Gold Illusion

4. The Second First

It lay in the palm of her hand. She couldn't take her eyes off of it.

"Hello? Earth to Steffi?" A confused Liv clicked her fingers in front of Steffi's face.

Steffi tucked the pebble into her pocket, pretending nothing had happened.

"Oh Liv, don't worry about the pot. I promise it won't be missed. I actually think mum was plotting to get rid of it." Steffi lied.

Suddenly the power cut out, then she heard him. First she heard him laugh, a deep, genuine laugh. "Seriously Jake, just ask her! If you don't I will!"

She opened her eyes wide at Liv – who looked confused – Steffi put a finger to her lips and quietly crept into the kitchen. Thoughts tumbled through her mind. Although Steffi wasn't a fan of horrors or thrillers almost all of her friends were absolutely obsessed with them. She had seen more than her fair share of horrors where the innocent girls are at home and then some creepy person or thing comes in and then... Steffi felt sick thinking about it.

Liv, oblivious to her worry, followed Steffi and asked in what could only be described as an 'outside voice' "Steffi, what are you doing?"

Liv couldn't be serious, thought Steffi. Hadn't she heard the voice as well? It couldn't have been the radio or TV - the power was off.

"Did you not just hear that?" she asked incredulous that Liv wasn't the least bit fazed.

"Hear what Steffi? What's wrong? I've never seen you like this. Where are your candles by the way?"

Then the voice came again "Dude did you just hear that? I swear... I think there's a chick in here?"

Steffi clamped her hand over her mouth, pleading with Liv to stay quiet.

"What are you doing Steffi? You're being so weird... Do you need to lie down or something?"

The voice sounded as though it was literally right next to her, but it was slightly muffled. As though it was underwater. Liv didn't even flinch and Steffi wondered if she could even hear it. Maybe it was just all in her head? Maybe Steffi just needed sleep? 

"Okay" she thought to herself, Get a grip Steffi, its probably nothing. One too many movies she thought. No more movies.

Then she turned to Liv. "Yeah, thanks Liv, I think I might just be a bit dehydrated...Actually, I am feeling kind of ill. Maybe you should just go home?"

"Awwww Steffi! If you're sick a good friend would stay and look after you!"

Oh fabulous thought Steffi. What she really needed was some time alone to get this stupid voice out of her head.

"Dude! That was totally wicked! Catch'a same time next week?"

She clapped her hands over her ears and stomped up to her room.

"Get out, get out, get out!" She whispered. Apparently Steffi needed to work on her whispering skills.

"Um... Okay, I guess it's your house after all. Um, get well soon Steffi. Call me if you need anything." replied Liv

Steffi was about to apologize for being so mean, but caught herself just in time. How would she explain that? And plus Liv was about to leave which was exactly what Steffi wanted. This voice was really starting to freak her out.

"Boo!"

Steffi screamed and Liv came running. "Oh my God Steffi what's going on?"

His voice was confident this time. "So you are there. Who are you? Where are you?" Then his voice became more mocking – almost nervous – but still extremely confident. "Guys is this some sick prank? Are there some hidden cameras somewhere? What's going on?"

She ran downstairs grabbing all of Liv's stuff and handing it to her. She felt so bad, but Steffi had a feeling this was more than just some weird  psychotic episode or something.

"Thanks for coming Liv. I cannot say this enough but I am so so sorry!" Steffi called out to Liv as she left through the front door.

"Seriously, who the heck are you? Guys this isn't funny anymore"

She shut the door quickly and pressed her back against the cool wood. Steffi slid down the door and sat on the floor with her knees pulled up to her chin. She stayed quiet. Her eyes scanned the room. Then Steffi remembered the pebble. She rubbed it between her fingers.

"I have no idea what's going on either. My name is Steffi."

"Okay Steffi. Where are you"

"Well I'm sitting in front of my front door right now. But I'm pretty sure you aren't here, are you?"

"Ummmm... Okay, nope. Definitely not at your house. I'm in the men's toilets at the cinema."

His voice sounded British. "Okay, this is going to be such a random question. Is your name Harrison by any chance?"

"That's creepy, how'd you know?"

"Did we meet on that island, around a year ago?" She felt stupid whispering into the darkness. So she crawled over to her dog, Rory and started talking to him.

"I thought I dreamed it, I couldn't find that pebble you gave me until today. And it just appeared, and then..."

"Hold up" he interrupted. "I just found my pebble too. It was in my popcorn. I almost lost a tooth!"

"Okay this is all super weird..." Rory looked up at her with a 'tell me about it' expression all over his tiny face.

Suddenly his curious and worried tone disappeared and he was back to his confident self. "Hey, I thought you left already!" then there was silence.

"Harrison I'm still here." Said Steffi, worried that he couldn't hear her anymore.

"Cool dude, just give me a minute in here, I'll be right out."

Another pause

"Sorry about that Steffi, my mates giving me a ride home. I won't be able to talk for like 20 minutes. Sorry."

Steffi let out a sigh of relief. "I thought you left me hanging here"

She got up and cleaned the kitchen, lit some candles and went to into her bathroom. She started singing with her tooth brush "don't you, forget about meeeee" until she realised that she wasn't alone. "Oh my gosh, Harrison I'm so so so sorry you had to hear that." She blushed furiously. "Wow this is going to take some getting used to" In reply she got a soft chuckle and a quiet whisper "tell me about it" followed by a "What? Oh no I didn't say anything" Steffi laughed. "Don't answer me Harrison! People will think you've got an imaginary friend."

"How long do you think this will last? I mean, if it lasts longer than a couple of days, I think we need to get a code or secret language going, you know like cough once for yes, cough twice for no..."

One cough.

"Cool, alright so I was thinking if I give you my email or number could you text me or email me so that I know this isn't all in my head?"

One cough. Then an "Oh no don't worry about me Mrs T, I think I've just got a loose popcorn kernel"

Steffi curled up with her book and a candle. Every now and then she heard Harrison say something. His voice was soothing and eventually her eyelids grew heavy. She blew out her candle before she fell asleep and burnt down the house and fell into her dreams.

This time she was in a room, she couldn't make out where or what it looked like, she just knew it was a room; all she could see was fog. And then suddenly Harrison was there, guiding her. Two paths appeared and Steffi began walking to the one on the left, but Harrison gently pulled her onto the other one. He seemed confident about where he was going. Steffi just hoped when they got there she felt as confident as him.

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Hey :) Hope you enjoyed it, I've had a lot on so its a bit rushed. Please let me know if it doesn't make sense ;) 

Have a great weekend :)