Authors: Sarah Vistica
Whisper
Whisper
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright ©2013 by Sarah Vistica
All Rights Reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
The text for this book is set in Century.
Created in the United States of America
Kindle
Edition
Cover Design by: Kellie Dennis
Also Available in paperback
Whisper
Sarah Vistica
For those who believe in the unknown
CONTENTS
This was my chance to get away from my parents, to spend time alone with my thoughts. A rock formation sat on the shore of the beach angled toward the ocean. I climbed the stone steps. The waves would not reach this high. I sat down hugging my knees to my chest.
My dad had a bucket in his hand, filling it with beach water. I watched as he carefully took it toward my mom. He dumped it over the top of her head,
classic move dad
I thought to myself. She swatted at him with her wet hands before getting up chasing him down to the water. My mom jumped on his back and they both tumbled into the water.
I closed my eyes listening to sounds of waves crashing against the shore lapping up the sand and flowing back out to sea. It was relaxing to hear the waters rhythmic movement. Seagulls flew through the air I could hear their irritating squawks. I inhaled the salty air mingled with a cool breeze.
My thoughts lingered on him. An older boy I had started to dream about. He doesn’t speak to me in my dreams. There is a strange attraction toward him. I watch him play the piano, his hands pressing graciously against the keys and strokes. The melody intensified until I couldn’t hear any longer the sounds of laughing children playing in the sand and surfers waiting for the next good wave.
I opened my eyes. The strangest sense I wasn’t alone over took me. Carefully standing I have an electrical current moving through my nerves. My heart is pounding.
Slowly I face behind me to see an older boy standing in front of me his face mostly covered in shadow by the rock. Nobody notices him standing here out of place wearing an untucked white dress shirt and black slacks. Short golden hair wisps in the breeze. He has enticing haunted deep blue eyes. I couldn’t figure out the allure about him.
“Who are you?” I am alarmed. If I scream would anyone here me?
He smirks, amused at my uneasiness. “I do not have much time. I have been searching for you. Now that I have found you it is not under the circumstances I had hoped. This is a warning…your life is in danger.”
Is he crazy? I have no intention of listening to someone I don’t even know. I thought if I got around him I could return to my parents and tell them how a delusional boy wanted me to stay at the beach until when…he said it was okay to leave?
“That is completely absurd.” Shaking my head, I was trying to wrap my mind around it.
“Do this for me, please.” He stood closer now.
His hand lingered in the air. I wasn’t sure if he was attempting to touch my face or run his fingers through my hair. Dropping his hand to his side, he says, “don’t leave.”
“I don’t know you.” He walked backwards, “I tried,” he says before turning away and disappearing.
“Avaya, come on let’s go.” Mom calls out to me from a distance.
Opening my eyes I search my surroundings I am still alone.
“I’m coming.” I say confused.
She waited for me to grab my things. My dad was already almost at the car with an armload of stuff. I grabbed my things and caught up to my mom. My mouth opened about to tell her what the boy said, then I decided it was best not to say a word. His eloquent English and proper manners would not exist here in Palm, Washington on the beach.
When we got to the car mom says to dad jokingly, “thanks for waiting patiently this time.” My dad didn’t stop honking the horn for us to hurry up until my mom waved her hand at him.
I was at the beach again. How did I get here? The boy from earlier faced me again. All he said was “open your eyes Avaya!” He pleaded. I stared at him not understanding what he meant. I found myself recognizing him. Slowly that familiarity waned. “I am here…I am here.” His voice echoed as he faded away from me.
* * *
I coughed up dusty dirt. My head pounded and white stars sparkled in front of my vision. I had trouble understanding how I ended up here. There was dry grass around me and bumps of solid rock and dirt. A hilly dirt road, I think. Tears trickled down my cheeks. I tried calling out to my parents, but no one responded.
Carefully I stood up bracing myself against the tree next me. It was dark and I had trouble seeing. I barely saw what looked like a pathway. I pushed off the tree and started stumbling forward.
I tripped over sunken dirt a few times. Disoriented I turned in a circle not sure which way to go there was only one pathway but which way was I going or coming from. Taking a deep breath I swallow and try to walk again.
When I get over the hill I wasn’t sure how long I had been walking. Bright flashing lights glowed ahead of me behind a hill. The sound of a siren echoed to me and faded just as quickly.
Stumbling behind a tiny hill I hit my head on something hard. My head became slightly wet and sticky. Glancing up I saw an abandoned car with the trunk open. It sparked a buzzing pain in my head. Dark figures moved around the car with flashlights.
Crawling a little I had to get to my feet.
“Help,” I called out. It came out as a whisper. There were two mounds of solid dirt and rock I braced both my hands on each one. I found the strength to move forward a little faster.
“Help me!” I tried to shout.
I stumbled into an opening I saw vehicles with bright flashing lights. Fire trucks angled together and an ambulance. At least three police cars were
surrounding the area. I started to move towards them. Several people started toward me. I collapsed into the arms of a paramedic who wrapped a blanket around my freezing body.
It all went hazy and black. All I wanted to do now… is sleep.
Arrival
I waited at my terminal for the plane to board. I was being sent to live with my Uncle James in Woodenbury, Vermont. Until now I hadn’t know about him. It is nerve wracking to know I will be living with a stranger. The windows are lined around the terminal. I watched the planes docking and undocking until the front desk calls my boarding class.
Placing my bag in the overhead compartment, an electrified sensation so familiar froze me. I was not sure what caused it. There was a family staring at me in the aisle waiting to take their seats. Moving into my seat, I sit down next to the window staring out watching the men load baggage and drive away in their cart.
I watched the clouds as the airplane soared through them, their puffy designs drifting. The land below looked so different from up here. Green squares of various shades. I watched until we were above the clouds and all I could see below was a mass blanket of fluff.
I thought back to yesterday.
My dingy hair hung over my shoulders. I sat in a chair at the police station, the sleeves of my hoodie pulled over my hands. No tears fell from my eyes. I didn’t know why I was on the brink of letting myself fade away from the world.
Dirt smattered my hoodie and jeans, scared to look in the mirror sitting on the wall I angled away from it. The last thing I wanted was to see my face bruised and dirty. The stinging pain emitting from my cheeks was enough to know what happened left a physical mark.
The two detectives who picked me up at the hospital and brought me to their station sat with me in an enclosed room, I felt under interrogation for something I haven’t done.
“This is Detective Bennett and I am detective Carl. Has anyone spoken with you yet other than us?” Detective Bennett placed a cup of water in front of me.
“No…” I shook my head.
Detective Carl sighed, “I am very sorry Avaya…” No don’t say it please. I had an aching feeling in my chest. “Your parents Adam and Lily are no longer living.” I shut down. Maybe that isn’t a normal reaction it’s…I was just with them.
While I was at the hospital the doctor told the two detectives I have something called traumatic amnesia and may not remember any details about what happened before I was found covered in dirt.
I am brought back to the present moment.
Closing my eyes I take a deep breath, pain shoots through the back of my head. An image shrouded by fog slams against my closed eyelids. The sound of someone in agony echoes in the distance. The pounding continues as though it was trying to suck me in.
The pain lessened, I heard a familiar voice I couldn’t quite place, “I am here…I am here.” The voice faded away.
“Miss is everything all right? You were screaming.” A flight attendant leaned on the head rest of an aisle seat. That was me screaming? The stewardess brought me bottled water; the cool liquid soothed my raw throat.
Suddenly overcome with fatigue I laid my head back shutting my eyes taking slow calm breaths.
I opened my eyes to find a boy sitting next to me. This felt surreal. I couldn’t remember anyone sitting next to me before. Of course I have been lost in my own thoughts. It took a minute to recognize him but he didn’t say word to me. Staring straight he lowered his head, a smirk pulled at his lips.
He turned to me my heart beat sped up his lowered eyes piercing into mine. His touch alone shocked me to the core. I didn’t know his name and every time I
tried to ask he faded away before I woke up. His hand crept into mine. Our fingers entwined naturally. Laying my head on his shoulder I shut my eyes.
The ding of the seat belt sign, woke me up I looked at the seat next to me…it was empty. My mind a little hazy came to the conclusion, it was another dream.
I leaned my head against the window, staring at the ground below. I felt my stomach drop into my gut with every pocket of air turbulence as the plane descended into Burlington.
Nobody waited for me beyond the security check point. I headed to luggage pick up grabbing my bag off the conveyer belt, pain shot through the back of my head. “Avaya no…” I heard a voice shout. It was unrecognizable through the thick fog.
Coming to I opened my eyes slowly. Everyone standing around me at the airport is staring. Some with mouths gaping open. My cheeks turned red from the mishap.
I am beginning to think I am malfunctioned.
The airport was scarcely empty. I was sitting in a chair connected to a string of seats waiting for a while before an elderly man in his fifties came up to me. He wore a driver’s suit.
I watched through the back window as the airport grew smaller. The driver got on I-89 merging into traffic. We drove for too long, before exiting. The driver drove up to an intersection and turned left onto another street. Then he turned right onto a two lane highway that hardly any cars turned down.
The car pulled to a stop, it was another two lane highway covered with trees and ivy, an old sign listed a highway most people in this area possibly rarely used anymore.
Turning down a winding driveway a sign in the front read Vandersen Manor. The driveway shadowed by arched trees and thick mounds of leaves, it was hard to see the road. We passed through two open wrought iron gates. At the end of a long straight flat driveway sat a mansion.
The car door had been opened for me, as I stepped out a cool breeze hit me in the face. I stared up at the imposing gothic structure looming above me. Intimidating gargoyles sat on each side of the ascending stairs leading to double mahogany wood carved doors. Closing my eyes I take a slow deep breath placing my fingers against my temples trying to evade these headaches blocking out the murky images swirling in my mind.
The driver had disappeared leaving my luggage at my side. There was something strange about him I couldn’t quite place. I glanced around trying to figure out where he went. I had not heard the sound of an engine starting or the tires crunching against the gravel.
A lady came toward me, excitement radiated in her thrilled tone. I noticed she was closer in age to me than I had anticipated. She wore her dishwater blond hair pinned back, covered by a white bonnet. Her dress, blue and white striped came to her mid-shin. It was weird. She spoke old English, we learned in history class as the maid’s English; though I didn’t know from what time period it came.
“You must be Master Caulder’s niece. I am Bethanne your lady’s maid.”
She stared at me momentarily hugging her arms around her body. Glancing off in a far direction Bethanne rubbed her hands against her arms. “We must go inside, going to be a chilled evening miss.”
Something about this place felt…wrong.
The sensation of being watched pricked my senses, like my every move was being monitored. Trying to find the source of the intruder, I glance in different directions. All I see are surrounding trees and distant mountains in the backdrop.
Pulling my golden chocolate hair off to the side I lift my backpack onto my shoulder.
I see movement out of the corner of my eye. Hesitating, I see an older boy at a distance with his back to me. Looking over my shoulder once to see if he still stood there, I gasped.
He was gone.