Sincerely, S.H

Chapter 5

When the conversation with my sister ends, it is high time for me to make my way out of the airless and spaceless dormitory. And high time I eat something. My stomach insists on the priority of the latter, causing me to question the last time I ate. Dinner yesterday. At least the dining halls don’t close for another hour.

               At least this time when I leave my room in a hurry I’m completely wide awake because I slept away the better part of the day. Thankfully, I am even awake enough to remember a sweater this time.  Grabbing the sweater, and my ID, I leave my room, and with all the mercy of the heavens, Henry and Stephanie are gone. The cool night air is much more comforting when I have a few layers between myself and it.  Wit protection from the elements, I feel at peace in them again, and I walk alone in comfort to the dining hall, with my head as clear as the air around it. The moonlight shines down on me through the thinning trees overhead, and it is almost as if it cleanses my soul. All of the bad in me that surfaced today; the anger, the fear, the insecurity, the spitefulness. It is all washed away in the moonlight as the sun makes its last appearance for the day.

               I slide my ID in the machine after entering with the fluorescents replacing the moon and starlight. I gather scraps of the remaining food and easily find an empty table in the thinning population of hungry students. Alone again as I sit on a tall barstool to eat, I still have time to think about the recent events. I should really start being more social because being left alone with my thoughts is becoming such a burden as of late. I’m a mess I conclude as I pop a room temperature ketchup covered French fry into my mouth.

               “Indeed you are” I hear a voice from behind me that seems to be responding to my thoughts. A familiar voice, but not one I actually recognize. I turn around rapidly to find its owner, as he, or she, must be talking to me because there is hardly anybody else present, and, even more disturbing, the voice sounds uncomfortably close.

               Almost dizzy from how quickly I turned around to face the voice, I find nothing there, and immediately my heartbeat quickens.

               Now I know who that voice came from… well not exactly who, but it’s the voice that was whispering in my head yesterday. “You aren’t going to find me there” the voice taunts from a corner of the cafeteria about 50 feet away from my table. “Or there” The voice continues when my eyes follow its voice yet again. Frustrated and frightened, I look down at the remaining scraps of food on my tray. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.

               “Oh, but it is.” The voice seems to be sitting at the table across from me now. I dare not look up, though I’m not sure if it is because I am afraid that I will, yet again, not see its source, or if I am afraid that I will. “Oh how terribly sorry I am for how rude I’ve been.” It chuckles. “I have yet to introduce myself,” the voice is extremely formal for one that, I must assume, is just a product of my insane imagination. “I am S.H.”

               My head bolts upwards and my entire posture straightens and becomes tenser. No way. The voice has sent me the letters. This voice that whispered at me earlier, was the one that sent me letters. And now it was talking to me out loud. Yesterday it was just in my head, mixing with my thoughts. I thought its voice was mine, but now… Now it has its own voice, and I year it not only in my head, but it vibrates in my ears. It isn’t just strange thoughts; I can hear it like I hear Stephanie, or Nick.

               “Leave me alone,” I say with some strength behind the words, though there are fearful tears in my eyes.

               It chortles, the sound attacking my auditory sense like darts in rapid succession. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. Like I told you before, it’s you and me. Forever.”