HEARING DAMAGE
TEEN NOLA - CHAPTER NINE !

A JOYOUS ATMOSPHERE HAD fallen over the group of crash survivors. Everyone was dressed in more comfortable clothing, preparing to go to sleep. No one was able to sleep however, instead all of them were feeling giddy for probably the first time since they had crashed.

Music played from the Walkman. Songs that would play over and over on the radio back home, played now. It managed to bring all of them together as they laughed and danced, allowing them all to forget about the shitty situation they were in. If just for the night.

'This is how we do it.' By Montell Jackson blared throughout the small cabin, the man's voice bouncing against the wooden walls and resounding back at the group who all quickly fell into dance formation.

"One. Two. One two three four!" Mari bellowed at the top of her lungs.

All of the girls plus Javi began to wave their arms high up in the air, their hips shaking from side to side. Joy filled laughter spilled out from their lips as they danced to the iconic choreography for the song. Hands and arms twisted in a series of circles as the music continued to play and random calls of different dance moves were performed by the lot.

Off to the side sat Coach Ben, the man unable to participate but watched on with humour painted across his face. Alongside him was the eldest of the Martinez boys, who was too 'cool' to join in himself. Deep down, Travis found himself actually enjoying the atmosphere that had been created, whether or not he decided to show it.

"Go Javi!" Nola excitedly cheered for the boy as he shimmied his way into the centre of the room. Once there, he busted out some dance moves of his own that had them all mirroring him. For a split second the music had been drowned out by the sounds of excited cheers.

Unfortunately for them all, just as the best part of the song began to play, as the chorus trickled it's way through, the Walkman decided to give out. The tune was cut short as the battery seemingly died in that moment.

"Goddamn it." Van complained with a sigh as she glared down at the device. She quickly reached out a hand and picked it up, her eyes scanning it over to find the issue.

Jackie stepped forward while folding her arms across her chest. With an inquisitive look, she questioned, "What happened?"

"I don't know." The Palmer girl replied before bringing her hand down upon the back of the Walkman several times in an shoddy attempt to make it work. "Has hitting something ever fixed it?"

"Maybe try blowing on it." Was what Mari suggested.

Just as Van puckered her lips together and blew along the back of the device, a sudden and unsettling creak of weathered, wooden floorboards came from above. Many lifted up their heads to glance up at the ceiling as a chill ran down their spines.

There was a short pause, no one able to bring themselves to speak. That is until Jackie suddenly broke through the silence by asking, "Uh, the fuck was that?"

They all knew what it sounded like.

Footsteps. Footsteps right above them, weight from a persons foot being applied upon the floorboards of the attic. Right where the dead guy had been found.

Lottie couldn't help but stare off at everyone. "Hey, you heard it, too?" She asked, having believed the noise had been in her head. It wouldn't have been the first time since they crashed that she'd heard strange sounds.

"It was probably just a branch." Taissa said with her hands stationed on her hips. She didn't want everyone becoming freaked out over something that was probably nothing and so she spoke in an attempt to quell any worry.

Mari shot her a look of utter perplexity. "Inside on the floor?"

Nola nodded her head in agreement with Mari. There was no way in fucking hell that it was just a branch. No, it sounded exactly like feet, like someone was walking around up there. Lurking just above them. If she didn't know any better, if she didn't know that the dead guy was buried outside, she would have assumed it was him.

An audible gulp came from Mari. "What if it's...him?"

As an exasperated breath of laughter escaped Taissa, who brought up a hand to rub at her forehead, Shauna sent a look of disbelief across the room at Mari. "What? The dead guy?" The Shipman girl inquired. 

      "Um, yeah." An extremely viscous feeling of annoyance at the question washed over Mari. Obviously she meant the dead guy, who else would it have been?

      "You know what it probably was?" Natalie began, a smirk growing quickly across her lips. A deep feeling of amusement consumed her as she continued, "The dead guys missing fingers tryin' to find their way home."

"Nat!"

Taissa rolled her eyes. "You really have to encourage them?"

Akilah decided to add to the conversation. "You gotta admit, it didn't sound like it was on the roof." She commented to Taissa, who remained unwilling to admit it was anything serious.

Having had enough of the debate amongst the girls, Jackie mustered up all of her leadership capabilities. "Fine. Then it was a rat or a raccoon or something. I don't know."

Nola scoffed. She couldn't believe that no one, especially her two best friends, didn't believe them. It was clear as day. It was footsteps. It had to be.

With very little desire to veil her irritation, she found herself questioning, "Have you seen either of those things since we crashed?" as her voice dripped with attitude.

"Shh." Lottie hushed the group before the Taylor girl had the chance to reply. As everyone's gaze shifted to look at Lottie, she glanced up at the ceiling. "Listen."

Everyone fell into a silence once again, their ears all trained to pick up even the smallest of sounds from above them. The wind from outside blew wildly through the trees, whistling as it moved. The fire that burned brightly crackled and popped. So many different noises were present in that moment.

But nothing from above.

Nola could hear it though. She could hear the footsteps, the weight upon the floorboards. Frighteningly, she could also hear something else. Something so much worse that footsteps. She could hear...a voice? At least she thought that's what it was. But no, it had to be. She'd heard her very own parents whisper under their breaths far too many times to make that mistake.

It sounded exactly like the voice she'd heard only a few days prior as she'd held the rifle in her hands. Her bottom lip began to tremble at the sound. Her eyes grew wide as she stared at everyone, looking for confirmation that she wasn't going crazy. No one looked scared however. No one expect Lottie.

Mari let out a sigh as she swung her hands in the air before they fell against her sides. "Well, I don't hear it now."

They didn't hear it. She couldn't understand. Why didn't they hear it?

"All right, all right. You know what I think it was?" Coach Ben let out a sigh as he glanced around the series of worries faces within the small room of the cabin. "I think the ghost decided it was time to get some sleep. And we should probably do the same, yeah?"

The Rilke girl shuddered with fear as the voice continued to speak above her. Nothing was intelligible but that didn't matter, she could still hear it. She could feel Lottie's eyes upon her, burrowing deep into her skull but Nola just couldn't bring herself to look back. As she got into her makeshift bedding and pulled the blanket up and over her body, she was quick to screw her eyes shut. Nola spent the next couple of minutes just taking very slow and steady breaths, until sleep finally overcame her.

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IT WAS SAFE TO say that all of the girls there wanted to curl up into a ball and sob. As if crashing in the middle of nowhere and being forced to scavenge and hunt to survive wasn't enough but Mother Nature had decided to be a fucking bitch. As the cherry on top of their magnificent time in the wild, their monthly cycles had synced up meaning all of them were experiencing heightened hormones plus aches and pains that they had no choice but to endure.

All at the same time.

Nola released a heavy sigh. She had been tasked with cleaning their clothes that morning and so was crouching over the basin, her hands soaked and gripping random articles of fabric. "If my uterus doesn't start fixing itself, I'm gonna climb really high into that tree and jump."

It felt as though someone had taken a knife and jabbed it deep into her lower abdomen, twisting it around over and over. It fucking hurt like hell and it didn't help that everyone was feeling the exact same. Everywhere you looked was a girl suffering with the exact same thing. Excruciating pain.

A chuckle from Travis caused the brunette to glance over in his direction. He was tapping a spoon against his hips as he said, "I'll help you climb if you want."

"And have you in my personal bubble?" Nola scoffed as she lifted her arms and motioned out a circle around herself. "I'd rather vomit up breakfast out of my eyeballs."

A deep groan came from Mari she stood filtering their water that had been brought up from the lake. She held a bucket in one hand, her aching stomach in the other. "Don't talk about vomit, I'm begging you."

"Sorry." Nola muttered apologetically. Her eyes darted up to Jackie, who had apparently only woken up a few minutes ago as she walked across the porch and down the few steps.

"Hey. Bloody soldiers on the left and breakfast on the right. Okay?" Akilah spoke up, capturing Jackie's attention as she pointed at the two pots that hung over the fire. One for food and the other to boil and disinfect their makeshift pads. "Don't mess 'em up like Travis did."

From where he sat, Travis gagged at the reminder of his mistake. He dropped his spoon into his bowl while rolling his eyes. "Okay, you guys are disgusting." He uttered, voice dripping with repulsion for the group of girls.

"Shut up." Akilah chuckled at the disgust on his face. Perhaps he should have been paying more attention earlier then maybe he wouldn't have made that mistake.

Jackie shuffled along the fallen leaves and twigs, planning on making her way over to the breakfast pot to grab a bowl though a spanner was thrown into works when she was stopped by Mari, who held up a bucket.

"How about getting some more water?" Mari snidely suggested. "Breakfast isn't going anywhere."

She said what everyone was thinking. Unlike all of them, who had been working hard to make things easier, Jackie had been taking that hard work for granted. She was their friend but by god, she was useless. The Taylor girl begrudgingly took the bucket and walked off towards the lake leaving Shauna to follow after her with her eyes.

After a couple of minutes, Jackie returned from the lake. Out of breath and with a bucket only filled about halfway. Nola couldn't help but scoff under her breath. She watched on as her girlfriend hopped to her feet and offered to help Jackie. Nola loved Jackie more than anything but she wasn't putting in the work.

Making it extremely hard for Nola to feel sorry for her.

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter nine. not proofread.
just realised that if Nola wasn't gay, her and Travis would be like perfect rivals to lovers. oh well... short chapter but i hope you enjoyed :)