Curiosity Book 1 ✔️

Chapter 26

      I looked down at the ground as I listened to the voices speaking around me. I heard Sno speaking, claiming victory.

     But no one was speaking. It was completely silent. Grief and sadness hung heavily in the air, as we all thought of that terribly short battle.

     I remembered clearly. Crystal clear. As we watched her body be slowly put into the grave we dug for her. She was so young, and beautiful, and a model for us all. She united us, fought against Blu, was thrown from a bridge but still survived and carried on even when she thought her best friend was dead.

      "She'll be remembered for as long as he preserve and respect her memory, her life," I said aloud as soon as her body was set in the hole in the earth.

     I picked up a handful of dirt, and tossed it in. I was holding back so many emotions, I almost broke down seeing her in the grave. A small tear ran down my face as I watched the dirt fall onto her, scattering over her pale body. I backed up from the grave and watched as others began tossing handfuls of dirt in.

     Darren, Kale, Jewel, Farris. One by one dirt was tossed in. Ivory, Bri, Trenton, Tiffany.

     There were Easterners, Southerners and Northerners here, all just for her. She was the realisation that change can come, but not easily. She was the thing that we all needed to see that there's more to life than surviving.

     I sat on a table near her grave, holding it all in, watching as her grave was slowly filled. There was a good layer by now.

      Jewel sat next to me, completely silent. We watched the people mill around her grave, saying small prayers or thanks.

     Suddenly, Jewel spoke up, "This is a box of things that she loved before the Fall. And some she loved after, she wanted you to have it."

     She walked off to go see some of the other graves down the street, leaving me alone with a box that I was adamant about opening.

     I reluctantly took it to my room in the library. I sat down at my desk, staring for a few more minutes. Before slowly opening it. Her scent hit me like a brick, a fresh outdoorsy and adventurous smell, I instantly wanted to close the box and preserve it.

     Instead, my curiosity won me over and I began pulling things out of the box. There was a sketchbook, full of drawings, a notebook full of writing, a stuffed penguin, a guitar pick, a bundle of pencils, a paper written in french, an empty can of mountain dew.

     There was so much. She kept so much, she loved so much. I looked back to the notebook and began leafing through. I didn't think much of it until I saw my name.

     She had written down her entire experience, the whole time she was with us, she wrote it all down.

     I picked up a nearby pen, and followed her lead. I began writing a new chapter. The first chapter without her, and the last chapter of her story.

     I began with seeing her at her burial site, and ended it with where I am now.

     Every ending has a new beginning.