This writing exercise was one of my first experiments writing horror. It was fun and quick. A little messy, but worth a place in my little online portfolio.
The Voices
She never heard the whispers in the dark.
get out.
stay.
The hiss on the wind.
But then again, she couldn't hear the whispers in the daylight either.
Laura was deaf. A condition she'd been born with, but that had little to no effect on her livelihood. Painting. She was working on a piece just now. Laying down a stroke of red paint on canvas.
Go.
Oblivious to the noise swirling around her.
Her phone rang. A noise that would catch the attention of most at first sound. Not hers. It continued to ring until its vibration made it walk across the counter. That is what caught her attention. She grabbed the phone, flipping it face up to see an incoming video call from a friend.
They chatted for a moment, signing and lip-reading second nature. When the whispers rose again. Inaudible murmurs crept up and seeped in between the unspoken words of conversation.
"Is someone there with you?" Her friend signed.
"No. Why." Laura signed back. Glancing around the room.
"I thought I heard something."
"It's probably just the cat."
The girls signed for a few more minutes and then Laura returned back to her painting. Is someone there? It gnawed at her. She could see her cat resting by the radiator. She knew it wasn't him. She held still between brushstrokes as if to feel for the voices' breath on her neck.
The air remained still.
Yet all around her swirled with whispers...
Stop
Hiss
Leave
She finished touching up the painting a few hours later. Stepped back to survey her work. A girl in the midst of fog. Faces churning in the murk.
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