Silence

Chapter Five - Real Monsters Don't Lurk in the Dark

"Sometimes human places, create inhuman monsters." – Stephen King, The Shining

Chapter Five – Real Monsters Don't Lurk in the Dark

The next few days were a blur to Jaron. With his mind so preoccupied with solving whatever puzzle his parents had unknowingly left him, along with the little girl, the ribbon and the black space in his head, Jaron didn't have a lot of room left in his thoughts for school, or the looming event of his birthday extravaganza.

His parents seemed to be as normal as he could remember them. Mrs. Pierce had been busying herself with party plans and his father was back to his usual talkative composure. Sure, normal wasn't exactly Jaron's favourite version of his parents. He preferred them to be oddly quiet, and then he could avoid talking to them on their terms, but nevertheless, it was pleasant seeing something so familiar, after weeks of curious incidents that made no sense.

Four days after school had begun for the term, Jaron was walking up to the front gates with Kira. She had made some remark about Oscar's lack of punctuality, or something along those lines. Jaron couldn't quite recall. He had been lost in thought at the time.

"I swear, if he doesn't pick up his game he's going to have to spend a whole month in detention when all of his homework finally catches up-" she paused as she glanced over at Jaron who had stopped walking. The blood had drained from his face, leaving it sickly white and beads of sweat were rolling down his cheeks. Kira watched as Jaron's eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the floor.

"Jaron!"

Jaron was writhing around on the concrete, fingers clamped to his head. The pain was phenomenal, like someone was beating his head in with a spiked mace, tearing away flesh and completely obliterating his skull.

The initial throb had started sometime during breakfast, as a slight pounding in the back of his head, irritating but not inhibiting. In the few moments before he ended up on the ground, however, it had escalated to a fully-fledged, brain-stabbing monster, beating away inside his head like a nightclub on steroids. He lay on his back; head tossing madly from side to side and his hands were curled like talons, clawing at his temples as he shook on the floor.

Kira called out, as she looked around on the street but inconveniently; there was no one around. She stood up frantically running up the street, a few metres away from Jaron's body. A small gasp left his lips as he lulled to one side, unconscious. Kira dropped to her knees beside him and shook his shoulders wildly, fingers trembling, but he was limp and still like a rag doll.

Kira almost dropped her phone as she slipped it out of her bag. She had the emergency number ready to call, but when she turned back to Jaron, he was sitting up, blinking in the sunlight, hands cradling his cranium.

"Jaron!" Kira cried for a second time, practically jumping on him as she went in for a hug.

"Hey! OW!! What the hell?!" Jaron groaned.

Kira pulled away, raising an eyebrow at him. "Jaron?"

His eyes were darting around madly, "Who... what... what's going on? Where-?" He stopped abruptly, shaking his head. His eyes stared starkly into Kira's terrified ones. "For a minute there I couldn't... I didn't... never mind, I'm okay now."

"Okay! You call that okay? What happened? It was almost like you didn't remember...or something. What's going on? Is this some sick joke?"

"No! It was just a headache. I'm fine, really." But Kira, of course, didn't look convinced.