Listen to my voice.

Chapter 3.

The professor, seeing the boys exchanging glances, discreetly approached her telling her that she could go to the bathroom, gave her a smile and whispered a thank you, he simply nodded and congratulated the boys who had solved the exercise.

Harley got up from his seat and left the classroom, Thom stood up and went for his friend- after apologizing to Mr. Black- to the watchful eyes of everyone, Olivia didn't miss that her brother was watching everything with a grimace.

"What's wrong, Ley?"

She looked up " I can't breathe."

"Easy, count me in okay?" he nodded " 1. . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . 5 . . . 6 . . . 7 . . . 8 . . . 9 . . . 10."

His breathing became more leisurely, though his chest was still rising and falling frantically.

"Are you better?"

She shook her head again affirming, "Can I tell you something weird?"

"Sure."

"But don't think I'm crazy, okay?"

"Okay" he replied confused.

"I hear screams all the time, and they are in my head" she confessed walking in circles and making motions with her hands "only I can hear them and they are always helpful, I don't know what to do I don't know what to do!"

Ley, she wasn't sure about telling anyone, but she really felt safe and that she wouldn't be judging him and calling her crazy, although that really sounded crazy.

He gently stopped her "Calm down, since when did the voices happen?"

"Since I came to this town, at first I thought it was a product of tiredness, but then I heard them constantly" she let out a nervous laugh "I think . . . I think I'm going crazy."

"Hey, you're not crazy, I believe you."

"Really?"

He nodded. "I'll help you figure out what's going on."

"Thanks."

The bell rang again, announcing that class was over, the door was abruptly opened and through it appeared Alei and Olivia, both of them really looked worried.

She told them that she was fine and that it was just because she was tired, she wasn't going to tell them that she heard voices, or well, not now, first she wanted to know what was really going on.

Olivia apologized to them telling them that she had to go with her brother - who was worried about the girl's condition - she told her not to worry, to which the blonde gave her a sorry smile insisting that tomorrow she would take her to the best ice cream shop to which she accepted and repeating again that it wasn't necessary.

"Law" she called, fixed her gaze on Alei "I heard what you were saying to Thom" she looked at her nervously "I didn't mean to, I came out earlier to check on you and I heard it, but for what it's worth, I believe you too."

She looked at her gratefully.

"I'll also help you know what's going on and I know it has to do with the mystery this town or rather the forest is hiding from us."

"Is it still in plan about the afternoon?" the boy asked to which they shared a look.

"So, tonight we'll find out what's really going on or at least we'll try."

The sun had already gone down announcing that in a few minutes it would be getting dark, the friends were still in the car with their backpacks- where they had a change of clothes and food- Thom, was really worried, the night and he didn't get along very well.

"We really will" he assured, though it sounded more like a question than an answer.

"It sounds like it" Alei spoke up, though it had been her idea, she was also scared.

"Just out of curiosity, what do you think this town is hiding" Harley asked them "something like satanic cults? serial killers on the loose? Oh, holy crap, hadn't they found two bodies near the lake?"

The boys' eyes widened.

They had forgotten that small, but not so small, detail.

"How did we forget?" asked Thom.

Ley shrugged "I don't know, that doesn't matter now, we're already here, nothing bad will happen to us right?"

"I hope so" muttered the other girl "and answering your question, I really don't know what we're looking for."

"What will we do if the killer or killers are on the loose?" the boy inquired "or worse yet what do we do if they are watching us right now?"

"Obviously we'll die, silly. The only thing we can do is die with dignity."

Thom snorted and gave the redhead a dirty look "Your words motivate me" he sneered, as they walked deeper into the woods.

Harley opened the backpack and pulled out the three flashlights handing them to their companions, they were already walking for about ten minutes, Alei stopped catching her breath, she was thinking about putting more effort into PE class.

"It's comforting to know that we're heading to the lagoon" said the boy sarcastically "where by the way, they found two young men DEAD!"

"If you don't want to come, you can leave" spoke the red-haired girl.

"And be walking ten minutes alone in this forest?" he denied frantically "no, thank you."

As they began to have a new fight, Harley heard whispers from various parts of the forest, he backed away as they grew louder and louder telling him to run, to run as fast as he could.

"Get down!" whispered Ley, grabbing his friends arms and pulling them down beside him.

When the boys were about to protest, they saw how some kind of g*n was shot and embedded in the part of the tree- where seconds before they were standing- the three friends paled, they wanted to scream, but the chestnut brought her finger towards her mouth indicating them to be silent.

After a few eternal seconds, footsteps were heard in the distance, indicating that she had retreated. The boys, still on the floor, looked like they would go into a panic attack at any moment.

"What the hell just happened?" the boy was able to articulate.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Harley, standing up "I just did what they told me."

His friends looked confused, until Thom caught what he said.

"They?" asked the red-haired girl.

"The voices" affirmed the boy.

The chestnut nodded "Yes, but they were telling me to run before."

"Tell you to run? Why?"

"I don't know" spoke Thom giving Alei a dirty look "maybe because we almost got shot, that could be it!"

She grimaced in disgust, really her friend was very upset.

"Would you calm down?"

"I am calm!"

"No, you're not."

"I am."

"If you were calm, you wouldn't be yelling!"

"You're the one who's screaming, you crazy woman!"

"Did you just call me crazy, stupid?"

"Did you just call me stupid, stupid?"

They started a new argument, while Ley had her mind elsewhere, trying to decipher what the voices were saying to be exact.

Before he knew it he had already wandered too far away, and those boys were still engrossed in their stupid fight.

"Guys? Come on, let's go!" she exclaimed, running in the direction where the whispers were getting louder.

Thom and Alei didn't notice their friend's call, after a few minutes-when she stopped her fight-they found themselves calling out to her, but there was simply no sign of her.

Had something happened to her?

A loud noise echoing through the forest startles the three boys, Harley definitely thinks it was a bad idea to split up. Thom grabs Alei's arm, running with her - seeing that her friend wasn't moving - and the brunette turns off her flashlight, trying to camouflage herself in the darkness.

The lights of the town sneak through the trees, Harley decides it's a good option to go towards them but first she needs to find her friends.

Another noise rumbles again, it certainly wasn't a killer was it, maybe it wasn't a normal maniac killer, or so he thought he believed.

She stops running when she starts to feel tired, as she tries to catch her breath, she thinks of a way to buy time.

She screams.

No, definitely, she wouldn't, she was several meters away from the town, no one would hear her, but no matter how much she refused to do it, the whispers were asking her to do it.

She stumbles over something and then falls to the ground, turns her face, so her right ear receives the impact against the ground, emitting a loud beeping sound that although it relaxes quickly, it does not stop.

She looks in all directions scared, where the hell had her friends gone, right now was not a good time to reproach herself for having left without speaking louder, trying to run would be in vain, as she did so she heard footsteps literally behind her, he would not be less than two meters away.

He's hiding.

"He's probably waiting for me to come out and cut my body into a thousand pieces, then make a saucer out of me" she whispered to herself "I don't want to die!"

Not that way, in the middle of the woods, ending up as a cold case, it would add to the case of the other two murders.

She only went into the woods so they could discover the truth, but since it didn't occur to them that the murderer or murderers might be at the scene of the crime.

As she gets up, two figures plant themselves in front of her.

Curious?

You couldn't see their bodies, they were a kind of shadow and mist.

It all seemed like a stupid joke, but she knew deep down that it wasn't, that no matter how crazy it all looked, it was real.

The brightness of the moon, manages to get enough between the branches of the trees, illuminating the whole scene.

A loud noise came from one of them, he closed his eyes out of inertia, with no intention of seeing how it would end. A roar-like the one in the morning- sounded making him cover his ears tightly and fall to his knees, already with his eyes open.

The same blue eyes flashed in the darkness, an inevitable smile appeared on the chestnut's face, for some strange reason, she knew that those eyes conveyed confidence and calmness.

She just hoped she wasn't wrong.

Thom and Alei were shouting their friend's name as loud as they could, images of worst-case scenarios appeared in the latter's mind.

"Did something happen to her?" she asked in an inaudible whisper "Oh my God, I got my friend killed!" she wailed between sobs.

Thom rubbed the redhead's back "Calm down, calm down. Ley's okay."

She lifted her face and sniffled "How do you know?"

"I just know, besides it's Ley, nothing will happen to him, okay?"

"You promise?"

You can't promise something that can't be kept, rang through his head his mother's words, but he knew she was fine and nothing would happen to her.

"I promise."

Alei nodded and gave her friend a small smile, they pulled the other flashlights out of the backpack- since they were running low on batteries- at a hurried pace they started through the woods calling out to the chestnut.

"The police" Alei whispered "The village isn't far, is it?"

Thom looked at the lights and nodded.

The girl moved closer to her friend "Listen, I'll go get the police, or at least my uncle, they'll be able to help us, meanwhile, you keep looking for Ley."

"But what will you tell him? That we went into the forest because strange things were happening here? Or that possibly a murderer or murderers are chasing Ley?"

"I don't know! Take it easy, will you, it'll be all right?"

And without further ado he left leaving his friend in the middle of the forest, the worst thing that could happen to him was that the killer would find him first, before Thom would find his friend and they would leave the forest.

She shook at the thought, never again would she listen to her friend's crazy ideas to find out what was going on.

But no matter how much she said that she would continue to do it, in a certain way she hated the danger, but she loved to be among it, she loved playing with fire, but she did not like to get burned and she would not do it if he was the fire, so many secrets that this town hid, made her curiosity grow more and more, and she promised herself to discover it with her friends and she would do it, they just had to be careful.

The boy continued walking worriedly looking for his friend, cursed when the flashlight was running out between little by little, shouted the name of the brown-haired girl, but it seemed that he would never find her, he felt guilty if only he had not fought with his black-haired friend, they would not be in that situation.

Meanwhile in a few more meters of the forest, a fight was going on, thanks to the small pieces of lighting, Harley could only distinguish parts, a roar makes those shadows disappear under the moonlight and the brown-haired girl startled.

Blue eyes meet Ley's eyes, and little by little he moves closer to her, to which she recoils a little, she didn't have to be afraid, after all he had saved her, but she was still very scared.

She moves her neck and some rustling sounds, and that animal transformed into a person.

"Oh, s**t!" spoke a third voice, the girl turned around finding Thom dumbfounded "Did I go crazy?"

"I don't think so, I just saw that too."

Thom, still perplexed by what he saw approached his friend and inspected her from head to toe, when he saw that she was okay he hugged her, when they separated they were surprised to see which person it was.

"Dereck?" they spoke in unison.

He let out a chuckle "What's up guys?"

The girl had Thousands of questions but in that instant she walked over to the boy and wrapped him in her arms, that act left Dereck shocked, while Thom watched everything with a smile, his little friend was growing up.

"How did you know I'd be here?" he asked, shivering in her arms.

"That's the least of it now. The important thing is that you're okay" he replied stroking her hair.

"Thank you" Thom spoke to which the boy looked up and looked at him then nodded "I don't know what the hell happened but thank you."

"It's confusing, I know, but we'll tell you."

Both friends looked at each other blankly "We'll tell?"

"Yes, do you happen to have your cell phone with you?" they nodded " Okay, dial an ambulance."

They frowned in confusion. And followed by that, Dereck collapses falling to the ground, where they discover that he has a big wound, it looks like a scratch and a very deep one.