Voices

Chapter 9

The second ringing of the doorbell gave me a little electric shock. Uncle Chase was already startling enough, much more for this person incessantly slamming the doorbell right now. Clearing up the last few drops of my dead mother's-

No, Jason.

-the last few drops of paint, I headed towards the main door and swung it open. I swung it open, to find dear uncle Chase standing at my front door.

 Dear Uncle Chase, wearing a hospital patient's clothing and with his eyes... Eyes bleeding, the blood never seeming to stop oozing out of his eye sockets. His hair was a mess. I could tell that he had been in some accident, the effects obvious. "Jason, are you there?" he asked, somehow unable to see me.

He was blind.

How long had it been since he last been here, an hour? What on earth had happened in that short span of time? An accident involving fire. Blindness. In a short duration of an hour, Uncle Chase seemed to have gotten all these. Unbelievable. He had never been that risky.

Wait.

Why was I saying this so easily? As if this was an everyday occurrence? 

I pushed all these thoughts aside, and replied. "Yes, Uncle Chase, I'm right here," helping him up the stairs to the house. I caught a glance of the vehicle he had been in. A bright yellow taxi, the driver waving his hand.

Five minutes passed and Uncle Chase was sitting on the sofa, the red liquid getting soaked up by the material. He finally spoke, his voice a little raspy.

"Water." I brought him a glass. "Tell me, Jason. How long have you been hearing those voices in your head?"

Voices?

"Yes. Voices in your head. You very well know what I mean. Constant headaches-"

I don't get what you're saying.

"I'm a scientist. We both know what we're talking about. You're the one behind those murders, right?"

Murders?

He sighed, my ears catching a little disappointment in the process. "Keep playing dumb with me. You'll never find the cure to it. It's hard going through that, isn't it? You can't do anything but heed its call."

I continued to stare at him, dumbfounded. Actually, 'dumbfounded' might be an understatement. I was paralysed in the head, if that was possible. It felt like that. As if someone just stashed out all your secrets and put them in front of you in a straight line. I kept my staring at him, and I sensed his aura. He was blind, but he was staring right back at me. A few more seconds later and I gave up the 'confused' act, confirming it with a heavy sigh.

"Okay, fine, you win. I do have voices in my head. I," I took a long pause before continuing. "I- I admit to killing some people. I confess."

Silence.

"Trust you world's number one doctor, Jason," he gave a faint little smile of pride before moving on. "You've succumbed to that virus."

"Virus?"

"Yeah, those voices are viruses. Large, compound, innumerable amounts of them. They're all in your  head. Those things take over your pain receptors. You do know what pain receptors are, right?"

I nodded, as he continued his explanation. Five minutes passed, ten minutes passed, fifteen... This explanation sure was long. You've got to hand it over to the world's number one doctor.

"... that's how you've got those voices in your head." Uncle Chase took a long breather, leaving me again dumbfounded. I'd learned about cells and parasites and viruses and mind control in the span of exactly twenty minutes. I snickered to myself. I bet I'm two grades above my classmates in Science now. 

"So, how do you remove it, then?" I asked.

"How?" Uncle Chase pretended to look up at an imaginary bulb shining above him, and laughed. "I'm sorry about earlier, Jason. How to remove it, right? That's your question?"

"Yeah," I replied, not seeming to get his own little joke. He laughed again, before giving me the answer.

"You don't."

This was followed by the voices in my head themselves.

You don't.