The Void Duelist

Chapter 15 - Fix It Up

Aria's POV

After the incident, that would have gotten me arrested if it wasn't some dark forces fault, Jaden took me straight back to the dorms. He had to go back to his class straight after thought as he was already failing. As well as having to see the school nurse... I felt bad for hurting him, but I was assured that it wasn't my fault.

Banner was meant to be looking after me, but he was just in his office doing his own work. He knew I preferred being alone.

I was sitting on the bed in mine and Jaden's room.

Oh yeah. I just remembered. This isn't my room...I wonder if my room is fixed up yet?

I left my current room and walked down a door. I stopped to looked at the old name plate that was now dangling by a single screw. It was all scratched. I sighed.

I guess they didn't have time to clear it.

I opened the door, which swung back with ease. It was attached by only one set of hinges. The actual room itself was as it was when I last saw it. Bed still broken. Room trashed. Torn clothes scattered around. I entered inside and tried to find anything salvageable. I managed to find a couple shirts and a pair of jeans. I went into my small wardrobe and scuffled my hands across the top shelf for something. My hand passed over the feeling of crushed velvet and I pulled out a small box. I brought it clearly into my vision and sat on my bed.

This was also something my mother gave me. Something in her will. But I never opened it. I didn't even read the note that was slitted tight under the two belts. I would always be scared I would cry again if I looked inside.

Screw it. It's been 6 years. I'm looking inside.

I first carefully removed the note from the front and read it.

'To my dearest daughter,

If you are reading this I am most likey dead. I am sorry I am not there to see your face when you open this box, or have already seen what's inside. I wish I could be there, but alas all good things must end. But do not cry my love. All things happen for a reason. Maybe my death has lead you to somewhere brighter.

I know you were not much of the talking type when speaking to other children, but I hope you have friends now. However old you are. If you do not and are in a dark place, please believe me when I say that light shall come soon. I promise you. No matter how small that light it.

Now, as for what is inside. I saw this in a shop a while ago. As soon as I saw it I knew it was destined to belong to you. I was going to give it to you as soon as I came home, but I then thought that it would be a magnificent gift to give you for your 16th birthday instead. Better to plan ahead than be late. I wanted to make sure I had it for you that day. and I'm glad I did. Even though you are probably not reading this on your 16th birthday, I hope you are at least that age when you open it.

I shall always love you. And I hope you find someone to love as well.

Love mum.'

I was silent. I didn't cry. I wasn't upset. But I wasn't happy either. Emotionless.

I guess my wall is back up. Good.

I folded up the note and placed it in my pocket. I stared at the box. It was covered in dark purple crushed velvet. It was soft, and had two small belts wrapped around it. I untied the belts.

Inside was a bracelet. A charm bracelet. The main bracelet was silver. Each charm was different, and different colours. There was a black onyx cat charm, a red ruby ladybug, a blue sapphire microphone, a green emerald clover, a pink amethyst heart, a yellow topaz smiley face and finally a white/ clear diamond wolf.

It was beautiful. But I wasn't one for jewellery. Not anymore. I guess my mother believed I would still be into it when I grew up. But I only liked jewellery in the first place because I liked how my mother looked with it on. I thought I could be equally pretty with it. But after she died I stopped wearing jewellery all together.

I considered at least trying it on, but didn't. I didn't want to wear it, and nobody could make me. I placed it back in its box along with the note and shoved it in my pocket. I looked around the room again and started tidying what I could. I found some bin bags in the storage shed, which was on the other side of the from building, and started cleaning. I placed all torn clothing in one pile. I could sew some things together and make some new clothes from the scraps. I picked up broken pieces of wood and clothing that were too small to reuse and chucked them in the bag. I placed all the torn bedding on the pile with the torn clothes. I tied the bag up and placed it outside. I also put the completely trashed computer outside too. I took the pile of clothes and sheets and put them in another bag, but kept that in the room. All that was left was the broken furniture. I then brought out the box of tools from the shed as well and got to work.

I pulled apart the top two bunches of the bed, as those were the only damaged parts. I removed the posts so it was just left with one single bed on the bottom. I threw all the wood outside. One desk top looked fine but the legs were snapped. The other desks legs were fine but the top had been snapped in half. I removed the good legs from the broken top and used them to replace the legs of the other desk. I took out the broken legs and table top and placed it outside with the rest of the trash. I got out some nails and a hammer, and started fixing the good top and legs together.

I went over to the door and replaced the broken hinge with a new one and fixed the door to it. I then took to the wardrobe and also fixed the hinges on that. I picked up the draw that was breaking apart and did exactly that. I carefully took apart the 5 pieces of wood and took out 4 more hinges so I could remake it from the pieces. I also glued them so it was extra strong. I took out some more nails and hammered on the base in the four corners where the frame pieces met.

I wiped sweat from my forehead before fitting the draw back into the wardrobe. The only thing left was the curtains. Which we're also immediately thrown into the fabric pile. As for the pile that went with all the other broken parts as it was snapped in two. The room finally started looking normal again.

To finish it all off I got 3 more screws out the bag and started to fix up my name plate. I lifted it up slightly and lined it up with the already made holes and screwed in the screws one by one. Once done I cleaned it up. It may have been scratched but at least it shined again.

By time I was done with the room itself, it was lunch. Keeping in mind I had gone back to the dorms only 20 minutes after originally leaving them, the whole clean up took me about 4 hours.

Word Count: 1328