The Curse of The Cubic Necklace

6: The yearbook

Few hours ago...

ARI'S POV

"Luca...I-I need a break. I think we all do. Plus none of us is allowed to leave until I somehow break the damn curse, so just make yourselves at home," I said uninterestedly and reluctantly. Don't get me wrong, Luca's my best friend and has always been there for me when I need comforting, but right now I didn't feel like it. 

I feel like I need time for myself, sorting a curse which is somehow connected to grandmother. This is all frustrating. The moment I saw the demon everything from my perspective changed. I thought they were just a hoax but it turned out Blackmagic, spirits and the horror movies like Conjuring is all real but I was not paying attention to them because I imagined they were all just a rumor flying around to scare people.

I reluctantly climbed the stairs to my room, as Cleo followed behind. We were going to share a room during her stay here. "Ari...I know you aren't in the mood to talk, but you shouldn't have turned Luca down like that. He really cares for you," she said sitting on the bed.

"I know Cleo, but I just needed a break from all that talk about curses and demons for a while and I wasn't really thinking," I said. "Looks like you need time to yourself. I'll just go grab a bite downstairs kay?" she in her cherry voice. "Go help yourself CC" I said smiling a bit. "CC?" she asked confused.

"Cherry Cleo. I just thought it sounded cute," I said softly. She gave quick smile, approving of the nickname before walking out of the room. I sat on the floor and enjoyed the silence for a while. Everything seemed peaceful, just how I like it.

After sitting for a while longer, I decided to open the window to let the chill forest breeze in. As I opened it, a cold breeze brushed my paper white hair out of my face. I inhaled the fresh forest sent, and watched the colorful birds fly around in the distance.

Suddenly I felt as if I was being watched. I looked down and my eyes met with a pair of piercing green eyes. I blinked a couple of times before realizing  that the pair of eyes belonged to a beautiful black cat. It's fur was shiny and dark as midnight, not to mention clean too.

Just than I heard a knock on the door. Assuming it to be Cleo, I closed the windows and walked to the heavy wooden door, to open it. "Hey, got your snack?" I asked at the strawberry blond in front of me. "Yeah, I found this juicy apple in the pantry. Anyway, Leo asked you and Luca to meet him in the living room," she said taking a bite off her apple.

"Okay, I'll go get Luca and be right down," I said. Cleo nodded before skipping down the stairs while humming to herself. I closed my room door, and started walking towards the guest room. "Luca? Care to open the door?" I asked and waited for reply.

Nothing

Instead of waiting any longer, still pin drop silence. Without hesitating, I opened the creaky wooden door and peaked in. Inside I saw Luca sleeping peacefully and being the amazing friend I am, I decided to let him sleep. I know it is surprising, but he looked very tired earlier even all of us had dark circles around our eyes. I closely the door very slowly not to wake him up.

As I started walking downstairs, I remembered the weird words the demon had uttered in my dream. I quickly pulled out my phone and started typing.

"What does 'Tu esi nākamais' mean...." I thought out loud as I typed. A moment later, I figured out that it simply meant 'you're next'. Creepy? I know. Just as I was deep in my imagination, someone interrupted me "Hey why do you look so intense?" asked Leo, as I stepped into the living room. "Oh it's nothing. Luca's asleep by the way, so what did you need?" I asked changing the topic.

"I just thought that we needed more clues in order to find out who cursed you and where was the curse placed. I think we need to go back into the hatch," said Leo taking a deep breath. "W-what?" asked Cleo, choking on her apple. "Come on Cleo. Nothing's gonna happen to you as long as you're with us," reassured Leo.

"Ari..what do you think?" asked Cleo. "I think we should. Let's not wonder of too far," I simply stated. The twins nodded as I started lifting up the carpet, to reveal the hatch. Slowly all three of us jumped in. 

This time we didn't forget to bring flashlights to guide is through the dark path way. We walked and walked deep through the narrow path and it finally revealed an open area. The place seemed spacious and well tidied. The was no hint of dust there expect at one of those corners.

"Let's check here. There seems to be many dust filled old things that belonged to my grandma, in those shelves and boxes," I said monotoned. We started searching high and low, without making a single sound. I saw many books on the shelves.

 I did not understand any of the words in it like they were filled with symbols and pictures with no letters. Some of the pages inside of them were yellow as a sign of them being very old, torn and scrunched up. "Any luck?" asked Leo dusting his pants. 

Just as I was about to shake my head, I caught a glimpse of a thick leather book at the corner of my eye. "Hold up. Look what I found," I said taking the book in my hands. The twins came beside me, and curiously peaked at the book.

I patted the cover of it as it was really dusty. As I did, the words 'Mainland's High, Junior Witchcraft" was written in bold, at the top of the book's cover. "Witchcraft?" asked Cleo. Without hesitating I flipped the book open.

It seemed to be a really old yearbook. "Ari look! Isn't that you?" asked Leo surprised. "No, it's my grandmother. I've seen pictures of her when she was young. 

She looked exactly like me," I explained. Just than a thought hit me like a ton of bricks. "My grandmother went to a witch school?" I exclaimed.

"Let's go back to the living room and flip through this book. We might get something. I don't feel like staying any longer," said Cleo. Leo quickly took the ladder and dropped it on the opening of the hatch, that made a loud 'thud' sound. Cleo started climbing up, as I followed behind her.

"Hey Luca, looks like you're up," I heard Cleo say as she reached the top. "Why didn't you wake me up?" asked Luca in a demanding tone. I could tell that he was super annoyed.  

"You seemed really peaceful while sleeping. We didn't want to ruin that," I said, slightly chuckling. "Hey sleeping beauty," piped up Leo.

"Haha very funny," said Luca rolling his eyes. I swear if he keeps doing that, one day they might come out! I quickly closed the tunnel, and turned my focus onto Luca. "Ari, what's that?" he asked, pointing at the yearbook I was holding.

I smiled slyly, and showed him the cover of the book. At the sight of it, his eyes widened. "Does that book say 'witchcraft'?" asked Luca surprised. 

"Yeah it's a school for young witches. My grandmother attended it," I said. "Woah, that's like Hogwarts!" exclaimed Luca.

We flipped through the book to find several pictures of her classmates. They were all pretty old, and tainted. One of the pictures was missing, but I didn't give a lot of thought into it and continued flipping the pages.

"Umm...Ari? Why wasn't there a graduation picture? I mean the pictures started from the orientation, so isn't it supposed to have a graduation part?" asked Leo.

"Yeah, it doesn't add up, but maybe it's in a different album or something," said Luca. As I closed the book, Cleo gave me an uneasy look. "Ari...what if your grandmother cursed you by accident? I mean she's the only close relative you have that knows witchcraft..." she said quietly. 

I looked bewildered and dumbstruck. Why would grandma curse me? Her only granddaughter? "A-are you sure about that? Grandma would never do such thing!" I argued as anger boiled up inside of me. "I know, I'm just saying that she's the only close suspect we have right now," said Cleo softly.

I sighed. My rage was gone swiftly followed by confusion. I could not really defend her question too because I did not know the truth yet.  I started thinking back to what happened earlier and connected every possible trace.

Cleo could be right, but would grandma really have done it? Did grandma curse me?