Silence

It seems like any normal night. Janie finishes the lone partially burnt turkey pot pie in silence. Her mind lingering over the passing conversation she had with her mother earlier that morning. Concerned over the non-existent prospects of her daughter's life, she begged Janie to reconsider her offer of moving back home. She'd be able to get a proper meal and be given the motherly advice of potential husbands to date from the many sons of her fellow club members. It seemed tempting now, after having to swallow the last bit of charred crust in silence. Oh the silence, it was something Janie hated all her life. From the way, the lack of noise would almost become a noise itself oppressive and grating on her ears, to the meaning behind it. All her life she had been alone, left to fend for herself, which mostly was fine as it taught her valuable lessons that later helped in her adult years, but it left her with wanting more. Wanting a home to come to with someone to listen to her problems, to laugh and cry with her over memories made in a place that truly was called home. And so silence left her feeling alone and she hated it, but not as much as she hated her mother and her condescending views. And after thinking this over one final time she accepted her fate and was determined to stay put.

With that, she rose from her table and walked into her kitchen and put her dish in the sink. After finishing up with cleaning she walked out, turned off the lights, and headed upstairs and settled down in her room to watch t.v. She didn't pay attention to what came on but it wasn't too important. Whatever show it was, was just something to keep the silence of the night at bay. As the noise droned on her eyes slowly grew heavy. Janie’s body relaxed; her muscles loosening up and becoming lax. She slowly settled further into her bed, bringing up the blanket to rest snugly around her, the only comfort she would be receiving from anything other than herself. Her breathing evened out and she finally entered a state of calm that she longed for as she fell asleep. It hadn't been what felt like more than a minute when a loud bang forced her eyes wide open. Glancing over to the tv she saw that a recent action movie had begun to play and an explosion had just gone off disrupting her peace. Janie reached over to grab her remote off of her nightstand and turn the t.v off. She laid on her back and began drifting off again. The silence consumed her surroundings causing a slight unease to come over her, but she ignored it tried to fall back asleep. Right before sleep came to her a slight noise broke the silence. Janie’s eyes flew open and she waited. The world made no other noise and all she could hear now was her labored breathing. The noise did not come again and she finally came to terms with the fact that it was nothing, and so her eyes became heavy again. She slowly closed them, but then the noise came again. It sounded like a faint scratching sound. Subtle, but constant; almost like dog nails scraping against wood. She strained her ears to hear where it was coming from. Becoming restless she sat up and searched around her room. Being that it was pitch black she obviously couldn't see anything. She decided to reach over to the nightstand to turn on a light but then her hair began to stand on end. As she was facing her light a cold chill spread over her shoulders and her spine immediately stiffened. A shiver started to travel from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Janie’s heart rate steadily began to increase as she realized that she felt someone looking at her. Paranoia began to set in; she wanted to turn around and look to see what was staring at her, but an instinct deeply ingrained in her mind screamed at her not to turn around. The feeling of being watched increased. The intensity of the stare began to radiate an emotion. A feeling of pure anger and hatred seemed to pour out and be projected at her. Janie became scared and confused as to how she knew it hated her, but all the thoughts racing through her mind didn't erase the feeling that came over her. Then a thought entered her mind. Turn around, go on and turn around, it seemed to say, whispering to her, caressing her mind into doing what it said. Slowly she started to turn her head inch by inch and try to see the thing that seemed to hate her with every fiber of its being. The feeling of curiosity crept into her and before it vanished she whipped her head around, forgetting to turn on the light and looked in the direction of the eyes. As her eyes adjusted to the location she looked at the corner of her room and saw nothing. Confusion filled her mind. She finally breathed out a quiet sigh of relief. Her heart rate returning to normal. A small smile began to form on her face as she also realized that there was complete silence filling the void. No more scratching. For the first time, she welcomed the silence with open arms.

Janie shook her head a little as a quiet laugh began within her as she found the humor in her overreaction about the situation, but before she could voice this laugh her heart stopped. The smile fell from her face as she heard it. Faint but closer to her now was the sound of scratching. Her heart pounded inside her chest as she realized that the scratching was coming from under her bed. Janie froze as she didn't want to look, but the thought of not knowing pushed her to find the location of the noise. Janie leaned over and grabbed the covers and slowly lifted them in trepidation to see under the bed. As she leaned further to see, the scratching stopped. Janie became stuck in between a state of confusion and relief when a light cool breath blew on the back of her neck. Frozen her spine became like steel; as she tried to rationally figure out in her mind what could cause this. She thought maybe it could have been the open window in her room, but that idea dashed away quickly as she remembered that she had closed it earlier. Maybe it was just her imagination but then she felt a weight slowly sink onto her bed. Inching its way to her the weight got closer and closer. Her heart beat now felt like a jackhammer pounding away in her chest. It almost hurt to even breathe as she felt like her heart would break her chest cavity to try and burst free and high tail it outta there. She shut her eyes quickly and sat straight up in her bed. Instantly regretting it when a heavy hot breath fanned across her face. Her mouth dried up and she almost wanted to gasp out and cry from fear, but noise seemed to elude her. Warm salty tears began to seep from her closed eyes and slide down her cheeks and drip onto her shirt as she wondered if this was it. Was this the moment that she was going to meet her end? She wondered how they were going to find her. Would some neighbor come after seeing the piles of mail stacking up on her front porch? Maybe Alan from work would finally care and become concerned about her well being and pay a visit to see if she was okay. Or possibly it would be her mother. Ahh yes, her mother would come and find her. She wondered if her mother would find her torn to shreds, her body strewn across the floor, blood dripping from the ceiling. A sick thought of her mother slipping on her blood and falling into the carnage entered her mind. It filled her with a small moment of glee; to know that her perfect mother would be made a mess of for just one moment. With this thought, she gained the courage to open her eyes and face her death. Knowing that it would finally give her mother something to really talk about. She opened her eyes to meet her end and saw nothing. She looked around and everything seemed to be the same. That's when she noticed that the scratching sound had stopped. She turned her lights on and searched around her room. Trying to find something that could explain what had happened, but she found nothing. She thought back on her acceptance of death and shook her head. No, no she would not die today. It would probably give her mother exactly what she wanted and that just wasn't something Janie wanted even if the image of her bloody mother sounded nice. She slid back into bed though with a little more trepidation than before. She slowly fell back to sleep, but not with a little bit of difficulty. The rest of her night was uneventful, but not peaceful as it once was the first time. The only sign of her discomfort was the lights that she left on all night. And all the nights after; not from fear of what happened, but of the fear that even as she left the lights on there was always the constant faint sound of scratching. Always under her bed. She really did hate the sound of silence.