Humming

These sounds I’ve become accustomed to, they didn’t used to belong here. A long time ago, a time with memories either lost or false, these sounds were foreign. They didn’t make sense to me. They only came in the middle of the day. Everyone would be home; the lights on, the radio blaring, my brother and sister yelling at each other. But there was one sound that didn’t blend together with the rest. It stood out, but only to me.

It was nothing too startling, just a low humming noise. It bothered me. A lot. I felt like it penetrated my ears, got into my head. I asked everyone else if they heard it, of course the answer was no. My mother told me she would make an appointment to get my ears checked. That satisfied me well enough.

After a few hours I couldn’t help but complain again. The noise just wouldn’t stop. I turned up the music. That dulled the sound, but I could still hear it slightly. At this point I couldn’t take it anymore, so I decided to investigate. I walked around the house, expecting the humming to get louder in one of the rooms. I came to the kitchen. She was standing at the stove cooking.

Immediately I was relieved. I realized it had been the stove the whole time. She finished cooking soon after, and turned off the stove. I was confused and frustrated as the humming persisted. I planned to tell my family as we sat down to dinner. I sat down in my usual place, right beside my mother. The noise was louder than ever now. That’s when I caught it. I looked over and I didn’t see my mother.

There was a white…being, I guess you could say, sitting down in the chair next to me. It was hunched over, because from the look of its spine (which you could clearly see), it didn’t have a choice. I fell out of my chair in horror. It “looked” straight at me. I type that in quotation marks because it had nothing to look at me with. I think there were probably eyes there at one time, as you could see through the skin that had grown over the sockets. There were random patches of long hair sprouting of its head, they were completely plastered to its face. It had no nose, only two diagonal slits. There was a mouth, but no lips. It was gaping open, and you could see what was left of its teeth and tongue. I had finally discovered the source of the humming. The torturous noise was streaming out of its gaping maw like a speaker.

Of course I ran out of the house. I ran until my lungs felt like they were full of acid. I stopped, my mind started working a bit. I had left my brother and sister behind. Ignoring the burning in my chest, I ran back as quickly as my feet would move. When I got back I looked at my mother. She looked normal now, but I could still hear the humming. I grabbed my brother and sister by the wrists and pulled them away with minimal effort. They didn’t say anything. Didn’t even look at me. When we got outside, I yelled at them.

“RUN! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE!”

Then I hear it. The humming. It was coming from them too.

I was too late to save them. Now I know they had been like that for years.

So now here I am. I can’t leave them behind, they’re my family. I love them. I’ve gotten used to seeing their true forms out of the corner of my eye. I’ve gotten used to the sight of them digging through the skin over their eyes, though I don’t know why they do it. There’s never anything there when they finally get it off. I’ve even gotten used to the humming. Now I remember hearing my brother complain about the same thing when he was younger. I wish I had paid more attention.

I’m getting paler. My hair is falling out. I can’t see anymore, and I can feel my eyes decaying. I hear the humming coming from my own throat now. Its faint, but its definitely there. I used to wonder what I was becoming. I gave up a while ago, though. Now I’m sitting here with the dull blade I found in the kitchen. I keep slicing, but there’s nothing coming out of my wrists. I don’t feel anything. I pray to every god I can think of to make me mortal again so I can end it before I become like them.

They haven’t answered yet.

I’ll just keep praying.