The Cave Underneath

Chapter one

Gabriella pressed a hand to her ear and shook her head. They were getting louder. She could hear it so much more clearly. But what were those voices? They had always been there, they had always been lurking at the back of her mind, but now they were invading her thoughts. She could hear screams and yells of triumph, like a war was battling out inside her own brain.

She shook her head, lowering her hand. It was nothing. The voices and names would go away. They always did.

She just hoped her friends wouldn't notice.

Gabriella picked up her phone from off her bed and opened the contacts to message Bre. You comin? she typed, hitting the Send button immediately after.

Just a sec, she replied.

Well hrry up, she wrote.

Impatient much???

Whatever. She tossed the phone back on her bed and sat down. The voices were still there. She tried to shrug it off, but it wasn't going away.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the front door. Finally, she thought, standing up and walking down the hall.

She opened the door to see Bre. Her wavy brown hair was hanging at her sides and draped behind her back, hazel eyes gleaming.

"You coming in?" Gabriella asked.

"I thought we were gonna play outside," Bre said, looking disappointed.

Gabriella moaned. "Do we have to...?"

"Please," Bre begged, clasping her hands together.

Gabriella hesitated. "Fine," she said, stepping out and closing the door. "But only for a little bit," she added as they began to walk away from the house.

"Why are you always so grumpy, Gabby?" Bre asked, but Gabriella winced as the sound of a scream echoed in her brain.

"It's nothing," she replied, shaking her head.

Bre shrugged and looked away.

"Hey, Bre!" a voice called from far away. Gabriella groaned when she saw that three other people had spotted them.

Jake. That short scrawny kid who hadn't hit a growth spurt yet. He had curly black hair that really looked like it needed to be cut, and a strange birthmark on his neck that looked like fire. Gabriella always thought it was a tattoo, but Bre insisted Jake would never do something like that, so Gabby ignored her own thoughts and told herself that Jake was a nice kid. Whatever it took to keep her friend happy.

Daniel. Gabriella had only seen him at school a few times. She guessed that he didn't really like socializing a lot, which she got; she was like that too, often. His hair was done up in what seemed like something between a hawk and a quiff, which didn't look too bad, she thought. He had vibrant ice blue eyes that made it look like he could read people with one glance, even though he was always acting so out there and dreamy. He was pretty averagely tan, but not too dark. The only really distinguishing feature he had was the way his eyes could hook you in as soon as anybody looked him in the face.

And then there was Sophie. She was the little cute, innocent blonde girl that you would see laughing with her other friends; Gabriella was surprised to see her hanging around with a kid like Jake. Well, technically she was kind of surprised to see anyone hanging around Jake, but this was even worse.

"Hi!" Bre said excitedly. She squealed and ran to hug her friends. Sophie opened her arms for a hug, but the only one Bre embraced was Jake, who smirked at Sophie over Bre's shoulder. Sophie stuck out her tongue at him, but he just rolled his eyes and scuffed his boot in the ground when Bre let him go, sending a puff of dust into Sophie's face.

Since Bre didn't notice, Gabriella purposefully sat down in between Sophie and Jake; she didn't know either of them that well, but it didn't take a genius to see that they didn't get along very well.

Daniel smiled at Bre and pointed to the hill behind the dirt lot they were sitting in. "You guys wanna climb up there?" he suggested.

Gabriella looked desperately up the hill. She had to hang out with all these new people, and now she had to climb? What a great day.

The group stood up, Daniel offering a hand to Jake, but Jake only glared at him and pulled himself off the ground. They began to make their way toward the hill, their shoes shuffling in the dirt and growing brown from walking through the lot.

The ascend to the hill started and Gabriella was already regretting ever leaving the comfort of her house.

Crazy friends. Stupid hill. Crazy stupid outdoors--

Her thoughts were interrupted when she bumped into Jake's back. "Why'd we stop?" she asked as he turned around.

"We reached the top, Gabe," he said to her.

"Don't call me Gabe."

"I'm calling you Gabe."

She huffed. "Whatever. I don't care," she lied. Why was he so obnoxious?

"Jake, don't bug Gabby," Daniel said, turning around awkwardly on the slope.

"You know I'm just jokin' around, Dan, calm it down, alright." Jake took a step closer to him, though he was still much shorter than Daniel and didn't seem anywhere near as intimidating. Cold gray eyes met Daniel's piercing blue ones.

Bre stepped between the two and put her hands up. "How did you guys ever start hanging out?" she asked them, her eyes flashing between the two opposites.

"Sophie," they said together.

Bre turned to face her friend, who shrugged with a shy smile. "I'm social," she tried.

Social with the wrong people, Gabriella thought, looking at Jake.

"I don't get any of you," Jake said. "Ever since the first day we met, you all have avoided me, except Bre. So I gave up on trying to be nice to you."

"Cool story," Daniel said. "Why don't you try talking to me again when you actually mean what you say?" He was about to turn away.

Jake screwed up his face in anger and lunged forward at Daniel. The two boys scrambled in the dirt as Jake tried to pin the other down, and Daniee tried to shove him off.

"Are you crazy?" Daniel wheezed, scrambling to push Jake's knee of of his chest.

"Nope," Jake answered. "Just angry."

Gabriella heard a scream in her head much louder than usual, and felt a rumble beneath her feet. "Guys..." she said slowly. "We should get going..."

But nobody had heard her. The boys were still wrestling on the ground, Bre was trying to rip Jake off of Daniel, and Sophie was standing over them worriedly.

"Guys," she said again as another rumble boomed under their feet.

"Yeah?" Bre said, giving up on trying to pull the guys apart and looking at Gabriella. She looked tired and done with the fighting.

"I think--" Gabriella started, but was cut off as she felt the ground collapse beneath her feet. Everyone was plunged into darkness. The only screams Gabriella could here now were those of her friends.