Beneath the whispers

Chapter 43

Olivia's hug was the only thing I needed that morning to spark up the courage I needed

I hadn't forgotten the other day when we dared to go there. But now it wasn't just me and Tony but Thelma and Willow is here and we are with our specialized weapon of mass destruction

Harper on the other side is so rigid with anxiety that his stiffed up shoulders raise high between his head and his eyes bulge out with his Iris wandering around his eye socket. He must know that the moment he tries to say anything he would die

But there has to be a way around it. Olivia's helper had helped her so much but didn't convulse until she tried to make him tell her more

So Harper here can help us without telling us anything and we need to figure out how that would happen since unlike Mr Helper, Harper is not a willing candidate

I walk up to him and tap his tensed shoulder and smile at him “I promise you that I will not let anything happen to you” I say and he looks at me, his eyes wanting to tell me so many things but he swallows it all in “you don't have to say anything” I say and smile “I know how tensed you are but we need as much hands as possible – here” I hand him a spray can.

To be honest, I cannot give him a valid reason we need him on the group without rating us out so I stop there.

“Why are you being so nice to me? Your friends still haven't gotten to this stage with me” he asks confused. I can sense guilt in his eyes and I like it. The best way to control someone is prying on their guilt

“why? Does it make you feel guilty?” I pose the words for a joke but I meant the question

He freezes from the question and laughs nervously and I continue “people only feel uncomfortable when they are being treated nicely for two reasons, one is when they have never been treated nicely without the other party needed something in return and the second reason is they have something to feel guilty for”

I smile “and if I had gone with the first most likely option, I would be forcing you to reveal something of your past when you are still not comfortable doing so” he nods along with my hand gestures “so I decided to crack a joke instead”

“you guys are bonding faster than I expected” Tony's deep voice grows behind me and I turn. He is in his jacket and jeans just like the other day and his sleek hair is slightly disheveled with a few strands falling to his face. I smile at him

“who knows?” I look back at Harper “I might be falling in love with him” then I look back at Tony with a mischievous smile.

His frown is strong on his face “I hope not” then he lets out a wry smile “I might just pester him until he convulses to death, I mean that is what happens in this weird ass village all the time” I couldn't stop my eyes from bulging as I looked at him smile at Harper.

“look at that… protective” Harper says. Trying to play along, The terror I felt is lacking in his voice, his face is calm also.

“ready?” Willow asks as he comes out from the building with Thelma hurrying behind him

“yes” I say. Looking at him like my knight in shining armor – he just freaking saved the day

******************

“So, any last words” Thelma says and we all laugh in response. We didn’t know what to expect at the mansion and for all we know the men might be there and they will attack us the moment we find them, or they will try to mess with our memories again

But then, they could know about our plan since we made it at the hotel and not the beaded hut which means that they could clear out the place for us

“I would say that I love you all and I will tell Tony that I like him” I say without thinking and Tony grabs me from behind and Beck's me hard on my neck making me laugh out loud

“I would tell Rose that she is a wonderful person and she should stop being afraid of the dark, then I would whisper – ghosts are not real” Tony says, whispering the last sentence

“Rose is afraid of the dark?” I ask, I am mad that he didn’t say that he liked me back but I am more curious so I push my anger aside – temporary

“why do you think she made me stay together with her?”

“I thought maybe – “

“wow, but she said she does not believe in ghosts” Thelma interrupts me

“she does, her parents used it to scare her. They would threaten to lock her up in the dark room if she misbehaves so she always did the right thing. But then she never recovered” He said

“that is why she got a personal assistant?”

“nope, she termed me that when I lost my parents and I needed money. She didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable while she helped me so she employed me to do the very things I always did for her” Tony explains and we all nod slowly. I think she deserves the spotlight in his last words

“wow, she is a very nice person” Thelma says and look at Willow “last words?”

“umm, I would say that I am grateful to have met you guys, I have never really had friends before”

“I am tearing up right now” I wipe below my eyes in pretense and he laughs “what about you Thel? That definitely sounds weird” I says almost whispering the last sentence

“I would say that I love you guys”

“we love you too” Willow responds and hugs her playfully. She giggles and we laugh along with them

I look at Harper wistfully watching us, he had slowed down and is walking behind us. His eyes caught mine and I smile at him “what about you?”

The others go quiet and in a second all eyes are on him, he smiles nervously “I wouldn’t be able to say anything” he responds and that aches my heart

He would be gagging on his breath and white foam would full his mouth while he struggles to say words that wouldn’t cross his throat. He is being sincere with us

“its true, you know nothing about us so you might not have anything to say” Tony says after him

“I still wished I was with you guys” He continued. With us? Like wishing he wasn’t siding with his crazy boss or with us like he just wished we were his friends “I guess if something happens to me, just know that I wished I was your friend and I like you all and how close you are to each other. I want to be part of something like that one day”

His voice breaks a little but he contains it and smiles at us as we gape back at him. He is going around the circles but knowing the truth, we know what it is he is trying to say and that alone is heart breaking

I am not wrong for trying to let him feel cared for and loved in his last few hours because he may have not had the opportunity to feel such way but I still need to be careful not to go too soft, he might be pulling a front still. We don’t know what his Boss knows so we shouldn’t assume he doesn’t know anything

“you know what?” Tony walks towards him “you are my friend and I mean it this time” He hugs him. With Tony going soft on him my anxiety rises, what if this is what he wants – not in the good way. What if this is how he tears through us and they figure out what we are up to. Is it really the right choice to trust him because of some pity. What was I thinking?

Willow walks up to him and hugs him “I mean it too”

“way to join the group” Thelma says and hugs on him too and they all turn to look at me watching them transfixed on the ground

I initiated all these because I wanted him to be more comfortable with us that was before the pity came in and I might have over done it and now I am staring at them hugging him – but they wouldn’t really just trust someone like him. They might be going according to a plan we did not discuss. Right?

I walk up and join the group hug and we continue our journey to the mansion.