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2022-12-09 02:46:51The setting sun poured red lights on the narrow empty streets and the lights within the huts grew even brighter, the silent calm evening breeze brushing against the low grassing, swaying dry soil over them.
My room had the white fluorescent flickering lights on too and everyone is present except Olivia, all their gaze focus on a group of teens hugging themselves on my bed trembling and whimpering.
I sat by the side table opposite them with Thelma standing beside me holding a mean frown. I found them where I remembered seeing them the previous day but this time they didn't giggle or play games instead they shook with fear all forcing themselves on the wall when I tried to approach them and it did take me hours to convince them I am not a ghost kidnapper.
Chuckling within me, I watch Tony pat the youngest among them, a girl who had not stopped sobbing her neat ponytail now loose and messy with her tiny hands covering her face on his chest.
“How are you kids here?” Thelma’s typical cold shrill voice is radiant with more anger than confusion, one would think it was because of the stupid prize money but on the contrary, the high school teenagers – judging by their too-cool-for-school clothes and a backpack containing plastic bottles with soft drinks that had alcohol in them – had been jumpy since I guided them to my room.
I wouldn’t however fail to recognize that Thelma is only around her early twenties and she refers to them as kids. What will happen if she learns of my age?
The high-pitched voice was one of them – which I am sure of. But what I cannot make sense of is how real this felt. And that was scary because apart from the no internet we all were facing, we are in the middle of nowhere and nobody knows I am there, not even my mother.
“Nobody?” Thelma continued almost sounding like a stern aunt I would never want to live with. Her huge brown eyes glared at them as she tugged her bright red hair behind her ears in sheer impatience.
“Maybe they are not ready to say anything yet. We should let them calm down” I could swear Rose’s voice did quiver a little – If it's not the little boss lady vibes in Thelma's typical confident stance meant to intimidate
Thelma’s eyes move from the Children towards the right to rest on Rose who flinched a little uncrossing her crossed leg and sitting up nervously while she adjusts the collar of her pale blue crop shirt.
Who is taking this way more seriously now? "Thelma, calm your jittery nerves, Rose is right” I say and she smirks. When she glare at me, I twitch my brows together to prove my point and she lets out a heavy breath, stepping back as well
Oh, how I loved saying that – not the ‘Rose being right part’, but reprimanding her, Tony's grin from the bed made it all the more exciting, and sitting up on the creaking side table, I continue "We need to give them time to calm down, they just lost one of their friends, if not a couple" I finally abandon the table as it squeaked a lot more threatening to break, then I walked towards my bed "they will stay here with me tonight"
************
Hours later, the sun had disappeared and the bright light in my room slivered through the cuts in my window curtains resting on the gravel floor outside, there was barely a breeze and I lay staring at the ceiling ignoring the loud snores taking turns by my left.
I didn't plan to spend my second night of this so-called game vacation sharing my bed with a couple of teens. Their bodies packed like logs of wood beside me and some even took to the comfort of the cold floor lying on my freaking clothes – who gave me this mother role I am playing again?
“Can’t sleep?” a familiar voice asks just beside me. It was the youngest of them, I adjust my lying position still planted in that one spot, fighting the urge to send her to the floor to join the few unlucky ones.
“I am thinking, what could have happened to the family at the mansion? And how are they relate to the whispering shadows” I say. The girl tilts to face me, my gaze still lingering on the several cracks on the ceiling
“whispering shadows?” The girl’s voice with a mix of excitement and fear, she raised her head to get a better view of my face.
“this will sound stupid but I signed up for a game, we were supposed to uncover some mystery that involves the tale of the shadows, apparently some family went missing and the town is now tormented because of it” and yet – for some reason, I feel the gamers might have taken it overboard for a realistic flare
"what have you found?” the young girl asks, peering at me and finally drawing my gaze to her. Her eyes were swollen from crying but they didn’t hide the little excitement and curiosity
“just a bunch of actors and clues that don't make sense” with my words, I raise my body and tugs the golden strands of her messy ponytail to the back of her ear then rub on her hair passionately – whatever this was about and how she got involved, I probably wouldn’t know until after the game but I sincerely hoped my fears wouldn’t come to life
“why are you here?” I blurted right out of my thoughts
She hums a breath “Long story short, we went on a boat cruise as a group of classmates and it crashed next thing we know, we woke up on an island and when we strolled out from the forest we saw this village. We were excited before we found out that nobody had a phone here but we still hoped someone will find us until …" her voice broke
I pat her on her shoulder and drags her to lean on my chest since she started sobbing again. A lot of things didn’t make sense in her story; first thing was, how is it that a group of teens was allowed to go on a boat cruise, secondly was if it crashed, then how did they survive and end up on the island whereby a flight from her home town to this island took several hours, it would have been a lot of seas before you get to the island.
“Why did you go on a boat cruise?” I ask the crying girl
She sniffs and clears her throat “Luka suggested it, his Dad got a boat for him and he asked us to ride with him on his birthday”
“Is he here?” I ask
“no, he died in the crash – my mother must be thinking I am dead too” her voice now soft and distant, I pull her out from my bosom looking at her, but I couldn’t figure out what to say to her, her eyes swollen and red, she is scared and I need to comfort her. I need to assure her that she is safe and not even thinking about it I declared “I will take you home” the confidence in my voice be soothes her because she nods and throws herself at me for a quick hug.
“we called her Frosty” she mumbles, her voice now blank as she retreats and lays back down on the bed her head sinking beside me. I did assume it was male
“it's OK, you will get her back too” once the game is over – I didn’t say that because it sounded stupid at that time but that was my conviction.
“She is gone, one minute she was with us and the next minute she was just gone” Her voice breaks a little and I smiled at her hiding the massive look of confusion trying to burst from my face, are these teenagers truly victims of this stupid tale? and is this town really haunted – like for real? If they were part of this game then the young lady before her is doing a really good job.
The young girl continues “we need to leave this place – we need to leave…” her voice trails from the way she trembled and I pull her in again. And yet again the warning keeps coming back to me. First, the hot cab man, then the blind woman, Olivia and now is some clueless teenager that crashed school to drink alcohol on a fucking boat, why did I ever think that was cool back in high school?
Speaking of high school, I haven't seen Olivia since I returned with the kids, and Tony who was supposed to come back with her didn't say a word.
“we will figure it out” I whisper to the whimpering girl guiding my fingers through her ponytailFor a split second, it will seem like I was really in a town infested by shadows that whisper, they travel in the darkness and take anyone that cannot interpret their whispers, really funny though because even with how realistic the gamers made the setting out to be, there was still one deep flaw they can't erase.
A flaw that was instigated by the very story they portrayed, the whispers had never for once reached my ears and I haven't witnessed any of the attacks, so in this story, I just feel like a detective assessing kidnaps with my mere curiosity being my motivational drive and not the good old survival instinct
I smiled, now patting the girl whose breaths grew heavy with sleep, the snores now like a rhythmic song gone wrong yet it thrived in my head in melodies that slowly put me to sleep
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Beneath the whispers Chapter 9
And just like that, it is morning again. Thanks to the hole in the curtain, the light from the sun rests on my eyes causing me to squeeze my face, using my hand as a shade, I slowly open my eyes. The fluorescent bulb in my room had tripped off, maybe during the night Come to think of it, I never really noticed the torn holes on the curtain fabric when I arrived. Something that was supposed to be a game vacation is starting to feel like a joke, with one day gone and not one prominent clue as to what happened to the mansion family and their relation to this kidnapping whispers. Scanning my mind through the movies I have seen looking for possibilities of some back story like a group of kidnappers using a horror story as a front. But that wasn't clicking – a lot of unsettling questions would arise. How will you explain the kidnapping shadows that whisper instigated by mere mortals? Even the gamers couldn't pull it off and worse still unless they sold them or their organs, conducting a k
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Why exactly did I fall for that? I should be ashamed of myself not smiling like a fool. He just teased me and I fell for it – like a good old plane crash. Now forcing a frown “I will show him” I mumbled within myself, looking up at him who had now stuck out his head from the curtain since I haven’t followed him in but the look on his face forces my lips to cringe so I rush into the house hoping my fearful thoughts were just a mere expression of exaggerated worrying. “Olivia” I mumbled, barely hearing myself as the words slipped from my red glossed lips, his head disappears into the hut as I got close. Swinging the beads to my right I badged into the tiny house hoping nothing bad happened to her, she must have not slept in the hotel yester-night maybe she ended up in this hut and then the shadows – “Olivia” my voice deepens this time, with a huge sigh of relief I drop my shoulders. Tony stood watching Olivia hold the paper she was looking at. After the bout of relief I felt was a rush
Beneath the whispers Chapter 11
The cool evening breeze dispel my gold strands all over my face forcing me to tug them behind my ears every single minute, Tony and Olivia were a few feet behind me. We had stopped fast-walking when we got tired and after hours of trying to get us to talk to each other, Tony had found Olivia to be a very good ‘conversationist’ – his words not mine. Much to my displeasure, their giggles are growing loud in the silent atmosphere, and the houses a finger count some 50 plots around us, most of which were presumably empty. The breeze grew even colder making me squeeze her arms, shivering a little and some distant whispering grow in my ears like someone was talking into my ears and yet it felt distant at the same time. The words are indistinct and difficult to make out. “Did you hear that?” I turn towards them. Olivia’s face glowing from laughter and Tony's amused face managing a chuckle, I frown and turn away. This was the very reason I had not looked at them since I asked Tony to give m
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Beneath the whispers Chapter 14
The whispers grew even louder as we got closer, stepping over the line of darkness from the hotel building, violent wind blew against the burning coal and with our hands we tried to block the wind from getting to the burning coal lamp Walking slowly through the front door, the Whispering tugged in our ears and the heavy wind slammed at the coal tin almost tripping it from my hands. Tony grabs on the tin's handle and we circle the tin with our bodies staggering blindly through the dark reception. The darkness poured on us like a heavy wind and the whispers grew to loud deafening wailings surging through the hotel building and echoing as far off. The heat from the tin gets too close to my body and wounds the flesh of my stomach sending excruciating pain purging through my veins and with a whimper I throw the tin and grab on Tony's arm. The shock in his face over ridden by the shabby dark clouds pulling us away from each other, I pant heavily grabbing on his arm tightly, but my hand sl
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Beneath the whispers Chapter 16
Sometimes playing a game would require knowing fully well the rules that control that game. Apart from helping us win the game, it can tell us the specific borders we shouldn't cross. But like most people, we only ever worried about the rules when our life started to depend on the game. it could be literal or not. But when we desperately made ourselves believe that beyond all reasonable doubt, we are in a haunted town with actual demons tormenting the villagers, we also realized that we could remain here unless we figure things out and save this village then it's practically our lives that we are fighting for I don’t believe in ghost though. I mean for some reason two twin children are haunting their village after their mysterious disappearance and then someone creates an ad and brings us here. But the truth is that I did experience what I experienced and I am still stuck in this town regardless While everyone seems to be cracking their brain trying to remember what the site did loo
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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
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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
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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
