Voices From Beyond

Chapter 12

The diner is quiet, the bell chimes as Samuel opens the door. A few heads turn to glance at the three of us as we enter. I walk in between Noah and Samuel, we take seats at stools beside the counter.

"Water?" a waitress asks dully, her green eyes glistening with loneliness.

"No, thank you," Samuel answers for us.

"Maybe we should sit at a booth for when everyone else gets here," Noah suggests.

"Probably a good idea," Samuel shrugs.

I glance behind me, scanning for an open booth. Luckily, there's one in the very corner. I lead the way over to it, Samuel and Noah follow close behind. The second we sit down, the bell above the door chimes again. Bruno makes his way around chairs forgotten to be pushed in, Noah waves him over to us. Bruno flashes a sad smile toward us, a melancholic feeling hangs in the air. He sits beside Noah. Bruno's brown eyes hang low in the dimly lit booth.

Mitch enters the diner, his arm is draped around Sydney's shoulder, she clings to his side. They sit beside Bruno, everything goes quiet. I look over at the door, it remains still. I wait expectantly for the bell to chime again, I imagine Ryan and Kennedy making their way around the chairs toward our booth. I look down at the vacant seats on either side of our group. They aren't coming. But we all wait anyway.

"Mitch, you know how I was telling you about the picture?" Sydney swirls her finger over Mitch's arm as she speaks.

"Yeah?" He raises an eyebrow.

"What picture?" Bruno interjects. He's the only one who isn't caught up. I fill him in on the details before Sydney continues.

"Well, Cora showed us the picture before it disappeared. It was the same one that's in your living room," Sydney bites her lip.

"I think your mom has been trying to contact you, I keep seeing a woman and all she asks for is her son," I speak cautiously, knowing that whatever I say will be hard to process.

Mitch searches for the words to answer with. "Is she alright?" he swallows, his eyes locked on the table.

"I don't know," I get quiet as I say this.

"Well, what do we do?" Bruno chimes in.

"Anyone else think that this is just straight up crazy?" Samuel sputters out suddenly.

Noah looks over at him, flashing him a look as to say, shut the hell up, and elbows him.

"Noah, I'm serious. We played that stupid fucking ouija board one time. Now suddenly I can't sleep at night without feeling like someone is watching me and I can't get through a week without hearing that another one of us has died. You're all thinking it, right? We are dying, whatever this is, it's picking us off one by one!" Samuel yells, slamming his fists down on the table. Sydney flinches. People at other tables glance over at us disapprovingly. Samuel's cheeks turn red with embarrassment, he shuts his mouth and slides down in his seat.

Sydney leans across the table. "Well if we don't figure this out then more of us are going to die, alright? Just calm down," she points angrily at the table, only half-whispering.

"You need to calm down too," Mitch yanks Sydney back and squeezes her hand under the table.

"Sorry, Samuel. It's been a rough day..." Sydney trails off.

"I'm sorry too, guys. I didn't mean to get so angry," Samuel runs his fingers through his hair, letting out a breath of air.

"It's alright," I answer quietly.