Turning Away Warm Bodies

Chapter Fourteen: A Single Scream

[Rose Amalia]

  My hand carefully wraps around the golden doorknob that leads to my bedroom. With one clean motion, my wrist flicks and the door swings open. Casually, I pass the threshold, the door clicking behind me as I kick it shut. The simplicity of my room is the perfect place to relax, just one thing was missing.

  My eyes flash to my black boom box on the opposite side of the room. With only four steps, I cross the carpet towards it, my hands gracefully flipping on the CD setting, followed by spinning its' volume dial to its' max and pushing in the play button on its' front. Not even five seconds pass before my ears are greeted by the booming bass of Disturbed's song The Night.

  I take a step back, a delighted smile on my face as I turn my eyes to the new set of speakers that I had just recently installed into the walls of my room. The first time actually using the; I couldn't have been more please with the way it sounds. All those hours of hard work really did pay off.

  Not only is the sound so much more powerful than it was before, but the feel in the air is so much more overwhelming! I can literally feel the pulse of the bass beating through me, as if my entire body was shaking with the rhythm of the music itself. Even the walls can't help but bow down to its' massive power, the entire room practically rupturing!

  It's so wonderful, I could cry.

  Content with my surroundings, I flop myself onto my bed, my back against the covers. I lay with my eyes closed, nearly falling asleep as the music's pulse beats steadily through me.

  It's then, though, that my memories of today really sink in. All of the things that have been haunting me, slowly becoming more prominent in my head. The feeling of being watched, the eerie sensation of being followed, spied upon. More so than anything else, though, was the constant idea that I was becoming dangerously close to my own demise. I can't fully explain it, for lack of a better reason, but something deep inside of me was telling me that I had to run. Maybe I was just so pumped with adrenaline that all I could think of was fight or flight, but even so... Why was every part of me telling me to fly?

  Looking at the entire picture, it's not like anything really bad happened, just a normal date. As far as I know, I wasn't being stalked by a secret assassin, and I wasn't in the center of the scope on a sniper, so why did my body keep telling me that I had to flee? Does my conscious know something that I don't, or was I just so blind to not see my own death standing right in front of me?!

  In the end though, I made it back alive, and well, no scars, no wounds, healthy as a horse. Even if any of that was the case, it's not like anything bad happened to me. I'm obviously still alive, so if I was being targeted, it's not like anything worked.

  So why is it still bothering me now?

  It's done, it's over, it's all behind me. Just a simple date, nothing but holding hands and a harmless kiss goodbye. So why am I still being so haunted with these uneasy feelings?

  No matter how focused I was on the matter, my thoughts were brought to an immediate halt at the sound of a high pitched scream. Despite the blasting music that pulsated throughout the entire house, I could hear it, clear as a bell.

  Angela.

  Sharply, I brought myself to the door, gliding across my room in short strides. With a flick of my wrist, the door to my bedroom flung open, my feet sending me running down the hall.

  All I could think about was that shrill ringing through the air that ripped through the bass' harsh rhythms, the thick vibe of panic that it left hovering in my head. It sounded so urgent, yet all too sudden that I couldn't help but feel uneasy. Something about it all just left me feeling... anxious almost, as if tons of adrenaline had just been shot into my veins and all I could do was run and pray that everything was alright.

  Yet as I ran down the hallway, the world around me became scarily large. What my long legs had been sending me across just moments ago -- a hallway as ordinary as any other -- stretched out miles before me. Every step that I took only seemed to take me farther away from my destination.

  Such an eerie feeling set stone within me, and all awoken with a single scream.

  Forever and a day had slammed back into one haunting second the moment that my hand wrapped itself tightly around the golden doorknob. As if instinctively, my lips shouted out Angela's name as the door to her bedroom swung open. My heart pounded in my chest, racing even, yet all I could hear was that horrible scream.

  Clumsily, I fell past the threshold, struggling to maintain my balance within my spinning world. Yet nothing, nothing could compare to that horrible, empty feeling in my chest that came the instant I looked up.

  "Angela?" my voice quivered softly, trembling, even as I stared out in front of me at the hauntingly empty room.

  No one was there, as if all life had suddenly vanished from the room -- Angela no where in sight.