The Diamond family ( volume 1)

Chapter 7 : A new extraordinary friendship...

After the strange scare I had during my spying on the Diamond mansion, I never went back there again.

Therefore, it had been several days since I had set foot in the forest.

When I saw that boy in front of the partially open gate, I ran as fast as I could back home. I thought he was going to chase me, so I did the first thing that came to mind, which was "to run." Of course, I took my bike with me, but due to my clumsiness, I fell. I didn't bother to get back on my bike because I didn't want to slow down even for a second in the forest, which made me forget that I left my bike there.

"Do not stay up too late, my loves," my grandmother said to me and my older sister after dinner.

"Yes," I replied.

After clearing the table, I went to my room.

It had already been three days since my older sister came to our house. She had decided to stay until tomorrow night because she had paperwork to complete at the university where she was studying before leaving school to come back home permanently.

I found it strange that Cassie, who loved studies more than anyone in her life, had decided to leave the university without even obtaining her doctorate to live with our family, from whom she had wanted to distance herself and become independent quickly.

She had hidden the main reason why she had decided to drop out of school because she thought I was still too young to understand.

So I didn't pay too much attention to a subject I knew would lead to nothing because she didn't want to tell me anything yet.

The next day…

"Enough is enough! Ghost or no ghost, I have to get my bike back!" I thought.

My father had been back for two days now.

I couldn't lie to him indefinitely that my bike was at Anna's when it wasn't.

Then, if he found out I had been walking alone in the forest or went to get my bike back from Anna's, I would not only be in trouble, but I would also be severely punished.

So I gathered my courage and went back there.

Early in the morning, I went to the forest.

I was a little doubtful that my father would discover that I was hiding something since he was a little surprised at my outfit to leave the house.

I hoped more than anything in the world that he wouldn't decide to follow me because I looked strange.

In case he followed me, I took a lot of paths to shake off anyone who might want to follow me.

First, I decided to go for a walk in town. Then I went to the library to see if my father was still following me. I then went out through another path to be closer to the forest as quickly as possible.

Seeing that he had not followed me, I went directly into the forest.

I was wearing a long white dress that covered my knees. It was a pretty simple dress with short sleeves. I was barefoot and carrying a large backpack that contained: a Bible, holy water, a wooden cross, a flashlight, and sea salt. I was wearing a silver necklace with a small cross pendant. My hair was braided back, and I had wings on my head like a crown.

When I arrived at the cabin, I saw my bike near the ladder, which surprised me.

I looked around with no sign of anyone.

"There's someone here," I thought.

My intuition was right; I was not alone.

I quickly pulled out a wooden cross from my bag and pointed it around me with repetitive motions, forward, backward, left, and right while walking slowly back.

At that moment, a voice came from the cabin.

"I thought you would never come back one day," said a boy who was in our little cabin.

This boy was not only the one I had seen through my binoculars, but he was also the boy who was in front of the gate of the mansion, who had scared me the most in my life.

His face was very familiar to me; I felt like I had seen him somewhere before.

He was wearing old, loose, and worn-out clothes in black.

The boy was beautiful, but also very scary.

Seeing that I didn't answer him, he came out of the cabin. When he seemed to want to approach me, I started to pray.

"Sorry," he said to me. "I didn't mean to scare you."

He took a step back and that's when our eyes met. In that moment, I finally recognized the handsome boy standing in front of me.

"That boy," I thought, "I saw him once at school talking to Rina."

"Yes, it was me," he said to me.

"You heard what I was thinking?" I asked, panicking.

"No... but it's easy to guess what you're thinking," he said with an embarrassed smile.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, I'm all ears," he replied.

"Is this cabin... yours?"

He burst out laughing.

"Excuse me," he said, looking at me with wide eyes. "I thought you were either going to ask me how old I was or how I knew what you were thinking..."

But in response to my question, he began to stare at the cabin. His gaze confirmed what I had said. He remembered the day he had built the cabin, as well as the moments he had spent with his old friends in that place.

This place not only reminded him of good memories, but also of painful moments he never wanted to relive...

"Yes... but now it's yours," he said, struggling to get the words out.

Something strange stirred inside of me. I didn't know why, but as I looked at him, a kind of black, slightly transparent smoke seemed to be floating in the air.

"I built this cabin to spend time with my friends. There were three of us who built it: me, my older brother, and one of my cousins who always stayed with us during the holidays. But after an accident, no one wanted to play with us. As a result, my brother moved away with my father. Now, I have no friends to spend time with there. That's why I want you to enjoy this place... because I wanted friendship to reign there even if it's not mine..."

The more I looked at him, the more I felt a pain in my chest, emotions that didn't seem to be mine.

In that moment, I knew the strange sensation of being watched before was true, because he was the one watching us from afar when I discovered the cabin with Rhine. He was afraid that I would not only discover the cabin, but also the mansion.

I felt sad for him...

"If you want, we can become friends. And for Rhine and Rina, you're already like a friend, you know?" I said to him.

His face lit up with a big smile. Our eyes met again as we looked for absolution, peace, trust, and found only unity.

I offered my hand to see if he would accept being my friend.

"I'm Cassandra... Cassandra Benson."

"And I'm Alexander Diamond," he said, shaking my hand in return.

In that moment, a new friendship was born. We would never say no to Alexander again, because he had friends who would do anything for him; where I now belonged...