✹✹✹
He opened his eyes with a start, seeing he was in his bed once more. He felt something dangling in his hands, his face turned downward, seeing the necklace from dream, it was more dazzling in reality than it was in his mind. He swallowed, feeling his throat to be sore, his chest ached, and as he tried to get up, he felt hands pushing him down. His face rolled to his side, seeing his mother, but her head was set downward towards his right arm and hand, intensely she stared at the necklace in his fingers.
Chris frowned, “what are you-”
“How did you find this? i thought i had sold it, i had, i-”
“What are you talking about?” he croaked feeling dizzy and sick.
“The necklace, you had it with you when we found you, i didn’t think you would want it so i-i-”
Chris looked down at the necklace, he’d never seen it before, and certainly felt no connection to it, yet it was there.
“I should have told you, but you’ve never really wanted to talk about your parents and-”
“I don’t care,” he said, “it’s the past,” he swallows again, “what happened?” he spoke, changing the subject.
“Oh, um,” she smiled shakily, avoiding his face, “well your throat started closing up but by the time paramedics came you were already passed out and the swelling in your throat was already going down. Don’t worry your fine, they checked everything. But you’ll have to stay home today to rest.”
Chris nodded. She turned to his face, pausing. A look of awe in her eyes, she transfixed, but quickly down-casted her face to look at the floor, as if caught staring when not to.
“I’ll be down in the lounge if you want anything.” she told him, then left.
Chris sighed, resting his head on his pillow, finding himself looking to the ceiling, just in that moment he thought of his lost clothes, his bag, his phone, were they still at the beach? He wondered if he should ask someone to check, he sighed again thinking of all the work he had in that rucksack. He forced himself up, despite the nagging pain in his chest and lungs, luckily someone had placed his laptop back on his desk, he sat on his office chair leaning back, pushing it towards the table. Lifting up the screen of his laptop again, Chris started it up once more. He looked down at his right hand seeing the necklace, he decided to tie it around his wrist, it felt cool on his skin, nice, refreshing even.
He quickly went to message his friends once he laptop booted up, who all appeared to be offline, till he got a video call from Matius. He accepted, quickly being thrown into panic shouts.
“What the fuck Chris! i just ran into your sister, she said you nearly died, Christ! Are you okay? Do you want me to come over? I'll bring booze.”
“It’s nine o’clock,”
“Who gives a fuck, i’m trying to be nice here. You nearly died.” he repeated again.
“I’m fine alright, just a bit of a sore throat that’s all.” Chris grumbled.
“How are you not in hospital? Seriously?” Chris could see him crossing a road, along a crossing, passing the crafts and toy store.
Chris could only shrug, “Matius?” he asked, “could you go down to the east beach and see if you can find some clothes? and my rucksack?”
Matius looked at Chris for a long good while, “why?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
“No, i think i want to know now,”
“Matius,” he warned
“Okay, i’ll go.” he laughed, “but i ain’t picking up your boxers.”
“Just go.” Chris groaned.
Matius laughed a bit more, turning his direction. “So, you staying home today?”
“Yep.” he said spitting the p.
Matius hummed, looking to his side, “did anything trigger it?” Chris didn’t respond at first, “the attack, I mean.”
Chris shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Maybe you should quit,” Matius spoke, “I mean smoking can’t be helping with your asthma.”
“Oh no, inhaling smoke is bad for my lungs, how did i know?”
Matius ignored Chris's sarcasm. “I’m serious,”
Chris looked down to his desk, he changed the topic.
“is James at college?”
Matius sighed, “Yeah, has German at the moment,”
“Jesus, i still don’t understand why he chose that.”
“The guy likes it,”
Chris snorted. “Have you got there yet.”
“Just coming up.”
Chris watched from his laptop as Matius walked onto the beach, treading along the sand, “you should take your shoes off.”
“I’ve got my hands full.”
Chris rolled his eyes, keeping his eyes on the screen, “where did you leave it?” Matius asked.
“By the shore i think, i’m not sure.”
“And you made me come all the way down here, knowing it was a possibility that they were taken by the tide.”
“Just look.”
“Okay, but if I don't find anything, I'm staying for dinner at your place.”
“Just look arsehole.” Chris spoke in a commanding tone.
Matius smirked heading further down the beach. After a few minutes of searching, Matius found something.
“Found it!” he cheered.
“What? my bag,? clothes?”
“Bag,” he answered, “it’s wet but hasn’t been opened.”
“Look for my clothes.”
“Alright, alright, i’m looking.” Matius groaned, he searched for a moment, “I've found some jeans, a top, and a shoe.”
“Anything else?”
“The beach is literally empty.” he said, showing Chris through his camera on his phone, the entire beach. “See,”
Chris sighed, “can you look for my phone in my bag?”
Matius opened the bag, shoving his hand in, he pulled out a black Samsung. “Huh,” Matius said.
“What?”
“It’s dry, no wait.” he turned on the phone, nothing seemed amiss, no glitches on the screen. “Wow, no water damage, you are probably the most lucky person in the world.”
Chris sighed in relief,
“So are you going to tell me why your stuff is here?”
“Buy some pasties, will you,” Chris told him, ignoring his question, “I'm starving.”
✹✹✹
Matius sat on Chris's desk laughing, leaning out from the windowsill, puffing out smoke through the open gap. “You're actually mental mate.”
“Shut up Matius, i’m right about this.”
“No what i think, is that you need help, i mean who gives a shit, anyone who works at that manor is insane anyway.”
Chris went silent. He suddenly began to think of that night in the woods, the man laying on the ground.
“Shit…” Matius mumbled seeing Chris's face, “sorry, i forgot that you saw that-”
“It's fine,” he cut through, harshly, “i’m fine.”
“Sure,” Matius muttered, taking another puff from his cigarette.
Chris sighed, his head falling on his desktop, “are you missing a lesson right now.”
“I call in sick, it’s fine.”
Chris frowned, “you're gonna have a lot of catch up.” he said turning his face to him.
Matius smirked, “ nah, I emailed my teachers, told them i had a family emergency, and they sent me power points from today's lessons. i ‘m pretty much good”
Chris frowned some more, “why the fuck do i keep on blacking out?” he burst, “first the woods, now i wake up in my bed without a recollection of how i got there.”
“Don’t worry, you're just on comedown.”
“That shouldn’t be messing up with my memory.'' Chris groaned loudly and longingly. “I am so fucked up, i don’t even know why i went swimming naked,”
“But it is pretty funny.” Matius giggled.
“You're not helping.”
“Some random guy asked me about you.” James spoke striding into the room, both Matius and Chris turned to look at him.
“Who?” Chris asked, uninterested.
“Said his name was Dale.”
“Dalmir.” Chris corrected.
“Sure.” James said, falling onto Chris's bed, not caring.
“What did he want?”
“Just wondering if you were in college today.”
“And?”
“That was it. Told him you were sick. He didn’t seem to care, kind of just walked off after that, weird guy.”
“I had a few pints with him last night,” Chris told them. James made an odd expression he was about to speak till Matius interrupted him.
“Was this before or after you went skinny dipping.” Matius sniggered.
“Skinny dipping? Who?”
“Chris,” Matius smiled.
“Oh the lord is good,” James laughed, “skinny dipping,” he chuckled, “priceless. Wait,” he said in a serious tone, “was this with Dale?”
“Dalmir, and no,”
“Chris is too innocent for that.” Matius jokes.
Chris rolled his eyes groaning, “you puked on Abby Thorn's head whilst she was giving you a blow job.” he exclaimed.
“What has that to do with anything?”
“Nothing,” Chris smirked, “it’s just funny to bring up.”
“Well at least i’m not coming up with conspiracy theories about Nereid.”
“It’s not a theory, I know there's a connection.” Chris persisted.
“What are you two on about?” James asked, crossing his legs on Chris's bed.
“Chris, thinks the manor has something to do with the murders and that the town is covering up their involvement.”
James turned to gaze at Chris, “and how had you come to such a conclusion?”
“I did some research yesterday, looked at some old newspaper articles at the library, and went do the registry to look up some death records-”
"You know you can go online for that, right?" James told him.
"I wanted to see it for myself.” Chris argued, “anyway, i found out, a good few, a lot more than a few actually worked at the manor, and the murders have been going back decades, centuries, i got as far as the nineteenth, but it probably goes further, maybe even to the start of the town. I just don't understand how they haven't linked it up to the manor yet, I mean I figured it all out in an afternoon.”
James nodded slowly, “and you did this why?”
Chris took a breath, “i found the body in woods,” he told him, “i think, i think i saw someone, a woman she was naked and covered in blood and-”
“Why the fuck were you in the woods!” James yelled standing up. “are fucking insane?!”
Chris frowned, “i didn’t go there on purpose, i blacked out. one second i was in the kitchen, the next i was in the woods.”
James bore his eyes into Chris's, “and you didn’t think to mention this to me, for what two days?”
“You’re not my mum.”
“Christ you're such a dick,” he said with a cruel smile, “worrying about you apparently is a shitty thing for a friend to do? well excuse me if i care if you die or not.”
“James-” Chris tried.
“You know how worried me and Matius has been about you lately?”
“It’s not your job to worry about me.” Chris grunted.
“No, but it is, because no one else will.”
“Come on James, just-”
“Shut the fuck up Matius, you know how he can be, and you chose to ignore it.”
“You're just irritated because of the come down.”
James clicked his jaw, sitting back down on the bed, his glare turning on Matius, “your all pricks!” he yelled pointing to Matius and Chris.
That was when they heard a knock at the door, and Chris's mother popped her head through.
“Hi boys, just wanted to ask if you two will be staying for-”
“I would love to, if that alright with you Mrs Wicks?” James quickly cut through.
“Of course it is, Matius?”
“I’m sure my dad will be okay with me staying for dinner.” he answered
“Okay, well i’ll see you boys at dinner.” she smiled, walking away.
Chris turned away from the door and from his friends, thinking about that night, the back outs, he looked down at the necklace tied around his wrist. It set a calm in him, one that made Chris fill with dread. Was he really insane? he was beginning to think so. ‘Yes,’ he thought, ‘perhaps i am.’
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