The Whisper Seekers

The Vision & The Blowup

The next morning, my phone rings before my alarm has even gone off. The numbers on my clock are blurry and there is only a hint of sunlight peeking in through my curtains. I don't want to leave the warmth of my bed to answer the phone, but the ringing isn't stopping. I swear if my phone reads "Spam Risk" I am going to reem the telemarketer on the other end. 

I finally grab my phone and am stunned to see "Liam Greysor" on the screen. He never answered one of my fifteen phone calls from last night so I figured I would talk to him when I saw him at school today. 

"Do you know what time it is?" I mumble as I lay back down with my eyes closed. 

"Ellie...I know when the gun is brought to school. I just saw it," he states with his voice low and grumbly like he just woke up too. I'm awake now and bolt upright to listen to the details. 

"Oh god, okay. When will it happen?" I dreadfully ask. 

"The day of the homecoming game. I saw the posters around school and you are in your cheer outfit," he replies quickly. I'm not awake enough to process this, but I now have even more questions. 

"Who brings it into school? Does anyone get hurt? Are they stopped?" I ask, spilling out my thoughts as soon as they are registered. 

"There's more than one person with a gun, but they are wearing ski masks," he answers. "I do however know, that one of them is the kid from our bio class." We sit in silence for a moment before he adds, "Ellie, I don't want to completely scare you, but I need to talk to someone about this, and you know the student body better than I do." 

"No, I understand Liam. I'm glad you called," I tell him before asking the heavy question. "Did you see me?" I ask, dreading the answer. He's doesn't respond right away and the silence makes me nervous. 

"All I've seen is that you walk into the classroom before that kid from bio. I haven't seen you walk out though," he says nervously and the silence that follows worries me. This is bad. This is really bad. Liam has only kind of seen what happens to me but not everyone else. Not Harper or Lily or even Derek. 

"Okay. We need to go to the police," I whisper. 

"And say what? I think some kids are going to bring a gun to school because I dreamt it? No Ellie, I don't think we'll be taken seriously," he says flatly. He's right- how do we expose them without exposing ourselves? 

"We have two weeks until the homecoming game. We have to figure out who is planning this, and how to prevent it," I say sharply. I'm now eager to get to school, but I still have two hours before I even have to start getting ready. 

"What did you call me about last night?" Liam asks, suddenly changing the subject. I had almost completely forgotten.

 "Oh. Yeah, about that. I umm...I need you to ask Harper to homecoming- in a big elaborate way," I confess. 

He's quick to respond, "Um, no. I'm not going to homecoming. And if I do, it won't be with her." I knew I was going to have to beg. 

"Liam please, I already told her you were going to ask her." 

"You already told her? Why would you do that?"

"It's a long, guilt-ridden story. But it will be a big group thing, so you won't be stuck with her. Derek and I will be there-" 

"You're still going with Derek?" He snaps, interrupting me. 

"Of course I'm going with Derek. Why wouldn't I be?" I snap back. 

"Oh I dunno, maybe because we kissed? You kissed me. That's a pretty good reason to reevaluate your relationship status. Or at least take a break from him," he says like it's completely obvious. I think back to my conversation with Harper and know I have to convince Liam that I'm not into him like that.