Voices...

Aileen at Six in the Photo

The voices in my head were always kind to me. 

They were always telling me what to do.

What to say.

Who to befriend.

Who to Love.

And who to kill...

My name is Aileen Sanders. I am fifteen years old. For as long as I could remember, I've had these voices in my head, constantly talking to me. I never really understood why I could hear them and nobody else could.

In total, there was eight. Four boys and four girls. But, over the years. One of the boy's, I had named Ross, had mysteriously disappeared and stopped talking to me. When I had asked about him, another new voice, who I named Jasper, had told me he was passed on. This only confused me more. 

Chester, Jasper, Ollie, and Bennie. The four boys. Audrey, Chasity, Adrienne, and Mercy. The four girls.

But despite their hasty judgement's, they were my only friends. Everyone else had thought I was mentally ill and pushed me away. They didn't want to be and I quote 'Friends with a girl who talks to herself.' 

I never really let that bother me.

The voices are very judgmental of the people I am around. 

They're only protecting me tthough! 

When I was six years old, I was riding in the passenger seat of my dad's pickup truck, riding down a back road to get home. My eight month pregnant mother, Adeline, and my four year-old little sister, Rebecca, were riding in the backseat. We were all listening to music, after a stressful day at mommy's baby shower. I had a headache, as far as I could remember. The voices, they were so noisy that day.

"He must not be born,"  Audrey hissed.

"The baby is a threat. Horrible little thing, he is." Ross agreed.

I wasn't absorbed in their conversation. I usually just let them talk freely, staring out the window.

Over time, I began picking up words like  "Plan." or  "Riddance." But, being the small simple minded child I was, I never thought anything of it.

"Aileen, honey." Ollie cooed. His voice was a sweet sounding thing of somewhat innocence's.

"Hm...?" I hummed, in a sort of reply.

My parent's knew about these 'Voices' but they just assumed that they were imaginary friends, that would eventually pass.

"We all want to go swimming. Wouldn't you like to go swimming dear?" He replied, his voice a wisp of a whisper. In the background, more voices chimed in. Muttering things like "Yes, we do!" and "Don't you want to have fun with us?"

I thought about it.

"Yes. I suppose so Ollie."  I had begun to tap at the window, getting a curious look from my father. He only dismissed it and smiled, focusing his eye's on the road.

"Ask him, dear. Ask him to take you swimming. To take us..." 

I smiled, knowingly that the lake was coming up on our right. "Daddy..."

"Yes, darling." He said, reaching to turn down the radio.

"We want to go swimming. Ollie told me so." Was all I replied.

My father tilted his head to the side, quietly, observing me. "I'm sorry Princess. Mommy and daddy are too tired today. How about tomorrow?"

"No! We must swim today!" Ollie shot back, giving me pain in my left eye. The other's joined in. "Today! Today!" Each repeated.

"I want to go today!" I replied, sitting up taller in my seat.

"Now, Aileen..."

"Today! Today!" Their chanting had turned into frantic screaming, that pounded against my skull. "I'm sorry." I whispered to the voices. 

They stopped immediately. 

My father had pulled his attention back to the road.

"Aileen..." Ollie mumbled, a few minutes later.

"Yeah, Ollie?" I simply said.

"Do you really want to go swimming with us?" He giggled.

"Yeah!" I perked up at the mention. "But how?"

"When the lake starts to come up..." Ollie paused, referring to the bridge that loomed in the distance. "I want you to grab the wheel and pull it towards the water. Then your daddy will see how silly he's being for not wanting to go swimming."

"We'll all be swimming together, Aileen. Everything will be okay. We promise." This time, it was Chasity who had spoke.

"You promise? Like, pinkie-swear?" I asked, cupping my hands in my lap.

"We Promise...." All the voices spoke at once, reassuring me.

I smiled, "Okay!"

I watched as the bridge began to approach. The wood railings on each side were nearly collapsed, after years of nobody's attention. 

"Now, Aileen. Now!" Mercy nearly screamed.

But I still did as they told me. I reached over, prying my little hands on the wheel and jerked it towards me. 

I didn't register everything that had happened. My mother screaming out my name, my father yelling for me to let go, me being ripped from the car, and the undeniable sound of it hitting the water. In second's I was submerged. The oxygen was replaced with water.

Dark water.

I couldn't tell if I was up or down. In that moment, I was petrified. The voices had never tried to hurt me before. Why would they now? 

My lungs burning for oxygen, I screamed for Ollie or someone to help me.

"Swim, Aileen. Swim upwards. You'll be okay. Reach the shore" Chester told me.

I followed his instructions, breaking the surface within seconds. My family wasn't anywhere to be seen, but I continued to the shore.

Shivering I stood, watching the water. Big air bubbles rippled to the surface. Minutes passed, before the began to slow, until it stopped.

The whole time, I was screaming for my family.

"Mommy?!" I yelled again. No reply.

Headlight's appeared in the distance, as a small blue car sped to a stop. A women appeared from the door. She had ran up to me. 

"Who are you? What are you doing out here? Where's your parents?" She asked. The lady had bright red hair, that spilled into wave's on her pail complexion. Making her green eye's really pop from the light's of her car. 

"Tell her, Aileen. Point to where they went swimming. Do NOT tell them you grabbed the wheel. Tell them that your father lost control." Audrey announced.

So I did, I pointed to the water, explaining to this lady what happened.

By the time I had finished, she had already dialed 9-1-1. "My name is Darcy, you can trust me. Whats your name?"

I hesitated. "Can I tell her?" I mentally asked them.

"Yes, Aileen. Tell her."

"Aileen." I mumbled. "My name is Aileen."

I noticed the sad, longing look in her eyes. "Your shivering, baby. Come sit with me, until the police arrive." She had placed her hand around my wrist.

"Police?!" I cried, snatching my hand away. "Why are they coming?"

She gave me a sympathetic look. "Oh, darling." She sighed. Darcy appeared close to tears. "Your parent's--Your sister..."

I frowned, "They're only swimming. They'll be back soon. The police don't have to come."

That was when the tears began to flow down her cheeks. 

I was confused. "Whats going on?" I whispered.

"Aileen. Go with her now."  Audrey said. "Don't be resistant. Go with her." Jasper added.

"Please..." She began to really cry now. "Please, come with me."

Listening to the voices, I didn't resist. "Okay." I squeaked and we headed to her car, where I sat until the police had arrived.

A women, with dark hair pulled back in a tight bun, that made her face look a little to stretched appeared. She tapped on the window lightly, to get my attention. She, then, gave me a toothy smile through the car window. This made me shiver, despite the fact that I was snuggled in the backseat of Darcy's car, with a blanket pulled tightly around myself. 

Darcy had gotten out to talk to the police when they had arrived, but now she was walking the short distance back to talk to the lady who had knocked on the window.

They chatted for a good ten minutes, with me watching them closely. 

I didn't understand, why hadn't my family came back yet?

"Ollie? Where's my family? You told me they went swimming." I said, out loud.

"They're gone, Aileen."

"What?" I mumbled in a soft voice.

"They hated you. Found you a bother. They were planning on leaving you tonight. We stopped them from hurting you.... Because we love you."

I started to sob. 

This couldn't be true! But, then again, Ollie and the other voices had never lied to me. Never.

Darcy and the women outside noticed me crying and pulled open the door. Darcy pulled me into her arms, rubbing circles into my back and assuring me everything will be okay. The women, who's name turned out to be Kelsey, mentioned something about finding a new family for me. I didn't pay attention though. I was still hurt.

"Everything will be okay Aileen..." Ross cooed.

I buried my small face into Darcy's shoulder, listening to my friends soothing voice telling me all the thing's I need to hear at the moment.

Everything will be okay...

Reviews

[SonOfPlunder]

I'm not sure how far you have go into this, whether you have more than you have posted, but continue with it. You have some really good ideas, some quite original. You could do with altering the structure slightly and there are some grammatical errors but nothing too serious. I look forward to reading more

[Hailey]

Thank you so Much!(:

[Jack M]

I would love to read more of this. It really is a great idea with a lot of possibilities for character development. You are a very talented writer.

[Hailey]

Thank you so much, this means a lot c:

[Chloe_Spence]

Wow I found this to be quite intense- definitely didn't see the car crash coming! :)
Although there was a few grammatical errors, they were minor and I liked the sentence structure.

[Hailey]

Thank you so much!(: