Eldritch

Chapter 14

Lisa shuffles towards her locker, her head bowed. She swallows as the voice in her voice continues to scream louder at her. She shakes her head violently, trying to shake the voice away. Her neck and shoulders tense, she makes a startled jump as a hand grasps her shoulder.

'Lisa, you okay?' Sophie asks. Sophie looks to her with a sense of urgency, as though expecting her to spill something out.

She turns to her friend, looks at her, worn down. 'Yeah,' she says. 'Just tired, I guess.'

'Oh?' Sophie's voice is laced with surprise and a hint of disappointment. 'Okay. Wanna head to class?'

'Yeah.' Side by side, the two girls walk to their maths class in silence, expressions of vacancy on both their faces.

As they take their seats, Sean surpasses them and slumps into the empty seat beside Daniel at the back of the room. Daniel greets Martin with a quick wave as he plops down in the seat in front of them. He then leans towards Sean and begins to whisper.

While they chat, Martin watches them from the corner of his eye, observing their interactions with one another. Once he realises they aren't going to include him in the conversation, he rests his head on his folded arms and releases a frustrated sigh.

'Sean,' Daniel whispers. 'What exactly happened to you last night in the diner? Did you see something?'

He fixes a hard stare on the Martin's back. 'No,' he says. 'I'm fine. I guess, I'm just freaking out about Ella. I just don't know what to do. Sheriff Ryan has no leads. They haven't found anything and it's been three days.'

'I know,' Daniel says. 'But, dude, in the diner, yesterday, it seemed like--'

'Nothing happened,' Sean snaps. He turns to face his friend, who's taken aback by his outburst. He attempts to divert the focus from him by gesturing to the bags under Daniel's eyes.

'Dude, did you sleep?'

Daniel swallows. 'Just been struggling the last few nights, thinking about Charlene. And then, last night, I,' he pauses, shuddering as he reflects on the horrific nightmare he had the previous night.

Sean raises an eyebrow. 'You what?'

He swallows again, focuses his attention on his text book in front of him. 'Nothing,' he dismisses. 'Just a bad dream, that's all. Nothing to worry about.'

As they quieten down to tune into the lesson, Martin, Sophie, Lisa, Daniel, and Sean try ignoring their inner demons. They look to their copies and scrawl down equations and formulas as their maths teacher speaks. Unlike their other classmates, who take every opportunity to whisper to their friends, they don't utter a word. They're too fixated on trying to keep inner voices at bay. One of them, especially, is having particular difficulties blocking the voice out. Because, unlike the others, Daniel isn't hearing the harsh, slithery voice. Instead, he's been tortured by the sweet, carefree, innocent tone of his long deceased little sister.

'Faster, Danny, faster,' she laughs. He swallows each time she giggles, rolls his head back with each chinking sound of her charm bracelet knocking off the bar of the roundabout. The gentle rustling of leaves through the park with each blow of the breeze grazing his skin. He squeezes his eyes shut, but that only makes it worse, for now he can see, as well as hear, his little sister.

He opens his eyes and digs his fingernails into his palms, clenching his fists as tightly as he can. His breaths get more uneven as her voice continues ringing through his ears. 'Dude, are you okay?' Sean asks.

Daniel ignores him as Mia's scream while she is launched through the air pierces through him, like a blade. He clamps his hands over his ears and bows his head.