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2023-02-08 14:21:26Olivia's hug was the only thing I needed that morning to spark up the courage I needed
I hadn't forgotten the other day when we dared to go there. But now it wasn't just me and Tony but Thelma and Willow is here and we are with our specialized weapon of mass destructionHarper on the other side is so rigid with anxiety that his stiffed up shoulders raise high between his head and his eyes bulge out with his Iris wandering around his eye socket. He must know that the moment he tries to say anything he would dieBut there has to be a way around it. Olivia's helper had helped her so much but didn't convulse until she tried to make him tell her moreSo Harper here can help us without telling us anything and we need to figure out how that would happen since unlike Mr Helper, Harper is not a willing candidateI walk up to him and tap his tensed shoulder and smile at him “I promise you that I will not let anything happen to you” I say and he looks at me, his eyes wanting to tell me so many things but he swallows it all in “you don't have to say anything” I say and smile “I know how tensed you are but we need as much hands as possible – here” I hand him a spray can.To be honest, I cannot give him a valid reason we need him on the group without rating us out so I stop there.“Why are you being so nice to me? Your friends still haven't gotten to this stage with me” he asks confused. I can sense guilt in his eyes and I like it. The best way to control someone is prying on their guilt“why? Does it make you feel guilty?” I pose the words for a joke but I meant the questionHe freezes from the question and laughs nervously and I continue “people only feel uncomfortable when they are being treated nicely for two reasons, one is when they have never been treated nicely without the other party needed something in return and the second reason is they have something to feel guilty for”I smile “and if I had gone with the first most likely option, I would be forcing you to reveal something of your past when you are still not comfortable doing so” he nods along with my hand gestures “so I decided to crack a joke instead”“you guys are bonding faster than I expected” Tony's deep voice grows behind me and I turn. He is in his jacket and jeans just like the other day and his sleek hair is slightly disheveled with a few strands falling to his face. I smile at him“who knows?” I look back at Harper “I might be falling in love with him” then I look back at Tony with a mischievous smile.His frown is strong on his face “I hope not” then he lets out a wry smile “I might just pester him until he convulses to death, I mean that is what happens in this weird ass village all the time” I couldn't stop my eyes from bulging as I looked at him smile at Harper.“look at that… protective” Harper says. Trying to play along, The terror I felt is lacking in his voice, his face is calm also.“ready?” Willow asks as he comes out from the building with Thelma hurrying behind him“yes” I say. Looking at him like my knight in shining armor – he just freaking saved the day******************“So, any last words” Thelma says and we all laugh in response. We didn’t know what to expect at the mansion and for all we know the men might be there and they will attack us the moment we find them, or they will try to mess with our memories againBut then, they could know about our plan since we made it at the hotel and not the beaded hut which means that they could clear out the place for us“I would say that I love you all and I will tell Tony that I like him” I say without thinking and Tony grabs me from behind and Beck's me hard on my neck making me laugh out loud“I would tell Rose that she is a wonderful person and she should stop being afraid of the dark, then I would whisper – ghosts are not real” Tony says, whispering the last sentence“Rose is afraid of the dark?” I ask, I am mad that he didn’t say that he liked me back but I am more curious so I push my anger aside – temporary“why do you think she made me stay together with her?”“I thought maybe – ““wow, but she said she does not believe in ghosts” Thelma interrupts me“she does, her parents used it to scare her. They would threaten to lock her up in the dark room if she misbehaves so she always did the right thing. But then she never recovered” He said“that is why she got a personal assistant?”“nope, she termed me that when I lost my parents and I needed money. She didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable while she helped me so she employed me to do the very things I always did for her” Tony explains and we all nod slowly. I think she deserves the spotlight in his last words“wow, she is a very nice person” Thelma says and look at Willow “last words?”“umm, I would say that I am grateful to have met you guys, I have never really had friends before”“I am tearing up right now” I wipe below my eyes in pretense and he laughs “what about you Thel? That definitely sounds weird” I says almost whispering the last sentence“I would say that I love you guys”“we love you too” Willow responds and hugs her playfully. She giggles and we laugh along with themI look at Harper wistfully watching us, he had slowed down and is walking behind us. His eyes caught mine and I smile at him “what about you?”The others go quiet and in a second all eyes are on him, he smiles nervously “I wouldn’t be able to say anything” he responds and that aches my heartHe would be gagging on his breath and white foam would full his mouth while he struggles to say words that wouldn’t cross his throat. He is being sincere with us“its true, you know nothing about us so you might not have anything to say” Tony says after him“I still wished I was with you guys” He continued. With us? Like wishing he wasn’t siding with his crazy boss or with us like he just wished we were his friends “I guess if something happens to me, just know that I wished I was your friend and I like you all and how close you are to each other. I want to be part of something like that one day”His voice breaks a little but he contains it and smiles at us as we gape back at him. He is going around the circles but knowing the truth, we know what it is he is trying to say and that alone is heart breakingI am not wrong for trying to let him feel cared for and loved in his last few hours because he may have not had the opportunity to feel such way but I still need to be careful not to go too soft, he might be pulling a front still. We don’t know what his Boss knows so we shouldn’t assume he doesn’t know anything“you know what?” Tony walks towards him “you are my friend and I mean it this time” He hugs him. With Tony going soft on him my anxiety rises, what if this is what he wants – not in the good way. What if this is how he tears through us and they figure out what we are up to. Is it really the right choice to trust him because of some pity. What was I thinking?Willow walks up to him and hugs him “I mean it too”“way to join the group” Thelma says and hugs on him too and they all turn to look at me watching them transfixed on the groundI initiated all these because I wanted him to be more comfortable with us that was before the pity came in and I might have over done it and now I am staring at them hugging him – but they wouldn’t really just trust someone like him. They might be going according to a plan we did not discuss. Right?I walk up and join the group hug and we continue our journey to the mansion.
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Beneath the whispers Chapter 44
Leaping out of the tunnel was a brief relief, my clogged nose savor the moist air of the forest and I step forward towards Tony to allow the others behind me to leap out too.“the branches we pulled out” Tony saidI laugh “I was scared out of my mind”“you know, you have been attacked by this dark cloudy gust twice, how are you not the one with the panic attacks?” Tony asks“my parents didn’t scare me with ghosts and dark rooms T. I judged her for being so scared. How insensitive” I respond“that is why I had my doubts about the story they made us believe. Rose would never sign up for something that had ghosts in it” He says and I nod along“you guys did this?” Thelma asks and we nod“I thought Willow left the rope when we first met” I say“not me, it was here when I came too but I never used it” Willow saidWe walk along the path that led to the mansion, Harper had gone quiet and is withdrawn but we all ignore him cracking jokes along the path The mansion comes into view a
Beneath the whispers Chapter 45
Looking around, we are in the middle of a huge empty hall, the only thing there is a table and the footwear I saw earlier I walk up to the footwear and move the table lightly and there laid some clothes, the others rush towards me as I lifted the cloth and it is a big top and some panty black leggings. The footwear is a canvas“This belongs to a young girl” I say looking up at the others. Willow squats beside me and examine the shoe“That belongs to Maya” Thelma says. I look at her confused and she rolled her eyes “she was Mira’s friend that was taken from the hotel”“Wait what?” Tony asks and she bent down to look at the clothes again“she had it on” she said and stands up again. Looking at the cloth again, it did look familiar. But then –“why is her clothes here and not her” I ask and drop the cloth“she might be here somewhere” Tony said “we should go find her” He lifts his torch and heads first, we all follow behind him, the first corridor we took is empty just like the
Beneath the whispers Chapter 46
We had left the mansion when the gust started again, running through the forest and then through the tunnel and in minutes we burst out from the other side of the tunnel and into the village Panting when we got to the beaded hut, we all fell to the soil on the path leading to the beaded hut and then the reality strikes me againWe had lost Thelma, she is gone and seeing that girl’s cloth on the floor was scary enough for us, they might harm Thelma and yet we don’t know where she had disappeared to What we know is that there is an underground in the mansion and maybe that underground contains the captives if they are still alive. We need to go and rescue her, but the gust had literally chased us out from building and it wouldn’t let us in againNot that we hadn’t tried to re-enter the building and check the underground but the whispering gust was heavy on us and before we knew it we were outside the building and the door is slammed against us The dark clouds returned and we are
Beneath the whispers Chapter 47
AnthonyThe long walk to the hotel had allowed me to think through what happened with Bella and yet I cannot still understand why she is protecting Harper so much, we lost Thelma and we need to find her as soon as possible It wasn’t on top of my list to make Harper convulse to death but the way she defended him has me questioning a lot of things and that only strengthened my resolve to forcing him to talkYet I cannot be distracted by that, forcing Harper to speak was lame because it will not take us anywhere, we need a plan as to how we are going rescue Thelma and we need to leave this place the soonest we can.Getting to the front door of the hotel had me realizing something, I had to break the news to Rose and Olivia myself I heaved a deep breath and run my hands through my hair to coordinate the strands the best I could, then I push the door open, Thelma and Rose look my side and the smile on their faces disappears and is replaced by worryThey rush towards me with the vil
Beneath the whispers Chapter 48
A night has passed. We spent all night trying to figure out how to save Thelma without Harper convulsing to death. Willow’s patience grew thin and he started throwing a fitI ended up consoling him all night and listen to his deepest confession of how much he grew to admire Thelma. I did notice they were quite close but I didn’t suspect feelings had been involved But more so, his confession made me wish all the more that they hadn’t laid a finger on her. Taking her at the hotel and not randomly means that maybe they don't have need for her yetIt is morning now, the boys are on the floor leaving me on the hard leafy bed. footsteps approach the beaded but and we all sprung to out feet, Willow shush us and tiptoes to the window space covered with stuffed clothes and peeps. He lets out a breath “its Red and Liv”I rush out and we all hug each other “Thelma –”“we know” Rose say, her eyes are swollen and for the first time, her hair looks a messI hug her again “we will get her ba
Beneath the whispers Chapter 49
All the villagers are awoken by the noise and are all sitting now, we direct them so that we all stay close together in one corner of the reception hall nearest to the burning charcoalThe sound of violent wind burst outside and tree branches break, the fence around the hotel starts to collapse and we hug ourselves tightly in that cornerThe sound from the wind and the force to which it destroyed the brick material of the fence startles us, the gate finally collapse with a loud bang sound that causes us to jerkImages of dark cloud in human forms starts to roam the windows with the whispers growing louder by the instant Everyone presses on their ears with their palms, pressing it tight against the deafening sound as we watch in fear the dark shadows passing the windows one after the otherThey want us gone tonight and they have come to take us, what about Tony and Will? they are still out there in the open. Have the shadows taken them too? Harper yells and fall on my lap, he i
Beneath the whispers Chapter 50
AnthonyWe had arrived at the border not long after we left the hotel, the bus is not there as we saw it earlier. So we decided to wait. In the process of waiting we had slept through the night at the border and it is the morning nowI grunt “what should we do now?” the sun is barely risen but the light of day is upon the island“check out the brick house” Willow suggests and I nod along with himWe slowly make it for the brick house, one step at a time until we are leaning at the wall of the house. We walk slowly along the wall till we got to the rusty front door that was already slightly open“when will they arrive?” a huge man with chest tattoos and a tiny nicker says in a grumpy cracking voice“I think in fifteen minutes time. They are an hour behind us” says the younger one looking at his wristwatch, he is better dressed and has glasses on “oh, the package?” he asks looking from the chest tattooed man to another similar sized man“it's ready” the similar one answered“wha
Beneath the whispers Chapter 51
We had intentionally not used the tunnel to get to the mansion given that it already was an obvious route and we plan on sneaking up on the shadows, if that is even possible We also needed to set as much on fire as possible and the tunnel will be our major route of escape but the moist weather in the forest area was going to be a problem so we switched to plan BWe head fast towards the mansion, the sun had just barely risen and the morning still had the flare of last night’s chill breeze. the mansion slowly comes into view We excitedly hurry towards it but stop when we notice that the door was closed. We raise our weapon and point it towards the doorWith slow calculated footsteps we stroll closer and closer to the door, when we get to the door, I gently push it and it strides open. Cool air hits my face and I freeze, aiming my spray can inside. I snap the lighter and slowly enter into the building“Rose, you will wait out here, find the back door” I say and Rose nods and leav
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- Beneath the whispers
Epilogue
Its morning in France, the duplex vacation house on the hill reflects the sun away from the lawn The huge sized swimming pool at the back yard is blue with sit outs in pairs of twos lined up in one side of the pool and a huge fence on the other. I come out from the bathroom in a white robe and my wet brown curly hair falls on both sides of my shoulders.I get to the dressing table and with my finger collect a little potion from the cream can and apply on my legs. The flat screen television behind me has a blonde American woman on it“the increased rate of suicide within the country had pushed the government to consider closing the Sheetan bridge since it is considered the place with the highest record of suicide attempt over the past year. In comparison, other countries has reported growing rates of suicide attempts also and social media has been proven to be one of the major cause of suicide so the union government has decided to draw the lines on things permitted online”I appl
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 57
“that day, Rose had ran out of the bar when I was out. I looked for her throughout the bar and surrounding parks and when I didn’t see her, I went to her house… the door was open so I rushed in and found some men taking her, I saw the face of one of them because he didn’t have it covered When they saw me, I ran away and they chased and chased me until they caught me… A blow to the head and blank blank” Tony narrates and we nod. We were able to find some edible snacks on the shipI don’t know how long it had been but I do know that we didn’t have to wait with anxiety, instead we decided to use that time to bond since we would have to go our separate ways when we get back to civilization It is really sad though but I have learnt not to use the uncertainty of the future to stain an opportunity for good memories.Talking about our families and how much they will be happy to finally reunite with us, that is…when we have torn down this organization The boys on the other hand had no
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 56
The interior of the ship is a definition of luxury, from the wood brown furniture to the white beddings and curtains Inside the boat are four long couches arranged around a round center table. A curtain opposite where we entered from covering a king sized bed with white beddings and a brown wood frame structureThe inside smells of strawberry and mint and the cupboard has shelves with spare towels, toothbrushes and robes Beside the bed area is a bathroom, with an oval bathtub and a waterproof curtain. If anything, this cruise boat is the highlight of my stay in this island. Would you look at that? I don’t know Harem but this?The pain in my head suddenly disappears as I look through the boat, even the tension of waiting for them to leave had completely disappeared. I need a cold bath and to sleep on an actual bed and I didn't need get back to civilization to experience all these. I love my lifeI sink into one of the couches rubbing myself against the smooth fabric and beaming
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 55
“we need to move” Harper announces. The sun is kissing the hills now, its red light dimming by the minute making the forest darker and the shade from the trees aids this A day ago we would be wary of the shadows but with them gone we only have to worry about the group of men aiming for kill shots at us Sincerely, this is a lot scarier than the shadows. At least we had a fighting chance against the shadows and now? Even Willow has lost his weapon – imagine that He walks over me and takes out some white handkerchief from his pocket and gives Tony “tie something on that”I really should look at the mirror at this rate because the way everyone is looking at my head feels like my brains are out and Tony is already talking like he is scared for me. I smile weakly at Harper and he smiles back before hurrying to the othersTony folds the hanky and places it on my head, his rips out his inner shirt and wraps it over the hanky on my head, hitching it behind my head He fastens it tight
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 54
A flash of blurry lights hit my eyes and dims down again, the throbbing pain in my head slowly increases and a banging sound erupts in my head, I raise my hand to hold my head but my arm hurts too so I let it lay still. The light comes back clearer and leaves again“How many more are still alive?” I heard Harper sayI struggle to open my eyes but my whole body aches and I grunt lightly, a hand scoops me up into some huge body, the scent is familiar so I sniff harder and it is mixed with smoke and blood – blood! I shoot my eyes open but it only slowly breaks apart and I am looking at Tony, there is blood on his head and his arm has a deep cut that is bleeding. I gasp and try to get up but he holds me down“stop, you are hurt” he says“where?” I manage to say, my whole body aches so I cannot pinpoint where exactly is hurtingHe looks at my head and smacks his lips reluctant to answer my question “just stay still, we are trying to get the survivors out before they figure out how t
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 53
We had rode and rode through the sandy road as the afternoon sun heated up the bus, sweating and anticipating the sight of the beach even though we didn't know where it was. We don’t even know if we are going the right way – at least we are going at allThis journey reminds me of the journey that got me here and how I wondered if the experience was worth the long journey and yet even in returning I couldn’t wait for the journey to end“guys” I call their attention “isn’t the length of this journey familiar?” they all laugh Olivia smacks her lips “well, I for one... I was excited but that excitement turned to fury when the cab man wouldn’t talk to me” Olivia saysThelma claps “the snubbing cab man, I thought I was the only one”“he did talk to me eventually, I didn’t keep quiet” I boast. Beaming at myself“wow, I don’t even know what his voice sounds like” Olivia complains and we laugh“he also asks me what if the ghosts haunting the village was real” I say“wow, he did. You d
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 52
I step back, and stood transfixed staring as she stumbled and fell to the floor, my mouth drop open and my lids break apart“Thelma!”The girl wipes her broken bottom lip with a finger and look at me, her red strands that she had hidden away in a hair tie falls loose on her shoulder“I am sorry Bell” she almost stammer in breaking voice“don’t call me that!” I fume at herShe breaks down in tears and falls again on her butt, crying her eyes out “I shouldn’t, you just destroyed my only ticket for a better life!” She yells back at me“we were going to escape, we were going to finally be free and you, what did you do?”“I made a deal that would have helped me live normally. The way I could”“so we should all be damned so you live well, we were going to give each other that, that is why we connected”“you don’t get it do you? All you faced was a cheating boyfriend and you got yourself drunk. I freaking drove off a bridge. How did you think I would want to return to that same worl
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 51
We had intentionally not used the tunnel to get to the mansion given that it already was an obvious route and we plan on sneaking up on the shadows, if that is even possible We also needed to set as much on fire as possible and the tunnel will be our major route of escape but the moist weather in the forest area was going to be a problem so we switched to plan BWe head fast towards the mansion, the sun had just barely risen and the morning still had the flare of last night’s chill breeze. the mansion slowly comes into view We excitedly hurry towards it but stop when we notice that the door was closed. We raise our weapon and point it towards the doorWith slow calculated footsteps we stroll closer and closer to the door, when we get to the door, I gently push it and it strides open. Cool air hits my face and I freeze, aiming my spray can inside. I snap the lighter and slowly enter into the building“Rose, you will wait out here, find the back door” I say and Rose nods and leav
- Beneath the whispers
Chapter 50
AnthonyWe had arrived at the border not long after we left the hotel, the bus is not there as we saw it earlier. So we decided to wait. In the process of waiting we had slept through the night at the border and it is the morning nowI grunt “what should we do now?” the sun is barely risen but the light of day is upon the island“check out the brick house” Willow suggests and I nod along with himWe slowly make it for the brick house, one step at a time until we are leaning at the wall of the house. We walk slowly along the wall till we got to the rusty front door that was already slightly open“when will they arrive?” a huge man with chest tattoos and a tiny nicker says in a grumpy cracking voice“I think in fifteen minutes time. They are an hour behind us” says the younger one looking at his wristwatch, he is better dressed and has glasses on “oh, the package?” he asks looking from the chest tattooed man to another similar sized man“it's ready” the similar one answered“wha
