Chapter 491

The old record player sat on Elias's desk, a relic in a world saturated with digital music. Its mahogany finish was scratched and faded, bearing witness to decades of use and neglect, like an old tombstone. It was a piece of his grandfather's that had always fascinated him, but it was never functional.

Today it was and it started with a record that wasn't supposed to exist. The music that poured from the ancient speakers was not familiar.

It wasn't like anything Elias had ever heard before; it was hauntingly beautiful, almost ethereal. It sounded as though the songs themselves were the weeping echoes of forgotten histories. But there was something about them, it filled a strange gap that Elias did not know had even existed.

The tunes held a bittersweet feeling. This single record, had brought a calmness that seemed wrong.

The first sign was when Elias could not quite place the lyrics of his favorite band's hit song from the radio. It was as if parts of the melody and verses were gone and had vanished into some hole that he could not identify.

A similar confusion occurred when his work playlist failed to produce the pop track he anticipated when its familiar introductory chords were strangely silent. A deep chill ran down his spine and he realized something was terribly wrong.

Elias had a deep conversation with his wife about his experience with his strange record player, "There was this song, a record that belonged to my grandfather," he started as he looked down at his worn hands. He felt a knot tighten in his chest.

His wife looked up from the laptop screen, brow furrowed. "Your grandfather's music box? What about it?" She did not recall him mentioning anything about a music box to her.

It was another odd piece of forgetting that added to the mystery. "It was not a box, it was a record player," he replied as his fingers drummed nervously on the kitchen counter, trying to get back to the subject, "and, well, it worked now… It had music, Sarah."

"I didn't know you were into vinyl records," she replied and then paused. "Or anything your grandpa gave you for that matter, I didn't even know he had passed."

The words stung more than anything had for some time, his heart sunk deep down, the forgetting was more severe than he had originally anticipated. How had she forgotten such an important individual in his life.

Her confusion made something turn over in his gut like a dark feeling taking its shape, "Sarah, this is not okay. Grandpa passed some time ago."

"Your grandfather?" Her expression did not change. He tried again, hoping this was an error on her part.

"Yes! Grandpa, your grandpa's father, who brought that awful chihuahua you despised every holiday" Elias stated trying to use their past conversations, it worked like a switch flipping on and off for her as she then remembered him, as he thought she would.

She frowned slightly, the confusion slowly going, she then stated softly, "Oh, that awful one. Okay well you never brought this vinyl to my attention" she returned back to work like nothing happened.

Elias started to grow more panicked with his experiences, when did things begin changing and for what reasons? Was it the record that changed it or was it something entirely else.

The anxiety in the pit of his stomach would not pass. Something inside Elias told him, what happened to the memories was no mistake and was a choice.

He took another listen to his records; The sounds once again soothed his disquiet; as the melancholy melodies poured out into the room and he began to fall in a trance once again with the beautiful soundscape. Each note was like a tiny thread, being pulled loose from the world, little by little, but he felt comfort, the record brought calm in the storm of forgetfulness.

It was wrong. He began taking to a notebook to write everything out as he discovered the bizarre.

He detailed Sarah's loss of memories with him and his family, which began happening the moment he heard that song and his concern continued growing as she couldn't recall even a quarter of their last holiday. He wrote how all these things coincided with the strange tunes.

He tried searching through every form of media he could. His efforts to trace these sounds lead to dead ends; no music archive, no expert, not even the dark corners of the internet could offer any answers about what these were or what was on this mysterious record.

He started losing track of times, he lost hours and he didn't notice; all as he listened, but somehow he wrote everything down as if something took control. A deep and desperate drive overtook him.

Days blurred and melted together in the background as it all passed like nothing, each track brought a different song he had never heard before, songs that slowly, methodically, stole more from the world. It then started going beyond his memories.

The very city started to reflect this. A local bar known for a certain song played it out of beat and on repeat as if they forgot there were verses and they would do this song after song like some strange repetitive clockwork.

Store fronts played random noise they once recognized and a local supermarket was stuck playing a looping radio announcement that sounded almost distorted. He went to visit the university which played nothing; the sound system and devices sat static; they were there just to fill the void as if that's what they should do.

He stopped by a cinema where the opening jingle for every trailer played on a never ending loop. It felt as if sound and memory were not working and he could sense it spreading as if an illness.

"Sarah!" Elias stated when she came in one night from a shift, her usual smile felt off today as she came into the bedroom where he now hid the record player "Do you not notice that everything seems wrong?!"

She turned her gaze toward him with a neutral, un-emotive look; "What is this 'wrong' you talk about, Elias" she sat down and looked at him confused; it looked genuine.

Elias threw his hands up in frustration as the blood rushed through his temples, "It's everything. Our memories, the songs in stores, how do you not see this?! Do you hear how awful all of this is."

"You speak nonsense; how is this terrible," she was not joking when she said it, as if the world was working normal for her but there were so many mistakes and he knew this couldn't just be his view, the forgetfulness was spreading.

The forgetfulness was real; Sarah could no longer hear the off-beat mess, to her it was perfect music. Something inside Elias began to feel that it wanted to end all of this right now, the idea started gnawing like a hole through his very core, he grabbed at the player and ripped the plug out of the wall.

"You see?! It stopped; how could that sound normal to you," He looked up with tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Sarah started crying from the music's halt and stated with the same, odd look on her face "Bring the music back" her body was almost static, stiff like some zombie, her words, were slow, almost distant.

He stared at her in horror. The horror in Elias swelled; he couldn't allow what was happening to keep happening, he quickly threw the player in his bag, "I'll be right back!" he stated while running toward his door; leaving a very empty, tear-ridden and now stiff-like Sarah on their bed.

Elias did not return, he sought isolation, he knew the problem now; he understood that these songs, held a dreadful power. The problem was; he had become the carrier, these tracks were not a parasite it was a form of cancer; Elias was at the epicenter of it, the sounds were now inside his mind even when the player was shut down.

Now he couldn't hear a different beat or song that wasn't a broken variation of it, like some terrible noise. He started getting very strange dreams with music and terrible visions with twisted imagery that forced him to sit up quickly from the constant sound inside him.

Sleep felt useless. Each time he heard them, another thread loosened, memories, shared joys, the very building blocks of his experiences were pulled apart with every distorted symphony.

It would be slow but eventually the fabric would fray completely and leave only a void; this is how Elias saw it all and the most terrible aspect was that; no one was suffering except himself and they did not even know that. It is as if only Elias knew the beautiful sounds were corrupted, and everything was suffering except him and no one else.

This world felt terribly alone. He was going to destroy it.

He found an isolated field away from everyone, He set the device and record on the hard and dry dirt in the night's dark cloak as a way to try and return balance or so he thought. As Elias lit the old player with a flare, an unnatural light spread across the ground.

It cast everything around in odd shadows, giving it a skeletal, grotesque and ghastly view; not what Elias originally anticipated for an outcome as his initial plan of peace quickly faltered in what was happening.

It gave the very ground and rocks a look of despair and dread, the record started and each warped note sent violent tremors; this would be the end he could feel, for himself and this nightmare, a sacrifice for everyone else even if they would not remember it.

The device vibrated, it glowed and shined with colors Elias never saw as it began moving and almost floating above the ground, like some demented flying saucer, all with terrible sounds at its very center and the light seemed to spread quickly with an odd pattern like some sickness eating into the air as it reached to touch Elias.

The night air shifted, it smelled foul and a sudden and sickeningly sharp metallic odor rushed to assault Elias and made him choke on his air, as if the song had poisoned everything and now came for him, like a cruel hunter; to claim its most desired prize.

The world around Elias went completely and horribly silent as his head fell over limp. It looked as if someone paused time.

Everything fell still and silent. He became completely numb as every one of his senses suddenly turned off, every sense became mute in a terrible, eternal sleep; for his final moment he watched as an ethereal figure of smoke and color took hold, wrapped his body into itself like a wet blanket and as quickly, his world went black with terrible and heavy force.

The field was silent, the record player and its record completely vanished from all realities with a great vacuum and his sacrifice was for nothing; no one remembered anything. As the stars shone in the vast darkness above this silent plane, the twisted and silent songs continue to play, forever gone from the living.

Each terrible distorted symphony plays a never-ending, silent requiem for the stolen memories and forgotten realities. Each track, in their lonely, isolated corners; as a forgotten symphony, was left alone in the deep black corners of existence.

No one will remember the great suffering for this peace. They will never hear it but this was an ending of an eerie song to which was both bitter and sad, Elias became a forgotten melody to which everyone will continue dancing.

And as always, the twisted melodies of lost sounds continues.