Juliana Sebastian 5/28/15

On May 28, 2015, the body of one Juliana Sebastian was found in her home. The victim was found with her fingernails and toenails in a pile next to her corpse and her hair in another neat pile next to that. Upon further investigation, the victim's leg, arm, and all external body hair were found on the inside of her clothes. These are the most common side effects of radiation poisoning. A sweep of the house was done and there were no spikes in radiation. After an autopsy, two cancerous tumors were found to have enveloped completely her cerebral cortex. The tumors were sent to St. Mary's Hospital for further examination and have not been identified as any known class of tumors. Police suspect that she died at 3:42 in the afternoon. She was found in front of her front door at 4:29 that same afternoon by her brother that had come home from school.

The following was written by a fiction writer in order to explain this phenomenon.

Juliana Sebastian had come home from a track practice early that day. The coach had made a deal with one of her teammates that if he could beat his best time, then they could all go home. He lined up at the start and his coach blew the whistle. Juliana watched from the sidelines, drinking out of a Gatorade bottle, talking to one of her friends about if he was going to make it or not. He rounded the first corner, his blue Nike sneakers being coated with the reddish sand that covered the race track.

"You can do it!" Someone shouted, which eventually lead to the entire team on the sidelines cheering for him. The coach waited at the start line, holding his stopwatch out in front of him with a blank expression. He rounded the second turn. His eyebrows were set in a look of total focus and determination. Juliana took another sip of Gatorade and took out her phone, letting her team do the cheering for her. His feet were moving fast, his arms tucked in close against his body. "You're almost there! You can do it!" her teammates were shouting. Juliana wondered if they were cheering him on because they wanted to go home early or because they wanted to appear as supportive people.

He jetted towards the finish line and practically threw himself over it, landing on the ground covered in sweat and dirt coating his skinny legs. A friend of his brought him a water bottle. He chugged some of it while the rest of the team held their breath for the time. The coach looked at his stopwatch, his expression unreadable. Juliana thought it must be the face he uses for his late-night poker games.

"28..." he started. Everyone was aware that the boy's previous record was 28.56, so they didn't celebrate too much. "34!" the coach shouted, sending the track team into a rush of shouts. They ran onto the track and helped the runner up, giving him pats on the back, hugs, thanking him for being the one that got them out early. Juliana began the long walk to the locker room without saying a word to anyone. They would be out there a couple minutes more before coming into the bathrooms, and she wanted to be first in the shower. On her way across the vivid green field, she passed by a playground full of screaming, hollering, and laughing children. A couple of them watched her as she walked by, but she wouldn't meet their gaze, nor would she say 'hello'. She had made it past the playground when she heard a scream. It was one of those bloodcurdling screams that little kids use when they don't want to get a vaccine shot, a scream of terror and pain. But Juliana knew that kids had a tendency to scream like that when they were having fun, so she didn't look back. She just kept straight on walking. Latter, she would think back to that scream and wonder why she hadn't checked to see what was going on. But in the moment, she walked right into the building without a glance.

She got her shower and changed into her normal clothes. Then she decided she was too impatient to wait for half-an-hour for the bus. So she walked home. Juliana lived in a very safe neighborhood full of elderly couples and young couples that were starting families. Her family had once been like that. She moved into this neighborhood when she was two and her mother was pregnant with her little brother, Jordon. But now, Juliana had a full ride to college on an athletic scholarship and Jordon had just gotten his learner's permit. There was only one other family that had kids her age. When she was little, her and their youngest daughter, Emily had been good friends. But then she got into high school and everything changed. It was a messy parting of ways, but Juliana wanted one thing and Em wanted another. the only difference was that Juliana had gotten what she wanted and Em didn't.

Juliana opened the door to her tri-story house and went inside. She hung up her light, summer jacket in the closet and threw her backpack over the railing. She dug through it to pull out her laptop. She brought her laptop with her into the kitchen, opened it, and logged in. She poured herself a glass of water as it started up. Then she clicked on the YouTube shortcut and went to her favorite channel, Markiplier. She was a very causal YouTube watcher but it was a ritual of hers to turn on his new videos everyday when she got home from school. She barely checked the video before she clicked on it.

She reached into the bread box, intent on making herself a sandwich while she listened to the video. An ad started to play while she was at her refrigerator, collecting sandwich-making materials. The ad opened up with the sound of a girl screaming 'help me!' at the top of her lungs. 'please! Somebody out there help me!' she shrieked. Juliana rolled her eyes, moving back to her laptop to skip the ad. Usually, there was a little yellow box on the side of an ad that would let you skip it after five seconds of watching. If you couldn't skip the ad, then the box wouldn't be there. But when she went to click the box, she realized that instead of telling her how long she would have to wait before skipping it, there were two words written in black text that said:

"Can't go on."

Juliana took note that this hadn't happened to her before, but then reasoned that it must've been an update to YouTube or something, and went back to the other side of the counter where she had left her sandwich-making supplies. She made her sandwich, all the while listening to the horror movie ad, the entire thing consisted of little more than the screams of various people. It went on almost unbroken for a minute. It was then that she heard Markiplier's voice, talking about the game he was playing. It was called Power Drill Massacre. It's graphics were too poor to really scare her, more than anything else that scared her were the noises. She looked at the clock, it read 2:59. She had about an hour-and-a-half before Jordon would be home from musical rehearsal. Her parents would come home later. It was then that Juliana got an idea. She took out her phone and opened up a conversation.

"Hey." she said. "My parents aren't home ;)"

Then she turned the volume up on her phone as loud as it would go so that she would hear it when Michael texted her back. While she waited for him to text back, she went to put her plate in the sink and rinse off a gob of mustard on it. Then she turned off the water.

She was greeted by silence.

She had planned to turn on a different YouTube video, but for some reason, she stayed still. And then it hit her, there was someone behind her. She knew it. She could sense it. The muscles in her back tensed up, her breath shortening until it was barely audible. ''Someone's behind me. Oh my god, someone's behind me'' she thought. The house was deadly quiet. It was one of those moments like in horror movies that is so quiet you can almost feel that a jump scare is about to happen. No one is safe in this kind of silence. Juliana felt a bead of sweat run down her temple. She stopped breathing all together in hopes of hearing the person behind her. There wasn't a sound.

But she felt it.

Then, she felt something on her hair. It started at the top of her head, a faint, almost unnoticeable, thing. But in the stillness of her environment, it was all she could feel. It touched her hair softly, oh so softly, and then began to sink down it, towards her back. It was so quiet that she could hear the movement of her hair. She took a minuscule breath, hoping it wouldn't notice. The skin on her arms was erupted in goosebumps. Even the hair on the back of her neck seemed to stand straight on its end. And then, that vague touch was gone. Vanished completely.

Juliana stood there a full minute, noticing the departure of whatever had touched her. She could sense that it was gone, but she was still petrified. She wished for sound, anything to let her know that life was still going on. But there was nothing. Still, perfect, nothing. She let out a breath. Then took one. Then let it out.

"I'm okay." she whispered. "I'm okay." it was then, and only then that she built up the courage to turn around slowly. The touch had been so slight that within seconds, she wondered if she had felt anything at all. She turned to find nothing behind her. She took a few more deep breaths, rubbing her arms so that the goosebumps would go away. She went to the seat in front of her computer and sat down. And sighed.

And her eyes drifted to where she had been standing before. And she stared and stared and stared.

On the floor of her kitchen was a lock of her flowing black hair. She drew a breath in as if she was about to scream but nothing came out. It was then that the silence began screaming in her ears. She did scream this time. She screamed as loud and bloodily as those children on the playground. A ringing burned in her ears. Her desperate ears struggling to hear something, anything. Am I alone in the world!? Where is everyone?! I can’t hear my heart! I cant hear my heart! she was screaming in her own head, until those words forced their way out her lips. and she still couldn’t hear them.

“I can’t hear my heart! I CAN’T HEAR MY HEART!” she screamed, digging her fingernails into the skin around her ears.

And then the silence was gone.

It wasn’t replaced by noise, it was replaced by quiet.The silence that burned through her mind was gone, leaving only normal silence. She was on the floor, her knees tucked against her chest, her hands over her ears.

“I can’t hear my heart.” she whispered. Then realized that she could. She could feel the

blood pumping all throughout her body. She could feel it in her neck, her feet, even her ears. “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.” she muttered to herself. “My heart is back. I’m acting like a lunatic when everything is fine.” She opened her eyes. “I need to get out of this house.” she decided.

Juliana rushed towards her front door, grabbing the handle and pulling on it with all her strength. It wouldn’t budge.

“Open!” she demanded. She checked the lock, it should’ve opened, but some invisible force kept it closed. “For fucks sake open!” she started screaming again, hoping someone would hear here. “Please! Please help me!”

“Julie.”

Juliana froze, goosebumps flew back to her skin.

“No.” Juliana said, recognizing the voice. Then turned around slowly.

She was greeted by the decrepit face of an old friend.

“You know, when you die, you don’t get a new body in the afterlife. You live eternity exactly in the state you died.”

“Em, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Em stood in front of her, her skin like snow. Wearing a long hospital gown with little violets on it. Her hands crusty, holding the only color on her body. The red tissue that had been invisible when she still had finger nails. Her cheeks were sunken in to the point Juliana could see her teeth through her flesh. Her head was completely bald and white. Her lips were the color of fresh bruises, and were split in places. And her eyes were surrounded by purple circles. Bags hung off of the dead flesh under her eyes. In the center of those purple circles were her eyes. Eyes the color of honey, pupils the color of coal. Juliana couldn’t stand to see her eyes. She fell to her knees, her hands clasped together as if she was praying to her deceased friend.

“Please, please Em don’t hurt me. I have a life.” Her begging was interrupted by a scream as all of her fingernails were ripped off at once.

“I guess cancer isn’t FASHIONABLE!! You were so obsessed by your own image that you couldn’t take even a minute to visit your best friend in the hospital. You didn’t CARE that i was dying!” On the word ‘care’ Em spit a gob of bluishness onto Juliana’s face. “And you thought I’d be okay on my own! Why?! Why did you leave me ALONE!?” Juliana shrieked as her hair started to be pulled off her head. “ALONE! With only silence to talk to!”

“Please.” Juliana whispered when all of her hair had fallen to the floor in front of her. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re not SORRY! YOU’RE JUST SORRY I’M BACK!!!!” she screamed.

Juliana was pushed back against the door by an invisible force.

“I’m sorry.” Juliana said. Em looked at her with her honey-colored eyes that were without remorse or regret.

“I’ll meet you in hell.” she said.

Then Juliana let out one last scream as her brain was devoured by those fatal, unexplainable tumors.