The Unyielding Voices

I was woken up in the middle of the night to the shattering of a vase downstairs. I grabbed my bat and got behind the bedroom entrance, listening for movement. A minute passed. No other noise arose from outside the bedroom. I wish I hadn’t put my phone to charge overnight in my office; my husband, Matt, always said it was a dangerous habit. I had no other option but to move to the hallway.

I opened the door and checked the corners before heading towards the staircase. As I reached it, however, I was hit in the back of my head with a club. I lost the grip of my bat and fell to the floor, gasping as my vision began to blur.

“I told you your habit was a dangerous one, Bella.” The voice was fuzzy, but I recognised it—it was Matt. I couldn’t believe what was happening; he had lied about his business trip to hurt me.

“Wh...” I struggled to muster any energy.

“It’s because you listened to your father and signed that damn prenup!” His words were seething. “Now you’ll die like one of your characters, only I will never get caught.”

Matt grabbed me by my hair and, even though I pleaded under my breath, threw me down the staircase with no hesitation. Everything faded to black before I hit the living room floor.

I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I later found myself hearing faint voices around me. It was a conversation between a doctor and a nurse; they were saying I was stable for now, although they were uncertain whether I’d pull through. I wanted to open my eyes and speak, but my body wouldn’t move. But then, something strange happened; I was suddenly hearing voices inside my head.

“Bella, you must survive.”

“Yes, fight, Bella!”

I was confused. “Who… Who are you?”

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the opening of a door. “Hi, I’m Matthew Anders, Arabella’s husband.” Matt had returned to finish the job—I needed to wake up fast.

Matt asked the doctor what had happened. The doctor said that my neighbhour Kristina had called an ambulance after finding me on the living room floor. She had sworn she had heard multiple voices from my house and had thought I was being burgled.

Multiple voices? That’s strange. I wondered what she had actually heard.

Matt asked if the police had spoken to the doctor yet, and the doctor said a detective was scheduled to arrive in fifteen to twenty minutes. Matt thanked the doctor and the nurse and asked whether he could spend some time alone with me. They agreed and left him alone with me.

Once the door closed, Matt grabbed a chair and sat next to me. “You got lucky, but I’m not letting you get away that easily.” I felt his growling words near my ear. “And curse that Kristina… I should eliminate her for safe measure, just like I did your father.”

I felt my heart sink upon hearing those words. Dad was so healthy that it came as a shock to everyone when he died of a sudden heart attack a year ago. Matt showed a dislike towards Dad’s suggestion to get a prenup before, but I never thought he had such grim plans for us. Dad’s instincts were right when he said Matt seemed to have ill intentions; I regretted brushing those warnings off as him being his usual overprotective self.

“No, you mustn’t give up, Bella!”

“Help will arrive soon. We won’t let you die.” The voices from before appeared once more. Were these the voices Kristina heard? What was happening?

“Who are you?” I asked.

“We’re your characters. We can’t survive without you, Bella.”

“Yes, neither yours nor our stories can end here.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but there was no time to ask for any explanations. “But what can I do? I can’t even move.”

“Fight! We’ve got everything covered.”

I suddenly felt a pillow sink into my face—Matt was looking to end my life. I held on just like the voices asked. I fought until I felt the air begin to vanish from my lungs. But then I suddenly heard the noise of the door flying open and a man yelling “Hands above your head!”

The tightening grip of death on me loosened. I was finally able to breathe again. Matt was arrested on the spot; I woke up a week later and confirmed that he was the one who pushed me down the stairs. I also asked the police to reopen my father’s case since I suspected Matt had murdered him. My characters helped me point the police in the right direction to things that were previously overlooked. Matt had used a rare poison that was untraceable in regular tests. In the end, however, he lost, receiving a life sentence without parole.