Broken Whispers
By Dr. Adyasha Acharya
Aidan & Vienna are spirit walkers. Then one day Aidan disappears. Will Vienna be able to find him?
The waves are huge. I feel as if they will take me in every time, they come close. But they can’t touch me.
For a spirit walker, I can travel anywhere without actually being there.
But even with all my abilities, I can’t find him.
​
Aidan has been gone since months. Everyone says he is dead. But I know he is there, somewhere. Just that I have been searching him for months and not finding him.
He is a spirit walker too. Stronger and more powerful.
​
I twist the diamond ring on my finger. My fiancé was last seen in the battle against the lost souls. We won but ever since he has been missing. He saved my life then disappeared without a trace.
People think he used every bit of his energy to save me and hence is gone. But I know he is alive.
I will find him.
​
A storm rages in the distance and the sound of thunder tells me it is time to go back.
I wake up with a gasp in my room. One more day of not finding Aidan.
​
The last memory I have of him is us having an argument. He hid the fact from me that the prophecy included a sacrifice to save us from the lost souls.
​
He didn’t tell me because he thought I would sacrifice myself. Maybe he did. So that I wouldn’t.
​
I go downstairs to attend breakfast with my family. My elder brother, Neal glances at me. “Morning, Vienna.”
“Morning, everyone.”
I slide into my usual seat. The chair besides me is empty. Has been since months.
Aidan used to live with us before he disappeared. He didn’t have a family.
​
When I first met him while tracking a lost soul, he had just arrived here from another island. He was tracking a more viscous lost soul.
It was a year ago. We grew closer over the months and fell in love. He proposed to me just few days before the battle.
​
“Honey, you look tired,” Dad states removing his glasses. “You need to stop exhausting yourself.”
“Your father is right,” Mom gives me a sad smile. “You know if Aidan were out there, he would have reached out to you.”
“He is not dead, Mom. I would know if it were the case.” My voice comes out angrier than I wanted it to.
Neal sighs. He is the only one who hasn’t stopped me from searching for Aidan. They were- are good friends. My family has been influencing me too much.
“Let’s focus on breakfast,” he says to lighten the mood.
​
I finish my food and then grab my coat and leave. It is cold out there. Clouds cover the sky like a veil.
“Vienna,” a velvety whisper pauses me on my tracks.
That can’t be. It was Aidan’s voice. I would know it anywhere. I frantically look around. But don’t find him.
Maybe I am hearing things.
“Vienna,” again the same voice. His voice.
“Aidan,” I call back but nothing. I think I may have over exhausted myself with all the spirit walking I have been doing.
I realize I have strolled up to the alley where Aidan and I had met the first time. Before I can feel any more miserable than I already am, I hurriedly walk away.
“Don’t stop looking,” Aidan’s voice comes back.
What the hell? All these months and I had been hearing nothing. Why now?
Could it actually be him? I close my eyes and focus on him. His midnight blue eyes and raven hair. “You’re close,” Aidan says in my mind.
Close. To what? To him?
If he can reach out to me, why didn’t he before?
​
“Vienna,” this one is not Aidan. I turn around and find my best friend waving at me. “What’s wrong?” she asks after reaching me.
I could tell her but then she would tell my brother and they both would start worrying that I am hearing things.
“Nothing. What are you up to?”
“I am just meeting up with Neal for coffee. You should tag along. I barely even see you.”
I am about to say that I don’t want to interfere when Aidan’s voice in my head speaks up, “You should. I don’t want to be the reason you are losing yourself.”
“Vienna?” Sadie nudges me.
“Okay.”
“Okay. Wow, that’s great. Let’s go.”
​
Their coffee date is where Aidan and I always used to come. We had our first date here.
Neal is waiting for us in a corner booth. He is surprised as hell to see me. “Umm, so what would you ladies like to have?”
“Vanilla latte,” I reply instantly.
​
They start discussing something and I glance outside through the glass window.
A flicker if white catches my attention. I would know him anywhere. Aidan. I bolt up from my seat.
​
“Vienna,” Neal calls after me but I am already out of the door.
Aidan’s spirit disappears down the street. Where is he going? And is that even him?
​
I run after him, and he finally vanishes near the cemetery. It was his spirit. Is he…no, no. He is trying to guide me somewhere.
“You are here,” I hear his voice again.
“Here? Where are you, Aidan?”
“You can find me,” he tells me.
​
My eyes fall on the broken old chapel just across the cemetery.
The chapel is in a withered condition. Its walls are broken. It is dark inside and I can barely see anything.
​
I switch on my phone’s flashlight. “Come closer, Vienna,” Aidan’s broken voice instructs me.
I quietly walk inside into the dark. There is nothing but a broken mirror at the end. A moment later Aidan’s reflection appears on the glass. It is him.
​
“Aidan,” I place my palm on the mirror, tears flowing out. How did he even end up there?
“I am trapped in the otherworld realm,” he answers. “I have been trapped here since the battle. I tried to reach out to you, but I didn’t have enough energy in me. Until today. Only you can help me, love.”
​
The otherworld realm is where dead spirits go. Maybe Aidan got trapped here because of all the energy he used to save me.
​
I close my eyes and reach out to him. He is there. So close. After all these months, I finally found him, and he is alive.
Aidan’s reflection places his palm on the other side of the mirror, opposite to mine. A pale white light bursts from the mirror, and it shatters into pieces.
​
I step back wondering what happened. “Aidan?” I call out afraid I might have lost him forever.
​
Heavy footsteps behind me cause me to turn around. Aidan smiles at me and takes a step forward. His blue eyes tell me he is real. This is real. “I am here, Vienna.”
