Now or Never

Chapter 4


Helga ran thought the cemetery her feet sinking slightly into the deep soft grass almost as if the spirits of the dead were pulling her under. She ignored the creepy feeling; her need to uncover the truth was just too powerful. She took a breath, his grave was a lot farther than she thought, though it could have to do with the fact that she had been running the whole time.

Taking another breath, to steady her nerves this time, Helga slowed to a walk upon seeing Arnold's headstone. She looked up at the dark sky and shivered, the moon was trying in vain to penetrate the storm clouds. If she didn't hurry it would rain and it would be that much harder to dig up Arnold's grave.

When she finally reached the grave she fell to her knees before her beloved's headstone, she dug her nails into the fresh sod and bowed her head in a silent prayer. She dug her perfectly manicured hands in deeper and cringed at feeling as dirt lodged itself in her nails. Helga yanked her hands up and pulled the square foot of sod up, it made a slight ripping noise. She placed the sod next to her and pulled up the other perfect squares of grassy carpet then stood up.

Shovel in hand Helga began to dig. The first scoop was easy, the second easier still but she still had six feet of earth to uncover and she was running out of time. Thankfully the moon failed in its effort to light the darkness making her harder to see. She wasn't sure if grave desecration was a felony or not but she was sure it was against the law. She couldn't help Arnold from prison.

After about three hours of nonstop digging Helga heard the thump. The thump of coffin lid meeting shovel. She tossed the shovel out of the hole and began digging at the earth with her hands and soon the entire coffin was uncovered. Helga took another breath and whispered sorry to Arnold if he were inside. She knelt on the half of the coffin that covered the body and lifted the other half that covered the head.

Helga glared down at the grey cinderblocks that were meant to represent the weight of a human body. They looked up at her and taunted her, each crack within their molded forms was laughing at her. How could she have been tricked this way?

Helga slammed the lid shut and bit the inside of her lip to keep from screaming in anger. She clenched her fist in front of her face and made a silent vow to show the doctor and the owner of the cemetery what she could do with ol' Betsy.

Helga put her fist down and glanced around the outside of the hole, she had been there a while and no one had shown yet but there was a chance someone would notice a pile of dirt. She climbed out of the hole and used all her strength to shove the dirt back into the hole. It wasn't perfect and there was a slight bulge in the ground but no one would really notice. She then put the sod back and clapped her hands to remove some of the dirt and noticed she'd lost a nail somewhere. She glared; they'd pay for that too.


Arnold woke up washed up along the side of the riverbank and coughed. He looked back at the rapid water and kissed the rocks beneath him. He didn't know how he managed to avoid all the sharp rocks and dangerous fish that inhabited the area but he wasn't going to question it.

When he felt strong enough to stand he scanned the area around him. The jungle was thick and it was going to be hard for him to get his bearings. It didn't matter, he first needed to go back to the camp and rescue Bella so he would simply follow the river back up.

Arnold searched the area for anything he could use. He found sharp rock, some veins he could use for rope and a small gourd-like fruit he had never seen before (he would empty it and use it as a canteen). When Arnold was sure he had what he needed he began to follow the river upstream.

Streams of sunshine managed to burst through the clouds and trees and Arnold smiled. They reminded him of Helga's long golden hair. Arnold paused. Why was he thinking of her all of a sudden? It had been a while since they had hung out and what he meant by hung out is Gerald would drag him to Phoebe's or Phoebe would drag Helga to his place for parties and the like.

The last time he had seen her was a week prior to the accident…

"Huh, Hey Football head." Helga said from the corner of a club; club something or other, he couldn't remember the name. Phoebe and Gerald were somewhere in the crowd of lonely dancers.

"We are all grown up now, why do you insist on calling me that?" Arnold finally said.

"It's a habit. What do you care all of a sudden?" she snapped

"I've always hated it."

"Duh. I wouldn't do it if you liked it." She said and Arnold sighed in defeat.

After a few more moments of silence Arnold turned to look at her, the music had changed and Helga let out a subtle sound of enjoyment. Arnold glanced down at her feet which were tapping and her body was swaying a bit. "You like this song?"

"Yeah, so?" she blushed in slight annoyance. "If you make fun of me for liking this I'll punch you."

"Whoa. Calm down. I was just wondering if you wanted to dance." He said. Was he really asking her? He shrugged, why not? Though the last time they had danced together was in elementary school on April fool's day.

"In your dreams." Helga said and bit the inside of her cheek as if she hadn't meant to say that. Arnold, being the nice guy that he was, gave her another chance.

"Come on, we are at a club and you are practically dancing already." He gestured to her feet. "Dance with me." He grabbed her hand without giving her a chance to answer. He pulled her body close to his and suddenly he was hot. Hot?

Arnold was snapped from his memories as he felt the hot sun on his skin, he had been so amerced in his memory that he failed to notice he was no longer in the shade and it was freaking hot. He took a swig of his makeshift canteen and decided it would be best to find a bit of food before moving on.

Arnold set his survival items on the ground and glanced around for a source of food. The river he had crawled out of earlier was now at least fifty feet beneath him. He made his way over to the ledge of the cliff and glanced down; there was no way he could find a vein long enough to fish and the water was moving too fast for him to catch anything anyway.

He decided that fish was out of the question so he would have to look in the lush forest for fruit or another source of meat. He picked a place to enter and walked into the forest but he didn't want to wander too far and get lost so he stopped midway and searched the area around him. Any fruits were way too high in the trees for him to reach and he sighed.

Before Arnold was about to resign himself to the fact that he may have to eat bugs, he spotted a small hole in a tree nesting three spotted eggs. He grabbed them quickly and hurried back to his resting place to build a fire.

It took him a few tries but Arnold finally got the fire working and as his eggs cooked he began to think about Helga again. She seemed to be popping up whenever he thought of… well anything. Why? Arnold sighed and leaned back against a tree, he wondered what all of his friends were doing. Then it struck him, he was thinking of his friends now, Helga was a friend… sort of so there was no need to worry about his odd thoughts of Helga.

They were just friends.

Although, he would love to see even her.

"Oh grandpa I wish you were here to give me advice." Arnold sighed

"Is someone there?" Arnold's head spun around at another thick Spanish accent.

"Over here." Arnold said which was stupid because it could have been one of Scheck's men? He paled instantly.

"I saw a fire, are you okay?" called the man just before pushing through the trees. "Arnold?" the man said.

Oh crap.

"Arnold! It is you, I would never forget that head!" he said and rushed toward Arnold and scooped him up and hugged him tightly.

"Uh… who are you?" Arnold said and the man loosened his grip to look at him.

"You don't remember me from pictures or anything?" Arnold shook his head. "The name is Eduardo." Arnold's eyes lit up suddenly. "Ah, so you have heard of me." He set Arnold down and looked him over. "My, your parents would be so proud to see how big you've grown."

"My parents?" Arnold muttered

"Ah, but what are you doing out here?" he said as if sensing Arnold's pain caused by the mention of his parents.

"I was… it's a long story." Arnold sighed.

"Well you can tell me all about it on the way to my camp…Unless you want to stay out here for the night." Eduardo said.

"No thanks." Arnold said and together they put out the fire and headed toward Eduardo's camp.


"I'm worried about Helga." Phoebe said suddenly as she practiced fencing with Gerald.

"Why?" he said as he thrust his sword toward her only to get blocked.

"She seems to have this fantasy that Arnold is still live. She's even following his doctor and she wanted to dig up his grave." Gerald stopped and pulled his mask off.

"That's ridiculous."

"I think we should have her stay with us so we can watch over her." Phoebe pulled her mask off as well. "It must be hard to have feelings for someone and lose them like that."

"Feelings?"

"All this time she's prevented me from telling you her deepest darkest secret because you might tell but I guess it's okay to tell you now. Since preschool Helga has had strong loving feelings for Arnold."

"Get the fu… no way." Gerald blushed as Phoebe gave him death glare at his almost use of profanity. "That's crazy she's liked him that long? She never told him and now he's gone."

"It's not crazy… she just… you don't know what her life had been like. But that's not the point we need to make sure she doesn't do something she'll regret."

"You're right." He said. "Invite her to stay but I doubt she'll say yes. Not when you don't believe her about Arnold."

"How can I believe her? What she thinks happened never happens. It isn't logical."

"Logical or not she is your best friend."

"I miss him too. I just don't want to think about his death." Gerald pulled her close and hugged her tightly. As they stood in their embrace the radio behind them began spouting the local news.

"Hillwood city police are on the lookout for a suspect who desecrated the grave of Arnold…" as the last name was said the Audio gave out but came back in time for the rest of the report. "If anyone has any ideas on where we can find the one responsible please give us a call at…"

"Oh shit." Phoebe said not caring about her curse word. "We have to find Helga."