Quiet

Please be quiet. I need to think. You need to listen. Turn off the lights and try to be quiet. These thoughts have been swirling around in my mind for days. People say I'm paranoid. They say these thoughts are not healthy. They say I need to take the medicine and make them go away. I don't believe them. Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not after you. Have you ever noticed that the things that scare us all share common characteristics? Pale skin, dark, sunken eyes, elongated faces and razor-sharp teeth... These images inspire horror and revulsion in most people, and with good reason. The characteristics shared by these faces are imprinted in the human mind and we are instinctively terrified by them. The question you have to ask yourself is this: What happened, long ago and deep in the past, that could affect the entire human race so much as to permanently cause us to be terrified by pale beings with dark, sunken eyes, elongated faces and razor-sharp teeth? Just be careful out there. You know how you sometimes hear a friend or loved one call your name and you turn around, only to discover that nobody is there? The same thing can happen when you see someone on the street. They look like someone you know, but for some reason, you know it isn't them. They want you to think they are who you think they are. That's the only way they can get to you. You've heard the voices calling you. Pay attention to the voices of your loved ones and learn to recognize them. Remember the last time you spoke to your mom and she seemed a little strange... Well, there's a reason for that. They have to practice first. One night, I picked up a hitchhiker. He seemed alright when he got into my car, but he didn't say a word. I turned on the radio to cover the awkward silence as I drove. He hurriedly turned it off. There was a panicked look in his eyes. 'They hide the voices that way,' he said. I figured he was just a drunk and I dropped him off at his house to sleep it off. Ever since then, whenever I turn on the radio, I hear a strange static noise. It sounds like thousands of voices whispering in unison. If you listen closely, you can hear them say horrible, unspeakable things. So, please don't turn on the radio. They hide the voices that way. The most likely place for a person to disappear is a parking lot, especially at large retail stores or amusement parks. It's not always a kidnapping, although that's what the owners like to say. The truth is, many parking lots are built over old cemeteries. The owners buy the property and move the graves, but they always miss a few. These few try to get out and find company again, but the asphalt is usually too thick. Sometimes, though, they get through and people disappear. The lot owners then pave over the hole and forget about it. So, next time you are going through a parking lot late at night, trying to find your car, mind the pot holes and don't listen to the person in the black suit who asks for help. Remember, they bury the dead in black suits. Next time you take a bath, place your head under the water and close your eyes. You don't have to submerge our mouth or nose, just enough to where your ears and eyes are under. Listen closely. Do you hear the noise? It sounds like wet footsteps. That's the sound of the drowned dead walking. Do you see the water playing tricks with the shadows? That's them coming to welcome a new member to their ranks. Remember how I said not to put your nose and mouth under? That's important. After hearing them in the water once, you will hear them anytime. Don't worry, that sound you just heard, like mushy wet footsteps, and that strange shadow from the corner of your eye... That's just them checking on the next person to join their march. I stopped writing the night I fell into the swamp. I saw something. I'm not sure what it was, but it scared me. My memory of what happened that night is long gone, but I recall waking up in the swamp. I could feel myself being dragged down into the muddy water. There was nothing solid for me to stand on. The police took me