Heaven Sent

The Voices

They won't stop. They won't go away. All Beca hears at night are the voices. They repeat all of the words her mother has ever said to the poor girl. They're driving her insane.
"Look at you. You're worthless. Why don't you just jump off a bridge." One of the voices said during lunch.
"I already tried that. I was so close to getting away." Beca said quietly to herself as she stared at her food.
"What was that Beca?" Emily asked cheerfully.
"Uh Nothing. So how's your day been?" Beca quickly asked. She's told no one about voices. It's their secret.
"It's been really great! It's actually mine and Benjis anniversary." Emily said with a bright smile.
"How many years has it been? I mean you two have been dating since like second grade." Beca said with a smile which of course never reached her eyes.
"Well this is year nine counting the year we went on break." Benji said now joining the conversation.
"Wow... that's a long time." Beca said thinking how it's been nine years of nonstop pain.
"I guess." They both said at the same time causing them to laugh.
"Hello hot people." Stacie said sitting down next to Beca. "What are we talking about?"
"Benji and Emily's relationship." Beca said casually. "Did you know today is there nine year anniversary?"
"Holy shit really! That's a long time. I swear if you two don't get married I will cry." Stacie said very seriously.
      The group of friends all started laughing. Stacie looked confused about why everyone was laughing. Turns out she was being very serious.
      "How have you been holding up?" Jesse suddenly asked Beca.
     "It's better. Now that my mom isn't around I'm a lot happier." Beca said trying not to sound suspicious. "Thanks for helping me."
     "No problem. Who's house are you staying at this week?" Jesse continued with the questions.
     "I think Emily." Beca answered turning to said girl to see her nod in confirmation.
     "Cool." Jesse said nodding.
     The group of friends continued with different kinds of banter. Beca mostly stayed quite unless she was spoken to directly. The voices were always there. It was worse than her mom. They were here all the time. Later she was walking to Latin with Stacie when she heard a football player named Tom make a comment.
     "Wow look at how pathetic she is. She always gets walked to her classes." Tom said smugly. "We should start calling her baby Beca."
     "He's right you know. You are pathetic. None of your friends will ever leave you alone." A voice said.
     Becas breathing started to pick up. They kept on laughing and making remarks. Suddenly everything went black. When she "woke up" she was standing over Tom who was holding his nose.
     "What the fuck!" Tom yelled as blood seeped through his hands. "What the hell was that for?!"
     "I... I don't know." Beca said looking down at her hands. "I don't even know what happened."
     Everyone was staring. She hated it. She needed to get out. Beca just started running. She felt tears prick at her eyes but she refused to let them fall. She didn't realize she left the building until she was back at the bridge. Whenever she ran why would she always end up here? Beca walked over to the edge at just starred at the water.
     "Wow. This is the first time you haven't been standing on the edge." She heard a familiar voice.
     "I'm not always suicidal you know." Beca said quietly. "Why aren't you at school?"
     "Homeschooled." The beautiful redhead simply said. "What about you?"
     "I... I blacked out. This dick was saying stuff about me and I guess I got mad. I don't know what happened but suddenly he was on the floor holding his nose and I was standing above him." Beca said quietly.
     "Did someone... I don't know... tell you to do it?" She asked gently.
     "Who would tell me to do that?" Beca said after scoffing.
     "I don't know maybe the voices." The redhead said almost like it was a well known fact.
      "How do you know about that? I haven't told anyone." Beca said starting to feel worried.
      "I know a lot more than you think. About you. About Jesse. About Stacie. About all your friends really. Even your mom and dad." She said smiling.
     "How? Who are you anyway?" Beca asked suddenly getting defensive.
     "Doesn't matter." She said brushing it off. "But what does matter is your message, which I know you've discovered."
     "How do you know that?" Beca asked slightly laughing. "But yeah. It has a nice ring to it too. Love is louder."
     "Perfect." She said smiling. "Now all you have to do is get with Sony records."
     "Song records? Is that the label I'm going to sign with?" Beca asked getting excited.
     "Yup. But don't tell him I told you." She said in a hushed tone.
     "Who?" Beca asked furrowing her eyebrows.
     "I've said to much. It was really nice talking with you Beca. Just remember love is louder." She said with a wink. "Bye."
      "That is one weird girl." Beca muttered as she watched her walk away.
      "Beca! Oh my god don't jump!" Beca turned to see Stacie and her friends sprinting over to her.
     "I wasn't going to." Beca said slightly annoyed. "I just needed to cool off."
     "Why did you punch Tom anyway?" Emily asked giving her a hug.
     "I honestly have no idea." Beca said looking down. "I'm sorry if I scared you guys."
     "It's fine. As long as you're okay." Stacie said linking there arms together causing Beca to tense.
     "You should punch her for touching you." One of the voices said.
     "She's invading your space... just. Like. Your. Mother." A second voice chimed it.
     "I'm not going to do that. It's just Stacie. She won't hurt me." Beca said under her breath.
     "What was that Becs?" Stacie asked barely hearing her.
     "Um nothing. I'm fine." Beca said as she started walking faster then her friends.
      "I think something is up with her." Emily quietly said to Stacie.
     "Something is definitely up." Stacie corrected.
     A few weeks have gone by and the voices kept on putting thoughts in Becas head. If any of her friends touched her they would say to harm them. She's come close to blacking out several times but has managed to avoid it. Today was completely normal until Stacie saw her in the morning. Stacie tackles her with a big bear hug.
     "Happy birthday Beca!" Stacie said happily.
     "Do you know what that means? It's a birthday beating. But since your moms gone someone else will be on the receiving end." A voice said wickedly.
     "No stop! I don't want to hurt anyone!" Beca suddenly screamed.
     The voices kept on telling her to take off her belt to hit Stacie. She couldn't take it. Stacie looked at her very concerned as the guidance counselor carefully walked over to her.
     "Sweetie are you okay?" She asked in a calm tone.
     "Get out of my head!" Beca screamed louder. "I don't want to do that!"
     "Do what hun?" The counselor asked continuing to stay calm.
     "No! No! No! Stop it! I will not cause someone the same pain as me! No one should have to go through that!" Beca just continued to scream more.
     "Beca, Everything is okay. You don't have to listen to them." The redhead suddenly appeared from the crowd. "You're stronger than they are."
      "Get out of my head!" Beca screamed once more covering her ears.
     "Calm down. Tune them out and just listen to my voice." She said calmly placing a hand on her shoulder.
     She continued to say soothing things while rubbing Becas back. Her breathing soon returned to normal and she removed her hands from her ears.
     "That's it. Everything is okay. You are your own person they can't control you." She said calmly helping Beca stand up.
     "I thought you said you were homeschooled?" Beca asked once she noticed who calmed her.
     "I am." She said before running off.
     "Who was that?" Jesse asked as he watched her run away.
     "That's the redhead I've told you about." Becas said taking a deep breath.
     "Beca... are you okay?" Stacie cautiously asked.
     "Yes. No. Maybe?" The small brunette answered. "I've been hearing voices for weeks now."
     "Why haven't you told us?" Benji asked.
     "Because I was scared. It's never happened before." She said looking at her hands.
     "What do they say?" Stacie asked.
     "They often tell me to hurt people. Like if they touch me." Beca explained. "So when Stacie was hugging me and saying happy birthday, they were telling me to..."
     "Beca it's okay. We won't be scared of you." Jesse said softly as the rest of the group nodded.
     "They told me to give Stacie what my mother called a birthday beating." She said as her eyes weld up with tears. "I'm really sorry Stacie."
     "Hey it's okay all that matters is the fact that you didn't do anything." She said smiling. "Beca what that mysterious redhead said was right, you are stronger than the voices in your head."
"I'm not so sure about that. I couldn't even stop my mom from hurting me." Beca said glumly.
"But you were able to stand the beatings." Stacie said softly. "They happened every day and you stayed awake and tried to fight. That makes you stronger than all of us combined."
"I guess..." Beca trailed off.
Beca grabbed her books and started walking to her next class trying to forget about everything that has happened. She let her mind wander to the redhead. She said the weirdest things sometimes. Like about her future and her past. She needed to remember the name Sony records. She pulled out the notebook she'd been writing in. She opened to a new page and wrote a new title. Facts About Red. She quickly wrote all of the facts down before the class started. Like how she didn't tell her, her name. Or how she knew about the voices. It was all so weird. Once I've written them all down I looked them over. These all lead to one thing. At the bottom of the page I wrote She's heaven sent.
"Miss Mitchell, I understand you had a break down but, would you care to pay attention to the lesson?" Her teacher asked.
"Sorry." Beca said quietly before closing the notebook and placing it back in her bag.
Across the room Stacie was carefully watching Beca. She was furrowing her eyes when she say her pull out the blue notebook. She thought all of her books were black.
"What are you hiding?" She mumbled to herself.