Story-A-Day #339: Voices

VOICES

It was a cool, crisp Sunday and I was making my home from a birthday party that had turned into a random overnight stay with a girl that I had just met.  We had shared her bed, and a few stories about each other, but that was it.  I thought things might end up going somewhere exciting, but the chaste evening of cuddles and comfort had been enough - I wasn't looking for anything more anyway.  Besides, I was pretty drunk, so it probably would have ended in embarrassment had things escalated any further.  I'm honest enough to be able to admit to that.

We bid a mostly comfortable farewell at her door, accompanied by an exchange of chaste cheek kisses, then I set out for home, the smell of the night before oozing from my pores despite the fresh breeze blowing through the morning.  It had been a good night, and I was confident that I would actually call, or at the very least send a text message to, the number I had just punched into my phone.  That could wait though.  For now, all I could think of was a nice warm shower to sluice off the remnants of the night before.

The cool breeze buffeted me as I made my way along the leaf-strewn street, whipping my heavily laden jacket pockets in every direction.  I could hear a half emptied tin of mints jangling hollowly with every gust.  Moments later, I could hear another sound, a hushed urgent chanting.  I paused, straining to hear above the blowing wind.

I could just make out the words, barely discernible over the breeze.  "We've been waiting for you.  We've been needing you," the voices murmured.  There was an oddly discordant tone to the voice, not quite masculine, not quite feminine.  It was almost an animalian voice, if animals were capable of speech.

I noticed the grate in the ground next to me.  I had passed a few of them on my way home, and it seemed, unlikely as it was, that the metal slats were the source for the sounds I had been hearing.  I stepped closer, bending down so I could peer into the gloomy depths, and the voices returned.

"He is perfect.  Just what we need."

I frowned, and was about to take a closer look when my phone vibrated.  I had a new text message.  "Thanks for a great night. hope to hear from you soon."

I was just typing in my response when the first tendril shot out of the grill and lashed around my neck.  The grating slid to the side and I found myself being dragged into the dark and along a narrow tunnel strewn with leaves.

"So happy to have you," the voices echoed.

The last thing I saw was my phone's screen, the service indicator whirling as the message I had been sending got lost in the dark.  She would never know how happy I was to have met her.

The screen winked to black.