Alpha Klayton | ✔️

27 |

This felt too hard to be a body; I instantly relax and begin tugging on the large and heavy object. I may have spoken too soon though, because as the sand clears up around me I see a bony, skeletal finger poking out from underneath the ground right in front of my face. I shut my eyes and scream, yet my lungs miraculously don't fill with water. I could feel the positive magic surrounding me, protecting me. I didn't know how but I knew it was Hana's energy that was sheltering me.

I use my arms to propel myseIf farther towards what I now know is Hana's body, and begin to pry her out from the ground. Her body has been wrapped around in thick, rusting chains and heavy weights attached. Tiny pieces of clothing begin flaking off of the human remains and I have to hold the gag that threatens to release from me.

Sand is soaring all around me and the lifeless corpse, as I try to pry her from her previous position. Although very old, the chains and heavy weights still remain in tact and burdensome. My eyes are closed due to the sand all around, and I use my fingers to search what they are so desperately searching for.

In this moment, I think of the red book, and the words I had found imprinted - written by whom I can only assume was Artemis.  'So a piece of me will lie there... With my first true heir'

My fingers trace along Hana's bones to find her skeletal hands clutched tightly around the remains of a small circular object. Take it. The almost foregin sounding voice sounds through my brain; it was soft calling, yet eager — almost as if it had been waiting for me.

I cringe as I pry open the skinny bones and retrieve the item, dropping Hana back into the ground as her chains had restricted her from being moved anymore than I had attempted.

At the moment my hand connected with the object I instantly regret it as water fills my mouth. The water surronding me somehow turns darker.

Hana was no longer helping me.

I start choking under the water, and use the ground of the pond to kick and propel myself towards the surface.

I make my way back up to the surface, clutching the circular object in my hand with a death grip. As I reach the air, I gasp and cough some water out.

I find my way back to land, and I have to crawl from the sheer exhaustion. I flop down onto the hard surface, my back to the earth, panting heavily. My eyes are closed and I then open them, peering down at my hands that have enclosed around the small item with such a tight grip my fingers had become stark white.

Opening my palm, I gasp at a small pocket watch, seeing that this is what I had been clutching.

How did I know this is what I needed?

And what the hell do I do with it now?

~

I sit in my car, the heaters on high in attempt to dry my clothes. I wasn't planning on taking a swim today. I hold the pocket watch, turning it over and over in my palm. My thumb runs across the surface in attempt to remove some of the remaining dirt from the surface.

The strange thing about this token was that it didn't look like anything special —no inscription or secret locket— just a pocket watch. Although, the weight of it felt familiar in my hand... as if I had touched it before?

I drive home in silence, confined by my thoughts. I drive with one hand, the other never leaving the pocket watch. I wanted to go back to the cemetery but I had a feeling that Destiny was not going to make an apperance there again. By the time I pull into the packhouse driveway my clothes had dried but my hair lay limp against my face.