One late summer evening, I was walking back on muffin st, a couple hundred feet away from home, one right at the end of this st would lead me right there. My warm bed, though I did not care much for the must it was hidden under, lay waiting for me. Having nothing to think of besides the state of my home, I walked back with not much memory of how i reached there. A sort of amnesia you usually get when youve done something for so long that your brain shuts off was what seemed to have occurred before me. However, maybe the white goose I had doused in my OJ earlier, or the wisps of freezing wind that flew under my shirt, raising the hairs on my stomach, something told me nothing was right.
I had been lost in my thoughts for so long that i hit a special moment of self awareness and almost embarrassment that forced me to start using my ears again. Eyes still on the gravel 3" ahead of my toes, i tried to justify why my ears couldnt pick up any sounds. I had been walking for so long that I hadnt picked up on just when everything had fallen silent. I did not lift my eyes, no, I just kept walking. Why waste energy on unnecessary movements when theres nothing to signify a point of contention. A noise, I may have looked up to, but silence, well, that was just silence.
My feet did not betray me for the longest journey id ever made on the same route id always taken, It seemed as they were just powered engines that walked whether i closed my eyes or decided to fall into a coma; I was positive my feet would carry my limp torso back home no matter what. But even so, today, a burning in my shin wouldnt shake off no matter how hard i tried. I had not been aware of it until just now, having no idea how I didnt feel it the entire way here, but i was determined to ride it out until the cathartic crash into my mattress only a couple seconds away.
I dont know what triggered me, the dripping noise, or the echo after, but in the distance, or inside my skull, a tap dripped water, tip, tip ,tip. It wouldnt have bothered me, no, if i had not realised that it was louder than my footsteps. In fact, my footsteps, as I saw my heels hit the ground, made not a single attempt to vibrate the air around them, my ears completely deafened to my own movement. I did not remember if I'd even heard my footsteps moments before the drip, it had been completely silent, the echos of the drip also having faded, i realised just how silent it was, just how silent i was.
I stopped, it was no more silent now than when i was walking. Completely deafened, I felt a cotton ball-like pressure in my ear that i felt like i was convincing myself into feeling.
My heartbeat pump in my neck, I could feel the movement on my skin, yet, no matter how hard I tried, I couldnt hear it.
I looked up, not the trees, not the cars in the distance, not even the loud street lamps that would crackle if you paid attention, not a single sound reached me.
So i screamed.
And screamed
And screamed.
