Chapter 5: The Quiet Boy
1411 Words
Amara didn’t speak.
For a long moment, she just stood there, staring at Jayden as if the world around them had disappeared.
He hears it too.
The thought echoed louder than anything else.
“Say something,” Jayden said quietly.
Amara blinked, snapping back slightly. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“That makes two of us.”
She let out a shaky breath. “Since when?”
Jayden leaned against the wall, folding his arms. “A few months now.”
Her eyes widened. “Months?”
He nodded.
“And you’ve just been… living with it?” she asked.
“Surviving it,” he corrected.
Amara swallowed hard.
That didn’t sound reassuring.
---
“Does it… talk all the time?” she asked carefully.
Jayden shook his head. “No. It chooses when to speak.”
Amara frowned. “Chooses?”
“Yes.”
That word didn’t sit right with her.
“You’re talking about it like it’s… alive.”
Jayden didn’t respond immediately.
That silence was enough of an answer.
---
Amara’s chest tightened.
“No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “No, it’s just… something in our heads. Stress. Maybe we’re both just—”
“Going crazy?” Jayden finished.
She looked at him.
“…yeah.”
Jayden let out a quiet breath, almost like a dry laugh. “I thought that too.”
“And?”
“And then it told me something that saved someone’s life.”
Amara froze.
“What?”
Jayden’s expression darkened slightly, like he didn’t enjoy remembering it.
“There was a girl,” he said slowly. “Standing near the road after school. The voice told me she was about to step into traffic.”
Amara’s heart skipped.
“And did she?” she asked.
Jayden nodded once. “If I hadn’t pulled her back, she would have been hit.”
Silence fell between them.
Heavy.
Real.
Amara’s mind raced.
“That means…” she whispered, “it doesn’t just reveal things—it predicts them.”
Jayden nodded again. “Sometimes.”
Her stomach twisted.
“That’s not normal,” she said.
“No,” he agreed. “It’s not.”
---
Amara ran a hand through her hair, pacing slightly now.
“Okay… okay,” she muttered. “So we’re hearing a voice that knows secrets, predicts things, and chooses when to speak. That’s—”
“—dangerous,” Jayden finished.
She stopped walking.
“Yes.”
---
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Amara looked up at him again.
“You said it comes with a price.”
Jayden’s jaw tightened slightly.
“Yeah.”
“What kind of price?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation made her uneasy.
“Jayden,” she pressed, “what kind of price?”
He looked at her, his eyes more serious than before.
“It starts small,” he said.
Her heart began to pound.
“What does?”
“The cost.”
---
Amara felt a chill run down her spine.
“What do you mean by ‘small’?”
Jayden exhaled slowly.
“At first, it’s just headaches,” he said. “Fatigue. You feel drained after it speaks.”
Amara’s eyes widened slightly.
She had felt that.
“But it doesn’t stop there,” he continued.
Her chest tightened. “What else?”
Jayden looked away for a moment before answering.
“You start losing things.”
Amara frowned. “Losing what?”
He hesitated again.
And this time—
She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“Memories,” he said quietly.
---
Everything went still.
Amara blinked.
“…what?”
“You forget things,” Jayden explained. “Small things at first. Conversations. Moments. Then bigger things.”
Her breathing slowed.
Not in calm—
But in shock.
“That’s not possible.”
“It’s already happening.”
Her eyes snapped to his.
“What?”
Jayden studied her carefully. “You haven’t noticed?”
Her heart started racing again.
“Noticed what?”
He tilted his head slightly. “Think carefully.”
Amara frowned.
“I don’t—”
She stopped.
A strange feeling washed over her.
Like reaching for something that wasn’t there.
Like trying to remember a dream that had already faded.
“I…” she whispered.
Jayden didn’t speak.
He just watched her.
Waiting.
Amara’s chest tightened.
“There was something…” she said slowly. “I was thinking about it this morning but now I can’t—”
Her voice trailed off.
Her stomach dropped.
“No…” she whispered.
Jayden nodded slightly.
“That’s how it starts.”
---
Amara took a step back, shaking her head.
“No. No, I don’t want this.”
“Neither did I.”
“There has to be a way to stop it.”
Jayden’s expression didn’t change.
“I haven’t found one.”
Her breath caught.
“What do you mean you haven’t found one? You’ve had this for months!”
“And I’ve tried everything,” he said. “Ignoring it. Fighting it. Pretending it’s not there.”
“And?”
“It doesn’t go away.”
---
Amara felt panic rising in her chest now.
“This can’t be happening,” she said under her breath.
But deep down—
She knew it was.
---
“Why us?” she asked suddenly.
Jayden looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
---
The hallway felt colder now.
Like something unseen was listening.
Watching.
Waiting.
---
Then—
“Ask him about the night.”
Amara froze.
The voice.
Back again.
Her heart slammed against her chest.
Jayden noticed immediately.
“It spoke, didn’t it?” he said.
She nodded slowly.
“What did it say?”
Amara hesitated.
Then—
“It said… ‘Ask him about the night.’”
Jayden went still.
Completely still.
His expression changed.
For the first time since this conversation started—
He looked unsettled.
---
“What night?” Amara asked.
Jayden didn’t answer.
“Jayden.”
Still nothing.
“Jayden!” she said, louder this time.
He finally spoke.
“I told you,” he said quietly, “it doesn’t give without taking.”
“That’s not what I asked!”
His eyes met hers again.
And this time—
There was something darker in them.
“There are things you don’t want to know, Amara.”
Her chest tightened.
“Let me decide that.”
Silence.
Then—
“He’s hiding something.”
The voice whispered again.
---
Amara took a step closer.
“What happened that night?” she asked.
Jayden looked away.
For a moment, it seemed like he wouldn’t answer.
Then—
“I listened,” he said quietly.
Her heart skipped.
“To the voice.”
“And?”
His jaw tightened.
“And I did what it told me to do.”
A chill ran down her spine.
“What did it tell you to do?”
Jayden didn’t answer immediately.
And when he finally did—
His voice was lower.
Heavier.
“It told me to trust it.”
Amara frowned. “That doesn’t sound—”
“And someone got hurt.”
---
Silence.
Cold.
Sharp.
“What do you mean… hurt?” she asked carefully.
Jayden didn’t look at her.
“That’s all you need to know.”
But it wasn’t.
Not even close.
---
Amara stepped back slowly.
Her mind was spinning.
This wasn’t just about hearing things anymore.
This was bigger.
Darker.
More dangerous.
---
“Stay away from it,” Jayden said suddenly.
She looked at him.
“What?”
“The voice,” he continued. “Don’t rely on it. Don’t trust it.”
Amara let out a small, almost humorless laugh.
“That’s funny.”
Jayden frowned. “Why?”
“Because that’s exactly what it told me about someone else.”
His expression hardened slightly.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” she said.
A pause.
Then she added quietly—
“It told me not to trust Daniel.”
---
Jayden’s eyes darkened.
And for a moment—
He didn’t look surprised.
---
“Pay attention.”
The voice whispered again.
And suddenly—
Amara realized something.
Something important.
Something dangerous.
---
She wasn’t the only one hiding things.
---
To be continued…
- Writer
