Chapter Nine
Bathroom stall confessions.
He sat in a cubicle in the boy's bathroom, rocking unintentionally, his hands still covering his ears – trying desperately to convince the Voice to fix the problem. He could still hear Belynda screaming, and Shade describing to a teacher how Elliot had pushed her down. Someone was being asked to call an ambulance and to notify her parents. Though, it wasn't as loud as it was. The initial shock of having the volume turned up had died down somewhat, and though he could still hear what was going on with Belynda, he couldn't hear anything else any further.
The Voice had stopped shouting, and to Elliot it felt like it was deliberating on something.
'Please just fix it! I know it was you!' Elliot pleaded rather loudly.
Outside, he could hear someone stop pacing and start walking towards the entrance to the bathroom. Elliot held his breath as the footsteps echoed through the bathroom.
'Is there anyone in here?' a boy called. Elliot sighed – it was Rhys.
He slid out from the cubicle and looked at the sandy-haired boy looking ashamed.
'Elliot! Everyone's been looking for you!'
Elliot cringed – Rhys might have been talking normally, but it sounded like he was shouting right in his ear.
'Could you… whisper?' Elliot said quietly.
'Huh? What? Why?' Rhys walked closer to Elliot, examining his stressed features, 'what's going on Elliot?'
Elliot slumped – how could explain this without looking like a freak. Belynda lost her hearing, and his own increased… but it was only a strange coincidence? He strained to listen to the Voice for any advice or words to speak, but It had once again, deserted him.
'How's Belynda?' Elliot asked, trying to steer the conversation away.
'She's waiting in the sick bay for someone to come pick her up. She's still completely deaf,' Rhys answered; a little frustrated that Elliot hadn't answered his questions.
'I need to go see her.'
'She's not going to be able to hear a word you say to her…' Rhys began.
'That's okay, I don't want to talk to her… I think I… I can fix this,' Elliot muttered, walking out of the restrooms, still covering his ears.
x
'The nurse looks like she's not leaving… I could get her away if you wanted me to,' Rhys whispered after having peeked into the room.
'Thanks,' said Elliot, who remained hidden around the corner, down an empty hall, while Rhys walked into the room.
'Excuse me miss? Another student is saying he can't hear anything…'
'What? Another one!? Where?'
'Just outside, behind the sports shed…'
Sounds of fast footsteps echoed down the opposite halls as the nurse ran out of the room in a huff.
Rhys stood at the doorway with a mischievous grin as Elliot slunk in.
'She looks like she's gone mad,' commented Rhys as Elliot walked over to the bed. Belynda was resting, almost as if she were asleep. Elliot poked her, and her eyes shot open, scanning the room – the two boys included.
'You!' she gasped as she registered that it was Elliot who had poked her, 'you did this to me!'
Elliot backed away before she could pounce and beat him to a bloody pulp. He looked at Rhys who had been searching through the nurse's desk while he struggled – he had now finished writing on a pad of paper and walked over to the now slightly calmed Belynda, handing it to her.
'I'm pretty certain I know what's going on here, and you owe me big time,' said Rhys as he watched Belynda lie back down on the bed and close her eyes.
'Go, do whatever it is you need to,' Rhys crossed his arms and sat in a chair still watching them with intense curiosity.
Elliot walked over to Belynda and placed his hands over her ears, trying to force the Voice into action.
But it was as if It wasn't there at all.
He concentrated now, instead on stirring the Voice, but rather, channeling all that he could hear down through his ears, down his arms, into his hands, his fingertips and back into her own body. With some great effort, and after going purple from concentration, he began to feel the volume in his own ears decrease.
'Say something!' he called out to Rhys.
'What do you want me to say?' he replied.
'Anything, just keep talking!'
Elliot listened as Rhys spoke about absolutely nothing, trying to see when to stop channeling what he had taken from Belynda back into her, without making himself deaf – seeing as though the Voice didn't seem too bothered to help him out.
He pulled his hands from Belynda and looked at her.
'I think that's it…' he said, glad that he didn't have to whisper.
'Yeah, and I'm thinking we should go…' Rhys pulled on Elliot's arm and dragged him out of the room, moments before the nurse returned clearly annoyed at the false alarm.
x
'She's going to tell everyone,' said Elliot, nervously pacing around an empty classroom they had taken refuge in.
Rhys had been busy looking outside the windows, watching as Belynda was walked out of the school and loaded into an ambulance, with her parents watching anxiously.
'It's kind of funny seeing how normal her parents are,' he snorted.
'Aren't you listening to me?!' Elliot stopped walking and stole a glance out the window. They were pretty average looking…
'Yeah, I heard you,' Rhys turned around, sitting on the floor out of the view of the window inviting Elliot to do so too, 'that is a pretty crazy mutation you've got there.'
'That's beside the point… she will tell everyone,' said Elliot growing more and more frustrated with Rhys.
'No, she won't. I told her that what you had is still in you, and it is contagious and that you could fix it,' Rhys said, looking hard at Elliot.
'Are you kidding me? I mean, she's not the smartest girl around, but c'mon man, anyone would see through that!' Elliot said, his voice rising.
'No, trust me… she'll believe it,' he said, trying to look for a change in Elliot's angry expression.
'Oh, because you can what… convince her that on a piece of paper?'
'Just… trust me, alright? She was in an impressionable state, so she would've believed whatever made the most sense,' said Rhys who had slid across the floor, closer to Elliot.
'Right now, I suggest you just do the same, alright?'
'Why?' Elliot asked, feeling his anxiety grow and, at the same time, feeling more and more detached. He grasped at the chairs, trying to steady his breath and focus his mind to recognize the world around him as being there, in front of him.
'We can't hide in here forever, we need to go out there…' Rhys began.
'What!?' Elliot gasped – he couldn't just walk out to those people. They'll find out and they'll make the Voice come out again, and who knows what It'd do this time.
Rhys grabbed Elliot's wrists and looked Elliot right in the eye. 'They'll suspect you even more if you don't go out. It will be alright, just calm down…'
Elliot closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of Rhys' warm fingers wrapped around his own wrists, the sensation pulling him back out of the safety zone in his mind, and back to reality. Elliot nodded and let Rhys help him up and out of the room.
A/N: OH MY GOSH! I'm SO sorry this update took so damn long! Eeeee! Forgive me?
