HEARING DAMAGE
ADULT NOLA - CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT !

            AN AMUSED GRIN HAD tugged at the corners of Annie's lips when she first laid her big brown eyes upon the fishbowl carried under Lisa's arm. The sound of feet scuffling on the tile flooring of the kitchen of Camp Green Pine had caused her to spin on her heel, the woman having expected it to be Charlotte with another new person at the camp that she'd have to accommodate food for.

            But thankfully it had only been Lisa, who had been more than happy to show off the fish she had retrieved after an impromptu visit to her mother's house alongside Natalie, who had been the one to actually capture fish after Lisa's more than disastrous encounter with her mom.

            Annie had been extremely willing to set aside her responsibilities for even just a brief moment and chat with the young woman. "That's a really pretty fish." She complimented with a nod towards the orange scaled fish that swam happily above the chestnut coloured rocks that settled along the fishbowls bottom. "I can see why you wanted to collect it from your house."

            Lisa sent an appreciative smile the March woman's direction. "Thanks. Did you see we've have some new visitors?"

            A somewhat tired sigh tore through Annie. Her shoulders shook and fell as she was forced to remember the work that was ahead of her. "I heard about it, yeah. I haven't met them or anything but yeah, I've had to begin preparing more food."

           "I think they're people from Charlotte and Natalie's past. They all seem to know each other." The young girl commented with a shrug. She'd seen them all gathered alongside the two women earlier in the day, all of them talking amongst themselves.

           It looks so...natural? That's how Lisa came to the conclusion that they all must know each other. Their interaction didn't make much sense otherwise.

           Annie turned away for a second, gathering up a few ingredients to use once the conversation came to an end before turning back to look over at Lisa again. "So many people from Charlotte's past have been showing up recently. It makes you wonder why it took them so long to come visit her, right?"

            Lisa looked a little hesitant. "A little." She said with a sigh. Despite her brain screaming at her to mind her own business, Lisa couldn't help but wonder. "I mean, Natalie didn't seem very pleased to see Charlotte when she first arrived. She looked super pissed when she saw her and she did try to hit Charlotte with that branch, remember?"

            Perhaps they weren't on the best of terms when Charlotte had made the move to create Camp Green Pine. That would certainly explain why no one from her past had come to visit her or why after all this time, the first that had arrived to the camp had been taken by force as a means to avoid a suicide.

            "Yeah, I remember. Maybe...maybe like us, Charlotte has unresolved stuff from her past and it involves those people. That would explain why they never bothered to find her until now." Annie posited the idea, the woman finding herself agreeing with Lisa's logic.

            Then another possibility entered her mind. "They could actually be here for Natalie and not Charlotte."

There was a beat of silence amongst the pair as they simply just stood there. After a moment, Annie decided that chatting about the new people and whatever association they had with Charlotte and Natalie wasn't how she wished to spent her break from cooking. She quickly smiled, uttering, "Anyway, what's this little guys name?"

"The 14th Gilly."

"Creative." Annie jokingly quipped, earning herself a playful shove from the young girl, who couldn't help but giggle at Annie's words.

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            THE AIR WAS THICK. Frustration from all of the women was running high and suffocating them as they reluctantly followed along with Lottie's instructions of picking a 'treatment' as she and her delusional followers called them. With no cellphones and all other their other personal possessions taken from them, regardless of their protests, they had no choice but to go along with it.

            Shauna had chosen self-care. She'd obviously assumed that self-care meant something similar to a mud bath or even a massage, but had been extremely wrong in that assumption when a baby goat was thrusted into her arms. After huffing and puffing for what felt like forever, walking around carrying the goat about in her arms, she'd finally decided to take a break, tying the baby animal to base of a tree.

She'd been perfectly content to just sit there in silence, but that unfortunately wasn't to be. Her moment of peace was destroyed when Misty, an easily excited, bespectacled mess of blonde curls, appeared out of thin air, questions at the ready.

           Shauna tried her damndest to stave off the relentless noise that was Misty's voice, though it proved absolutely futile as Misty kept thrusting question after question at her, which she should have expected. Misty was never one to just back off. The ease in which the blonde spoke of the Shauna's unhinged murder of Adam, her secret lover and eventual victim, got the Sadecki woman's back up. The cavalier attitude, the devil may care way in which she so openly chatted about murder, death and all things bloody maddened Shauna greatly.

           It was as if Misty enjoyed it. As if she wished to return to their once bloodthirsty ways.

            "Well, you're not that innocent either." Misty retaliated, her arms folding across her chest as she cockily stared up at the brunette, after Shauna had claimed Misty was figuring out how to be 'the perfect serial killer.'

            "I know that, Misty." Shauna stated with a tight-lipped smile. The Sadecki woman was entirely disillusioned with herself. She knew better than anyone the desire for blood that lay nestled deep in her gut. She just chose to forgo acting on. Though it was becoming hardest to fight. "Do you think I don't know that?"

            Before Misty could utter a reply, the sound of leaves crunched under the weight of someone walking caught their attention. Both women turned their heads to glance over in the direction the sound was coming from just as a long haired brunette, who looked incredibly similar in age to them, appeared from behind a few tears, clothed in the very specific shade of purple Lottie insisted the 'intentional community' wore.

            The woman immediately looked sheepish as she held up her hands in mock self defence with an awkward grin. "I'm just passing through. Pretend I'm not here." The woman jokingly said as she made a move of walk past them.

            As she inched her way closer, Shauna and Misty were able to get a better look at her. The features of her face had to come into view for mere seconds before a mixed feeling of confusion, hope and horror began festering deep inside their guts.

            "Nola?" Shauna breathed out.

            It couldn't be. She couldn't be her but how come she looked so much like her? No, it couldn't be because if it was, then she'd chosen to stay away all this time and Shauna refused to believe that. Nola would never abandon her, not for one second.

            Annie stopped abruptly, turning her gaze in the brunette woman's direction. Her brows furrowed as her lips curled into an amused smile. "Excuse me?" She questioned in confusion, not understanding what had just been uttered at her.

           Misty swiftly stepped in between the two women, brushing off Shauna's slip of the tongue with a wave of the hand and a shake of her head. "Don't mind her. You just look like someone we used to know." The blonde explained, adding in a small laugh to defuse any sort of tension. "I'm Misty, this is Shauna. We're friends of Lottie's."

          "I guessed. Your severe lack of heliotrope coloured clothing is somewhat of a giveaway." The March woman pointed out while gesturing to their casual getup of jeans, a shirt and jacket, all of which lacked that signature colour of Camp Green Pine.

          Shauna remained mute. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the woman before her. The longer she stared at her, the more she began looking and acting exactly Nola had once acted, long before the Wilderness had gotten its claws into them. Every little twitch of the lips, every twirl of her shirt's fabric between her fingers, the way she didn't hesitate to call out their clothing, it was just like her. But it couldn't be, could it?

          If it was truly her, why was she acting as though she had no clue who they were?

           Misty on the other hand was suspicious. Even she had clocked the eerie similarities between this woman and her old friend, but instead of allowing herself to get caught up on the idea of it truly being Nola, Misty instead grew curious on why Lottie would keep this a secret?

           The blonde chose to remain cautious. "Yeah. We're out here looking for a kid."

            The grin that had graced Annie's lips dropped like an anchor to the bottom of the sea. "A kid? You brought a child here?"

           "Oh, aren't you precious?" Misty said somewhat patronisingly, earning herself a brief narrowing of the eyes from Annie. She quickly let out a chuckle as she continued, "No, not an actual kid. A kid, you know, a baby goat."

           "Oh, okay. That makes more sense. For a second, I thought one of you had lost your child out here." Annie explained away the frown she'd worn only moments ago. She felt stupid assuming these two women were so casual about losing a child.

           "Can you imagine? Who would ever bring their child here?"

            "Well, it was nice meeting you but I better get back. The food's not gonna cook itself, unfortunately." She laughed though deep down she felt exhausted from all the work she'd taken on. Of course, she had help but it was still a lot. She turned to walk away before realisation hit and she spun back around. "My name's Annie, by the way."

           "Bye, Annie."

           Shauna and Misty watched like a hawk as Annie took her leave, both remaining quiet until they were sure she was far away enough. Then Misty sighed out, "Well, something's not right here and who would've guessed Lottie being at the centre of it all?"

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author's thoughts.
chapter thirty-eight, not proofread
so nola and shauna have finally met again. Of course, they don't know for certain it's nola since she's calling herself annie and didn't seem to recognise them, which just means more questions for lottie and Natalie, who both know that it's Nola. anyway I hope you enjoyed :)