Voices

Emily stared into the darkness, wishing for the hundreth time that night, that the voices would go away so she could sleep. She had not gotten a full night of rest in more than a month. The voices slithered in and out of her mind, like snakes, speaking words she couldn't comprehend. She had tried everything to make them go away. Special treatments and medicines from doctors that didn't do her any good.

Emily couldn't tell the seconds from minutes anymore. Nothing seemed real, it was like she was just drifting around, like a ghost. Emily rolled over in bed, hugging the pillow to her chest. She was tired of listening to the voices, tired of staying inside all day, tired of not being able to do anything normal, like go out with her friends. Emily rolled over again to the other side of the bed and looked over to her window. She froze in shock. Sitting in the corner of the room, in her mother's old rocking chair, was a man.

He had pale, white skin and was wearing a black suit and a white tie. He had no face, just a white mask. He had no facial features, just a blank, white mask where his face should have been. Emily was afraid to move. She was afraid to speak or call out. She closed her eyes, then opened them again.

The man was still there, legs crossed, hands folded in his lap. The voices still whispered in her ears, whirling around inside her head. Finally after what had felt like a an eternity, Emily spoke. "Who are you?" she whispered.

"What do you want?" she croaked.

The Man unfolded his hands, and snapped his fingers. All of a sudden, the voices started to make sense.

They told her to get out of bed and go into her parents bedroom. They told her about the gun that her father keeps in his drawer. They told her to put on the silencer so the neighbours won't hear. They told her to put on the silencer so the neighbours won't hear. To press the gun against her fathers temple and pull the trigger.

They said, when her mother wakes up from the noise, don't shoot her until you see the look of confusion and terror in her eyes as she looks at her husbands bloody, lifeless body. And finally, they told her to go into her baby brothers nursery. Three bullets, that's all it will take.

Bang. Bang. Bang...Silence.