Beneath the whispers

Chapter 15

I had never hoped for the light of the sun in my entire life like I did today, even my regular habit of enjoying morning sleep by bombarding excuses as to why eight hours of sleep is good for the brain and ignoring the fact that I intentionally stayed up till 12 am had disappeared

It's been minutes since every one settled in Rose’s room and yet not a word. Rose had not recovered from the shock giving the way her legs trembled inside the tight embrace of her trembling hands, she still let out sobs in the midst of her shaky breath.

The only person that seemed calm was Thelma who gazed at the top door frame blankly “They didn't take any one?” she asks slowly. Asking a direct question might just be the wrong decision and Thelma knew it but the silence needed to be broken

“we don't know" Tony's deep calm voice was what the atmosphere needed. The whispers were gone but the aura they dispensed wasn't. He patting Rose on her back when her sobs grew louder, she curled up tightly resting her jaw between her knees.

"Bella, that was extremely reckless of you" Olivia says. She finally lets out the words that hung in her heart all night.

There is one good reason I would say my hatred peered through the love hate relationship I shared with my mother and it was the way she reprimanded me for taking risks when she herself would leave the house after midnight, ride the express roads to the hospital for a night shift and I cannot even answer a phone call from a boy because he would somehow send sperms through his voice and oops! I am preggo and just like that the innocent little growing being would destroy my life for good. Yea right. Olivia and my mother had that in common

"Someone needed to do it, so I did" I have to try defend myself

"Someone didn't need to do anything, there was no one inside" Olivia crosses her hands over her chest with a mean frown and for some reason the others had nothing to say

"I confirmed that one for you, what did you get from spending a night in a creepy hut?" I cross my leg on the edge of the bed I sat on. Thelma and Tony swallow a chuckle, I grin in response – that infuriates Olivia because she stands from the floor where she sat beside the door and is fuming at me

"okay guys, that's it - we need to calm down and find a way to figure things out. We are just a couple of hours from another night time" Tony raises his brows at Olivia who swallowed her words right back

Rose hums from the tiny stool “we –” her voice cracks, she takes in a huge gulp of air and let's it out yet her next words hangs in her throat for a few seconds – I do understand her shock but isn’t she a bit too dramatic? Given that I had the fair share of the attack “we need to get out of here. This tournament ends today, screw the prize money I can't deal with this” Rose's voice weak and shaky, she nods her head sideways and waves her hands, rising up swiftly and starts loading her clothes into her purple plastic travel box on the floor.

“The fact that things are no longer funny is the very reason we should stay, we cannot just leave this people and there are kids too. We even need to find them or the shadows will take them one by one” like I said, this was the very reason we needed to figure this out and save this people. Funny enough this could still be a front.

"I don't know anything anymore and I don't care” Her shaky hands folds the purple sequin gown in her hands throwing it into the box. She covers her mouth with her palms breathing wildly then releasing them and dropping her hands to her sides “that was those children's ghost, and they will come back tonight”

The Rose I met at the reception, the one named after a flower because of her immerse beauty didn't believe in ghosts, that was the only thing she had in common with me if her sense of style wasn't all plain simple colors.

“I am just saying, first it came for me in the village and then for some reason it waited at the hotel even after the kids had scrammed the building launching an attack on me inside the hotel" I continued, now growing impatient

"how about you go ask them whenever they come whispering again? I would be long gone by then” Her body trembles from forcing her box close

"Rose, you need to calm down, let us figure this out” Finally, Thelma came to my aid separating her hands from the box and pulling her into a hug. Not to be a meanie but Rose might be going a bit overboard with her panic. We had been talking about the whispers since she arrived

"figure this out?!!” Rose tries to break free from her but Thelma holds her steady

“Rose, don't you think you are taking this too far?” scorn filled in Olivia’s voice and as opposed as Olivia seemed with me since meeting me, we seem to agree on something for once

"taking it far? Did that still look like a mystery game to you?” Rode replied still struggling with Thelma but less forcefully

"I am not saying it is, I am saying you need to put your act together, I saw the shadows too”

I protest almost raising my voice

"you weren’t exactly calm after that” Olivia muttered indistinctively while scratching her head with a wry expression, even with the fact that Rose could go mad any minute – I wouldn’t bother sparing some minutes to roast my sly ex- best friend as I preferred to call her if she uttered another word, I slowly stand up, not caring to hide the mean frown on my face, rage scourging through me along with my blood and my heart pumps it more rapidly

“Guess you won't need me to, if I am out of here” Rose interrupts my fuming, she had broken free from Thelma who now sits on the bed looking at Rose and panting softly. Rose slams her bag shut and drags it to the floor pulling it after her. Even with my burning rage for Olivia, I couldn’t help but be amused by Rose acting like a complete child.

I gently sit back down smiling at her back as she left “If you are so keen to believe the story, might I also add the part where we cannot leave this town. Even if we can, you should also know that there is nowhere to go – we are practically stuck” Still smiling, I cross my legs slowly when she stops moving, dropping her bag to the floor and her shoulder dropping with it

"Rose, we will figure out a way, together” Tony speaks for the first time, collecting Rose's bag from her and pulling her in for a hug – I didn’t even notice him stand up

"We will all survive this" Thelma adds after him

"How do you know that?" Rose is now speaking through the tears that had clogged her throat. Making obvious efforts not to let them spill

"I don't know that” Tony pauses for a breath and continues “but believing it will help us put out differences aside” at this point he was glaring at me and Olivia “and work together”

“I don’t like ghosts, I don’t want them to take me” She whispers

“None of us either, except a certain person who has a thing for shadows” the sarcastic grin on Olivia’s face had a bite of a sneer – this is it.

Somebody stop me or Olivia is going to drop dead this minute because I am not going to take another word from her. If she had decided that holding onto a grudge was how she was going to live out her adult life, I am not ready to gather crumbs from such a table, not with this shadow thing being enough pain in the ass already “you –”

"Bella" Tony interrupts me. Dragging my name when I glare at him, then was the pleading look on his face that I couldn’t disobey "please, let it go" he finally adds

I push a heavy breath from my lungs glaring at Olivia who threw her face away “what next?” Thelma interrupts crossing her hands and shifting her gaze between us

“First off all, when the clouds were swirling round me, I held a cold bony hand and it was the same with the one I held at the village" I start. Then with my hand on my wrist I continue "I also had a wound on my wrist from the nails that mysteriously disappeared”

“What does that even mean?” Tony asked

“I don't know, but maybe the shadows cannot inflict us physically” I add

“Like it's in our minds?” Thelma adds, she sits on the bed beside me and continues “like all these is not real somehow?” he asks again, but this time her voice is louder

“I don’t know, I can swear I felt the bleeding and the pain” my voice trails as I continually check my wrist “it felt so real and the next minute it is gone” I add

“Maybe you are mistaken” Thelma suggests

I slowly nod negatively “I am not, I swear” I say and look towards Tony but he doesn’t say anything “what if all this is not real, like we are in a trance or some virtual game reality?” I ask

“Or we are actually being haunted by actual ghosts” Rose says, she had barely recovered

“So, some sick psycho brought us to this place knowing it is really haunted?” I ask

“People do that every day, go to haunted places and try to find the back story. It happens all the time” Tony says “but this time, the person brings us instead with a prize money”

“So all we need is get the back story and lay the children’s ghost to rest? Like we saw in the site?” I ask

“I guess” Thelma says. I look at Olivia who haven’t uttered a word, instead she is sitting quietly in one corner of the room – why the hell is she suddenly quiet?