WHISPERS IN THE DARK

In the Far East part of the town, Jason has just entered his old apartment for the first time in months. For the last year and a half, he has been living with his girlfriend Sarah. After their fight, after she slammed the bedroom door, Jason picked up the bag that he left by the front door and left. The next morning when Sarah woke up, she expected to see him on the couch but he wasn’t there. Instead, she found a small note that said he had some stuff to take care of and that he was going to stay at his old flat for a few nights. It came as a quite surprise to Sarah but she was well aware of the problems they’ve had in their relationship. They were fighting more often than usual so she decided it would be for the best to just take some time off and cool down. Jason’s flat is located in an old building close to the factory that was closed and abandoned years ago. The neighbourhood where he used to live wasn’t really the best place in town. It’s cheap, but it wasn’t everybody’s first choice when looking for a place to live. Considering how broken Jason’s real home was when he was just a child, for him, everything seemed better at the time than staying in a house with his drunken dad and a mom who used to cheat his father. Coming from a dysfunctional family like his, this apartment represented freedom from the toxic grasp that was pulling him down. Upon entering, Jason saw his place just the way he left it and once again, the same feeling of relaxation took him. He walked right over to the fridge and grabbed a cold beer that he left the last time he was there. Threw a bottle cap in the sink and sat down on his old and rugged sofa that was full of dust. Although he spent most of his time living with Sarah, Jason still used to come here from time to time. Especially in times like this when they had a fight or when he just wants some quiet time, a place where he can have a beer in silence.

He learned to escape trouble and fighting by coming to this apartment when he was young. So, naturally, each time a problem with Sarah came knocking on his front door, seeing he couldn’t deal with it in a normal way, once again he would retrieve to his safe place. This place isn’t exactly fancy or anything remotely in that category. It needs to be torn down and built up again. Old wooden windows that were falling apart piece by piece didn’t do much of a job of keeping the warmth inside during cold winter nights. That is one of the many reasons why his beloved Sarah didn’t want to spend another night in here.

She once said to him that this whole place has some kind of a creepy vibe. Jason didn’t much care about that. It was cheap and most importantly it was his. So, it had everything he needed. The walls were almost yellow since nobody had painted them forever and the furniture, from the kitchen to the bedroom, was nearly as old as this building. Probably came with the first people that moved in.

Right now, none of that mattered to him, not that it ever did. Jason is sitting down in silence. Staring at the dusty screen of the TV that wasn’t even on. Nothing except a lonely sound of the wind could be heard passing through his old windows, whistling. After a while, he became so still. His eyes didn’t move for he didn’t even blink. His mind is wandering as mentally, he is far from this room and far from his problems with Sarah. He is thinking about the trip, about the dive. Nothing mattered except the lake. His right palm is open, trying to remember the feeling in his right hand that he had a few days ago when he walked out of the lake.

As the silence in the room grew stronger and his heart slowed down, Jason started to hear whispers. Strange voices from an unknown source, whispering silently. He is slowly sweating, yet he is cold. His eyes are now closed as the room fills with a void and his senses rise. He feels that someone could be behind him. Like a strange shadow. Crawling silently around him, devouring every corner of his place in darkness.

He finds himself back there again. At the lake, only this time, it’s different. A familiar place that once brought him joy is now icing the blood in his veins, looking like a dark, horror version of his lake. A forest is no longer as beautiful as it was before. It is now sick and everywhere he looks, he sees nothing but dead, rotten trees that are still standing somehow, surrounding the lake. He is standing on the dirt near the lake but can’t feel his body. He is weightless, almost like he is floating in a deep dark void of space. He looked down at the lake and saw a single glowing thing below him. He doesn’t recognize it, but his body is telling him that he saw it before. A Deja vu sort of thing. He wants to pick it up but something is wrong. A strange feeling takes him.

Someone is here. Someone is watching me. Out there, in the dark, watching from the shadows. His heart is elevating as the whispers are getting not louder, but closer. Like it is coming towards him. Jason moves his head in panic as much as he can in order to see what is out there, standing in the forest. The whispers are unrecognizable. Nothing even remotely similar had Jason heard in his entire life. He can hear them coming for him and his heart is beating tremendously hard. It wants to burst out of his chest. He stops moving as fear has him paralyzed. They are here. The whispers were now inside his head. Instinct told Jason to look down and reach out with his hand to grab the glowing thing in this maddening darkness.

At that moment a TV turns on, pulling him back to his room. His arms are clenched onto the sofa as the sweat continues going down his neck. Jason hears nothing but the static sound coming from the TV. There is no program, only white lines. He looks at it as he’s trying to catch his breath, afraid to turn around. After a minute of freaking out, he starts to relax. Thinking to himself he must have fallen asleep and this was just a bad dream. As he carefully looked to his left, trying to get his mind on what just happened, he noticed that the static sound coming from the TV was getting louder. He slowly turns his head to his right. His eyes widened as his jaw dropped in shock and terror from the scene in front of him.