Muse and Misfortune

V

The voices were a deafening roar. They sounded like a thousand tigers.

Marshall was at the zoo. Only, he was in the cage with the tigers, and they were surrounding him, taunting him, before they pounced. He kept waiting for the noise to stop, but it didn't stop. His fingernails dug into the wooden door, trying to find something to hold on to, something to help pull him out of the darkness.

He felt around for the doorknob and tried it, though he knew it wouldn't work. The metal knob was cold, and he hated the feeling of it. He gripped it anyway.

His foot knocked against something hard, and he immediately pressed up against the door as much as he could, drawing his knees to his chest. He stared into the dark.

Don't be such a coward. It's only the dark.

The dark.

And the voices.

The two things he hated most at the moment.

Carefully, he reached out his foot and felt around, finding that hard object. He nudged it, feeling it roll slightly towards him. Leaning forward, he tried to find it, and his hands finally found the rubber handle of the flashlight.

How had he forgotten that he'd had it?

He grabbed it and turned it on, feeling a rush of relief. He felt as if he'd been thrown a lifeline. Only he was still stuck in the cold water.

Marshall looked at the pile of papers he was half-sitting on. He kicked them to the other side of the closet, trying to get them as far away from him as possible. They seemed to protest, getting louder.

"...Stop it," Marshall said. His voice was hoarse, weak. "Stop...Stop screaming!"

He glared at the papers. It wouldn't make a difference. They weren't alive.

Then again, they were screaming.

Dropping the flashlight, Marshall slapped his hands over his ears, like that would help. "Just...stop! I can't take it anymore!"

"Stop it!"

Marshall sighed, dropping his hands. Now the voices had found something to say. And they were echoing him. That just made things even better.

"Stop!"

It was strange, though. It didn't actually sound like all the voices were saying it. It was a piercing scream, over the noise of the rest of the voices.

"I said stop!"

It almost sounded like it was coming from...his pocket?

Marshall reached into his pocket, finding the folded paper he'd put in it. He drew out the paper and stared at it. Was this the one that was screaming above the rest?

"Stop!"

Yes, it was definitely that paper.

His hands shaking, he clumsily unfolded the paper, smoothing it.

"Stop it!"

This voice, this paper's voice, actually had...a voice. It sounded like someone. It had a high, definitely female voice. It wasn't unidentifiable like the other voices. That paper's voice sounded almost like...Eliza's voice.

"Don't!" the paper screeched. It was a cry of anguish.

"Eliza?" Marshall said. Why would this paper have her voice?

He stared at the paper. The words were even harder to read in the dim lighting. But he held the paper close to his face, and he could see the words.

It seemed to be a continuation of something, for the first line began in the middle of a sentence. "...and all her spiders would run away," he read aloud.