Beneath the whispers

Chapter 12

Anthony

The woman's house is slightly bigger than the rest of the village, there is a thick mat in place of foam and it spreads wide across the floor.

“You should know better not to go anywhere without light” The woman sets her coal inside her fire place and covers it with a paper-like door so the smoke leaves only through something that looks like a chimney.

I am at the edge of the mat leaning on the white wallpaper now and I keep patting Bella’s back as she rests her head on my chest, her hands still trembling from earlier.

Looking up at the crossed sticks that made up for the ceiling – all I could remember was some sudden wind gust and the next thing I am crashing into some tree losing Bella in the process I cannot explain what I had just seen other than the fact that I might have just experienced some spiritual attempted kidnap.

Running my fingers through the strands of Bella’s hair and tugging them at the back of her ears, I grin softly at her, her eyes shut with long mascara-stained lashes, the black stain from the mascara mixed with tears cluster beneath her eyes. Her lipstick had smeared all over her cheeks making her face a whole lot of a beautiful mess – she will definitely hate this moment

Her breaths heavy but they synced with mine. Her smooth spotless skin looks like the millions she claims to have spent keeping it in place. She might be exaggerating about the money but I know what I feel stroking her Skin with my thumb.

“Is she ok?” Olivia whispers, as if the shadows would trace her voice should they hear.

The woman glance over us and tuts “Didn't you know about these shadows?” she says in a harsh voice

"we did – in fact it is the very reason we are here” I voiced. the woman chuckled – suppressing what seems like a snicker.

“they believe they can somehow save this town from the shadows” Olivia says sarcastically

My scornful glance with disapproval in my eyes stops the next few sarcastic words she was about to spill, refocusing on the woman who was now amused and had dropped the bowl of roasted potatoes she gathered on the dark rug.

“You came here to fight with the shadows?” the woman asks

Olivia had words begging to burst from her lips, her lips break open but I glance hard at her just in time for the woman's amused eyes to rest on her

“We want to destroy them” I say interrupting the unspoken words from the woman, when she looks my direction I continue “we need any information we can get regarding the family at the mansion, that is the only way we can put the twins to rest”

"there is no destroying them. you can only survive the longest you could” the Old woman lets out a heavy breath “I saw her, your pretty friend” she gestures at Bella “she got those stupid teens from the tunnel where they hid. I told those kids to come stay here that night but they wouldn't” the woman said nodding her head and breaks out a grin that didn’t reach her eyes “I warned them” she mutters to herself this time

“how long have you been here?” I had to ask

"I was born here, there were more trees, the mansion didn’t exist and so was your hotel. Some people come suddenly in a huge boat and they start to help us, so we let them build that hotel… among with the many things they gave us during the buildings”

“where they related to the family on the mansion?” I ask and Olivia roll her eyes at me. She still feels this whole mansion secret is a waste of time, she made it quite clear earlier – ‘we should just escape and take the villagers with us, the ones that survive’ in her words

“My husband helped build that mansion. After it was completed, we got so much gifts from the family, they were very generous and gave us a lot of different gifts. But one day, they stopped and the next thing, my husband disappeared. Before I could figure that out, my daughter is taken by some dark cloud gust”

"what about the family that lived in the mansion?” I ask further

“I don’t know anything about the family. Nobody had the guts to go near the mansion since the horrific events started”

“you never tried leaving?”

"that was how I lost my Son, her twin – at the border when we tried to cross” The woman starts distributing the potatoes to us, Olivia is now on the mat with her legs folded so that her feet is under her butt and the woman used a low stool and is peeling the huge palm size potato she held with her fingers

“They were only sixteen” Her voice trembles a little, gazing at the fireplace that housed the coal – the coal seems to be the very thing that kept the darkness away even though I couldn’t explain how most houses in the town had the same red light but now I know that it is from the charcoal which meant they believed the coal protected them somehow. “How did you know about the coal?” I asked the woman, her gaze still fixed at the fireplace

“the house down the hill lying alone before the road. The occupants, a young couple were taken too and then someone mysteriously appeared in the village. He wasn’t alone but after losing his friends he started investigating them – I just know that he gets information that would help us, distributes it through the village. He had promise to get us out of here”

“do you know how we can meet him?” I say, sitting up and adjusting Bella’s head to rest on my laps

“I have never seen him. Only heard of him” the woman pushes the bowl to me and following her gestures I start peeling mine ignoring Olivia’s pouting, a lame plea for help – I am struggling as is to peel mine. She keeps pouting and with a sigh I snatch hers from her and dumps it in the bowl rolling my eyes when she grins

The woman chuckles lightly and leaves the hut with her burning coal lamp. Olivia crawls towards us on the mat and strokes Bella's hair

“she had always been so beautiful” she grin lightly “even with ruined makeup” she says, chuckling the words out

“you two were really close, weren't you?” I give her a peeled potato.

"From high school. She was like a princess and I was her little fairy godmother” Olivia chuckles a little and takes a big bite, Laughing louder when I take a bigger bite.

**********

“You will have to lay her down or your neck will hurt by tomorrow” Olivia warns as she searches the tiny house for water, she opens a clay pot and drinks with the long handed cup by the side of the pot

“What happened between you guys?” I ask, finishing my last bite.

She chokes a little, tapping her chest and coughing. Then she clears her throats “that’s a story for another day”