The Whisperers

The silvery spider blinked at Jack as he immersed the spoon into his cereal. It shivered and its eyes twisted angrily at Jack. Jack whispered, “Sorry. You know how breakfast works. I eat cereal every morning. You should be used to being used by now.” The spoon’s spirit blinked eight mirror-like eyes at him and sighed in resignation. Jack lifted the spoon and pulled it towards his mouth. Just before he put the spoon in his mouth Jack saw the spoon’s eyes close. Tightening his grip on the spoon. Jack closed his mouth around it and the spoon’s spirit shuddered, sending a vibration through the spoon, clattering his teeth. His mouth sucked the cereal and milk off the spoon, a small whimper interrupted the vibrations coming from the spoon. Jack pulled the spoon from his mouth and placed it next to his bowl, “Can’t I eat my food in peace?”

The spoon’s spirit seemed to shrink as he glared down at it. Jack sighed. The spoon deserved time to recover after that experience, or so its muttering seemed to indicate. Jack accepted its wish.

Leaning back in the chair, carefully not putting all his weight on it Jack looked up at the ceiling. Doing his best to ignore the eyes staring at him. Damn spirits.

If only it was as nice as easy going as the bowl. The worm-like spirit of the bowl was humming in delight as it orbited its physical self. It liked this morning ritual, a constant in an otherwise crazy life of moving from the dishwasher, to the dish dryer and then to one shelf or another.

There were also those moments bowls heard about. The breaking. Sometimes a friend never came back, you would hear a crash from the outside world and then a human yelling in annoyance, then your friend would never come back. Bowls hated hearing about these things. Being in one place was nice though.

Closing his eyes Jack sent a thought into the abyss. One moment of peace please. He hoped some deity out there would listen. He knew it wouldn’t. He had become very religious for a while after he had learned spirits were a thing. Maniacally searching for answers he had landed on nothing. The world was just pretty fucked up. Gods did not answer. Everything had a spirit Spirit. And their incessant chatter nearly drove him insane. A constant cecerus in his ears, whispering, never ceasing.

Why did he have to see spirits? They were everywhere and they always had some sort of opinion. Even when he wasn’t trying to reach into their minds he would often feel something from them. And those eyes, they were just so expressive. He could not understand their speech, but those eyes communicated with him just fine.

Jack had tried to convince his mom that he did not need much stuff. He had claimed he was a minimalist. Whatever that meant to a kid? It had worked, she had humored him, to a point. His room was pretty bare, but the living room, kitchen and dining room were full of more things than a “minimalist” should have. Why did he have to have these abilities? Especially in America, the land of democracy, land, and piles of things for you to buy. Jack knew his mom did her best to empty the house of things, she only bought what they “needed”. It was making things easier on him, only ten new spirits every few weeks. So much better than some of the kids he saw with new backpacks, pencils and binders every week. Jack shuddered to imagine their homes. The never ending noise of new excited spirits. It made Jack want to crawl somewhere inside, curl up and die.

Opening his eyes again Jack looked at his cereal. The little orbs of grain bobbed slightly as he watched. The worm spirit of the bowl had stopped circling the bowl and was sticking the tip of its tail into the milk. Jack lost his appetite. He stood up, picked up his bowl and dumped its contents out in the sink. Jack closed his eyes and hummed to himself as he cleaned the bowl and spoon. Shutting off the water Jack peaked at the bowl and spoon. The spoon was blinking its eyes trying to rid them of water. The bowl had closed its eyes and was waiting. This was its least favorite part. It was slippery now and was more likely to fall.

Jack carefully picked up the bowl, turned it upside down and placed it into the dish drain. Its relief was like a flicker of a match, entering Jack’s mind before becoming extinguished by the gust of wind of Jack’s own relief. He hadn’t dropped one of the bowls in ages, but they still feared the transition. Hell he still feared it. His mom still dropped them all the time and Jack wasn’t sure if the spirits knew the difference between him and his mom. He had never asked. Jack plopped the spoon into the dish drain, not bothering to look at it as a sliver of relief flowed from the spoon to him.

An alarm broke the chorus of whispers around him. Reaching into his pocket Jack turned off the alarm. This was his first alarm, if he left for school now he would be early enough to study. Did he want to be early today? It wouldn’t be too bad. He could work on sixth period homework. He hadn’t done that yet, the pencil had been screaming after being held for so long at school. He had only done an hour of homework.

Making up his mind in a moment Jack walked to the door pulled on his shoes, ignoring the slight groan of pain it’s spirit threw at him. Jack took his school bag off the wall and walked out the door.

The walk was uneventful. Jack always walked looking down, trying to avoid eye contact with all the spirits looking for someone to notice them. He walked fast too because of this, twenty minutes to walk five miles. He had told his mom how fast he got to school once and his mom had thought he jogged there.But he didn’t he simply walked fast, he didn’t even get tired.

When he had first seen the spirits he had run everywhere, trying to find areas where they did not exist. That was how Jack had discovered that the spirits were attached to objects and that all objects had a spirit.

Jack always figured this period of sweating had given his glands enough of a work out. Because now he rarely sweats, unless he was in a double PE, everyone sweat during two hours of physical education.

Jack shuffled through the school’s metal gate and into his first class without looking up. When he was situated in his chair he untied his hair, letting the black curtain fall, blocking his peripheral vision. Allowing him to look down and focus on his notes,by creating a realm of darkness where only he lived. Life science, ugh, couldn’t they just call it Biology? Nope Sophomore’s were not ready to learn about such a complex topic, unless you were taking Advanced classes. Life science was simple, easy, barely even science, mainly just facts. No labs or fun.

Ripping a blank piece of paper from his notebook Jack began to sketch out the two models he had to memorize for homework. Golgi apparatus, ribosomes there. A sense of dread pulled Jack’s attention towards the window. He did not want to look but could not help himself.

Looking out the window Jack could see purple smoke rising in the distance. A house fire? So many spirits were dying, Jack shudder, lifting his hands to cover his ears. How could he hear each scream from here?The screams seemed to shake his skull, demanding every ounce of his attention. Grimacing Jack removed his hands from his ears and reached into his bag.

Jack pulled out well worn earbuds and placed them into his ears. It didn’t stop the voices. The music would just help overstimulate his mind, dulling the screams. He had made a deal long ago with the small ant like spirit of the earbuds. It would live only on the headphone jack, not speaking in exchange for a life next to a rock. Jack did not know why but the spirit had taken a liking to a rock he had found as a four year old, but it had. So, Jack carried the rock around with him. Keeping the earbuds tying the earbuds around it when he wasn’t using them. So far the earbuds had lasted five years, as long as he had owned them. That wasn’t bad, right? Most kids he knew had to spend small fortunes on headphones, breaking all the time.

The faint screaming still echoed in his head. Jack increased the volume of the music, back in black blared in his ears. Jack sighed and looked up from his drawing, other students were starting to enter the classroom. None of them were popular kids. the pops were outside gossiping, laughing, and copying each other’s homework. The early kids were the ones who either liked school or who ran from home to school as soon as they could, escaping some sort of trouble. There were others, they came in late and had the worst lives of us all. Even the voices weren’t that bad.

Jack looked back down, avoiding the eyes of the others he finished his life science assignment. Easy as baking a pie. Leaning back in his chair Jack closed his eyes. He tried to roll his shoulders back into the chair. He shouldn’t be tense still. Yet, the was the music wasn’t working today. A flicker like fire was burning through his blood, scorching each and every cell. The fire should be out and everything should have been saved, the screaming should have stopped yet the pain was growing.

Opening his eyes and pulling out his phone Jack flicked open the news apps he had, trying to find any breaking news stories that involved mass death or destruction. Nothing. Just some minor robberies, pet rescues, and deaths. Something had to be happening, somewhere. Shutting down his phone Jack put it back into his pocket and closed his eyes, waiting for class to start.

As he tilted back further Jack felt himself relax as something tilted in his mind. Forcing all his worries away. The tilt twisted as Jack remembered himself and tensed into a ball of twisted iron, his world shattered, thoughts and worries faded.

Jack found himself standing in a forest looking out into a clearing with a stream. Several deer were bent over the stream, drinking. Jack took a step towards the light glittering from the stream. A twig cracked. Jack frowned and stepped back as his heart fluttered. Jack looked down. There were no twigs, just grass. Was he dreaming? He couldn’t see any spirits, he always saw spirits in dreams. Looking back into the clearing Jack saw that the deer had vanished, in there place was a human in a tan jacket and black jeans, a faint scream began in the back of his skull, creeping deeper and deeper through him.

Jack crouched and slunk behind a tree as the man turned towards him. Jack’s spine tingled with fear as a malicious mood reached out towards him. What was this dream? Wake up Wake up Wake up!!!!

The screaming intensified as Jack felt the man take a deep hungry breath, as if he was trying to draw in the entire world. Feelings dissipated. The world went grey, and Jack woke up, falling face first into his desk. The screaming roared through him with a vengeance, sending pain through his gums as he rubbed his head into his desk..

The students closest to Jack eyed him nervously. He felt himself turn red. Jack pushed on the desk harder with his forehead. Wishing he could become a part of it. Hoping to be forgotten.

Ms.Still looked up from her newspaper. Eyes frowning briefly, before fluttering back to the page.

Jack looked up at the clock, rubbing his forehead. The reflective spirit of it was sleeping at the bottom of the clock, its body jiggled and shimmered as it breathed. Ten minutes till class started, that was a close one.

Who knew what sort of punishment Ms.Still would have given out to someone who slept in her class. She was a fair grader and all. Kinder to those who kissed her ass but she cared a bit too much about teaching. Anyone who was caught not paying attention was given extra work, or worse, they had to make a presentation and had to teach the subject they had been forced to study for a whole hour.

The thought of having to see all of the spirits and students whispering as he fumbled over some presentation made Jack sink into his chair and hope he wouldn’t attract any more attention. He did his best to ignore the screaming. The smoke continued to gather out of the corner of his eye.

Note to self, sleep better. Jack wrote these words down and stared at them as the pain of spirits miles away began to fade. It was an impossible task. One spirit or other was always making a ruckus. he had tried everything for ages and nothing worked. He only fell asleep after exhaustion set in. Whatever that dream had been it had to be a part of his sleep deprived mind. Right? The fading screams were just a coincidence.

Thinking back to his mother’s attempts to cure his insomnia Jack felt a faint smile creep onto his face. A priest, she had called a catholic priest, neither of them were religious, but he had blessed the house. That had been last year, his freshman year. The spirits had grown excited after that. They had apparently thought the priest had Jack’s ability, but as far as Jack had been able to tell he hadn’t. Jack had tried salts after that, which resulted in sneezing spirits. Uhg, that had lasted for weeks. Following this he had tried painting occult symbols on each item to see if it did anything. Nothing had happened. Jacks fist made an involuntary jerky claw, like a gesture of defence. Nothing good at least.

After these failures Jack had given up trying to sleep well. He drank coffee and tea instead, ate antioxidants, green veggies, all the vitamins health experts recommend and lived off of three to five hours of sleep a night. It worked most of the time. That is to say he wasn’t tired every day of the week, just three or four out of the seven.

Sighing Jack reached into his backpack, brushing aside the sloth like spirit as it tried to reach into the bag with him, and took out the life science book. Ms.Still liked teaching from the book for some reason. By now most of the teachers simply told the students to leave their books at home. They would then make powerpoints with images and examples rather than force the students to carry around a five pound book. Not Ms.Still though she had to make sure every student observe the images two feet from their noses.

The school bell rang causing its slug like spirit to exude liquid. Jack scrunched his face in disgust as some of the purple liquid splattered onto his desk. The moist liquid began to attract itself, dropping off Jack’s desks and congregating on the floor next to him. He watched the liquid become gelatinous like its creator.

Ms. Still stood up, “Okay everyone get out your notes, put away your phones, and let us begin, please.” The students around Jack shifted slightly in their seats, some put their phones away, while others hid them under their notes and books. Ms.Still began the lesson, her monotone voice bulldozed into the room lulling its occupants into a stupor.

Some students began to doodle and tinker with their phones, sending the spirits of their phones into a fit of ecstasy. Jack did his best to ignore the fireworks and comets the phones let off. Instead he focused on the bell spirits’ ozze as it began to fade. Liquid shifted into gel as it changed colors, fading from royal purple to a light violet. The snot still jiggled and light reflected through it, creating a rainbow on the other side of its form as the light violet color began to dilute, becoming clear. How did light go through them?

Let the daily questioning begin. Jack opened the back of his note book and wrote down the question. It was a new one apparently. Followed by a typical one, how can I interact with them? Trying to touch them caused them to back away from him and hide, if he chased the spirit too far from its physical self the object would have some sort of accident or simply break, then the spirit would fade.

Jack had only touched a spirit once. After months of trying to trap one. He had managed to create a system that worked using salt, running water, and fire. Apparently water and fire scared the spirits, possibly destroying them? Setting up a bath and candles and leading a spirit towards it from the other side of the house had been enough. Jack hadn’t been able to figure out why, but the spirits in the bathroom hadn’t been afraid. They had simply left the room when Jack started lighting matches. On the other hand Jack had chased a pencil spirit into the bathroom. It had stopped dead at the door ,staring into the room, paralyzed by fear at the sight of fire and water.

Jack had picked it up and taken a closer look at it. It hadn’t lasted long, the spirit had vanished a moment later after sneezing due to its earlier bombardment with salt, becoming mist and vanishing. He had been able to see the spirits for a year by that point and the moment had scared him. He had felt the spirit die in his hand, running to the pencil the spirit had belonged to, hoping that the spirit had simply returned to it, only to find it hadn’t. The pencil was merely a pile of grey ash that blew away a moment later on an unfelt breeze.

Looking back towards the gelatinous snot Jack saw it vanish, becoming mist, leaving behind a rainbow for a brief second. What would it have felt like to touch? He should have reached for it. Who knew when he would be able to collect the snot from a clock spirit again. Giving an inward sigh Jack looked up at Ms.Still and tried to pay attention.

It didn’t work, he found entertainment in the spirit of the pencil he held. Doing his best to capture the spirit as it jogged around his desk, he let the spirit stay ahead of him.The pencil ended Jack’s fun by running to the edge of his desk. The spirit turned and looked at Jack, its thin brow furrowed. It held its spindly arms out as if confused and jumped running away from him.. Why was it confused? It was used to him being able to see them, he would occasionally talk to them and tap them out of the way. Was catching them some sort of taboo for spirit kind? If it was then why?

Jack felt the foulness outside congeal, becoming fouler, darker.. The feeling washed over him like a chill, making him natious. Sweat began to bead along his brow as the feeling crested inside of him. It felt black and sticky like tar. He couldn’t touch it though, couldn’t find its source. Turning to look out the window towards the smoke he had seen earlier, nothing. The smoke had cleared, the screams were gone, but the foulness thrived. Jack’s stomach reacted to the foulness. Heaving, Jack’s body did the only thing it knew worked against this much toxin. Nothing came out, he hadn’t consumed anything toxic. His body heaved so much that he collapsed sliding off his chair and onto the floor, breathing became difficult as his body tried harder to expel the toxins.

Students stood and gathered around him. Ms.Stills monotonous voice picked up a tint of fear as she yelled, “Everyone give him room to breath” The sound of the phone being returned to a receiver followed, “Damn phone line, Ms.Evans I want you to run to the nurses office and bring someone to help our ill student.”

Jack blocked out the rest of the noise after hearing all of this, becoming immersed in the sticky darkness trying to understand what it was and where it came from.Towards the forest obviously. The smoke had caused spirits to scream, affecting only Jack, now he was affected again. Whatever was causing his illness he had to find it.

A moment later Jack felt warmth crawl up his leg and latch on to it, spreading through him, burrowing deeper into his bones. A moment later he felt himself lifted into the air and he began to float as someone carried him from the classroom. He was getting closer to the source of the darkness, violent pain rolling his stomach. No! He turned the wrong direction, his heaves became less violent. The warmth inside of him spread through him, vanishing deeper into his soul. As it faded the feeling of darkness released Jack. Leaving him shivering and exhausted.

Voices returned to him, piercing the wall he had created around himself and the world. Ms.Still was talking to someone. “I don’t know why. All I know is I was describing the structure of a cell wall and the boy collapsed and was breathing with difficulty.”

A new voice spoke, “Perhaps he hasn’t slept enough, he seems to have drifted off now. Stress can do terrible things to our bodies.” The sound of a clipboard being picked up and papers rustling followed, “Please fill this out Ms, Still and then I will watch over the boy.”

“Okay.” the sound of scribbling, “I will see you later Ms. Penny. I hope you have a good day.” the air hissed as a door was opened and closed.

Jack felt himself relax, okay. No one was going to blame his mother, he always feared they would. Didn’t they blame the parents normally if a kid did not sleep enough? No silly, those are just TV shows. Parents are given credit in the real world. Adults know how hard it is to be an adult. They don’t blame other adults for failures. Jack felt a laugh bubbling up from his stomach. It made it to his ribs before backing down, giving way to pain as Jack’s lungs reminded the rest of the body that it had just gone through some sort of trauma.

The pain became a cough as his lungs realized that the near laughing fit had brought too much air into their pained cavities. Jack sat up, trying to slow the coughing and finding new pains. The pain crawled along his upper back and around his chest. His body felt as if his torso had been crushed while someone forced him to breath in corrosive gas.

The clicking of heels on tiled floors indicated the arrival of the nurse, “Here sit up and try to drink some water.” A hand pressed against Jack’s sore shoulders as the nurse helped him sit up. She handed him a glass of water. Taking a shaky breath Jack managed to stop coughing and lifted the glass to his mouth, taking in a small sip, he swallowed. He handed the glass back to the nurse and nodded his head in thanks, taking deeper breaths trying to assess the damage. The soreness seemed to be dissipating the longer he sat there. Probably his body adjusting the chemicals around so he could survive the pain without panicking. Nothing like a coughing fit to wake a near unconscious mind.

Jack looked at the nurse and smiled out her, “Thank you for your help.” The nurses young face shifted from concern into a slight smile, her eyes crinkled into familiar lines and dimples deepend.

“No problem. Mr….?”

“Oh um, Rue.” Jack’s stomach flipped, his father’s name. The only thing he had left from a dead man.

“Ah Mr. Rue, your teacher forgot your name when she filled out the report.”

Jack looked down, “I don’t talk much in class.”

The nurse’s voice continued to smile, “ No problem, every student is a little different. Do you think you are ready for class again or should I call your parents to come and collect you?”

“Um I’ll call my mom.” Jack looked up at the nurse and smiled, “Could I go outside to make the call?”

The nurse snorted, “ No. Do you know how many kids just ditch school without their parents permission by doing that? Your parents have to come in and sign papers if you are to leave school early. I will have to talk to your mom too.” The nurse folded her hands behind her back and watched Jack intently as he decided what he wanted to do.

Jack looked away, “Ah I see. Can I just stay here for a period or two then?” He couldn’t worry his mom and make her leave work early. Just for him. Especially not for the issues his spirits caused.

The nurse nodded,“Sure, just let me know if you need anything.” The nurses heels clacked away. Pausing for a moment, “By the way Im Ms.Tiffany. Just holler if you need anything.

“ Okay, thanks.” Jack looked over at the nurse as she pulled out a chair and sat at her desk. The spirit of her chair swayed back and forth as if it were a charmed snake, it pulled its elongated head over the nurses shoulder, slightly leaning, and watched her as she typed. Jack leaned back into the bed like a couch and closed his eyes, trying to forget the pain, the dream, and the searing darkness that had caused his pain. It was definitely a Monday morning. Hopefully the afternoon wouldn’t be worse.