Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The Noise
I swear to you that something unspeakable resides in Hellems. Something... Lovecraftian. It howled at me.
I know naught what brought me there when I knew there would be nothing for me. It was closed to my entreaties, and yet I braved it in the hopes that I could hand my portfolio into the feeble-minded teacher's irrelevant mailbox. Oh, how much more irrelevant it seems now, and how much more feeble-minded we all seem! Regardless of the futility, I entered, and at first it seemed so ghastly empty that i almost laughed. Oh, I sweetly regard and miss the boy who would have laughed at that.
When I approached a door, a trembling wail picked up from behind it. It sounded as perhaps a mechanical device, perhaps a printer; but I doubt that it was truly that. It did not sound enough like one for it to truly have been a printer. That is just the approximation my mind applied to it, to cope with the terror that some long forgotten part of it knew lay beyond that door. I hope that it is to my fortune that this was not the door that I had come to pass through.
I advanced down the hallway, still that boy who would have laughed at the emptiness. I reached the end of it-though, not really the end, not quite the end. There was an alcove, one that I was familiar with; when I had to venture into its labyrinth-like basement, I always exited through that door, as it was nearest the stairs that I utilized as my exit. Beneath this door, both inside and out, lies another door-one that no normal person would find need to access. I have explored this door previously; as near as I could find, it was nothing but an ordinary door.
Next to the alcove, was a sign announcing that the English Department was closed today, due to the snow. Yet, I still advanced to the doors of the English Department. I approached the door smugly, knowing that I would not gain entry, but daring to explore still. The door had the same notice as was posted next to the alcove. I shrugged carelessly, and nearly turned to leave, when The Noise came once more.
It started out sounding just like the other noise had. But this time I feared to move, I feared to turn away from the door to leave. The Noise picked up, becoming a howling, an eldritch noise which defies description. It became louder, and angrier, and more of things that cannot be known to the human mind, yet are known now to mine.
I peeked through the darkened and smoked glass of the window. All inside was black, but for one spot. One spot, near the bottom right of the window, was stark white. My mind told me that it looked like a snowdrift, a snowdrift on a plain of utter blackness. I could not believe my mind this time, and could only believe my eyes.
Still The Noise, oh, The Noise, persisted!
I felt the terror fill my bosom. I knew that if I did not leave quickly, the howling, the snowdrift, the Noise, the Hellems Creature, would burst forth and consume me with true madness. I fumbled with my hat-under different circumstances, it may have been comical to me. Oh, it will never seem comical again. I backed into the alcove, nearly turning, fearing to turn and burst forth through the door, as quickly as my muscles would take me. I sped forward, I sped through the snow. I turned from the door, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a light above the lower door come on. I dared not stop to investigate what it was. I knew already what it was, what it had to be.
I sped through the snow, not bothering to concern myself with balance. I did not fall. I did not dare fall. I turned once more, my shoes now filled with snow. I continued running until I was entirely past Hellems. Only then did I finally dare to look back. There was nothing visible pursuing me.
A howling erupted from the building that was next on my course! I nearly fell in despair, sure that the campus was ready to unleash it's Elder Horrors upon me so that none may ever know what little I had learned. But this sound was, happily, nothing more than the wind, brushing rapidly past the snow curved atop the building, whose name I do not care to know.
Still, I ran back towards my own building, Baker. Not with such the speed that I had fled from Hellems with, but with a speed which I could not replicate under casual circumstances. From Duane Physics, which I had just passed, I heard a whistling, and feared once more-it couldn't be with me now, my own building was in sight! Oh, how glad I was when I realized it was no more than the echo of a boy in the field, not much my elder, burying himself in snow for his own inscrutable purposes.
I was finally nearly at my building when a girl screamed from far ahead of me. I froze; were she in real danger, would I risk my own life against the Hellems Creature? I feared the answer may be yes, and I knew that before my life was ended by it I would be forced to face a thousand madnesses. But then she screamed again, and laughed. Fearing another distraction, I fled into my building.
And that is where you found me, a broken, scared man.
I know naught what brought me there when I knew there would be nothing for me. It was closed to my entreaties, and yet I braved it in the hopes that I could hand my portfolio into the feeble-minded teacher's irrelevant mailbox. Oh, how much more irrelevant it seems now, and how much more feeble-minded we all seem! Regardless of the futility, I entered, and at first it seemed so ghastly empty that i almost laughed. Oh, I sweetly regard and miss the boy who would have laughed at that.
When I approached a door, a trembling wail picked up from behind it. It sounded as perhaps a mechanical device, perhaps a printer; but I doubt that it was truly that. It did not sound enough like one for it to truly have been a printer. That is just the approximation my mind applied to it, to cope with the terror that some long forgotten part of it knew lay beyond that door. I hope that it is to my fortune that this was not the door that I had come to pass through.
I advanced down the hallway, still that boy who would have laughed at the emptiness. I reached the end of it-though, not really the end, not quite the end. There was an alcove, one that I was familiar with; when I had to venture into its labyrinth-like basement, I always exited through that door, as it was nearest the stairs that I utilized as my exit. Beneath this door, both inside and out, lies another door-one that no normal person would find need to access. I have explored this door previously; as near as I could find, it was nothing but an ordinary door.
Next to the alcove, was a sign announcing that the English Department was closed today, due to the snow. Yet, I still advanced to the doors of the English Department. I approached the door smugly, knowing that I would not gain entry, but daring to explore still. The door had the same notice as was posted next to the alcove. I shrugged carelessly, and nearly turned to leave, when The Noise came once more.
It started out sounding just like the other noise had. But this time I feared to move, I feared to turn away from the door to leave. The Noise picked up, becoming a howling, an eldritch noise which defies description. It became louder, and angrier, and more of things that cannot be known to the human mind, yet are known now to mine.
I peeked through the darkened and smoked glass of the window. All inside was black, but for one spot. One spot, near the bottom right of the window, was stark white. My mind told me that it looked like a snowdrift, a snowdrift on a plain of utter blackness. I could not believe my mind this time, and could only believe my eyes.
Still The Noise, oh, The Noise, persisted!
I felt the terror fill my bosom. I knew that if I did not leave quickly, the howling, the snowdrift, the Noise, the Hellems Creature, would burst forth and consume me with true madness. I fumbled with my hat-under different circumstances, it may have been comical to me. Oh, it will never seem comical again. I backed into the alcove, nearly turning, fearing to turn and burst forth through the door, as quickly as my muscles would take me. I sped forward, I sped through the snow. I turned from the door, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a light above the lower door come on. I dared not stop to investigate what it was. I knew already what it was, what it had to be.
I sped through the snow, not bothering to concern myself with balance. I did not fall. I did not dare fall. I turned once more, my shoes now filled with snow. I continued running until I was entirely past Hellems. Only then did I finally dare to look back. There was nothing visible pursuing me.
A howling erupted from the building that was next on my course! I nearly fell in despair, sure that the campus was ready to unleash it's Elder Horrors upon me so that none may ever know what little I had learned. But this sound was, happily, nothing more than the wind, brushing rapidly past the snow curved atop the building, whose name I do not care to know.
Still, I ran back towards my own building, Baker. Not with such the speed that I had fled from Hellems with, but with a speed which I could not replicate under casual circumstances. From Duane Physics, which I had just passed, I heard a whistling, and feared once more-it couldn't be with me now, my own building was in sight! Oh, how glad I was when I realized it was no more than the echo of a boy in the field, not much my elder, burying himself in snow for his own inscrutable purposes.
I was finally nearly at my building when a girl screamed from far ahead of me. I froze; were she in real danger, would I risk my own life against the Hellems Creature? I feared the answer may be yes, and I knew that before my life was ended by it I would be forced to face a thousand madnesses. But then she screamed again, and laughed. Fearing another distraction, I fled into my building.
And that is where you found me, a broken, scared man.
