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2023-02-08 14:22:50Leaping 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I came too but I never used it” Willow saidWe walk along the path that led to the mansion, Harper had gone quiet and is withdrawn but we all ignore him cracking jokes along the pathThe mansion comes into view and grew bigger and bigger as we approached it. the dark cloudy aura is not around the building so it just lays like an old abandoned house.The verandah is still dusty and the door is still slightly open like it was the last time. The windows are dark and the surrounding is dim with the mighty shade that covered the building and its compound from overgrown trees. We all pause to re-evaluate our plan“so we are going in, looking around and coming right out” I say and everyone nods“no splitting” Willow adds and continues “no one strays from the group”“the moment we find something odd we leave right away and figure it out after” Thelma says after him and he nods“we are not answering any screams, Bell you will have to personally promise me on this” Tony adds“of course, I won't do that” why is he directing it at me?“we are here to solely find answers” Willow finalizes“what if we get the hint regarding the missing persons?” I askTony look at Harper like he was wishing he wasn’t here. But then he is “we will help, together but if the circumstance is complicated we will leave and come back later” He said and we nod alongComplicated is if Harper does betray us – not necessary betrayal since he did come for that sole purpose“lets move” Willow says and heads first and we all follow himTony pulls me back and pecks me on my lips surprising me “I will not tell you I like you when I am about to die. I will say it now”He breathes deeply “ I like you Bell and I will make sure we make it out of here alive” he said with a low voice. My eyes water and I pull myself up and kiss him deeply, the others had gained distance on us “I will watch harper” he says into my mouth and I pull back, nodding I squeeze his hand and hug him. “lets go” he whispers and we hurry to join the restWhen we got to the front door we stood there staring at the door and willow takes in a deep breath and push the door open, it lets out a loud squeak that made us freeze. the door is neither wooden nor old so that was totally unexpectedThe inside is completely dark that we cannot see a thing. Tony rips out his tiny torch, how did they leave this on him after they took him? Anyway, good thing they did“I though it died?” Thelma asks“it has solar charge” He countersThe light from the torch is not much of a help but at least we wouldn’t hit a wall, but that only meant that Harper can leave without us noticing and that thought is scaryYou know something else that is? Our enemies can easily conduct a sneak attack on us and we will be so dead. We all step in and I find Harpers hands and hold him“I needed this” he whispers into my ear and I smile at him but I guess he didn’t see it. some hand hold me and I guess we were all holding each other, so it is not awkward that I am holding Harper“it’s a group hold” I whisper back“still, I am happy you instinctively involved me” He whisper back, if only he knows that I am only holding him because I suspect he would run off. Though it is starting to feel like the best thing for us since he doesn’t know much yet“one more word and I will leave you” I whisper in a threatening way“I didn’t know you were bad ass” He whispers back and I squeeze his hands tight enough but he doesn’t react and that frustrate me and I squeeze harder “your baby fingers won’t hurt me” He whispers right in my ear“stop bickering you two” Willow’s voice sound in front of me, he was the one holding me“why is Bell the one holding Harp?” Tony asks from the front and Thelma shush him“lets worry about your jealousy after we leave this creepy place” she says and I almost laughThe circle light of his touch crosses a wall fire lamp and he stops the focus of his torch on it“they have a fire lamp” he says“wow, I have never seen a fire lamp before” Thelma says. Me too, whoever built this house though. Tony reaches for his pocket to get the lighter and in doing that his torchlight point towards something that looks like a shoe. I try to look harder but the light leaves the area and focuses on the lamp as he lights it upThe light from the fire is not enough to illuminate the whole hall we were in so he searches for another lamp through the wall and I walk towards the shoe area but Harper pulls me back“what?”“nobody leaves the group” He whispers and I try to pull my hand away but he grips harder and pull me that I hit my chest against his “its not safe” He whispers, the light from the fire lit his concerned eyes but I don’t waver, he saw the clothes too and he is trying to stop me from going there.“let me go” I whisper back but his grip doesn’t loosen even when I twist and turn my hand in his. more fire lamp gets on and in seconds we could see ourselves well. “its bright now, can you let me go now?” I whisper, trying to push my face as far from his as possibleHis grip loosen but before I rip my hand out, a hand grabs his shoulder and turn him around to back me and the next thing a fist lands on his face with so much force that he stumbles and eventually fellI look at Tony, his chest lift and fall heavily “don’t you dare –”“Tony, its ok” I hold him before he gets on top of Harper “he was just stopping me from leaving the group”“oh, I saw how dedicated he was” Tony replies and Harper manages to lift himself to his feet with me between the both of them“Guys, we are in the fricking shadow mansion” Willow whispers at us. And tony stops struggling in my hands.
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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
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
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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
