The Signal

Source

I can't placate the sound, is been there since last year. Not matter where I am, not matter what I do, is there, is always FUCKING THERE. I tried to not pay attention to it, but is useless. I can't have anything that resembles peace of mind now. I can't do stuff like I used to do, I cannot be with my children enjoying a walk in the park, can't enjoy a movie or a series anymore, I cannot listen to music without going completely mad about it. I can't work, I can't sleep, sometimes is even a struggle to keep tabs of my thoughts, there´s a lot of I can’t or I cannot on this. I was thinking that I was going insane, I tried everything: acupuncture, treatments against psychosis and mental illness, I even used drugs to slow it down a bit, right now I am divorce, broke and a junkie hook up to some nasty shit.
I am going to finish with this, right now. Not more pain, no more suffering, just peace and quiet for a change. I just have to pull the trigger, let my brain be scattered on the wall, and that will be all, a night to finally get some sleep… what the hell is that sound, I hear I could hear something like a KNOCK.

—“Hello is somebody in there?”

FUCK, I was not wrong. What the hell someone could come here for, doesn't matter, let´s get this over with.

—“HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I can see you there.”

I decided to walk to the door just to see who was causing all this noise, by the windows I see what it seems to be a little girl and by the looks of it, she is alone.

— “Dammit. What do you want?!”
— “To speak with you for a second mister”

If I open the door now, she'll stop disturbing me, I'll do it. Let finish this distraction quick.

— “So?”
— “So what mister?”
— “Who are you? And why are you here in my doorstep?”
— “I am Melanie, and by your mailbox out there you are Flint right?”
— “That is the last name girl, I am Henry, Henry Flint. Now what do you want?”
— “I want the sound to stop.”

My heartbeat stopped for a second there as she pronounced that whole sentence, probably this girl is just messing with me. Everybody here knows my history, to tell the truth this has happened before.

— “Who brought you here? Your dads? Are you trying to pull a prank on me?”
— “No sir, I know that you can hear their instructions like me”
— “What goddamn instructions?!”
— “You can't hear the instructions?”
— “I just tell you that I can't!”
— “Come with me then, it's not far from here, they say that we have to go together”
— “Go where? Child, you are not making any sense”
— “Just follow me Mister Henry.”

And like that she just run like a maniac to the street. I enter to my house and it must have passed like 3 minutes until I started wondering: maybe she knows what is happening to me? Perhaps this is my only chance to get some answer, besides I can't let a little girl walk the streets this late. I could find some answer and in case I don't find any, the bullet will still wait for me when I come home.

I ended up following her to a nearby workshop, and then she cannot stop talking about how we are special, because of being chosen by them, some kind of gods or something incredibly different from us she say. Pretty smart to be a little girl.

As soon we enter the workshop, my headache started to diminish, I have happened a lot of time without me feeling that kind of clarity. We looked around the workshop for quite some time, a couple of hours I think.

— “Melanie, where are your parents?”
— “They are expecting me, I think”
— “Why do you don't go with them?”
— “I can't until I found what are we looking for”
— “This will take forever at this rate. I have an idea”
— “What idea?”
— “Inside this place, the noise has diminished. I will search somewhere here where the noise is completely muted”

Sometime after I found the spot, I call Melanie to help me search. We find nothing just a walkie-talkie standing around. Melanie looked thrill by it and then she screams.

—“We find it, I can finally go home now”
—“What do you mean by home?”
— “I had something to tell you Henry, I am not human, I am a plynoroi. Your species call me an alien I think. I need help from a human to follow the signal, think of it as that you are my dog. Now I can return home.”

I was so fucking piss out and furious, I had lost everything, everything except my almost ruined house, and she just told me, that I was a mere dog to her, something unimportant, my fucking life was ruined because SHE HAD TO CHOOSE AS HE FUCKING PET.

—“YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME!”
—“Mister hen… Henry, please mister calm down”
-“DON't TELL ME TO FUCKING CALM DOWN. WHY ME?! TELL ME! WHY MY LIFE WAS RUINED FOR A WHOLE YEAR, JUST TO HELP YOU GET TO YOUR HOME?! I COULD HAVE HELPED YOU BEFORE, WHY WAIT AN ENTIRE YEAR FOR THIS?!”
—“To ensure your companionship, I have to let you gone mad because it, to a point where you had nothing else except your desire for answer. I am very sorry, I swear it, I can remove it now with this” she presses some buttons at random in the walkie-talkie “there is done”

I could not hear it, not static, not sound pushing through my skull and into my soul, clarity of thinking like before, not more dependency on drugs, I could try to gain my wife and kids back. Right now I can do anything, but there is still something.

—“Tell me, you are not really a little girl right?”
—“Ehmmm….no, I have 500 years now”
— “Good. I will not feel so bad after all”

I draw my gun and I shoot her between the eyes. Poor little thing, she falls down dead and by the look in her eyes, she had not realized, After a second the body begin to turn something resembling ashes. Good there is no evidence anymore, that is what happen when you take someone´s life and you let him think that the worst things that had happened to him, is just bad luck. Some kind of powerful god you turn out to be girl. Now is finally time to gain my life back.

Entry for 24 hour story contest