A/N: Okay, so I really shouldn't be posting this since I have another Staubrey fic in progress right now but I got a prompt from someone and ran with it.. and this is what it transformed into.

This story is kind of strange - I wouldn't call it paranormal exactly but it definitely has some elements of it. Just go with it, dudes.


Chapter 1


She took in her surroundings, breathing hard. She was in a dark, damp alley. She could see her breath fogging out of her mouth as if the temperature was really cold but she didn't feel cold at all. She didn't know if she had just been running but she couldn't catch her breath and she felt very frightened. She had no idea where she was.

She heard a shout from the end of alley and turned to see a large man coming towards her with a gun in his hand. She didn't feel like she could run anymore, she was so tired. She didn't know this guy but she was sure he was going to kill her. She ran ahead a little but couldn't stop stumbling; her legs didn't want to cooperate.

She found a small cubbyhole behind a dumpster and scrambled to hide. She could feel herself choking back a sob. She had never been so frightened, she was sure of it. She hid, her knees pulled tight to her chest. She started rocking slightly, trying to calm herself, and brought her hands up to cover her ears as she closed her eyes. She started singing as loudly as she could in her own mind, to drown out any sounds of the man approaching. She hoped if he wanted to kill her, he would do it fast, before she even knew it was coming. Her body stayed tense and her mind kept singing.

Her eyes suddenly shot open with a gasp. Her chest was still heaving but she was in bed, her own bed, and she looked around to see the familiar sight of her own things. She brought her hand to her cheek and felt it wet with tears.


Stacie heard shuffling around her. There was some sort of bag over her head and her senses were heightened because she couldn't see. Whoever was guiding her had a strong grip and she smelled really, really good. Stacie wasn't sure whether to be surprised or not that she made it into the acapella group. That's what she was assuming this meant, anyway. Some sort of weird initiation.

Stacie hasn't really ever been one to join extracurricular activities (unless you count trying to seduce teachers - which Stacie totally counted). She's also never really been one to place any emphasis on her dreams at all but over the course of the past few weeks, she's dreamt of singing. She hasn't been the one singing in her dreams, but some voice comes through to her. Almost every night she hears this amazing voice and, as strange as she thinks this is, it seems to help her sleep more peacefully.

That's how Stacie ended up in a dark room filled with candles, which were quite possibly going to cause a fire at any second, and a bag being ripped off her head, among other equally bewildered girls. It was actually something her mom told her a long time ago about dreams that made her pursue this. The subconscious won't let you dream of the same thing multiple times unless it's trying to tell you something - and you should listen to it as best as possible. So, what else could Stacie do about her singing dreams but join a group of all-female acapella singers? Or maybe she was insane, she wasn't quite sure.

She looked around at the other girls while repeating a ridiculous oath one of the leaders was saying. These girls seemed nice. Stacie didn't have a lot of girl friends - girls were catty bitches and Stacie wasn't all about that. She was hoping to make some friends though, if anything. Her attention was brought back to the front of the room by the blonde snapping. She was really pretty, Stacie observed, but she seemed like a total bitch. Stacie made a note to herself to stay out of her way.

"Okay, girls. Welcome and congratulations on becoming a Bella. I'm Aubrey," the blonde said, "and this is Chloe," Aubrey pointed at the redhead who just smiled. She seems sweet, Stacie thought. "We have a very tough year in store so I need to make sure you all are dedicated to this team. We will practice several hours a day, every day."

"Are you serious?" Stacie looked over and saw a tiny girl with piercings and a lot of eyeliner, a permanent smirk seemed plastered on her face.

"Dixie Chicks serious. It's imperative that we work our asses off to get to the ICCA finals and win this year. If you aren't prepared for the hard work, you are free to leave." Aubrey stared pointedly at the alt girl who just arched an eyebrow and didn't move.

"Alright then!" Chloe broke the tension. "Well, that's enough about business for now. Tonight is a night to celebrate!" The redhead motioned for them to follow her outside. Eventually they entered an amphitheater where a bunch of people were dancing and standing around, listening to music and drinking. Stacie scoped out the guys. She wasn't picky about gender but guys were usually easiest to pick up, have fun with, and toss aside. Just how she liked it.

She grabbed a drink and started flirting with a cute guy she saw checking her out. This was almost too easy. When they started dancing, Stacie's eyes caught the blonde leader's on the other side of the open space. She was staring at her with her arms crossed, an unreadable expression in her eyes that looked anything but pleased. Stacie suddenly got nervous but shook off the feeling and focused her attention back on the guy grinding up against her.

Later that evening, Stacie was feeling pretty buzzed but went to get another drink anyway. She noticed the blonde talking with Fat Amy and watched them look over at her a few times. Or were they looking at Cynthia Rose next to her? Either way it unnerved her. Stacie decided she didn't like this half of their Bellas leadership team.


The first week of Bellas rehearsal was almost a joke, as far as Stacie was concerned. There was no singing at all and way too much running up and down stairs. Aubrey was so uptight, it made Stacie want to grab her shoulders and shake her loose. The only time it made her laugh was when she was yelling at Beca, the girl with the 'ear monstrosities,' because honestly, Stacie wanted to see her pushed down a peg too. This is why she didn't hang out with girls, she thought to herself and shook her head, because she started being just as catty as they acted.

Stacie was gathering her things after practice one day when she found herself alone in the rehearsal room with Chloe and Aubrey. They were at the front of the room and Stacie was pretty sure they didn't even notice that she was there. Stacie was surprised to see them looking through a musical folder, as she had pretty much forgotten this was even a singing group at all.

Stacie heard Chloe start humming part of a tune and she realized that she had never actually heard the leaders sing anything before. She watched all the other girls audition but Aubrey and Chloe obviously didn't have to do that. Chloe's voice was so sweet, Stacie caught herself smiling.

The two leaders began murmuring something to each other and Aubrey started singing. Stacie's head shot up and the binder she was holding clattered to the ground. The two leaders startled and looked behind them, realizing that someone was still in the room with them. Aubrey found Stacie staring at her, eyes wide like she has just seen a ghost.

"Oh, Stacie. We didn't know you were still here. Do you need something?" Chloe smiled sweetly.

"No! No, uh, I have to go actually. I'm running late." Stacie hurried out of the room.

Holy fuck, holy fuck, holy fuck. Stacie's chest was heaving from her fast getaway. She couldn't process what was happening. For weeks now, a voice had been singing to her in her dreams. It was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard. And she just heard that voice clear as day.. coming out of Aubrey. Aubrey? Really? She didn't even like Aubrey. She could hardly stand being around her. And besides all that, even if it was someone that she liked a lot, what did this all mean? Normal people don't hear people singing them into deeper sleep every night.


Stacie felt like she had no choice but to try to forget about it and go on like normal. Telling Aubrey about it was not even an option and what would that accomplish anyway? Nothing.

She searched online to see if she could figure out if this happened to anyone else but she couldn't find anything. So she kept her distance from Aubrey and left the second rehearsals ended. Even though she could not avoid hearing Aubrey sing, she could avoid being near her or talking to her. The problem in doing this was that Stacie felt like she was always hyper aware of where Aubrey was and what Aubrey was doing. She didn't like feeling obsessed with someone she didn't even like or consider a friend.

And now the girls were itching to get together and do something outside of rehearsal. Stacie really liked the Bellas and she wanted to hang out with them but she didn't really want to hang out with Aubrey. When Amy invited the girls over to the house she has off-campus, Stacie couldn't say no. She hoped that Aubrey would decline since she didn't really seem like the type of girl who liked to go out and party and she didn't even seem like she liked the girls anyway.

When Stacie arrived at Amy's house on the night of the party, she felt her stomach lurch when she saw the blonde across the room. She immediately veered off to where the drinks were and made herself something strong. Some voice in the back of her head told her it probably wasn't a good idea to drink too much - Stacie shut the voice up with a good, strong pull on her drink.

After a few more drinks, Stacie let herself relax. These girls were funny and, besides Aubrey being seriously uptight and Beca being a snarky little shit, they were really nice. Stacie was pulled out of her thoughts by a seemingly playful argument a few feet away from her.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Chloe shouted, alcohol apparently dulling her ability to control her volume level.

"Chloe's right, dude, that doesn't make any sense." Beca was talking to Aubrey. Stacie's eyes flitted over to the blonde and she was a bit surprised to see her naturally rigid stance a little more loose than normal. It was still rigid, let's not get carried away, but Stacie had spent a lot of time noticing the girl over the past few weeks and she could tell it was more relaxed.

Chloe's eyes caught Stacie looking over at them. "Stacie! Answer this question, okay? If a tree falls on a completely uninhabited deserted island, will it make a sound?"

Stacie stared at them with an amused glint in her eyes. Seriously? This is what they were fighting about? "You don't have to say it's uninhabited and deserted, one implies the other." Aubrey laughed at the brunette's response and Stacie's eyes shot up in surprise. She's pretty confident she has not heard Aubrey laugh before. It wasn't a horrible sound, she begrudgingly admitted to herself. "And.. no."

"Wait, no, what?" Chloe looked confused.

"No... it doesn't make a sound. You wanted an answer to the question, right?" Stacie caught Aubrey's brow raise at her answer.

"Ugh, so you're going to agree with Aubrey?" Beca groaned.

"If she's right.." Stacie shrugged. Stacie hadn't known what Aubrey's answer had been and was kind of disappointed to know that they were in agreement.

"But how do you figure? Sound happens. How can it just.. not happen?"

Stacie looked to Aubrey who just raised her eyebrows as if to tell her to please proceed. "Well, I guess the easiest way to explain it is that, scientifically speaking, sound is defined as the sensation produced by vibrations stimulating the nerves in your ear. So, I mean, if a tree falls, there will be vibrations in the air from the disturbance but if there are no ears around to receive the vibrations, there is no sound. ...Technically speaking." Chloe and Beca's eyes widened in surprise. She may have even seen Aubrey give her an appreciative little smirk.

Beca turned to glare at Aubrey. "Why couldn't you have just explained it like that? Then we would have believed you."

"I wasn't really concerned with whether or not you believed me." Stacie bit back a laugh at Aubrey's straightforward retort. Aubrey didn't miss the amused look in Stacie's eyes.

Stacie excused herself from the conversation to go get another drink. She was searching her choices when a voice startled her. "Why do you avoid me all the time?" Aubrey got right to the point, not that Stacie should be surprised.

"I, uh - I don't? I'm not avoiding you."

"Is there something wrong with me? Do you have a problem with me?" Stacie thought she sensed vulnerability in the blonde's tone in the first question but it was quickly masked with a hard edge in the second. Stacie stood there, not knowing what to say. "Well? If you have a problem, I want to know what it is."

"It's not exactly a problem." It was exactly a problem. Stacie didn't like being confronted though and her own defense mechanisms kicked in. "Look, to be honest, life's too short to hang out with uptight people who are going to stress me out. So.." Stacie grabbed a beer. "Bye." She walked away.

Chloe watched this exchange from across the room, not able to hear what was being said. She watched Aubrey visibly deflate when Stacie turned away. It was a rare moment of seeing Aubrey's mask of control slip for a second. Chloe lived with Aubrey and Aubrey was her best friend - Chloe has seen her at her most vulnerable. But that was just the two of them, locked away in their apartment, usually in the middle of the night - never in public, never in front of people.

Chloe sidled up to the blonde. "What was that about?"

Aubrey looked away from the redhead and stared straight at the tall brunette who had joined a conversation with CR and Amy. "Nothing." Chloe watched the mask shift back into place, just like that.


Stacie startled when the book she was reading fell on her face. She was laying in bed, trying desperately not to sleep, but apparently dozed off for a second. She sat up, rubbing her eyes. The clock on her nightstand read 1:03 AM. It was late and Stacie had an early morning but she didn't want to sleep.

Well, truthfully, part of her wanted to sleep, wanted to hear the singing. If she tried really hard, she could almost pretend it wasn't Aubrey's voice invading her dreams. For several nights after she first heard Aubrey sing, she went to bed hopeful that she was mistaken, that maybe Aubrey's voice was similar but not the same as the dream voice. Each morning she woke with her hopes dashed. She just wanted one night, one night, of not hearing her. She kept telling herself that, over and over, as if she'd start believing it - as if it wouldn't kill her a little to wake up one morning and realize her dream had been soundless.

"Ughh," Stacie groaned and fell back on her bed. She felt so confused. She didn't like Aubrey; she wanted nothing to do the blonde leader. But… she sort of lived for that voice every night. Is it possible for the sound of a voice to make you feel loved? Each morning, Stacie only remembers the sound of the voice and the feelings it left her with. No matter how hard she tries, she can't ever remember the words the voice sang or anything specific. She wakes up feeling safe and loved - and all she knows is it's really fucking her up. And it's getting harder every day to maintain the separation in her mind between the voice and the uptight, blonde leader.

And truthfully, it's getting harder to remember why disliking her is so important.