The Bracelet

January 21st. That's when my friend died. To this day I still don't know why, and the events leading up to her death are shrouded with mystery.

Let’s start from the beginning..

We met at high school and went from enemy assessment to best friends almost in an instant. Her name was Kaitlyn and she had a spark. The day we met was a day I'll never forget. I was walking down the hall on my way to lunch and without even realising, I'd bumped into Kaitlyn and made her spill her drink. As it poured on the ground, she yelled at me at the top of her voice: “ Are you stupid? MY DRiINK!”

Then after really making sure I knew she was mad, she shoved past me calling me names. She was a bit of a tyrant to me, but I love a challenge, and swapping harsh words with her became a bit of a highlight. When we were thrown next to each other in history class, that’s how we became friends rather than enemies. We clicked.

Kaitlyn was beautiful and sporty but rather quite stupid. That didn’t bother me too much, unless she did something VERY stupid like asking me what colour brown is, or walking infront of a car. She was funny like that. Wild and stupid and beautiful. Whenever she entered a quiet room, she started a riot. Whenever there was a grown up around, she was charming. She was the crazy friend we all needed that you couldn't help but love. She wasn't exactly mean. She was just.. something. To me, a friend forever.

As boisterous as she was, she wasn't without mystery.

From time to time she wasn't at school. A black hole filled the air on days she wasn't there, and it made me feel empty and distant. Sometimes, when she came back, she had occasional bursts of irrational behaviour. And she was really weird about her bracelet. It was silver, tight to her wrist, and had some crazy sort of decoration on it, though I never knew what. I went to touch it once, and she almost ripped my head off. Something similar happened in our relationship later on.

Stacy, the bully of the school and ruiner of people’s lives, mocked Kaitlyn and the bracelet one day in PE. Kaitlyn didn't take it too well. Stacy was still sat in reception, surrounded by bloody tissues when Kaitlyns mum came to pick her up. It was a side to her I'd never seen before, and the incident nearly ruined our friendship. But I couldn't stay mad at Kaitlyn for long, and we made up with each other soon after.

It continued to bother me though, her extreme aggression over something so seemingly innocent. One day I decided to be brave, and ask Kaitlyn about the mysterious bracelet she wears everyday that she seemed so territorial over.

“Kaitlyn,” I said, heart pumping in my chest. “Why do you wear that bracelet exactly?”

She looked as pale as a ghost she stared and fiddled with her bracelet until she looked up at me with the sternest face she’d ever done

"It’s nothing," she muttered, clearly unsure of the lie she was going to tell me. "Just um.. family heirloom.. Yeah, that.”

And with that, she quickly got up and rushed away, and didn't speak to me for the whole day after. It was the last time I saw her.

For 3 weeks in a row Kaitlyn was absent. I was worried so I texted her, but she only replied with "can't talk right now, speak later." When she finally did come back to school she was quiet, and not as loud as she used to be. Every time I asked her if she was okay, she snapped, and yelled at me to ‘quit bothering her.’ It wasn’t until the end of year party that she actually seemed like her usual self, the life of the party and making everyone laugh. and being lively. It was the most we'd spoken to ags and was the best day I'd had in a long time.

But it was short lived. On the last day of school she was missing. No call. No text. No answer. It didn't feel right. Like the weeks she disappeared, but worse. Much worse.

I was called to the office to go home, and was surprised when they let me. I was really confused about it, that was until I got home and saw my mother comforting Kaitlyns mum. She was crying into her hands. They both wore black looking very upset.

“What’s happened is everything okay?!” Confused and worried, I just blurted it out. Kaitlyn's mum started wailing, so my Mother took me aside.

“Kaitlyn is.. dead." I gasped. "The police came round and rummaged all over her house looking for something. There was something wrong with her body and the police are concerned. Her mother is distraught, and has no idea what's going on, so please just give her space while this is all being figured out.”

I stood there, tears falling from my face, but no sound came out of me, as my mum went back to our tearful guest.

On the day of the funeral, I got dressed feeling lifeless and limp and empty. As we drove past Kaitlyn's house, we saw police still looking in the house. Weird. Now, that did worry me, but not as much as what happened at the funeral. 

Once the service ended, we walked into the cemetary and arrived at the burial plot for Kaitlyn, where we all left flowers and said our last goodbyes. Kaitlyns mother and father couldn’t keep it together both crying so much it nearly made me cry too, but I wanted to be strong for Kaitlyn. So I looked around the crowd of people, ignoring the police and my class mates and focussed on the strangers that I didn't know. They all looked fairly ordinary, crying in their black outfits. As I scanned the crowd it occurred to me that I couldn't pick out a single family member of Kaitlyn's except for her parents. I wasn't sure who any of them were.

My eyes landed on one woman. I wouldn't have noticed her if it weren't for the fact that she were staring directly at me! I looked away quickly, then looked back, hoping that she'd adverted her gaze and found someone else to stare at. But no. She was still staring at me like she knew me. Her lips were moving as though her mouth was muttering something, but I wasn't quite sure what. Slowly, she raised her arm and, pulling her small fingers into a fist, pointed at her opposite wrist, then pointed at Kaitlyn's grave. I looked to the grave then looked back to the woman, but she was gone.

Two years went by so quickly. Two years since my best friend died and the memories of her funeral, and the mystery of her strange death, still haunt me. I tried not to let it. I did all the things I said I would. She would’ve been so proud of me and all my success even though she wasn’t here to see it. I was doing well, and I was happy. Until..

Police suddenly arrived at my new home one random night in the future, and started to question me about Kaitlyn. Strange. It was so long ago. But I went along with their interview, brain not really starting to burn with ideas of a conspiracy until they asked:

“Have you heard of Kaitlyns bracelet? And do you know where the location of this item is? We believe this is of some importance to a case we're investigating."

I sat there shocked that they were looking for the mysterious bracelet she always wore, even more confused by the fact that it was somehow relevant to something that was happening now. I tried to remain calm, and replied: “No sir, I haven’t. That was a long time ago. I'm sorry I can't be any more help.”

The police left shortly afterwards, leaving me questioning what had just happened. I hadn't been able to concentrate ever since the odd question they asked. I couldn't get this off my mind. Something wasn't right. I started googling random bracelets to try and refresh my memory about what it looked like, and stumbled across a strange website with symbols with meanings. Some of them looked familiar; youth, reincarnation, but I wasn't sure where I'd seen them at first. And then it clicked. I then proceeded to gather my evidence and find out wear the bracelet was. It took 4 months to find out that it was buried with her all along. Her mother knew what the police had been wanting all this time, though she may not have fully understood why. I thought I was begining to, remembering the creepy old lady at the funeral. I told Kaitlyns mum about the symbols, the reincarnation, the lady at the funeral and the strange hand signs that she made. We came to conclusion to dig her up..

It took what seemed like hours, but we began digging until we hit the coffin with a huge CLUNK.

”I’m sorry,” I whispered. But as we opened the coffin, there was only Kaitlyn's skeleton lying in wait for us. I felt like a fool. Scowling, they left me on my own to fix the mess I'd made, disgusted with my crazy magic theories. While I was pouring dirt over her casket with all her family beside me, I noticed something sparkling in the dirt.. I reach into the mud and pulled out the bracelet, the one the police never found. The clasp was broken and rusted, but the minute the metal hit my skin, the bracelet transformed and looked as though it were brand new all over again. I turned it over in my palm and put it in my pocket, before climbing out of the dirt. I gasped, and almost fell back onto the muddy mound as the woman from the funeral stood before me, with a menacing look on her face. She tapped her wrist, and as I looked down, I noticed the bracelet had moved from my pocket to my wrist.

Scrabbling to get it off, I tore at the bracelet but just couldn't seem to unclip the clasp. I yanked my head up, ready to ask the mysterious woman for help, but she'd disappeared.