Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:05:23 MDT From: Robyn Meta Herrington Subject: SUB:CONTEST: Secret voices Another Halloween entry! Keep up the good work! Critiques to rmherrin@acs.ucalgary.ca ===================================================================== Secret Voices ~~~~~~~~~~ They said it was unlikely to happen again. But I know they were lying. I know they were sniggering and pointing and laughing all the while they were pretending sympathy and support. There are the voices, you see. Voices. Everywhere. In the pipes, in the wires, in the creaking of the boards. Behind the pictures, underneath the rugs. Secret voices, muttering and fluttering, moth-like in my ears. That's how I know they were lying. I can hear their voices. Nasty, evil voices, whispering to me all the time. They think I can't, but I can, I can hear their secret voices. "Just take your medication," I'm told. "Take your pills and you'll be all right." But even the pills, jostling crayola colored beetles in the bottom of the plastic cup, even the pills have voices, scritty-scratty, chitinous chattering, laughing at me as I swallow them down. So I just pretend now. I don't swallow them any more. No-one knows. I just sit in my corner, smiling. No-one knows. No-one knows I can hear the voices. In the night, when it's quieter and even the voices go to sleep, I take out my new knife. It's a nice, long knife. So long. So slick. The light catches it and sweeps vibrant knife edges around the walls as I smooth the stone along it, snicky-snack, and wipe it, shining. In the night. Every night it's stronger, sharper, waiting for the time. In the day, I just sit in my corner, smiling. I can hear the voices, nasty, evil voices. Everyone speaks, scritty-scratty, thinking I can't hear. But I can. Every day the voices get stronger, louder, clearer. In the day, I just sit in my corner, smiling. I have my plan, you see. Oh yes, I have my plan. Me and my knife. Getting stronger, getting sharper, just waiting for the time. When the right night comes, we will go out, cutting off the voices. Cutting off the voices, clean slicing, cutting off the voices. We'll be able to silence them. Oh yes, the whispering and the sniggering will leak away to silence as they bleed. The blood will run, the blood will take the secret voices away. We're just waiting for the time. In the day, I just sit in my corner, smiling, thinking of the plan, Just waiting for the time. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ---------------------------------*=*=*=*=*=*-------------------------------- Robyn Herrington,Editor rmherrin@acs.ucalgary.ca InfoServe www.ucalgary.ca/~rmherrin New Currents in Teaching and Technology Communications Media MacKimmie Library University of Calgary Ph: 220-3716 (temporary) == Inter tormentia latitia == ---------------------------------*=*=*=*=*=*--------------------------------