Tell Me A Story

Chapter 8: The Palace of Doom

   It seemed like the clocks had stopped ticking. I sat there, unable to move a muscle, aghast. She looked at me nonchalantly. For the next few seconds,  all I could do was inhale some oxygen into my lungs.

   I'd been talking to a dead boy... A boy who's been dead for about an year!

   Although queer things had happened when I was around him, I never really did expect even in my wildest dreams that he was, well... A ghost. I mean all those times I'd considered that idea, that he wasn't human, I only took it in a figurative meaning.

   Anna stood up and walked over to the window. She knew I was having a hard time digesting this new piece of information, especially since I talked to him last night. She leaned on her forehead against the bars of the window, her arms holding the bars on either side. Her gaze fixed upon something. She seemed lost in thought.

   "I've got something to show you," she said. "Let's go. Now."

   "I can't till mom's home."

   "Will she be back soon?"

   "Hopefully."

   We stayed in the room itself, silent, lost in our own world. The horror of what I'd heard a few minutes ago was still inside me that I couldn't ask her what was actually binding all of us together. Now I was dead sure that she held the answers to the mysteries surrounding this place. I was too engrossed in my world that I jumped about a foot in the air when mom rang the bell. Anna turned and looked at me. In that streaming golden light of the sun through the window, she looked as pretty as ever. Her eyes! God, her eyes were radiating a kind of energy that evoked my romantic feelings for her, which was, needless to say, highly inappropriate at the moment.

   I got up and indicated her to follow me downstairs. With each step I took, only one question reverberated in my mind.

   Had they found out anything?

   Mom was arranging some files and papers as we got into the hall. Definitely something regarding this. I wished I could have had a look at it. But I knew I wouldn't be granted that opportunity; that file must be confidential. Nevertheless, I decided to try another way.

   "Got any clue?" I asked mom.

   Mom suddenly took the files out of view and seemed startled. She was looking behind me and I knew it was because of Anna's presence.

   "Um, well... A shovel was discovered near the grave and it seems that that shovel was used for digging the grave. The police have sent it to a forensic lab to identify fingerprints on it, if there are any," she said. "But the result will delay as it is quite far away. Can't say anything more, it's all confidential."

   My heart skipped a beat. Oh my God! I'm in trouble!

   But I did my best to keep my expression neutral.

   "Anna! Sweety, when did you come?" mom asked. She loved her.

   "Just a few moments ago," she said, in an equally sweet tone.

   I knew better than to let them two get on talking so I suddenly said, "Mom, we're going out for a while."

   "OK. But be back before it's dark."

   "Sure, mom. See you."

   "Take care," mom said and her concern for me was written all over her face. Even after I passed the doorway, I knew she was still watching me.

   We got out and crossed to the road. Anna took the lead at once and for a fleeting moment, I was reminded of Seth doing it last night. She didn't speak and I thought it was best if I did the same.
  
   No one was out, which was unusual as the natives usually would be in the fields by now. But I guess the discovery of Swit's body had taken its toll.
  
   We walked all the way to the road that led to the school but she took off off-road, a narrow path that I hadn't noticed before. It seemed like an abandoned plot of land with a few trees here and there and almost completely blanketed by weeds. Still, Anna hadn't opened her mouth for even once and to release adrenaline in my body she was walking in the exact manner Seth did last night. As we walked deeper into that path, giant trees began covering us on either sides and then, it seemed like we were deep inside a forest.