The Stories of Tempora

The Last Lullaby Ch1

Chapter 1

The Story

“My mother used to tell me a story about, what she called, “The Song Of Death”. She told me that it was just a story, just to scare kids into not trespassing. It was mainly about, if you trespass, that this monster will disrupt your hearing by singing a song. I remember this now because I was told to go do some urban exploration for the news channel 0, and I decided to tell this story to my coworkers after we got assigned it. 

“That's one hell of a story your mom used to tell you.” “Ya, it was the one of the things I held onto after she passed.” I responded. We talked more about the project afterwards, we had to find a place to explore, and we had a month to find it. “Robert, should we meet at woodlands cafe tomorrow around six? So we can research and brainstorm this.”

“Sure. Why do you ask, are you leaving?” Robert asked.

“Ya, My son gets home from school early, you know him, fucking got in suspended again.”

“Well then, I wish you luck Deidra.” Robert said right as I exited the building. Samual got suspended again, what am I going to do with him? I pulled up to the school, and listened to the principal's rant. “Your son, I don't know what to say. He needs to get it together, because if he gets suspended one more time, I’m afraid we would have to expel him.” Just to get out of his rant, I just nodded and waited till he said I could go. “I know, I’m doing my best, I’m going to get him someone to talk to, because he won’t talk to me.” I said right before exiting. I let him into the car, and we had a long silent ride home.

“I let him into the house, having a headache already, I just sent him to his room and waited till dinner. It felt like ages, our old, creaky, squeaky house. It felt empty even though Samual and I live here, all of our decor basically filling the halls, it shouldn’t feel this empty. But I know I was just suppressing the truth on why it feels empty. Samuel has been acting out ever since his father passed.

“I finished dinner and called him down. As he sat down, I handed him a bowl of soup. “What did you do this time samuel?”

“Why would you want to know?” He responded rudely.

“I want to know so I can help.”

“Why would you want to help?!” Samuel asked rudely.

“Because you got to get your shit together because next time you get suspended, you get expelled, and I can't afford another school, so I just want to help!”

“Well fine then, I don’t want to go to school anyway!” He said.

“Why?!”

“Because my teacher reminds me of dad!” 

“I-” Before I could respond he ran to his room. As I cleaned the dishes I reflected on the past, and before I knew it, I had a wine glass in  my hand watching children's shows. I spent hours just wallowing, and before I knew it, it was two in the morning. I decided to get some sleep, very little sleep but I need some.

“By the time it turned noon, I woke up. I made myself some tea and checked on Samual. He was in a deep sleep, his room was a mess, but I wasn’t going to wake him. I checked the time, and I had four hours till I had to leave for the cafe. I spent the time making Samuel some dinner and hiring a babysitter. I know he is 15 but I’m going to be out for a long time. By the time the babysitter came, I was on my way out the door. “Is this the Mercia residence?” He asked. 

“Yes sir, and I assume you are the babysitter.”

“Yes mam.” He said ecstatically.

“Good you look fun, Samuel hasn't been doing well ever since his father passed.”

“Oh, so you weren't wrong when you said a sad teen.” He responded sadly.

“Ya, maybe you could give him something to do, like some entertainment or something, I don’t know, maybe play his games with him. I left a note telling him that you're here, but right now he is asleep.”

“Ok mrs Mercia, I tell you he is going to have a good time with me.” He responded.

“Thank you.” I said while climbing into my car. As I was on my way to the diner I passed a few closed and abandoned places. I would occasionally stop and look at them, just to realize that this whole part of the town is abandoned. I used to live in this town, this place used to be a very populated area. Before I was able to reflect on it, I looked at my watch to see that I was now running late. I got back into the car and headed to the diner. By the time I arrived at the diner, it was closed, a paper on the door saying it was being shut down due to a lack of customers. It probably had to do something with the fact that it's in the middle of the abandoned town. I decided to call the number on  the paper while I waited for my partner to arrive. Someone answered the phone and I asked Why it was closing again, and why this part of the town was abandoned.

“We closed because the town got abandoned, so we got no customers and no income.” He responded.

“Then why did the people abandon the town?”

“There were some rumors that scared people off.” He responded confused.

“Ok that's it then, sucks you had to close.” I said as I hung up. My partner arrived later than I was.

“I guess we were both late.”

“Ya, what happened in this town, that everyone left.” He said.

“Some sort of rumor. Sorta perfect for a story eh?”

“Yes, this would be a good story. Shall I go get the camera crew?” He responded ecstatic.

“Not yet Robert, I want to do more research here first.”

“Ok, so how would you like to research?” He asked.

“I say we split up, I go to the left side of this town, and you go to the right side.”

“Ok” He said as we climbed into our cars. We went to our spots to do research. Some of the buildings were destroyed, others taken over by nature, and some still intact. I wanted to listen to some music, so I turned on my radio. Just static, that's all I heard, I tried driving around to see if I could get a signal, and then a song started playing. “Finally.” I said, soon to realize it was just a lullaby. “Damn it, it must be some sort of children's radio station. I didn’t even  know these exist, but it does make sense due to people driving babies around to put them to sleep.” It was better than nothing I thought and continued listening to it. It was like a soothing hum in my ear, I nearly forgot what I was doing. Then I looked over to my right to see Robert knocking on my window. I turned off the radio and opened it.

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing. It's just starting to get late, we should head home.”

“Really, we've only been out here for fifteen minutes.”

“Really?” He said sarcastically. “Take a look at your watch.”

“Midnight, I must have lost track of time.”

“I sped off home thinking to myself. How did I lose track of time, and why didn’t I hear him knocking on my window. But I kept these thoughts inside as I drove home. By the time I got back home, the babysitter was asleep on the couch, Samual asleep in his bed. I woke up the babysitter.

“I’m home. Can you watch him this whole month?”

“Sure but I can’t do weekends.” He responded.

“I told him. “That's ok.” I said before he left. I went to bed a little after, knowing I have a long day ahead of me.