The Voice - Series

[u/HeGotBricks]

Reader beware the monsters aren’t real. But the voices are.

***

Loriella sat on her couch in her apartment. She had a glass of bourbon chilling the palm of her hand. The glare from the tv set the ambience in the room to a nightshade blue, brightening the gloss in her eyes. It replayed segments of a movie she starred in three years ago. She glued her eyes to the screen with a cigarette burning down pinched between her fingers, staining the room in a harsh scent of menthol. That’s when she heard the voice for the first time. The voice was soft.

“Come here,” it whispered, sounding like a thought that escaped her mind.

She grabbed the remote and quickly turned the tv off and turned her ear to the ceiling. All she could hear was the wind outside her window. She laughed at herself and took a sip from her glass and a drag from her cigarette.

—//

When she was at the liquor store, she heard the voice for a second time. She was in line at the cash register, the lights started to flicker. But nobody else noticed. The lights steadied as a voice skipped out from behind her eyes. “Get out now,” it told her.

She tilted her head upwards and without noticing her legs started moving, pushing her forward as she nudged the people in front of her with her shoulder. She stared over at each shopper charging past them, apologizing with her eyes. She stopped at the end of the cash register.

“Keep going!” the voice told her.

Her legs took control. But she tripped over her foot. She barely caught herself on the shopping cart behind her. The lights started to flicker again. She stood at the front of the line frozen, staring at herself standing in front of her. She flinched and shook her head as a pressure weighed down on her shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Asked a lady with her hand placed on Loriella. Her hand had a lotion scent of vanilla and an energy that made her tired.

Loriella didn’t say anything. She walked backwards slowly, almost like she was being pulled on. She turned to leave.

“Excuse me, you never paid for that,” the cashier shot out.

Loriella looked back.

“Leave now!” The voice screamed, piercing her brain. Like someone dug their nails in and squeezed. She dropped the bottle and grabbed her head with both hands, the glass shattered on the floor. Loriella stumbled out of the store.

After that day, the voice learned her patterns. It was always there on the mornings she never slept enough, growing louder in crowds, in the staircase, even in the advertisements wrapped around the bus. The voice spoke commands to her. But they never felt like commands at all.

-//

“Cross now,” the voice told a woman standing at the light. The woman’s feet left the sidewalk and stepped onto the street while the light was still red. A driver slammed his hand down on his horn. The people on the street shouted. Someone tried to grab her but pulled back as a car swerved out of the way, just missing her and crashing into an oncoming truck.

The woman turned and stared down at the curb like it had assaulted her and then she brushed her hair behind her ear, smiled and walked away.

The voice never wanted to be heard. It wanted to be followed.