Hey Chase.
I meant to shoot you a text as soon as I was settled in the cabin, but I dropped my phone in a damn puddle right as I was bringing everything in, and I don’t have any of your emails memorized, so here I am. Posting on an online forum that you browse on the off-chance that you’ll read it.
(Yeah, it’s stupid. But I really just need to get my thoughts out anyway.)
I’m real sorry for running off on you like that. I know I haven’t been answering your texts, but I’m telling you, I’m fine. I just . . . I needed a break.
Everything’s just been too much lately. Too much work. Too many people. Too many events.
Too little time, I guess.
I don’t even know what I’m talking about at this point. I just knew I needed to get out. Get away from all the noise and the constant need to be busy. A week or two just to rest up and take care of myself. I admit that taking a week off from work and booking a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, probably wasn’t the smartest way to do it, but I was also running on about two hours of sleep over three days. So. A smashing success, all things considered.
Enough about the shitty stuff, that’s not what I really wanted to talk about, anyway.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been out in the woods like this. I’d forgotten how nice the scenery is whenever it’s all just old growth trees and hills. Forgot that I liked the night sky, too, and this place is isolated enough that there’s basically no light pollution whenever I kill the porch lamp. Beautiful view of the Milkyway. Could probably trace out the constellations with my hand if I knew any of ‘em.
I stopped by a camping supply shop before I got here, stocked up with a tent and some fire starting stuff in case I wanted to really get out in the wild. I think I might just do that, but it’s supposed to rain tonight, so it’ll have to wait.
Speaking off, I guess the local weatherman here was from Oklahoma originally, or maybe another Midwest state—reason being that he said to “be on the lookout for thunderheads.” I love that word. It just has that air of almost-mysticality to it. Like the cloud is only the tip of some larger iceberg. I guess it is, if you’re considering the storm that’s about to follow.
Oh. I think I hear the first drops now. Wi-Fi’s about to get spotty, it’s one of those satellite set-ups, so I guess I won’t be able to send this post just yet. I’ll write more if something interesting happens. Like if I get Wizard-of-Oz’ed into Kansas.
(This cabin is probably sturdy enough to survive the trip. Storms must get bad here.)
————
I realize there’s no time stamp for this stuff, so I guess this is, maybe, an hour or two later. Did a little divider for you, because I’m thoughtful like that.
Rain is REALLY heavy. If this place had a tin roof like your Grandma’s, I think the sound would have driven me crazy by now. It’s sort of pleasant as it is, just constant background noise. Like those white noise videos some people put on? I see the appeal now. It’s nice to just zone out, staring through the windows. I keep counting the seconds between when I see a flash of lightning and when the thunder rolls over the cabin.
What was that rule? Five seconds or longer, and it was over a mile away? I’d look it up, but, y’know. Storm of the century. Maybe you can smugly tell me it was seven seconds or something whenever you read this.
The wind sounds strange, whistling through these trees. I know it’s just random gusts blowing past random trunks, but I almost feel like it’s part of some pattern.
Like someone talking through TV static.
Huh. Maybe I’m not one of those solitary types after all.
————
Okay, it’s been a while longer.
I thought I was just going a little stir-crazy, but no, I’m definitely hearing something out there. I took a video with my phone, and I can hear it played back to me from that. It doesn’t even sound human. It sounds like . . . well, I guess if a storm could talk. All bass and howl and thunder. I can’t make out what it’s saying, completely. Just an occasional word or too.
I’m not gonna try and lie, I’m sort of panicking. The only reason this whole thing isn’t riddled with typos is because I’m too stubborn to let it be a garbled mess if I’m going to have to wait a few hours to send it in the first place. But my hands are shaking pretty bad—I mean, it’s insane to hear a voice in a fucking storm, isn’t it? Even if I hear it in the recording, I could be hallucinating that, too. Right? Can delusions be that accurate?
I really hope so. Because I’m pretty sure I just heard it say “open” and “door.”
Just gonna . . . try to take my mind off of that.
Do you remember that snowstorm from when we were little? I know we’ve had a few, but I mean the one from around sixth grade. Maybe fifth? The one where they went on and on about how it was a record breaking amount of snow for our town, and me and you had to rake snow out of my mom’s driveway because we tracked mud in on the carpet?
I don’t know why I’m thinking about that right now. A comforting memory, I figure. And when we even had to go back inside because it started snowing again, even harder than before. Just that image of you and me, sat at the front of the house, peering through the window and drawing through condensation on the glass. My parents were being concerned about the roof in the kitchen, but we were just trying to draw the perfect snowman, with all the seriousness of engineers laying out some blueprint.
I dunno. I guess I wish this storm was that lighthearted.
Instead, it’s just getting worse.
And that damn voice is getting louder.
————
Small update.
I opened the door.
And got majorly fucking soaking wet (wow, I should not have opened it all the way), but I could hear the voice a little better.
It’s definitely the storm. I don’t think anybody could even stand up with how hard it’s coming down there. If I wasn’t under the porch, I probably would have crumpled under the weight of the rain like a tin can.
I shut the door quickly, I was too shocked by the rain coming in near horizontally to process much of anything, but I definitely heard my name. Like the fucking wind whispered it.
I think it was a mistake, coming out here.
I think that I might have to try and book it to my car if the storm lets up even a little bit.
But I know that’s not going to happen, because now the storm knows I heard it.
I’m gonna go think for a bit. Guess I’ll write more later since the Wi-Fi’s still out. God, I really wish I had someone to talk to right now.
I don’t really know whats going on but the winds just picked up a whole hell of a lot and
I dont think the windows are going to hold up much longer so. i guess whatever it is will be able to reach me in a minute or two. i dont even know what it is, but, shit, what can i even do
i can hear it out there. Murmuring. screaming. its like a chant.
its getting louder. shaking the foundation and rattling the panes, like theres a cyclone sitting right outside. wants me to open the door again, wants to talk, wants to see, wants to
it’s so loud. SO loud. hear it over the thunder. hear it over my heartbeat. open the door. lightning flashes, open the door. take a breath, open the god damned door.
louder than light is fast. louder than my thoughts.
ill be right back. it needs to SHUT UP
BE QUIET FOR ONE FUCKING
Hey, Chase.
Sorry about that. I feel pretty embarrassed looking back at what I wrote, but I’m leaving it for posterity’s sake. What would be the point of this message if I deleted my experience? You should know what’s going to happen to you soon.
I was wrong about the Thunderhead. Everyone is. It’s not a storm. It’s something more. More than a force of nature.
It’s what comes next, Chase. For everyone. For everywhere.
It’s not stopping here. It’s going to keep going, keep talking, keep finding others. It wants to start small, find those people that are isolated and malleable—like me.
It might seem like this is over, but it’s just biding it’s time.
Find your sister, Chase. Take her somewhere safe. Things are about to get worse before they get better. But they will get better. The Thunderhead says so.
I still have so many questions to ask it, so I guess I’ll follow it for a little while yet.
Looks like the Wi-Fi is back up.
Thanks for listening, buddy. See you soon.