From
the Audio Journal of Niles Dantes
November
19th, 1981
I strove first to communicate with the children. Though
efforts at conventional speech continued to be of no avail, I pressed onward,
channeling all my thought, all my will, into a single mental command that,
soundless though it were, seemed to echo throughout the phantom chamber.
Heed
me.
As one, the children turned in my direction, alarm and
confusion spreading across their faces at the voice that seemed to have come
from nowhere. Indeed, even as they gazed toward me, their eyes remained
unseeing, darting back and forth uncertainly. Was I invisible, then? Present in
some physical capacity that remained shrouded to the inhabitants of this
strange realm of my own making? Or was I a spirit disembodied, set adrift by
some higher power or incomprehensible wrinkle of fate? My inability to move
implied the latter.
Regardless of the nature of my state or its cause, the
children could not see the source of the voice they had clearly all heard. As
mass panic threatened to set in among them, I ‘spoke’ once more, attempting to
shift my thoughts into a softer tone as I asked that they remain calm.
Their nervous murmurings and wavering glances only
intensified at this. A few of the children began crying. When I restated my
desire for them to be at ease, hysteria finally erupted, as all of the children
began screaming and frantically running this way and that, some huddling into
corners, others fleeing from the room or otherwise passing beyond my still
static field of view.
All save one.
An auburn-haired girl of perhaps nine held her
ground, her fear clearly matched by resolve tinged with curiosity.
“Please, whoever you are, whatever you are, don’t hurt us”, she whispered, still glancing
about in a vain attempt to see me.
I
shan’t harm you, child. I merely wish to speak with you, to gain understanding.
I am…new…here and unsure of a great many things.
“Who…who are you?”
My
name is Niles Dantes, and I…
Our conversation was interrupted as the screaming of
the others intensified. Between the noise and continued unease caused by my
disembodied state, it was becoming increasingly difficult to muster the level
of concentration needed to continue speaking in this unorthodox fashion. I must
confess that I am generally not a very patient man, and here my frustration
finally boiled over. I issued another
command at the entire room, inadvertently willing
the children into a single state, the potency of my thoughts strengthened by my
anger.
Be
still!
And still they were. Every last individual in that
room was suddenly deathly quiet, frozen in place without so much as a blinking
eyelid or quivering muscle to be seen. To my horror, they remained that way,
petrified, their unaltered appearances the only thing distinguishing them from
the hapless victims of a Gorgon. Even the brave girl I was conversing with was
so inflicted, her head imprisoned in a slight tilt begun by her curiosity and preserved
by my own foolishness.
I had only meant to tell the children to be still,
not force this terrible state upon them! I frantically began attempting to
issue thoughts reversing the affliction, yet my mind was drained, hollow,
devoid of the energy needed to issue a command of sufficient strength.
Even as I stared into the frozen blue eyes of the
poor child I had been speaking to, she and rest of the surrounding world were
gone. Physical sensation was restored, and I found myself slumped on the couch
of my apartment, exactly as I had planned before.
I had returned.
Note from the author: I apologize for the long delay since the previous post. I was suffering from an infuriating case of writer's block. For the final few entries of the narrative, I have decided to alter the format of user feedback in order to give you, the audience, greater influence. Rather than offer a binary choice, I instead pose a question: The little girl that spoke to Dantes in this entry will become a recurring character for the rest of the story. Given that she is essentially a tabula rasa within the context of the narrative, what kind of personality traits would you like her to develop? What should her name be? I will attempt to incorporate as many responses as possible into future entries.
