Voices in the Night (The Dark Mind Trilogy Book 3)

by Matthew Goldstein

  “Red,” came through the earpiece.

  “Awesome, next.” He moved to the front door. Blue.

  “Blue.”

  A little thrill went through Cole as he stepped outside and closed the door behind him. I'm having so much fun.

  “Loads,” came the dry reply.

  “Oh, come on, I wanted to hear you say it,” Cole said laughing, and he proceeded down the block. This continued for three more blocks until, at last, there was no response. Arkansas! He silently yelled again.

  “Arkansas? I'm not sure, it was very faint.”

  “Yeah, the connection is getting weak.” He went another few feet away from the house and began to yell Pennsylvania over and over. “Nothing?” he said.

  “Sorry, no, I didn't hear anything at all that time.”

  “Okay, I think I've found my limit. I'm coming back.” He hung up and jogged back to the house, and into the bedroom. “Not bad,” he said, handing the phone back. “Three and a half blocks. I wonder if I can get it farther if I practice. I can't wait to hear what Asher finds.”

  “You were able to talk to me for three blocks? That is... that is something else. Gotta hand it to you, Cole, that is pretty cool, as the kids say.”

  “It really is. I'm going to keep practicing and get better.”

  “Hey, uh, Cole.” Beth shifted in her seat. “I don't mean to rain on your fun, but whatever happened to 'my only goal is to destroy the voices'?”

  Cole sighed. “You're right. Aargh, why doesn't Asher have the same problems that I'm having? He gets to have all the fun without any of the downsides. What if these abilities are related to the voices, and losing one means losing the other? Am I really going to have to kill these cool powers before I ever got a chance to really use them?”

  “Don't get all bent out of shape just yet,” Beth said. “Let's both sleep on it and come up with ideas about how to resolve your voices problem. I still think that takes priority.”

  Cole's shoulders drooped. “Yeah, I'll sleep on it.”

  “Perk up. You might be able to have your cake and it eat it too. Right now, I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted after a whole day of traveling.”

  “Okay, me too.” Cole found his toothbrush and brushed his teeth. He lay down in his bed and stared at the ceiling, too conflicted and full of thought to drift to sleep. He had been lying there a half hour when his mother broke through.

  Cole, is it late? I have a little bit of information.

  Mom! Great, what'd you find?

  I got that one voice to tell me something. It's not a huge wealth of information but it's all I could get so far. Unless it gave me false information, it said that most of them abandoned ship. They're gone and I don't know where or how. Any ideas?

  Instant panic gripped Cole. Do you think they could have gone into Amy? One of them infected her before. I had to rip it out, but maybe it's back and brought more.

  I have no idea if that's possible.

  I knew I should never have left. That was so stupid of me. I thought she'd be safer but I may have only put her in more danger.

  We'll cross that bridge if we get to it. There may be another explanation, Meredith thought-said.

  At the very least, now I'm definitely not getting any sleep tonight.

  Don't worry, Cole. We'll figure it out in the morning, and you'll be better equipped to deal with it if you're awake.

  Yes, Mom. Easier said than done, but I'll try. Is there any off switch in there to make me lose consciousness?

  Meredith laughed. No, you're going to have to do that one on your own.

  Okay, good night, Mom. Love you.

  Love you, too.

  She went silent to let Cole get some sleep. He lay awake for many hours, picturing Amy being invaded by voices and remembering how frightening it was last time, how she had almost been killed. He reassured himself with the idea that she would have told him. He had helped her last time so she would trust that he would be able to help again. There was no reason to keep it a secret.

  6

  Morning came too soon. Still, when he awoke in the early-morning sunlight, he was full of energy, impatient to get to school and talk to Amy to put his mind once more at ease. After a quick breakfast of some stale cereal that had been sitting in the cupboard for weeks, Beth dropped him off at school. He hurried to homeroom where Amy was already at her desk.

  He slid in next to her. “Hey, good morning,” he said with a smile.

  She returned the smile. “Oh, hey, fancy seeing you here. It's been weirdly empty without you. Good to be back in school, I'm sure?” she added, jokingly.

  “Oh, you know it. So excited to be back.” He paused and lowered his voice, his smile shrinking. “I wanted to ask you, are you sure nothing weird happened while I was gone? Nothing at all? You do know you can talk to me about anything.”

  She stared back at him. “No... why? Is there something I should know about?”

  “No, just wanted to double-check that there were no more voices like right before I left. I was all paranoid about it.”

  “Nope, haven't heard any psycho murderers lately. Thank God.” She rapped her knuckles on the wooden table. “I would definitely let you know if -”

  She was interrupted by the entrance of their homeroom teacher, and the conversation ended as the teacher began to speak. When class was dismissed, Cole had not gotten in another word before they were approached by a timid Michelle.

  “Hi. You're back. Well, of course you're back, I just, um.” Michelle swayed on the spot, her eyes darting awkwardly. “Amy said you would be gone for a while but I didn't expect it to be that long. I started to wonder if you were ever coming back.” She gave a forced laugh. “Anyways, just wanted to say hi, I'm glad you're back.”

  “Hi, Michelle, I’m glad I’m back too. It’s nice to see you.”

  “All right, well, I’ll see you later. Bye,” she said to both of them and walked away quickly.

  Cole raised an eyebrow at Amy. “‘Amy said’? So you’ve been talking to her?”

  “Yeah, I talked to her a couple times while you were gone. She asked what happened to you when you disappeared. She’s actually really nice.”

  Cole was shocked by her sincere attitude, which was never something he expected toward Michelle. “Cool, yeah, she’s nice.” He also didn’t know what to make out of the fact that Michelle was asking about him. He decided not to think anything about it since it was, indeed, weird for him to up and disappear without warning, especially the day after their awkward bowling session. “Somehow this never crossed my mind before I left, but what did you tell everyone happened to me?”

  “I mentioned there was a family emergency. Left it pretty vague so you could fill in any details you wanted.”

  “Cool, thanks. Not really sure what kind of excuse I can come up with but at least that gives me a starting point.”

  He parted ways with Amy and headed to his next class, which he, at first, couldn't remember what or where it was. He walked in the door a minute before the late bell, and his teacher looked up at him in surprise.

  “Ah, Cole, you've finally decided to grace this school with your presence again,” his teacher said. “I hope your impromptu trip went well.”

  Cole nodded, unused to personal attention.

  “That's good. I hope you're ready for a lot of catch up work. We have a test next week on material that you have missed almost all of. I'll give you the chapter numbers but the rest is on your own. You will also want to make up as many homeworks as possible since each one impacts your grade.”

  Cole swallowed. In his preoccupation, he had not thought much about the work that he would have to catch up on for every one of his classes. Even though he told himself there were more important things to worry about, he felt faint from the sheer magnitude of this task. He did not want to get left back after he had done so well all year, which meant he was going to have to work his ass off every night until he caught up, and he was going to need help.
>
  “I understand,” he said, and took his seat.

  He tried his best to follow the lesson that day, but being so far behind, it was all incomprehensible nonsense. Feeling lost only added to the terrifying weight of catching up on a month's worth of work. The next class did not help matters, and the third made it all worse.

  By lunch he was ready to give up. He rushed up to Amy who was seated at the lunch table, a look of desperation on his face. “Amy, you've gotta help me.” He plopped down on the bench next to her, his bag dropping to the floor. “I'm so far behind in every class. You have to get me caught up. Can you please, please be my tutor?”

  Amy smiled. “I would love to help but I'm only in two of your classes. Is there anyone else who's in more of your classes? How about Michelle?”

  “She does have most of the same teachers as me...” he said hesitantly.

  “Perfect, ask her then.”

  “If she'll help.”

  “I think she'll help.” Amy's smile widened.

  “Don't be stupid. It's not like that.” He paused. “Let's see, if she does help me then that only leaves English and I'm pretty good at that. All right, do you think I can do this? Can I catch up before I get left back?”

  “You'll be fine. I'll make sure you don't get left back.”

  Cole let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Amy. I was freaking out pretty bad but I feel a lot better now. Guess I'd better go talk to Michelle next period and hope she's as nice as you say she is. Anyway, what are you doing later? Can I come by after school?”

  Amy's bright face faltered. “I'm sorry, Cole. I have plans with Martin tonight. We're hanging out with a few other people.”

  “Oh.” Cole's face dropped. He waited for her to invite him along but she just stared back. “No one else is allowed to be invited then?”

  Amy averted her eyes, and took a second to respond. “I thought you said it was safer for us to keep our distance, that I wasn't safe as long as you were near me. Well, you being back scares the hell out of me enough as it is. I don't think we should be hanging out together every night on top of that.”

  Stunned, Cole could hear a hint of desperation in his next words. “I can protect you. I did it once, I can do it again. If anything happens, you can just come to me.”

  “What if you're not around at the time?” Amy said, her voice rising. “What if they get to me and I can't get in touch with you right away? You can't watch over me all the time. It's not worth it to take the chance.”

  Cole had a loss for words. She was right, but that didn't prevent a lump from forming in his throat. He took a deep breath and said, “I understand. We don't have to hang out. I'm going to find a way to get rid of these voices and then everything can be okay again.”

  “If you say so.” She turned away and took a bite of her sandwich.

  Cole bit his lip to stop his eyes from watering up. Amy had never been this cold, not even in the worst of times, and her words stung him deep down. Everything with Amy had continuously spiraled downhill this year and, despite his assurance, he was no longer confident he could make everything right.

  Cole watched her for a few seconds, paralyzed by sorrow, unable to get up to buy his own lunch, when, without warning, she dropped her sandwich and covered her eyes. Her breathing became shallow and convulsive.

  “Are you okay?” he said.

  She didn't answer, and before Cole could say any more, she climbed off the bench and took off, running through the lunchroom and out the door, leaving her sandwich and belongings behind. Cole watched her go, stuck in indecision between going after her and keeping an eye on her stuff until she returned. She has to return eventually.

  He was no longer hurt by her coldness, yet now he felt worse. His return was too much for her to handle. Maybe she's right. I've already caused so many problems in her life, maybe I should leave her alone for a while. But that thought was too much to stomach, and he fought back waves of sadness as they washed over him. He cared for Amy. He loved her. He could not bear being without her, but he could also not bear being the cause of so much pain in her life.

  “Cole's back!”

  Startled, Cole looked up to see Martin and a couple of his friends sitting down across from him.

  “Hey, how was your trip?” Martin said.

  Cole swallowed. “It was okay.”

  “Cool, cool.” He gestured toward Amy's lunch. “Is that Amy's? Where'd she disappear to?”

  “I'm... not sure,” he forced out. “I think she had to go to the bathroom.” He paused. “Can you watch our stuff for a minute? I need to go too.”

  Martin's face scrunched up in confusion. “Uh, sure.”

  “Thanks.” Cole hurried away, out the door that Amy had gone through. He emerged in a corridor where a few stragglers were coming toward him to the lunchroom. He did not see Amy among them so he went down the hall, searching for where she might have gone. He turned the corner to another long stretch of hall, when a voice called out, “Are you lost?”

  Cole turned to see a teacher standing there. “Um, no.”

  “Where are you supposed to be right now?”

  Cole sighed. “At lunch.”

  “Then I suggest you return immediately. You shouldn't be wandering the halls during class time.”

  “Yes, sir.” Cole retraced his steps, slower this time, back to his table in the lunchroom.

  “You know the bathrooms aren't that way?” Martin said when Cole sat back down.

  “Yeah, it's been a while,” Cole mumbled and, grabbing his backpack, stood up to go buy his lunch. He took a long time buying his food, and as he returned he saw Amy back at the table, talking and laughing with Martin. If she saw him she did not react. He wanted to talk to her, but not with other people around. He took a seat at a table in the corner where he ate his lunch alone. It brought a feeling of déjà vu to be ignored by Amy during a lunch period, but circumstances had changed so dramatically since last time that it was strange to think about how he had felt toward her then.

  Amy noticed his new seat and cast a few glances in his direction over the course of lunch, but she did not come over. It was probably for the best since he wanted the rest of the day to figure out what he wanted to say. Instead, he turned his thoughts to the next class where he would see Michelle.

  Lunch ended, and after failing to follow another lesson in class, he approached Michelle as she was gathering her books. “Hey, Michelle. How's it going?”

  “Oh, hey, it's good,” she said, more self-assured this time. “What's up?”

  “As you know, I've been out for a long time and now I'm so far behind in class that I'm afraid I won't be able to catch up. So, I was wondering, since, you know, you've been here and you're in my classes that...” he trailed off awkwardly.

  “Are you asking me to tutor you?” Michelle swung her bag over her shoulder and gave Cole her full attention.

  “Um, I guess so, but if you don't have time or whatever then I totally understand.”

  “I would be glad to help out,” she said, smiling. “When do you want to get started?”

  Cole brightened. “Whenever is good for you. I can fit it in since you're doing me the favor.”

  “Here, come walk with me to our next class so we're not late.” The two of them left the classroom and started down the hallway while Michelle raised her eyes in thought. “I'm busy the next couple of days, but... I'm actually free tonight if that's okay.”

  “That would be great! Thank you so much. You have no idea how happy this makes me. And relieved. I really, really appreciate it.”

  “Hey, no problem. It will be fun, plus it's good review for me with all the tests coming up. You're smart, you'll get it in no time.”

  “Thanks, I hope so. So, I guess I'll see you tonight after dinner?”

  “Sure. I wish we had the same lunch period so we could study then too.”

  Cole’s stomach lurched at the memory of lunch. “Yeah. That would be nice.” There was an awkward silen
ce as they walked to their next class.

  “You'll have to tell me all about your trip,” Michelle said as they approached their final destination. “So much must have happened in a month.”

  “Oh, yeah okay,” Cole said, wondering how he was going to make up a month of his life. He was saved from saying any more by their arrival.

  This class was mostly incomprehensible as well, but that fact no longer frightened Cole. After class he said thanks to Michelle one more time and then went his own separate way to his next class. Now that asking about tutoring was out of the way, his thoughts returned to his upcoming encounter with Amy.

  He met her outside after school as she waited for Mr. Williams to pick her up. She looked down uncomfortably as he approached but made no motion to avoid him.

  “I just wanted to let you know that you're right,” Cole said, equally unable to make eye contact. “I care about you too much to let anything happen to you, and if I need to stay away to ensure that nothing does, then it's worth it. It was selfish of me to think that we could just go back to being friends when I never even solved my problems.”

  Amy slowly looked up. Her eyes were red and tears streaked her cheeks. “I miss you, Cole. I really miss you. But I can't. I'm...” she closed her eyes tight, “I'm scared. Please, don’t hate me.”

  Cole embraced her in a hug. “I could never hate you. It's my problem and you shouldn't be the victim. I promise I'm going to work hard at fixing it. I have to be able to destroy the voices. There has to be a way.”

  Amy's eyes remained shut, but she nodded. “I believe you.”

  Cole released her. “I'm gonna get going so Mr. Williams doesn't ask about me coming over. We'll get through this, okay?”

  “Okay.” Amy opened her eyes and gave a weak smile.

  As he was turning to leave, Cole thought he noticed a slight grimace as if she was in pain.

  Beth’s car pulled up and he climbed in. “First day back was that great, huh?” Beth said upon seeing his face.

  “It's not that. I just… I can't see Amy anymore until I get rid of the voices and I have no idea how to do that.”