Whispers

Part Three - Years Later

Ryan drove down the street, heading back home from his vacation. He listened to his radio cut in and out due to the ever worsening weather. He sighed loudly at the sound of rain lightly tapping at his car and continued to drive. Eventually, a horrid storm started and heavy water droplets pelted down on his car. It was even heavy enough that he could hear the rain smacking down on the pavement. "Jesus..." he mumbled, feeling a cold breeze seep into his car and turned on the heat.

He turned a corner and felt his car skid dangerously then slow to a stop. "Shit." He said and got out the car, throwing the hoodie of his thin sweater on to check what happened. His engine had somehow died. He moved his head to the side, confused. "Weird..." he muttered and closed the hood, turning around and leaning against the front of the car. He sighed in defeat and began walking. "I don't need anything, I'll eventually get somebody to help." He said mentally. He walked along the side of the road, being careful to avoid deeper looking puddles and large divots in the road that could possibly cause him to be unable to walk.

The storm refused to go easy on Ryan, and eventually he couldn't see through the rain, or the fog that had decided to show up. He groaned and tried to keep himself as warm as possible with the thin and now completely soaked all the way through sweater. He stopped and looked around, not seeing a single car light show up in any direction of the road. He dropped his head and began to tread through the rain and fog.

He walked until his peripheral vision caught something off the road; a pathway. He turned his head to the direction of the pathway and stopped walking. He raised an eyebrow, feeling a compelling urge to walk down the pathway. "It'll be quick." He said, shrugging and started down the path into the forestry. Eventually, he came to a gate. It was covered with mould and washed with decades of rain. He wanted to turn around and walk back to his car just as badly as he wanted to walk through the gate and explore. Curiosity clawed vigorously at his insides, so he walked through the gate. The town he'd entered was old, torn down and very clearly vandalized. The buildings looked rotten beyond repair, and Ryan could smell the rotting wood and rusting metal from where he stood and he wasn't pleased with the stench.

He kept walking, in hopes to find something that didn't look so miserable and broken to dry off and rest in until the rain let up. The town made Ryan feel a small sense of discomfort, and he couldn't shake the feeling no matter how hard he tried to. He couldn't lay his eyes on one building that made him feel like it was sturdy enough to not crumble under his feet, either. So, he kept trudging through the town, grumbling the entire time.

Suddenly, he froze, swearing he heard a giggle. "What...?" his eyes darted back and forth, looking for a source of the giggle he'd just heard. But to no avail. He stood there, stumped, and swallowed hard. "That was no my imagination. I heard that giggle." After a few moments, he'd decided to look for that person that giggled. He walked, slowly picking up speed at the sound of the giggling. He made left turns and right turns. He circled the spot he stood before pin pointing the direction and began towards it.

Soon, but also too late, he realized that he was lost. "No way." He said in disbelief. Everywhere he turned, everything looked the same or unrecognizable. He couldn't remember any turns he made to land him in the place he got himself to. The giggling echoed around him. He stood there, following the sound of the giggle, even if it was just bouncing off the walls. "I know this isn't in my head." He said aloud.

"How do you know?"

Ryan whipped his head around. "Who's there?" He shouted. He felt things watching him. He felt his stomach turn painfully as he felt more and more pairs of eyes appear and stare at him intently from every direction possible. He felt an urge to turn anyway he could and run. "I am not letting a few kids frighten me..." he muttered even if he was scared absolutely shitless, and as much as he really didn't want to admit, he wanted to run.

After a while, the feeling of being watched hadn't lessened, even the smallest bit, so he caved and ran. When he started to run, he heard something nobody wanted to hear in an empty town; thumps behind him, screaming and animal screeches. He heard people barking  at him; saying that he was screwed and has been screwed since he decided to walk down the path.

"You can't run from her, Ryan. There's no point." He heard.

"She'll get you whether you run or not." He also heard. Her? He asked himself. "The one in the house." The same voice muttered in his ear. He shouted and swatted around the air, but hit and felt nothing but empty space.

"What the hell."