Unspoken

Chapter 33

Chapter 33

“Ari, wake up,” Declan’s voice reaches my groggy sleep-filled mind.

I reach my hand up to push him away, but since my eyes are still closed my hand just flails around, missing him completely. I hear his amused laughter a second before I am lifted out of the backseat of the car. A sudden feeling of weightlessness overcomes me causing my eyes to shoot open and my arms to wrap tightly around Declan’s neck.

“We’re here, sleepy head,” Declan says before kissing me softly on the forehead.

I frown and reach for his lips, but then I notice my mother standing there with her hands on her hips.

“Are you going to help bring in the bags or not?” she demands before turning and heading into the cabin.

Declan sets me on my feet and we move to the back of the car to unload everything. I love how most of the stuff is my mom’s and she doesn’t even help us. Oh well, she is still a lot better than she used to be.

We finally lug everything into the house and then I offer to give Declan a tour. It might have been awhile since I’ve been here, but I still remember everything like the back of my hand. Dust coats most of the furniture and a few things, such as the sheets on the beds desperately need to be replaced, but overall things are still in pretty good condition. I’m surprised my mom didn’t call someone to clean out the place before we arrived because normally she would be completely grossed out by the dust and cobwebs. It doesn’t bother me too much, but I will probably end up dusting or something.

I show Declan to the room where he will be staying, which used to be Caleb’s old room. Caleb never actually used it, though, because I always made him stay in my room. I used to be terrified of the dark and had really bad nightmares. Caleb was the only one that was ever able to calm me down.

Looking around his old room I notice some of Caleb’s old things scattered around the room, forgotten. There is actually a game of Monopoly set up with pieces still scattered across the board. Being here it feels almost as if Caleb will come strolling back into the room at any moment. Back at home he has been gone for so long that every trace of him has disappeared, but here he is everywhere. It’s a bit overwhelming and I lean heavily on Declan’s shoulder.

“You okay?” he asks and I nod.

It makes me sad, but it also brings back a lot of happy memories. I can’t let the bad things take over all of the fun times that we used to have. Maybe in this house I can finally make peace with the fact that Caleb is really gone. It’s been six years and I’m really the only one left even holding on. I guess I really do need to let it go and deal with the fact that I will never truly know what happened to my twin.

“Ahh!” my mom screeches from her room across the hall.

Declan and I race over to see what is wrong only to find that the reason for her screaming was a little spider. It is crawling across the top of my mom’s dresser and my mom is perched on top of her bed, as far away as possible.

“What are you waiting for? Kill it!” she cries.

I roll my eyes and walk over to the dresser. I scoop the spider onto an old magazine and proceed to carry it outside. Declan follows behind me, looking amused that I am bringing it outside instead of killing it like most people would do. Don’t get me wrong, spiders creep me out and everything, but I always feel guilty when I kill them. I mean, it’s not their fault they are so scary.

I crouch down in front of a patch of grass and wait for the spider to crawl off of the magazine. I decide not to throw the magazine away because I’m sure there will be plenty more spiders while we are here.

“You want to take a walk?” Declan asks me and I grab his hand eagerly.

There are some pretty cool places around here that I would love to check out with Declan. Thorn comes bounding up beside us, obviously not planning on being left behind. We don’t bother putting a leash on him because he absolutely hates them. He normally stays close by anyway, so it’s not like we need to worry too much.

I lead Declan onto an overgrown path that leads to the lake. It is way too cold to go swimming now, but I bet it is still really pretty. Before long the trees thin out and we come out at a rocky shore that leads into the water. There is a dock off to the side and we wander to the end of it. Suddenly a cloud passes overhead making everything a lot darker. Staring into the murky water I can’t help but to shiver. In this moment the lake doesn’t look pretty at all. It is actually really scary looking and I take a few steps back.

Declan wraps his arm around my shoulder and leads me away from the dock. Right before we hop back onto the rocky sand I notice something tethered to the side of dock. It turns out to be an old canoe tied to the side with a rotted rope. I see scratching on the side of it and gently rub my thumb across it. I’m just able to make out the faded writing that says Caleb was here. I let out a surprised laugh as I realize that this must be our old canoe. I assume someone had to of been using it because there is no way that it would still be here after all these years. I can actually remember the day that Caleb carved his name into the side of it. I kept telling him that he was going to get in trouble, but he could have cared less. He just thought that it would be cool to forever leave his mark on something.

“Hey, we should probably go back. It’s getting pretty cold,” Declan comments and a frigid wind blows as if to prove him right.

Declan and I, along with Thorn, begin to head back to the cabin. On the walk back, a perfect white snowflake drifts down and lands on the tip of my nose. After the first snowflake many more follow and we start to walk a little faster. As much as I love snow, I really don’t want to be out here right now. My fingertips are already frozen and my breath comes in little puffs that are visible in front of me.

When we finally get back to the house both of us are numb with cold. While Declan works on making a fire in the fireplace, I look around for my mom. I don’t find her, but instead a piece of paper telling me that she went shopping for groceries. We brought a little food since we knew that there wouldn’t be anything here, but we couldn’t bring anything that needed to be refrigerated in the car.

I do manage to find stuff to make hot chocolate stored in one of the cabinets and make two glasses. Then Declan and I snuggle up by the fire with our drinks. It’s so nice and cozy that I actually begin to drift off again. There really is no reason for me to be tired since I took a nap earlier, but having the warm fire and being wrapped in Declan’s arms, it is so hard to resist.

I’m vaguely aware of Declan carrying me into my bedroom a little while later. I refuse to loosen my grip on his shirt until he gives in and lays down beside me. I rest my head against his chest and finally allow the night to go black.

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Heyy! So, What did you guys think of this chapter?? The next one is going to reveal some major information and i'm so excited to finally write it! Also, i wanted to say thanks to everyone who is reading because right now this story is ranked 112 in Mystery!!