The Voice Recorder

Prologue

"And so you said to her ?"

"Oh, I told her everything,"

I'm walking through a small, secluded area of forest with my two friends, Dan, a handsome man in his twenties with flowing, dark hair, and wide, maroon eyes. Dressing from head to toe in casual summer-like clothes. And Evan, only a skimpy boy about a month older than me, but still somehow a good few inches taller with short, dusty blonde hair.

Evan chuckled a bit before continuing,

"So you're telling me ? That YOU, told Aoife about everything that happened with Thomas ?"

"Don't forget the car either," Dan added with a finger wag. "That was a whole other can of worms to open..."

I don't say anything to acknowledge their conversation, in fact, I'm not even paying attention to most of it. It's only when I pick out my name being said that I begin to listen

"...Don't get me started on..."

"...Reece actually said that ?..."

Still, I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do, even if I am mentioned. So I just walk. There's nothing wrong with that, right ? Walking got alot of people I know far, 'walk as far as your legs will take you' is what my mother used to tell me before I moved out into London. She's just another one of my memories now, though.

I can hear the indistinct laughter of my friends. They're probably chatting about me, but, to be fair, I've heard enough rumours about myself to know that this is nothing new, at least not to me anyway. I'm sure there's new ones being churned out of my classmates every second, as if they're some crude factory of banta, but I guess that's just normal in my eyes.

I nearly trip over my untied shoelaces as Dan stops laughing and shudders to a halt in front of me. I bashed my nose on his monstrously overstuffed backpack, recoiling at the pain grasping at my nose before seeing what made him stop.

"Well shit," Evan puts his hands on his waist and sighs. "How are we getting over that ?"

I look up over my hands and see what he was referring to. A river, no bigger than a large tree trunk in length but still too wide to clear with a simple jump.

"That's not gonna be easy to-"

Dan's obvious words were cut off by an echoing groan of sorts. Maybe it was a bear ? Or some other forest animal with a temper, but I know neither me, Evan nor Dan was going to stick around to find out what it was. For a few seconds, none of us did anything, trying to figure out the sound that had shaken us so deeply. Until the booming noise rang out louder, and closer, than before. We ran. Ran faster than I knew we could. Dan was jumping over any loose branches that came tumbling his way, ducking and dodging so frantically I genuinely thought he was going to collapse. Evan however ?

Well.

We lost him during the run.

It was only later that the thump I had heard amongst the whistling of the wind against my ears had been Evan. Falling to the ground, and only what I can assume, scrambling to try and get up after tripping up.

I could've stopped. Helped him up. Gotten him back on his feet. But no. I left him.

I don't know what happened to him after that. Maybe he's still alive. Maybe he's dead. I'm not sure, I never will be.

Dan and I ran for a long while through the seemingly endless foliage before finally reaching something remotely familiar. We both collapsed near a withered tree stump hacking and gasping for air. It was only at that point that I realised how much my legs and chest hurt, screwing up my face seemed to be the only thing I could do. I looked over at Dan, his face, once so full of colour and mischief, was reduced to a white, ghostly shade, with no intention of even the smallest joke.

Someone, no, someTHING had just scared us out of our wits, making us lose Evan.

I saw Dan's face turn red.

He looked at me, clenching his fist.

'Here we go,' I thought

He stood up

'I'm gonna get the shit beat out of me'

Dan grabbed me by my collar and swung his fist, making direct contact with my face.