A cold, Deafening scream broke out in my large, populated city seconds after I had awoken for work. My ears began to bleed as the sound waves traveled into my ears. I needed to move, I needed to get up, but I could not. I heard my front door knob jingling over the scream. I *needed* to move. But I still could not. I became frustrated. I was trying to move with every bit of strength in my body, so why couldn’t i? The scream continued to make my ears bleed.
*click* my front door had now been opened. *move god damn it!* I thought in complete frustration and over-stimulation. I saw a shadow in the corner of my eye, it began to come more into view. it wasn’t a shadow. I saw the black, overly tall, humanoid figure come into perfect view. It opened its mouth, I was fascinated when my eyes met the gaping hole filled with incomprehensible horrors. It slowly came closer, when suddenly, the screaming stopped, and just after that, I watched the black humanoid figure slowly dissolve into the air. I gasped and sat up in bed. *i can move now*
I touched my finger to my ear and looked at it. There was blood. I hadn’t imagined this. My ears began to ache extremely and everything began to ring intensely. *I-I need to do something* I thought while at the same time trying to comprehend the immense pain my ears were in. *Can I call 911? This is an emergency, isn’t it?* I asked myself. I reached over to my nightstand with shaky hands and dialed 911.
A female operator picked up. She spoke in a tone that indicated she was in pain herself, but trying to remain professional.
“911 what is your emergency?”
“My-my ears.. They’re bleeding.. And I heard a scream… a-a really loud scream ma’am..” I spoke struggling.
“Sir, we will send police and medical service to you right away, what is the address of your current location?”
It was a struggle to hear her over the ringing.
“ uhhh… it’s… uh… my address? It’s uh.. Yeah! It’s 36713 Zoss Drive, apartment number 32 on floor 7..” I almost didn’t remember my address over the pain.
“Okay sir, we are sending them over right now. And I would like to let you know that we already have police investigating the scream incident.”
“D-do you have any information on it? Did it do this to everyone?” I asked eagerly.
“Sir, i can’t disclose any information, i do apologize-”
I hung up the phone, cutting her off. I didn’t want to have to listen to anything longer than I didn’t have to, the aching in my ears was becoming unbearable. I was about to put down my phone when the emergency alert sound began to blare on the phone, causing my already damaged ears pain to intensify. I let out a groan and threw my phone across the room. Once the alert was done blaring, I figured I had to see what it was about. I got out of my bed for the first time that morning. I instantly felt light headed when I stood up, but I fought it off and began to take the few steps across the room needed to reach my cellular device. I bent down and picked up my phone. The lightheadedness came back when I came back up but it was only half of what it was last time. I pressed the side button on my phone and saw my phone screen come to life. the emergency alert read:
“ unknown entities are causing severely disturbing and damaging screams throughout the town. We advise you to keep ear mufflers of any kind handy for we do not know if or when the screaming will return. Authorities are currently investigating this matter but We currently do not have any more information on this matter. Stay indoors.”
The words seemed surreal as my mind comprehended them. *”unknown entities”? What is this, a zombie movie?* I thought.
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
It was coming from my door. *the police must be here* I staggered out of my bedroom door into the hallway, proceeding to walk towards the front door. As I was walking down the hall, I noticed a perfectly circular gaping hole in my wall, it looked into the kitchen. *that thing must have done that… but why?” I reached the door and put my hand on the handle. *wait* I thought. *How can I be sure it’s the police?* I took my hand off the handle and peeked through the peephole. I saw 2 Federal agents standing next to each other. *What the hell?* I placed my hand back on the handle and twisted it open.
“H-hello..” I said fearfully.
“Hello, please, follow us.”
They saw me about to say something, but I paused when they began to pull out their badge.
I examined the badge. I had no reason to believe that it wasn’t real.
“You can trust us, now please. Follow us along now.”
“O-okay.” I said as I began to walk behind them.
“H-hey i called the police so what’s going on here?” I asked them.
“We will explain everything later, but here, take this tissue for your ears.” he replied as he handed me a tissue from his pocket.
I used the tissue to dry up the blood in my ears while I continued walking. The ringing had slightly gotten better, but still nowhere near gone. The agent pressed the elevator button and waited.
“‘Least we won’t have to share the elevator with any people!” the agent said in a chuckle while elbowing the other agent. The other agent let out a chuckle and the elevator dinged and opened. No one was inside. That was very unusual for my apartment complex. Especially at this hour. *What did he mean by that?* I asked myself as I followed them into the elevator. An agent pressed the lobby button and then proceeded to rest his back on the elevator wall while crossing his arms. He let out a heavy sigh. The elevator dinged. The doors opened to reveal a lobby that was completely empty. Again, that was very unusual for this hour.
I followed the agents out of the front doors. The streets were… completely empty. I didn’t see a single person in sight except the 2 agents. I stood there in a sort of shock. The agents walked to a gray sedan car and one of the agents opened the driver seat door, the other opened the passenger side door.
“Hop in the back!” one of the agents yelled.
I quickly walked to the car and got in the back seat. The car was extremely clean, almost *too* clean. I put on my seatbelt and attempted to relax a little bit, but failed to do so with my mind racing. The agent in the driver seat turned the keys in the ignition and the engine roared to life.
“Okay, I am going to explain everything to you now while he drives.” the agent in the passenger seat told me
“Alright.” I replied in a calm but eager tone.
“Okay, so you know about that horrendous scream you heard, right?” the agent asked me and then turned his head around to look at me.
“Ha, how could I not know?” I replied in a chuckle.
“Ah, alright then.. Well, I am not going to beat around the bush.. “ he said and then let out a sigh.
“What is it?” I asked, my eagerness growing.”
“The total population for the city is estimated to be in the hundreds…”
“I-im sorry.. What..? H–how? Did the scream kill people?” I asked shocked and confused
“No, what.. Or whoever made the scream killed the people….. Or I don’t know if we can call it killed . But either way they are gone.” He replied
“Well. What made the scream?” I asked, already thinking that I knew the answer to my question.
“We aren’t exactly sure… we were hoping that you would know.. We brought you here so you could give us any information about it, seeing as you are the only one who called the police after surviving.” the agent explained to me.
“ I know what it is,” I admitted.
The agent’s eyes widened.
“It’s… it’s this weird black humanoid figure.. The scream paralyzed me and it opened my door and began to stand over me… and then… it opened its mouth.. It was full of just.. Incomprehensible horrors.”
“Hmm.” was all the agent had to say.
“Yeah..” I replied back awkwardly.
“Well, thank you, the information you have just-”
The car came to a complete stop and the agent was cut off by the dreaded return of the cold, blaring scream. My stomach dropped as I realized I was paralyzed once again. The agents were also paralyzed. I began to see the entities gathering around the car in my peripheral vision, and there was nothing I could do but sit there. I hated this feeling so much. I just wanted everything to stop. *think* I told myself. I couldn’t just sit there. I HAD to do something. I could not let myself just become yet another statistic of these terrorizing entities. An idea clicked in my head. I remembered some tips I had happened to come across online for people that struggled with sleep paralysis. They had always said to start by putting all of your might into wiggling your toes. So I did just that. I blocked out everything else. The only thought I had in my mind was wiggling my toes. One by one, my toes began to move, and then both of my feet, and then my legs, and then finally, I was free.
I began to breathe heavily as my movement came back to me. I could move now, but what was I supposed to do? The entities were staring at me through the windows, continuing to scream. I knew they had the ability to open doors, so I checked to see if the car was locked. It was. *but my front door was locked and they still managed to get in* I thought to myself. That very thought induced incredible anxiety within me. I knew that I had to get away from them. Finally, I realized that I had to drive the car. I unbuckled my seat belt and pushed the agent in the driver seat to the side forcefully. “Sorry” I muttered under my breath, feeling guilty. I jumped in the passenger seat and hit the gas, but the car didn’t move. My stomach somehow dropped even more because of this. My breathing sped up rapidly, this was the most frightening and panic inducing situation I had ever been in. I brought my hand up and punched the window by me where an entity’s face was pressed against. I did not know what would happen, but it suddenly retreated . It didn’t have a face, but I could sense exactly what it was feeling.
It was scared. It wasn’t expecting that. Their victims were not supposed to be able to move. I smiled. I had finally found something to work with. I reached over to the passenger side window and punched it as well. Just as I expected, the entity retreated . I began to laugh, I felt power against them. I climbed in the back seat and punched both sides windows, the entities on either side both retreated like planned. All the entities were now slowly backing away from the car. I continued to watch, and then suddenly they dissolved into thin air just like the first time.
But there was one thing wrong. The agents didn’t get their movement returned like I expected they would. “HEY!” I yelled. “Come on! Come on, wake up please!”
I was desperate. I didn’t want to be alone in this situation. I didn’t have time to spare. I had to leave them there. I opened the car door and walked out into the relieving fresh air. I began to just walk the streets. The streets that were once filled with life were now empty. *Why are they empty…?* I asked myself. *surely a lot of people had to have been driving when this happened.. Why are there not any empty cars on the road?* I turned around to face the Agents car, and somehow it was gone. And I had a strong feeling that they didn’t drive it away.
I kept walking, and walking, and walking. I had eventually become exhausted after what felt like hours of walking, but was probably only 30 minutes. My eyes widened with hope as I heard a car driving towards me in the distance behind me. I turned my head and saw that it wasn’t the gray sedan I half expected it to be, but rather a Black SUV. . I began to wave my arms in an attempt to slow them down. The SUV came to a crawl and then stopped in front of me. A middle aged lady who looked distraught stepped out of the vehicle. “Do you need a ride?” she asked. “I’m trying to evacuate the city, I looked online and apparently this is the only city where this is happening! Come on, get in!”
“Thank you.” was all I was able to say as I hopped in the passenger seat. The woman accelerated to 80 miles per hour. It wasn’t like anyone would pull her over for speeding.
“So.. what’s your story?” the woman asked me.
I explained my story in great detail. When I finished, her face looked surprised.
“That’s almost exactly my story as well..” the woman told me.
For the rest of the drive, we talked about mostly light hearted topics to ease up the mood. When we finally reached the sign saying we are now leaving the city, we both let out a huge sigh of relief. We kept driving, and eventually we saw life! We saw cars driving, but no people on the sidewalk. That was to be expected since this was still only the neighboring city to the events, so people were most likely being cautious. We continued to drive 2 cities over, and we were officially out of the state we were in. we figured it would now be safe to stop somewhere. The woman and I stopped at the nearest hotel.. It has now been 2 days and there have been no more reports of any entities or unusual activity in the city. Officials have closed off all entry to the city though. I now believe I am safe.. I will unfortunately have to leave my old life behind for now.. But me and the woman who thankfully saved me have grown close, and I am perfectly content as long as I am with her…