The Whispers

The Whispers

                That whisper in the back of your head that you just can’t shake. Y’know, like, ‘go down there and take a look, might be something cool!’ Curiosity, sort of. Normally tempered by danger and apathy.

                Imagine something that starts like that, and you’re about to go do it anyway, but then suddenly it’s an actual voice asking you to come down there. I was RIGHT on the verge, and now some… thing is telling me to go. “I want to give you a gift,” it says. “Please come down here!”

                I’ll back up for a moment. I live in a little village in the midst of other little villages in a place where little villages frequently disappear overnight. Apparently it’s a lot better now than it used to be – most villages survive a hundred years or more before something happens. Stories say that half the villages disappearing overnight happened more than once.

                The point is, it’s dangerous around here. There are still big nasty critters around that can kill whoever they want, whenever they want. Plagues accidentally released from some ancient store room. Curses. Tons of ‘everyone died and no-one knows what happened.’ It’s pretty shit, really.

                So I’m not really inclined to listen to mysterious, magical whispers in my head that tell me to go take a look at what lies deep within some random crack I found. I’m going to stick to gathering mushrooms. No chance I’m going in there.

                I’m kind of worried about my picking buddy, though. He saw the same crack – not for as long as me, I think, he just glanced at it. But that might be enough, y’know? He probably doesn’t even remember it. I’ve been meaning to ask him if he’s been hearing whispers too, but I’m worried I might come off as crazy. Or get driven out of the village ‘cause some people are even more paranoid than I am, which would suck horribly. But… Eh, he can’t be stupid enough to head in there.

                Okay, so apparently he CAN be that stupid. He approached me asking if I was hearing these whispers in my head to go into the crack we saw. His ‘whispers in head’ started after mine; and apparently he never got a ‘feeling’ to go take a look. Or he didn’t notice it.

                He comes to me and says “Hey, uh, have you been hearing whispers in your head? About a crack in the woods. I think we saw it the other day?”

                So I say, “Yes, I remember it. And yes, I’ve been hearing things. Heck, I almost wandered down there before I started hearing things when it was just making me feel curious or whatever!”

                “Huh, why didn’t you go down there? I mean, don’t you want-“ he began, but I interrupted him.

                “What? You’re not actually considering going down there, right? It’s a mysterious voice trying really damn hard to get you to go into a mysterious crack in the ground. It’s not going to go well. It doesn’t matter what it bloody offers,” I replied.

                “But it’s a nice voice,” he said. “It sounds like a friendly lady. Like you on a good day.”

                I rolled my eyes and swore at him (I’m not really proud of my tirade so I’ll just skip that bit okay). He wandered off though, and I’m pretty sure he’s headed right out to that damn crack. I don’t know what will happen but I’ve packed my stuff and if he doesn’t reappear in the next few days (or reappears as some kind of terror-monster) I’ll be leaving the village.

                I’m half tempted to leave anyway, but I might get blamed for him going ‘poof’. Ugh, idiot. I think he half expected me to go after him? No way that’s happening.

                Five hours and he’s back already. With magical powers, of all things. There’s some kind of ancient spirit trapped underground and it’s decided to pass on its magic to humans or some crap. So idiot-head is running around lifting boulders and carts and other heavy crap (including a cow for some stupid reason) and I feel like a twerp because MAGICAL POWERS argh.

                Still, better safe than sorry. The spirit is offering to give everyone powers. There are quite a few takers, but I think I’ll wait a few days to make sure they’re not secretly becoming evil or something. I’m going to leave my stuff by the door, too, in case I need to bail.

                I can’t think of any stories that go ‘everyone gets powers’ ‘something goes horribly wrong’ though. And I know a lot; there are plenty of villages that go kaput where someone figures out what happened. I’ll get probably get myself some powers so I stop feeling kinda jealous.

                Ick, jealousy.

                “You shall not be given my gift, as you ignored my call.”

                Biiiiiiiiitch. The spirit said that right to my face. I don’t get powers (which everyone is running around with gleefully and doing crazy stuff with) because I didn’t come running like an idiot. Like that idiot. Ugh.

The spirit takes a female appearance (sort of, they’re like a glowing face/faint body in this misty area of a cave) but I don’t think she really has a gender. Apparently she’s a ‘guardian spirit’ that can normally incarnate and run around doing stuff, but can’t in this world for some reason. She’s been trying to for years but finally got bored (nine or so thousand years to get bored is pretty amazing actually). She has no clue why she can’t leave the cave at all.

She kind of got huffy when I started asking other questions. “Begone, one who I will not gift unto!” Honestly I’m pretty pissed off, but at least no-one’s died horribly or anything. I also know I’m just being a sourpuss ‘cause I’m jealous but magic powers aw. It’s all cool stuff too, like incredible strength, body-lightening so huge jumps are possible (and the force when they hit the ground is low ‘cause total weight is low so no breakages either), throwing lightning bolts around, someone can melt stuff, a few with increased reactions and speed… She even healed old wounds and arthritis and some other age ailments.

I’m really missing out and I’m really grumpy and I’m even kind of regretting being sensible right now and ‘but I’m alive and didn’t risk my life’ doesn’t help when nobody died. I mean, I didn’t take a risk at something that would’ve been both safe and profitable! Hmphgahgrr.

                I’m not sure how I feel about this particular feeling. The one where you were right all along. The spirit is nice and all, but her powers weren’t meant for humans. So everyone’s fucking dead. Yay! Go us. My idiot picking partner was the first to go. He keeled over suddenly and his brain started leaking out of his ear. I’m not sure how, exactly, but it was gross.

                The rest started dying over the next couple of days. A lynch mob went down into the cave but couldn’t do anything to the spirit except swear at her and wave threatening objects through the space she manifested in. She seemed sorry, at least. She didn’t expect this would happen.

                Most of the village broke down in various ways. I hid out in a different nearby cave that people rarely visited. A bunch of those who lost it the most managed to burn down most of the village, I think, and a few people killed each other. Airing grievances before they died.

                I’m pretty sure the last of the other villagers is dead now. The deaths occurred a week and a couple of hours after the ‘gifts’ were given, and the last to get gifts received theirs four days after the first (which is when I was refused). I’ve reversed my feelings on not getting magical powers now.

There were three other people that didn’t take the offer, two because they were housebound and one guy just left (which probably would’ve been a good idea). The two housebound people are dead now (burnt alive). My house is a smouldering pile of ash as well, but I have my stuff. I’m going to move to one of the other nearby villages after I have one last scream at that bloody spirit. And fill in her damn crack.

Okay. I was feeling kind of like filling in her crack would be mean, but when I was yelling at her (and she was being all “I’m so sorry for the deaths I have caused” and sobbing) she let out a “I did not think it would happen again.”

So, yeah. It turns out that this wasn’t the first time she gave people a ‘gift’. She’s actually done it three times before. The previous times were just a few people, not an entire village. She literally said “I thought that most would live, or at least some! Surely there is one who can assume my power, my role!” amidst her rambling.

So I left and I filled in the damn entrance to her cave. Completely. I hope there aren’t any other entrances, but I’m going to share what happened to my village as widely as I can. And hey, what are the chances of being in two villages that get wiped out? Can’t be that high. I should be good until the day I die! Uh, at a ripe old age.