The first job I got after graduating highschool was a temp job, doing data entry for a small audio company. Clients would send us audio, the sound engineers would clean it up, then we’d get it on cassettes and send it to their distributors. Yes, cassettes. This was a while ago.
Not too long after I started working there, someone fucked up, BIG time. I don’t know what exactly happened, it was above my paygrade, but basically some parts of some cassettes were overwritten with sounds from one company. One of our clients was a special effects studio, and their audio for “Horror Movie Screams: Volume 4” or whatever was somehow put on a bunch of other client’s tapes. You could be listening to music or an audiobook or radio interview, and suddenly it would be pierced by a loud shriek. A LOT was mixed, so anyone who wasn’t a sound engineer or technician was put on listening duty. There were maybe 60 of us in total, me, some other temps, accounting, customer service, we all worked on the same floor. We were given headsets to listen to the tapes while we worked, and once we got a scream, we stopped the tapes and put them in a box that the higher ups would come pick up later. At first, it was kind of unsettling; I’d be listening to a heartwarming audiobook about a family farm, when suddenly I’d hear a heart-stopping SCREAM. If it wasn’t from the audio, then it was from someone else on the floor, because their audio frightened them and made them scream. We adjusted quickly, however; after a few days, we started placing bets on who would scream because of their audio first. After a week, maybe week and a half, everyone had adjusted and the bets died down. We just got accustomed to hearing random screaming through the headsets, and it stopped affecting us.
I don’t think the customer service reps ever reacted at all.
Anyways, the company ended up going bankrupt within a month or so of this incident; I don’t even think it was because of this, I heard rumors about embezzling and mistresses in Florida and all sorts of wild things. The day they dismissed us, I saw a box of the screaming tapes by the trash and took it home. I figured stealing broken cassettes from a bankrupt company isn’t that big of a deal, and some of the audio books and radio programs were actually interesting.
My next job was as a server at a diner out in the middle of nowhere. It was so sketchy we weren’t even open 24/7. We closed at 10, then Cara and I would clean up and roll silverware, Jimmy and Dave would do prep work in the kitchen for the next day. We’d usually be done by 11 or 12 and leave as a group, in case Cara’s ex tried to come by again.
About two months after I started working, the sound system ate our tape of generic diner music. I mentioned that I had some cassettes in my car we could listen to, and the others were fine with it. I brought in a tape of some indie band my last company had recorded, and we put it on the restaurant sound system. 3 songs in and a SHRIEK tears through the restaurant above the music.
Cara screamed; someone dropped something in the kitchen. “WHAT THE FUCK,” I hear Jimmy yell. He and Dave ran out of the kitchen, Dave actually had a bat with him, ready to swing at whatever had made the noise.
“Oh, right, you’re not familiar with the screaming tapes, are you?” I ask, and they all look at me incredulously. I paused the audio and explained the job, the tapes, and how I was so used to it at this point I was used to the screams, although this was the first time I had heard it over loudspeakers.
“Fucker,” Jimmy said, and threw a menu at me. “I almost cut off my finger.”
“You’re just scared,” Dave teased. “Look at me; I came prepared. But I understand if baby Jimmy can’t handle a wittle scary noise on the speakers. ”
“Oh fuck you, I can handle these tapes. Hit it!” Jimmy put the music back on and marched back into the kitchen, and Dave followed. Cara just shook her head.
We kept working. I was sweeping, Cara was polishing some glasses, when another scream came over the speakers.
“Ahhh!” Jimmy screamed back at it from the kitchen.
“Ahhhh!!” Dave screamed, trying to be louder than Jimmy.
Cara giggled, polishing some more glasses. I smiled as I started wiping down the tables.
Ten minutes later came another scream.
“AHHHH!!!” From the speakers.
“Ahhh!!!” From Jimmy in the kitchen.
“Ahhh!!!!!!!” From Dave.
“Ahhh!” I yelled, and Cara started laughing as she took out the trash.
“Ahhh!!” Jimmy screamed again, not even waiting for the tape this time.
“Ahhh!!!!” Screamed Dave, banging some pots for more noise.
“AHHHH!” Cara screamed from outside, pounding on the window.
“Ahhhh!” I screamed as well, banging my fist on the table, and the guys in the kitchen laughed.
We went back to work, and it was music for most of the night. The tape only screamed twice more over the next hour, each time followed by Jimmy, then Dave, then me.
“Alright,” Jimmy said at the end of the night, “Let’s get out of this shithole. Cara, let’s go!” He yelled out to the restaurant, but she didn’t respond. “CAR-AH!” He called again after a minute, but still no response. “Did you see her leave?” Jimmy asked us.
“No, not since she took out the trash,” I said, and it started to click.
“Fuck,” Jimmy said, and ran through the kitchen towards the back. Dave and I ran after him, Dave grabbing the bat as he did. “CARA!” He called out. “CARA!”
We all ran out to the parking lot to try to find Cara, but her ex had found her first. The tape, Jimmy, Dave, Me; all our screams were fake. Cara’s was real. But when we saw her body, ours were real too.