Listen to my voice.

Chapter 2.

"I can't find my pen, Alei," he whispered in reply, "I could have sworn I would have left one before I left, but..." He said with a chuckle.

"You're absent-minded," she giggled.

"And you're a bore."

"But what have I done?"

"I tell you about my problems and you just make fun of me."

"But what else could I do?"

"Hola?-Help me, for example, duh."

Harley hesitates, but looks at the spare pen he had taken just in case, and takes it between his fingers.

"Here, I have one to spare," the boy looks at her in surprise, but a brief tap from his friend makes him react and he takes it.

"Thanks" - she smiles at him and they both stare at each other- "I'm Thom."

"Harley" - the brunette looks at her friend.

Alei looks at the time and turns her attention to the girl, "You're new, right?

"Yes, does it show that much?"

she denied amused- "no, I just assumed because I've never seen you around here before."

"How long have you lived around here?"

You could also say that I'm new, I arrived a few months ago in the middle of the school year," she finished telling you, "Do you have plans for the outing? We could go for food or take you on a tour of the town," she pauses, "We could also walk you home.

Harley gives her a smile - "The latter sounds good."

"Great!"

Class went on as normal until the bell rang, announcing the end of classes, the boys stood up, grabbing their things and putting them away.

The twins approached the brunette and said goodbye to her, or at least Olivia did so effusively while Dereck shook his head in farewell, to which the brunette gave him a small smile.

"See you, Ley" - pronounced the blonde, kissing her new friend's cheek.

"See you tomorrow, Liv."

She turned around but then stopped to turn around again- "Do you have a way back, we can give you a ride home if you want."

Alei and Thom grabbed their things, standing next to both girls.

"Don't worry, Liv, we'll give her a ride," Thom said.

"Thank you so much," the brunette smiled at him, making him smile back.

"Oh, sure, I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

The black-haired woman asked them if they could first go through the entrance of the forest because she had to see something, both nodded somewhat confused and changed direction from the parking lot to the entrance.

Harley thought about several scenarios, she just met them and they were taking her to the lonely forest, wouldn't they plan to kill me, she thought, impossible, what for, maybe to sell my organs in the black market, would it be a good time to tell them that my organs are not even good? I can tell that my food is not balanced and is only based on junk food.

She shook her head at those thoughts, she should stop reading so many suspense books. Although thanks to that she could be prepared for a life or death situation.

A few days ago she had read a book where some twins took a girl into the woods to supposedly look for her cat, the funny thing? When they were in the forest in an oversight of the girl one of the twins took out a kind of dagger and cut the throat of that girl, thus staining the snow of a crimson color, the other was in charge of carrying the body in the part of the lake that was slightly frozen by the cold, with a shovel he could break it thus throwing the body, they had not left clues because both boys were cunning, they wore gloves at all times and the murder weapon would not find it because they had already gotten rid of it.

Yes, I would definitely stop reading so many books of that genre.

"So your mom is a doctor?" Alei asked as they walked through the forest.

"Yup, they offered her a better job and here we are."

"And good timing, eh," the boy nodded in agreement. I needed a friend.

Harley chuckled, "I have my mom to thank for that."

Pitiful cries caused the girl to become alarmed and she frowned, looking around.

"Did you hear that?"

Both boys shook their heads in confusion, so the girl just nodded a little worriedly.

They reached a tree and Alei approached it carefully, searching through the branches, when she found what she was looking for she let out a little shriek to grab her hanging camera.

"Did you just take out a camera?" asked the only boy there, a little surprised.

"Isn't it obvious?" he showed the camera, waving it around, and raising an eyebrow, looking at him.

"Why?"

the girl let out a sigh, sitting down on the green grass, which the two people there imitated her action.

"I arrived six months ago," she began, "the day I arrived everything was a little strange."

"What do you mean by strange?" asked Thom, interrupting the red-haired woman, who frowned at him for cutting her off.

"Their people were strange, I'm not saying they're not nice," she hurried to say, frowning more, "they just give me a somewhat mysterious vibe, their aura is a bit strange."

"What do you mean by strange?" asked the brunette this time.

"The window of my room overlooks the forest, and I always see a group of boys sneaking in during the early hours of the morning."

"That's not strange."

The red-haired girl looked at her friend "stop interrupting" she clarified her voice, pointing at him "it is if they come with torn clothes."

"That's a bit shady".

They both nodded- the town is hiding something, so are its people.

Harley frowned- " and whatever this town is hiding, it's on camera-" finished the new friend of the group.

She nodded with a smile, "Exactly".

Tom let out a sigh- Yes, I don't like that at all- he stood up, and offered his hand to help them stop their friends and then shake his clothes- Can we go get the car now?

Both girls nodded, Harley said goodbye to both boys when she arrived home, she had taken longer than she thought, although her mother wouldn't notice it anyway, since she had a shift at the hospital that day. So the girl would stay all night alone and see her mother the next day.

[ ... ]

"Harley!"

The teenager jumps up in her chair at the cry of her mother, who looks at her worriedly.

"Honey, are you all right? You've been stirring your breakfast for twenty minutes." The girl blinks and looks confused at her food, as if it's the first time she's seen it.

"Sorry, it just hasn't... been a good day."

A way of saying that-again-those strange screams have been tormenting her all day.

"Have you been doing badly at school?"

-No, it's not that just that-he couldn't tell her that he hears things that others don't, so he just limited himself to telling her one more lie-...it was a little tiring, we haven't finished unpacking things yet, you know.

It wasn't that Harley didn't trust her mother, it was just that she couldn't worry her with more things, it wasn't that the brunette lied to her mother, she only did it when she wanted to dodge questions she didn't want to answer.

While the young girl was once again locked in her own mind, her mother approached her daughter and placed her hand on her forehead.

"You'd better miss school, Ley. You're burning up with fever."

"Mom, I'm fine. I promise," she insisted again.

"You know I won't have a problem if you stay home, right?"

She nods, "I'm fine. Besides, I need to distract myself, I can't stand that screaming anymore," she whispered the last, but her mother heard it anyway.

The brunette forces herself to give her mother a smile, to which she kisses her mother's head and says goodbye - repeating that it wouldn't be a problem if she stayed, but she insisted again that she was fine - Harley finishes her breakfast and leaves for the high school.

He decided to walk, so he left earlier, the street was dark, you could barely see by the headlights, he began to hear cries for help, how reflexively passed his sight all over the place, but there was absolutely no one.

He turned on the flashlight of his cell phone, in order to have a better visibility, but it was all in vain, he heard the screams again, and when he turned he was surprised to see the big forest, he firmly decided to go into the forest even with flashlight in hand.

Nothing will happen to me if I go in, will it, he asked himself as he reproached himself for not taking the car with him.

When he decided it was a bad idea, he wanted to turn around and leave, but his body wouldn't move.

"What the hell? she whispered."

He began to hear footsteps behind him, he immediately turned his face to look for those footsteps, when he did not find them he began to despair, with a great impulse he was able to run away.

His breathing was agitated, his chest was rising and falling with desperation.

The footsteps were still sounding - louder and louder - she turned around. Nothing. But as she turned her gaze ahead, she realized she had already reached the high school.

She frowned in confusion, it was impossible to have arrived so quickly.

A big roar made her cover her ears- I'm really having a bad dream, she thought- she looked up, and met a kind of animal that seemed quite angry, but not with her, but with what seemed to be behind, she slowly turned her face meeting a kind of shadows, she felt a big pain in her head and before everything went black, the last thing she saw were those blue eyes.

He wanted to approach her, so he could help her, but seeing a car approaching, he decided to retreat, before entering the forest he took one last look at the brown-haired girl.

"Are you sure the high school is open at this hour?" asked Tom, for the umpteenth time.

Alei rolls her eyes "What, yeah, heavy!" she exclaimed getting out of the car "Law, will he be coming?"

"Harley!" alarmed Tom, seeing her unconscious on the floor.

"Yes, silly, Harley, didn't he say something to you?"

Tom ignored his friend, going straight to the brunette to carry her in his arms.

"Oh, God, Harley!"

"That's what I was trying to tell you.".Thom spoke entering the school, which to his surprise was open, to go to the infirmary.

He brought the alcohol swab close to his face, after a few minutes Ley began to blink continuously, getting used to the light coming through the window.

"Are you okay?" asked Alei, when she saw her up.

With Thom's help she sat up "Yeah, I just have a headache" Had it been just a dream "What happened?"

"We found you passed out" the girl made a surprised face but nodded in response.

"Are you sure you're all right, you're burning up with fever" Thom continued.

He really had been delirious from his fever.

"Yes, I'll take a pill and it will pass."

"Are you sure, you'd better get some rest, Ley" Thom replied, noticeably concerned.

"Relax, if I feel bad, I'll go" he frowned as he saw where they were "Where are we?"

"At the school, and apparently, no one is arriving yet."

After the girl took the pill-which her mother had given her before leaving-the three friends went to the high school courtyard, to see what the camera had recorded the day before.

"I just don't get it," Alei said, touching her forehead, "after the thirty minutes everything goes black, and after a few hours everything is with clarity."

"And when the camera seems to be out of order in those hours you hear too much noise" added the chestnut.

"That's it!" shouted Thom "most likely they've rigged the camera so we can't see it, but the question is: Why?"

"Because they're hiding something!"

The two boys nodded in agreement with Alei.

"Could it be something that serious?"

"We should find out that's why this afternoon, we'll spend the night the three of us in the forest."

Ley shrugged " my mom will be in the ER until tomorrow, count me in."

"And with me!" blurted out the chestnut "although I feel I won't like this at all."

"They have no choice, they already said they'd be with me."

The bell rang and they walked into class.

Harley was going to sit next to his new friends, but seeing Olivia's hair, raising his hand in their direction he apologized to them and walked over to his blonde companion.

"Hello, Olivia."

I smile "How are you, Ley?"

"Tired" she admitted "You, are you okay?"

The teacher's voice rang throughout the room, the girls gave each other a smile then looked straight ahead and turned their attention to the class.

The minutes ticked by and Harley was getting more and more tired, her eyesight started to blur and she was breaking out in a cold sweat, that didn't go unnoticed by Thom and Alei, who were looking worriedly at the brunette.

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."