I’m the popular kid, always have been, I don’t know why people like me; they just do. Sure I’m attractive and all, but, I like to think it’s because of my personality. My friends constantly follow me around, complimenting me all while hanging on to every word I say. In fact, I usually give out all the dating advice; I’m a bit of a relationship expert; even though I’ve actually never been in a relationship; well not a serious one. I rotate my women like I rotate my diets, one week I’ll be dating some book worm the next I’ll be dating the captain of the cheerleading squad, what can I say life is perfect. My high school years so far have been the pinnacle of my existence and with the confidence that seems to grow stronger in my stomach I knew all would stay that way as long as I wanted it to, that is until I started hearing the most bizarre voices.
They were muffled at first; a mere whisper in sea of silence, in fact, I thought it could of just been background noise coming from some air unit. But, the sounds only got a bit louder each day until I finally I could make out the words.
It was during lunch, as usual; my friends circled around me listening to my latest tales on some date I had, I could see all the gleeful smiles as each and everyone of them remained completely enthralled in my story. That’s when I got a phone call, looking down at my screen I saw it was from my mother; so I stepped away from my jovial squad to answer.
“Hey mom, uhmm whats up?” I said unenthusiastically.
To my surprise all I heard was static, I figured it was just a bad signal and I promptly hung up expecting her to call back if it was something important, I could still hear my friends chatting amongst themselves while my back was turned to them and that’s when suddenly those same whispers returned, the voices fluttered in my ear causing them to tingle a bit; all I could do is rub at my ears; trying to ease my irritation.
“Dude you’re so the man!” I heard my friend Peter yell out.
I smiled, understanding how admired I was, all while that subtle vibrating sensation dissipated.
“Thanks bro, I appreciate it” I told my band of merry men as I turned back to them putting my phone back into my pocket.
They all looked at me with a bit of befuddlement, and then they looked at each other; expressions of confounded eyes riddled their faces.
“We didn’t say anything” my friend David said back.
That’s when the bell rang causing my group to disband, I remained a bit mystified positive to the fact that I heard someone. I was ready to dismiss the whole event until Peter put his hand on my shoulder as he walked away and told me,
“Dude, you’re so the man!”
This didn’t cause too much of an alarm at the time, it was just one of those odd feelings of ‘deja vu’, a moment that shouldn’t have happened and though I felt a little trepidation forming in my mind I pushed it aside and headed to class.
During math class I sat in the back of the classroom daydreaming as the teacher talked on on about the Pythagorean theorem, my mind wandered drifting into the realms of boredom as my gaze gravitated out the window, for whatever reason I noticed the most odd thing, it was the birds, they would always perch outside the window on a nearby tree, I liked watching them everyday, I could feel a spiritual connection to them on how they embraced their freedom; something I planned on doing after high school. Though this time I realized they weren’t moving, none of them; I mean I could hear them chirping; the sounds of their wings fluttering but I saw no movement. My eyes sharpened with absolute intent, my focus narrowed in as time seem to halt around me, I could feel my blood pressure spike a bit, I don’t know why but I felt disturbed and I needed to see them move, animated; anything.
‘ring!’
That’s when I heard the bell ring, snapping me back to reality. I grabbed my bag virtually jumping out of my desk, wanting to shake off the uneasiness that swirled around in my head.
“Excuse me, where are you going” my teacher told me as I headed towards the doorway.
I looked at him with a bit of disbelief not knowing how to reply.
“The bell hasn’t rung” he said.
I stared around looking at my classmates all entertained by the notion that I was leaving early, honestly I didn’t know what to think I just stood in place for several seconds trying to process a response.
‘ring’
“There’s the bell” I said with a slight smirk on my face as I pointed my index finger in the air gesturing towards the sound.
As me and my fellow classmates flooded out into the hallway I remained perturbed, feeling that something was off, but I couldn’t explain it; those birds.
The next day during lunch as usual I sat with my friends though this time I didn’t feel as chatty, I just sat there listening to them talk about girls, games and what we were planning to do over the weekend. The sounds of the lunchroom became overwhelming, everyone talking all once it’s sound inundating my hearing; the voices becoming ubiquitous, the sound muffled together and that’s when the most horrid epiphany dawned on me, those were the sounds of the whispers. I felt my stomach turning knots, nausea invaded me, the sound was too much, sweat accumulated on my brow and I felt as if the walls were closing in on me, as if space itself decided to collapse unto me dragging me into the depths of obscurity.
I tried to focus in on the sound, I needed it to stop, I closed my eyes and clasped my hands into fists all while breathing in slowly and soon the words became evident presenting itself to me like some crossword puzzle. Surprisingly enough it was just my friends conversation and bit of relief washed over me understanding I wasn’t going crazy. They no longer were talking about girls instead they were talking about classroom 104, a story I wish I could forget and soon my nausea turned into a bit of anger; we all swore never to talk about that room. Before I could give my friends a piece of my mind my phone rang.
‘ring’
As the day before looking down at the screen it was my mother, I sighed out in a bit of annoyance.
“Hey mom, what’s up?” I asked with indifference, but once again all I heard was static, though I could hear something; like she was trying to tell me something; I just hung up and figured we could talk later.
As I put my phone away I looked at my friends and the most astonishing sight presented itself to me, I could hear my friends voices but they weren’t talking, no, more like their mouths weren’t moving with their words. As if somehow they words were no longer n’sync with their movements, like watching a old dubbed movie where the actors mouths moved way quicker than what they were saying. I grabbed at one of my friends faces too make sure I wasn’t dreaming, perhaps this was some glitch in the matrix; a thought that briefly made me chuckle.
“Dude what are you doing?” my friend asked as I poked at his chin with my finger and just like that their voices were back to normal; once again synced.
I shook my head trying to brush off the whole strange event and while my friends bewildered stares showered me in their judgement I quickly brought up classroom 104.
“Remember guys, we weren’t going to talk about that anymore, so just keep ya’lls mouths shut” I angrily told them, no longer were their attentions on me, rather they were on the table as they all stared down in shame after I scolded them.
Classroom 104 was an accident, a moment that I wish I could take back but can’t. Several semesters ago I dated this one girl, she was shy and timid, but extremely adorable, her name was Emma. She was a bit of a book warm; smart and collected always had the perfect rebuttal when it came to intellectual topics; I found myself beguiled by her and we dated for a few weeks. Needless to say I felt almost as if we were in a relationship which scared me; I never wanted to get serious with anyone, like I said before I rotate my women like I rotate my streaming services. I think I was looking for the perfect excuse to break up with her, I was too much of a coward to break her heart, something about me is I loved being loved; I like to think of myself as a good guy. So when my friends found out I was dating her they promptly ridiculed me for choosing such a person, but more vividly they told me she was a bit crazy.
“Bro, the chick hears voices man, I saw her writing it down in her journal; something about it’s no longer whispers, I think she saw me cause she quickly put it her small journal away” Peter told me.
So being the coward I was I knew I would use this as reason to break it off with her. I approached her during lunch, she smiled at the prospect of me spending the lunch hour with her, I swallowed my own ignominy and asked her about the voices; hoping to Segway to the breakup.
“I heard something about you, unmm” I paused, she just looked up at me with concern and grabbed my hand, caressing it in hers.
“What is it?” she replied back.
“Uhmm, I heard that apparently you hear voices” I told her.
Her eyes sank and her once glowing smile melted away as she let go of my hand and turned her back to me.
“Yeah, I hear voices, but it’s not what you think; I’m not crazy, it’s all around us you just have to listen” she whimpered out, with her back still turned to me.
I didn’t know what to say, I mean, what can anyone say to that; she’s obviously disturbed.
“Listen Emma, I think’s best if we just cool it for a while” I told her.
I could hear her soft sobs simmer in the air, and I decided to walk away before she could say a word; I mean there was nothing else to say it wasn’t my fault if she couldn’t except the break up. As I walked away she startled me by grabbing at my arm pulling me back to her, her eyes widen with madness as her gaze burned right through me, to be honest I was a bit freaked out.
“Emma, chill…”
“Just look at the birds, they don’t fly” she told me cutting me off.
“Right, birds got it” I told her pulling my arm away.
In the moment I was glad I had listen to my friends this chick clearly was insane.
As the days went on Emma seemed to be following me, every time I turned the corner there she was just staring at me with those relentless eyes and with each passing day her appearance seem to be deteriorating. She usually was meticulous when it came to her appearance, each strand of her short hair brushed to perfection but now she paraded around with it unkempt and little to no make up, but worse, it appeared as if she had lost a tremendous amount of weight. Which I found quite odd, I mean, it only had been a few weeks; she must of literally been starving herself. Seeing her demise I gathered enough courage to confront her.
“Emma, listen why are you following me, you need to cut it out and look at yourself. Have some self respect…”
“Shhh” as before she cut me off silencing me as she pressed her finger up to my lips.
“Just listen okay, the only reason I started dating you is because ‘they’ told me to”.
I stared at her with bewilderment, utterly amazed by her demeanor and tone.
“What are you talking about, what do you mean they told you…”
“Shhh” she interrupted me once again.
“Have you seen the birds yet?” She frantically asked me.
I didn’t know what else I could of done, she honestly was scaring me and the only thing that crossed my mind was to be direct and firm with her.
“Listen Emma, you’re obviously going through something, something that has nothing to do with me; so please stop following me and see a doctor or some one”.
I walked away after that, with hopes that she would finally leave me alone. The next day to ease my mind I told my friends exactly what had happened and they all looked at me with an eruption of laughter.
“Dude, the chick is psycho, like mental, you better be glad ya’ll broke up imagine she was probably going to sacrifice you or something” Peter told me.
I gave out a slight smile with heavy apprehension feeling a bit guilty for even bringing up Emma with the guys.
“Well, whatever, it’s over so. The worst part is she says she has to explain something to me and I don’t know, I’m just going to avoid her. I mean eventually she has to get over me right?” I told them.
“Wait, I have a better idea, the chick thinks she hears voices right, well okay have her meet you and talk to her about it and the rest of us we’ll hide and record the whole thing. If anything when she sees how crazy she is she’ll definitely leave you alone” Peter suggested.
“I don’t know that sounds…”
“C’mon man, we gotta stop this witch before she ends up doing something dangerous to us” my friend David interjected.
I unwillingly nodded my head in agreement, but felt horrible it seemed to be a bit cruel, but maybe my friends had a point; after all I didn’t know if Emma was capable hurting someone, I’ve heard stories of students committing atrocities. So to my reluctance I agreed with my friends and texted Emma to meet me in classroom 104 after math.
I waited in the sound obscured room patiently all while digging my fingernails into my hand, feeling anxious; I don’t know why I even felt this way I guess I just felt guilty. The clock ticked slower the deeper I cut into my skin,
‘tick, tick, tick’
The skin finally burst and I felt a trickle of blood slip down my palm.
“Hi” Emma said as she walked into the room.
I did my best to let out a charming smile, trying to put her at ease, she walked up to me with a still frantic look.
“Listen Emma, what’s going on? Tell me everything” I told her as I reached out and softly caressed her cheek with my hand.
For a moment she remained quiet and unmoved, I could see her eyes glance around the room, almost as if she suspected my friends were hiding behind the teachers desk and my trepidation only grew, but, to my delight her gaze returned to me and she began talking.
“I always felt like something was off, as if something was not right in my day to day life. It first started with the whispers, I would occasionally hear them and at first I didn’t think much about it, I figured it was just an abstract noise my hearing was picking up; like a ringing that didn’t exist. Well, they only became louder and soon I noticed patterns; speaking patterns. I knew those whispers weren’t abstract but rather words, so I started to jot down everything I thought they were saying in my journal. Every once in awhile I would piece a few words together but it didn’t make sense; they were just words strung together incoherently, a conversation of no significance, here I thought perhaps God himself was talking to me instead it was mindless dribble, no different from the infinite conversations that happen during lunch. I was going to stop journaling, I figured it wasn’t important or worse perhaps I was losing my mind. Then during math class I was looking out the window, the birds were chirping as normal, the sound brushed it’s soothing melody against my mind as all my anxiety seem to flutter into the void of the universe accepting that all the whispers were mere figments of my imagination. I felt a bit sad understanding that my mind was piecing together words that weren’t there, and the reality of my life fell down on to me like emotional boulders.”
I shuttered at what she was telling me, feeling disgusted from such a revelation as she continued her ghastly tale.
“That’s when my eyes wandered around the classroom as the teacher went on about the Pythagorean theorem and I saw your friend Peter gawking at me; his eyes hollow of any real emotion; an empty shell waiting to be activated. I then looked at the other students and realized they too were unresponsive, they just sat there still unmoving while the teacher continued his lesson with his back to us banging his chalk against the board. I rubbed my eyes with disbelief not knowing what to think, the muffled voices only becoming louder I was terrified, I didn’t know what to do I got up from my desk walking backwards away from the bizarre scene as my back collided with the window. That’s when I decided to escape through the window but then saw the birds, those birds, they were singing but they too weren’t moving; whatever was happening in the school was happening outside as well. That’s when the teacher acknowledged me, calling out to me for being out of my seat, when I turned back to everyone I saw they all were staring at me as if I had gone insane, your friend Peter leering at me with a hideous smile. That’s when I realized what was happening, I knew the truth at that moment”.
I remained horrified at her story, I just stared at her for several seconds not knowing how to respond, it was clear she was losing her mind and I can only feel nothing but sorrow at the prospect of it.
“Listen Emma…” as before she didn’t let me speak.
“No, I finally figured out the patterns, the words, they say that this place isn’t real that none of it is. We’re not real, the voices also told me you would understand; that something about this place was built for you and me. I know you can feel it, right? Tell me what do you remember from the days before, do you remember sleeping in your bed or even talking to family cause I don’t. All I ever remember is our lunch break and math class, every day it’s the same it’s always those 2 periods, do you even remember leaving the campus?”
I paused for moment digesting what Emma was suggesting, I gripped her by the shoulders trying to calm her but then realized that I didn’t remember those things all I can ever remember is lunch and math class. Before I could contemplate on the idea too long my friends jumped out from behind the desk they were hiding, Peter holding his camera it focused in on Emma. She screamed out horrified that I had set her up and she pushed my once comforting arms away as she began crying.
“Emma wait” I called out to her as she continued sobbing to herself, her face collapsed unto her hands.
All I could hear were my friends laughing uncontrollably as they patted me on my shoulder all too thrilled at the end result of their devious prank. That’s when I realized that Emma was no longer crying rather she too was laughing. This caused my friends to stop as we all just stared at her not know what was happening, she then turned to us, her face utterly defeated. She then pulled out a small object from her pocket, it didn’t take much to realize it was a knife; one that glistened in the dimly lit classroom.
“I’ll prove it to you, none of this is real!” she screamed as she guided the small knife up to her neck and pressed in deep slicing from one end to the other.
I yelled out in desperation for her to stop as I ran towards her grabbing the knife and pulling it away. She collapsed into my arms looking up at me with a weird look of relief.
“I told you none of this is real, remember the birds” she softly said as I saw any visible life in her eyes fade away.
“No, no, no, no,” I yelped out as silence seem to inundate the small classroom.
I was at loss for words, I just held Emma’s lifeless body for a few seconds before I heard medics bursting through the day and quickly taking her away, though, before they did I looked down at the dripping blood that was cascading down my arm, I remained mystified because the liquid substance that should of been blood was black, darker than the night sky.
“What the hell?” I remember muttering out to myself.
That was the last memory I had of that day, since then me and my friends promised never to speak of that incident, to let that day be buried deep into the past where it belonged. I tried my best to move on, but now I’ve seen the birds, I see what Emma was talking about; something strange is happening and I don’t know what it is. My friends act as if everything is normal, we meet for lunch and talk about all the things we have always had, the whispers seem to be getting louder and now I decided to write down what I think they’re saying, there has to be a pattern to them. For some reason my mother keeps calling me during break, well, at least I think it’s my mom the phone call never comes through.
A few things do bother me the more I think about them, what was that black substance coming out of Emma’s neck, it felt thick and who the hell called for the medics? How did they know Emma was going to kill herself? No, something is happening here and I think the answer might be back where it all happened in classroom 104, it’s guarded off now, the school even has security stationed outside of the room, but, I need to find a way in, I think the voices are telling me too find a way in.