The Unheard

Raya wakes with a jolt as someone slams the door hard enough to

revive the corpses in the graveyard within 10 miles distance. She feels a surge of anger as her useless body keeps lying on the bed like a lump. Hot tears stream down her face, for the thousandth time in the last two weeks.

"Ah, honey! Don't cry...you know how hard it is for me to see a pretty

face like you weep." A mechanical voice booms in front of her. This person or the monster that torments her everyday always uses this stupid voice muffler and now hearing this automatically makes her skin crawl.

She doesn't turn her head to the stupid voice, at least she won't give them the satisfaction of seeing her being awfully miserable and crying like a fricking toddler.

"No worries, baby! Just talked to daddy. He knows you're perfectly fine and just having so much fun doing one of your spoiled brat hangouts with your stupid friends."

Raya's head shoots towards the mechanical voice, "..what?" her lips tremble as she tries to form some sort of comprehensible sounds.

"Daddy!! Just talked to him...I mean, YOU just talked to him and you don't even know it. Isn't it amazing? Gaah! I love technology." An ugly slash monstrous laughter follows.

This is so messed up. Raya's tears are streaming down with twice the velocity now as she tries to make sense of the whole situation. These sickos have been keeping contact with her father imitating her own voice with their stupid technology...while she's suffering...dying inside bit by bit.

"Why?"

"Why what, sweetheart?"

"Why..." her throat tightens with the threat of more tears. God! How

come her tears haven't run out already after crying religiously everyday for the past God knows how many days!

"Why are you...not telling him?"

"That we have you? And where's the fun in that?" "Fun?"

"Ah! You dumb brat, you don't understand anything, do you?" a sudden tug on her hair yanks Raya's head back which makes her mouth let out a weak scream.

"Now, don't pressure daddy too much when he's busy doing big things for his bigass company and signing the rich people deals. Let him

concentrate on his plan and let's just play a little bit more here. Can't we do that? You can't deny this game is already so much fun."

Raya tries to spit in reply but a hard slap practically throws her across

the bed making her head slam against the headboard. She lets out a sob and still feels pure rage, no more feeling sorry for herself.

"In the meantime, let us enjoy the stupid amount of supply from daddy. God! What would you spend all this money on!" another ugly laughter fills the room.

"Wha-at do you...want from him?" Raya's voice is almost inaudible.

"Maybe nothing. Maybe we've got our best gift already. That might just be you that we've wanted all along, baby girl!"

She remains silent, despite the burning need to shout at the top of her

lungs that she feels inside. An eerily invasive silence hangs in the air before the door is slammed again, with deafening certainty...certainty about her doom. An audible gurgling sob gets free from her throat. She cannot even

hope for her dad to inform the police anymore. He has no idea what's going on here.

Leilani takes a once over in the mirror with a smile hovering over her lips. It's been a while she dressed up to go out to have fun. She almost forgot how chic and gorgeous she looks if she puts a bit effort in her appearance. She's been seeing a psychiatrist again and to be honest, she's feeling much lighter and less guilty about whatever happened to Raya. She has to believe in herself first to make others believe that she's not an evil person. Seriously, she never was a bad person...it was all on her monster dad. She flinches at the thought of that guy before shaking her head, trying to clear out all the negativities from there. She feels grateful when she sees Solar's name on her phone as it rings.

"Hey! You're here already?"

"No! Was just checking if you actually dressed up for the wedding or you slouched and put on your favorite outfit... you know, T-shirt and sweat pants." Solar teases from the other side of the phone.

Leilani chuckles, "Nuh! Don't worry. I'm not gonna embarrass you in front of your posh friend circle."

"Yeah! You're one of them now, missy. Get used to it." Solar grins. "So? How long would I have to hang around in this...let's just say

beautiful but oh so uncomfortable outfit?"

"I'll take 15, tops. And then, you know going there, dancing, drinking, hobnobbing and then coming back... So, make it 8 hours at least."

Leilani groans, "Tell me you're kidding." "I never kid, Leila." Solar chuckles. "Alright, see you from my grave."

"Quit being dramatic. Will see you soon, girlie!" "See ya, bye."

Solar surely is a sweetheart. When she heard about the drama going on around Raya's disappearance blaming Leilani, she stepped in. Unlike her rotten sister, she has a pure heart with real kindness. Leilani feels so good hanging out with her. It's like there's no judgment, no jealousy and definitely no suspicion.

Thinking of which, Leilani remembers Oriana. She's been meaning to call her when she didn't show up at work today and no doubt, completely forgot. So she starts to dial the number when Nevan calls rising a bit of heat on both her cheeks. This guy can still do that after so many years only by calling her. She must be deep in there.

"Hey!" she tries to keep her voice casual and void of excitement. "Hey, you alright, Leila?"

"Yeah, I'm great. How are you today?"

"Not bad myself, actually. Just finished your draft."

She winces, "You mean the unfinished, unpolished, having so many loopholes and needing loads of corrections draft of my novel?"

Nevan lets out a small laugh, "Firstly stop patronizing yourself and secondly, you wanna kiss me? I never knew."

"Wait, what? How does patronizing one's writing mean she wants to kiss the first person who reads the draft?"

Nevan lets a full-on laughter to get free in reply, "Nope, dummy! In your novel Athena wants to kiss Achilles every time she sees him. What's with the names though? The rejuvenation of Greek Gods and Goddesses?"

"I just want the names of my characters to be unique." she mumbles.

"I like it...Anyway, back to what we're talking about... So as a matter of fact, your first reader is too smart not to connect the dots and realize, oh!

Athena is Leilani and Achilles is a slightly cooler version of me. Yay!"

Leilani blushes crimson, "You're going ahead of yourself, mister!" "Am I though?" his voice sounds gravelly sending goosebumps across

her arms.

"Uh-huh."

"I'm not judging if you really wanna kiss me. You know that, don't you?" he sounds flirtatious making her stomach sink.

"Well, there's nothing to judge, I guess." "Exactly! That's what I said."

She feels the heat rising on her cheeks further when she decides to change the topic, "So you're upto something this evening?"

"Ow! You wanna do it now? Sure, I can come over." he chortles. "Come on!" she groans making him laugh again.

"I'm kidding, dummy. Nothing in particular. What about you?" "Going out with Solar."

"Ah nice! Is she anything like her sister? I hope not."

"Far from it, really. I never understand how in the world they are even related!"

"That's good. Still, be careful."

"Will be. So, talk to you later? She's calling."

"Sure, bye! I wanna know what happens between the Greek divinities.

So keep me posted?"

She laughs, "I'll send the other half of the draft when I'm finished." "That'll be awesome. Alright, go have some fun."

"I will."