The Noise

I jerk awake, like I heard a loud bang.

The first thing was the sound.

Not my alarm. Not my roommate's breathing. She wasn't even home.

Not normal sounds.

This was different.

Louder. Closer. Everywhere.

A rhythmic tick-tick-tick skittered from the wall beside me.

I turned my head, already knowing.

Ants.

I could hear their footsteps.

Tiny legs tapping against the plaster as they marched in perfect rows, their little jaws clicking as they carried food.

My stomach turned.

But that wasn't all.

I could hear the spider, too.

Its fangs piercing soft flesh. The wet squelch of something smaller, something alive, being crushed between its mandibles.

I gagged.

Rolled over…and was hit with the smell.

Sweat. Perfume. Skin cells. Decay. Pasta. Pasta? I wasn't cooking. I had just woken up.

The smell wasn't coming from my room.

It came from the entire building.

From the streets outside.

From everywhere.

My stomach twisted. My throat burned. I could taste the staleness of the air. The mold creeping in the corners of my dorm. The unwashed sheets on my bed.

The dust on my desk.

I knew it wasn't just dust.

Dead skin. Insect droppings. Tiny corpses.

I scrambled up, knocking my lamp over.

My hands burned.

I looked down and there were no burns.

But I knew.

This desk is coated in bacteria.

My stomach lurched.

I turned, stumbling to the sink. Water. I needed water.

I grabbed my cup and the moment my fingers touched it, I knew.

This isn't clean.

The germs on the rim. The way the molecules moved inside.

I saw it. Felt it.

I knew the exact number of contaminants in the water, the exact bacteria waiting to crawl into my mouth.

I threw it across the room.

My breathing hitched.

The walls…they were moving.

No?

No, they weren't.

I just knew what was in them.

The bugs hiding in the cracks. The mold spores drifting through the air.

I could smell every layer of paint, every chemical used to make it.

The ceiling light flickered.

I felt the electricity humming inside the wires.

The vibrations under my feet.

The voices in my head. Whispers, screams, laughter.

Someone was crying.

Someone was praying.

Someone was lying in bed, dying.

Not here. Not in my dorm.

Somewhere else.

But I knew it.

I knew it all.

And it was killing me.

I collapsed against the door, my body shaking.

I wanted to rip my own skin off.

To claw out my eyes, to un-hear, un-smell, un-know all of it.

I couldn't live like this.

I wouldn't.

I curled into myself, arms wrapping tight around my knees.

I could feel every heartbeat in the building.

And I wished mine would stop.