Pretty Little Liar (Aruani Element Shifter AU) ✔️

Seven

Christa sat silently, watching my expression carefully, as I took out every object from the box, letting the memories flood back in.

As I got to the pile of pictures, I stared expressionless at Annie and I on the top of the pile, two young eleven year olds grinning up at me. I didn't even realise I was crying until a tear fell on her small, fragile face. I wiped it away. Luckily the photos were laminated carefully, and the photo wasn't ruined.

"Is that her?" Christa asked, taking out a wooden photo frame and smiling sweetly at her. I meant over to look, and goosebumps grew over my arm. It was a very recent picture, from the end of the year, just before she died. We had just finished our fourth year. She was only fifteen.

I nodded slowly. "Yeah. That's her. She died a few weeks after that was taken."

She put the picture down quickly, leaving Annie to grin kindly up at us, carefree and loveable, safe and alive.

"She was out by the river," I started. "She slipped. Broke her neck."

"Oh my god," Christa whispered. I nodded.

"When she didn't come home that night, and didn't answer her phone, they started sending search teams the next morning. They found her there, dead.

She was buried two days later, a week before I came back."

"Oh Armin... I'm so sorry."

"You don't need to say sorry," I said, staring blankly at the pictures in my shaking hands.

"I couldn't even remember until now. What kind if best friend am I if I forget so quickly?"

Christa shook her head. "Don't think that way Armin," she said. "She would have wanted you to move on and stop grieving."

I nodded. Christa never even met Annie, yet she knew exactly what to say, and it was true. "I know, I know. You're right. I'm sorry. I just wish she was here," I whispered.

"Armin, what happened afterwards? Before I came to school? Before Christmas?" Her expression turned concerned.

I looked up from the photographs, putting them down on the table.

"I took time out of school, you know that. I couldn't handle seeing people yet. I had lost the most important person in the world. I couldn't sleep, I barely ate. I had a few councillors come in everyday to help me, but nothing did. If I was ever sad about something, Annie always cheered me up. And she wasn't there anymore. I had nightmares if I tried sleeping, always about her. It took three months before I could leave the house. When I finally did, I took slow walks to the river, and sat there for hours.

That's when I started to build that stone mound, and then painted the memorial. It was something to do I suppose. I felt better once I had made it, so I could sit and talk to her, alone, just us two.

I felt a lot better then. I could start thinking straight. I knew she'd want me to move on, and the memories were already vanishing from my head. I read and painted to fill in the void and the pain. I was finally starting to be distracted. Although everything reminded me of her, I just had to look at the house next door and think of her. But then I had to remind myself that she would want me to be happy, and that I know she's always with me, no matter what.

So I told my parents that I would like to start school again. It took a long time over Christmas to get into a sleeping pattern, and spending the holiday without her was very hard. I kept waiting for her to come crashing into the house in a Christmas hat with a sack of presents, laughing and singing. The fact that that didn't happen was a very hard thing to ignore. I started school, and then I met you. And now I have a reason to smile again."

I smiled, and Christa started to cry.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through this Armin. I promise you won't have to ever again. I'm going to stay by your side forever, I promise."

I stood up and walked over to her, throwing my arms around her and hugging her tight. We sat there crying into each others shoulders for a while.

"Lets have a look in the box," I said, once we had let all the tears fall.

Christa hesitated. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I really want to see. They did leave me all these things. And this box is huge. C'mon, I know there are some cool stuff in here."

"Okay."

Inside the box was another enormous pile of laminated photos of Annie and I, some of her favourite books, and ornaments. I froze as I opened a dusty sketchbook from five years ago, of the two of us, crying all over again as I looked at the drawings.

"She was so talented," I said.

Moving the books out of the way, Christa took out a necklace. I gasped.

"Oh my god," I said. She passed it to me. "She gave me a necklace similar to that. When we were about twelve. I didn't know she had one as well." I looked at the necklace. It was silver, with a small golden padlock hanging from it. It was just like the one she gave me, except mine was a key.

"One second," I said, running upstairs, to my bedroom, digging through a drawer, until I found it. I kept it in a small box to keep it safe, and it was still in perfect condition. I can't even remember the last time I wore it.

I came back down, and put the two necklaces together. The key fit in the padlock, and I was lost for words.

"They're beautiful," Christa said. I smiled.

"Yeah, they are. I forgot all about it." I shook my head, in disbelief, and let another teardrop fall.

As I put both necklaces on, hiding them under my shirt, I placed her mothers necklace in the box, keeping it safe. Christa pulled out an envelope from the box.

"Its for you," she said, passing it over. It had my name in the same handwriting as what was on the box. Instead of opening it, I stuffed it in my pocket so as to read it later.

There was only one thing left in the box. As I rubbed the dust off of Annie's favourite stuffed bear, adjusting its little bowtie, Christa blew the dust off of a big book.

I looked up, and saw Christa's confused expression.

My eyes grew large.

It was the book that Annie had read on our last day together before I went on holiday.

"The Myth of the Element Shifters."