southern extension closest to the cottage but regardless of that one would still have to walk about half a kilometer to reach it.

The enormous wooden structure stood before me connecting the two banks of the southern end extension. There were stairs on both sides leading to a brown painted wooden house. The roof had a tower emerge from it a couple of feet high which gave an amazing view of the muddy green tree tops and large water body ahead. Even after all those years it was still intact.

I got up the stairs listening to them creak back in to life. The door seemed jammed and I had to ram in to it hard to get it to open. As the door flung open I witnessed what horrors had happened to the interior. The foul smell of urine came to me at once causing me to shield my nostrils from the smell with my sleeve. There were dirty pieces of cloth scattered on the floor surrounded by deep claw marks on the walls. What on Earth had happened here?

There was a violent noise as I walked to the centre that halted me in my tracks but died down after a couple of seconds. Perhaps the clubhouse wasn't as sturdy as it seemed. I kicked the pieces of dirty cloth around to see if any matched anything Swari was wearing. I remembered that much very clearly, every detail of that day was safe in my mind. She wore faded black jeans and a white and orange polka dot shirt. She had her favourite antique bracelet on whose pendant was in the shape of a rustic turtle. Her black bagpack would always, always be around her shoulders. However none of the above were anywhere to be seen.

Towards the corner a small spiral staircase connected the floor to the tower and although they were immensely dirty I tried to make it up without puking and gagging.

Upstairs I awed to the surreal view and forgot for a moment what sort of a trashy place I was standing in. The trees served a soldiers in my mind fencing the river till it got to the main lake where the clouds accumalated and stood still.

Looking far behind I caught a glimpse of our cottage but I saw something that shocked. Clyde, Ryan, and Grampa were rushing towards me screaming and shouting though I could not make out what they were saying. I felt queasy from the inside, like my sixth sense telling me something was wrong. I started climbing back down till I stopped when my head was at the towers floor level. Stuck between a two slightly displaced wooden boards was an old broken rustic turtle pendant.

No it wasn't the same. It couldn't be.

I reached forward with tears blocking my vision and yanked it out with brute force. I yanked it out too hard - momentum took me behind till I went from mid air straight on to the hardwood floor. My head took the force of the fall as I layed consious but with my eyes closed on the floor trying to wait away the firey pain. I felt my weight shift towards my left till I slid across the floor. My eyes flew open grabbing the bottom of the stairs with a my might. Only a couple of seconds after I looked down to see the window give a view of only blue water did I realize what had happened. The clubhouse had given way and I was now seconds away from impact with the water and minutes away from from my watery grave.