The Town Whispers: Season 1

Chapter 2: A Whisper Not Whispered

In a town as small as The Fort, with as mouths as big as those on the sneering faces of less understanding neighbors, like those that learnt of, or thought they learnt of Mildred LaPonte's scandalous moonlit insanity, well it doesn't take long until everyone is knowingly nodding at each other about you know what.

And of course, Mildred's husband, who doesn't really deserve a name, so will not receive one just yet, did not support her. Instead his worries lay on minimizing the embarrassment suffered by his once prominent family.

And Peggy LaPonte, Mildred's youngest child, and only daughter, who had seen her mother acting crazy, and cackling in the moments before dawn, was left speechless.... In the most literal sense she would not speak. Not to her self serving father, and not to her brothers. Even at the best of time's she only ever whispered in her mother's ear.

Mildred thought it was cute, like all of Peggy's love was just for her. Peggy would come up and hug her leg, and Mildred would bend down. Peggy would cup her tiny soft hands around her ear and whisper so gently that it would tickle Mildred's ear lobe, and Mildred would laugh, and get Peggy whatever she wanted, because her daughter was the most precious thing in the world to her.

But after that night, Peggy felt afraid of her mother, afraid to see her, afraid she'd still be covered in wet cobwebs and dirt, she was afraid she'd see her mom laughing hysterically in bed, to the point were there was no noise but the clicking of her airless, suffocating throat.

Peggy's father had pushed her away from the room anytime he saw her mustering the strength to go see her mother, who had not left her room since that morning.

Giving her a gruff "leave her alone" and pushing her back in the opposite direction.

What would be so terrible that she wasn't able to see her mother and whisper in her ear

"I love you the most."

That's all she wanted to do. Peggy just wanted to tell her mother she loved her, and have he mother smile and touch the tip of Peggy's nose to her, before whispering back

"I love you the most too."

Even if Peggy hadn't been stopped by her father, and even if the door hadn't been locked, she wasn't sure if she would walk through, she wasn't sure she could open her eyes and see her mother, because she was afraid that what she'd see would not be her mom but someone else, someone different. And so Peggy went to bed, silently, having said nothing to her father, who had given up on trying to speak to her ages ago, and having no one to tell her fears too, as they festered in her mind.

Peggy sat on her bed.

The springs in her mattress had a particular way of sticking, and making an awful groan as they tore at the insides of the mattress, startling her as it struck her in the back.

She hadn't woken to the stinging pain of a unstuck spring in her back though.

No something else had woken her that night.

Peggy had slept with her window open, the damp air that rested along the ground outside her home had crept up the porch, along the gutter, over the eaves and into her room.

Her hot breath cast a cloud in front of her mouth that obscured her, blurry, sleepy eyed vision of the room.

[scratching]

There was something in the room with her

Peggy opened her eyes as wide as they would go trying to see what was in her room

But nothing moved silent

Whose there?

Peggy hoped she'd hear nothing back but ordering whatever might be trying to scare her to reveal itself all the same.

Still nothing. The room remained silent.

[scratching]

There it was again.

Her eyes slowly drifted over to the door.

Her mother had made a habit of not quite closing it, letting a little light from the hallway filter in, so that Peggy wouldn't be afraid, but her mother was locked in her room, and so was Peggy, completely in the dark, and alone.

Peggy threw her ratty, worn blanket over her head. She held her breath for a moment before the thump, thump, thump of her heart pushed her breath out, and she exhaled in again sharply, feeling the sting of the damp cold in the room hit her back teeth.

Peggy tilted her head slightly angling her ear to the room.

???: Don't worry you're safe under your blanket...

The hairs raised on the back of her neck, as a cold sweat fell across her forehead. Peggy dared not move, she dared not breath. Her joints felt tense and aching, and she felt her heart booming in her chest with fear.

WHISPER: You are a child of whispers..... I whisper too. I AM a whisper. Will you whisper with me?

She tried to hold her breath, so that she could hear just a little bit better.

But she could hear her heart beating against the inside of her skull.

Peggy's eyes closed tight, and tears welled in the corners, trickling down her cheeks.

She should scream for her mom, she should scream now and her mom would come.....but her mother wouldn't come, her mother was locked in her room, her mother was ill, Peggy was alone.

Peggy should scream for her father.... But then he'd be mad. He was always mad at her, mad that she wouldn't speak, mad that she wouldn't play, mad that she was born, he hated her, she felt it. Peggy was alone with no one to protect her.

"What is a whisper?" Peggy asked, knowing what a whisper was, but not knowing how a whisper could be a thing that spoke to her without being spoken by someone, or something else.

WHISPER: I am a whisper.

PEGGY: But what is a whisper...

WHISPER: I can be your friend, or your secret. I can tell you secrets, If you are a whisper too, then I can tell you secrets, do you want to know secrets, and be a whisper with me? Then we can be friends, and I sure would like a friend, wouldn't you?

PEGGY: What secrets do you know?

WHISPER: Are you my friend?

PEGGY: If I am a whisper, and you are a whisper, then we are friends.

WHISPER: Then I will be a whisper of secrets and tell you secrets, that you do not know, child.

PEGGY: Tell me secret whispers then.

The whisper did not speak to Peggy, not at first. She sat under the covers, and began to wonder if she had dreamt it all. It wouldn't be the first time, she often had weird dreams, and even when she was awake she'd heard bumping in the night, and creaking walls in the day. It unsettled her father, when she'd stare down an empty hallway, or sudden jump and look out the window. But her mother had found it adorable, like everything else about her. Maybe it was all a dream, maybe it was just a silly little dream, she should go to bed, she should just shut her-

WHISPER: If father dies, mama opens her eyes."

This wasn't a dream.

WHISPER: To give father death, whisper under your breath...

PEGGY: Tell me.

WHISPER: Tell you what?

PEGGY: Tell me what to say....

WHISPER: What does Peggy say, to make mean man go away?

PEGGY: ...Go away?

The silent home, was filled with the skittering and scampering of tiny dust bunnies in the night, a legion of night crawlers that filled Peggy's room, and the hall outside, she could feel the buzzing of them. They grew and multiplied, they swarmed and fluttered all around her, like moths drunk on light flapping and colliding with one another.

The blanket over her head, fluttered back and forth like leaves in the wind. She grasped the beaten and well loved blanket in her tiny hands and tucked it under her feet and pressed the edges behind her down with her hands.

The buzzing became a drone, that shook her teeth, and her eyes burst into tears out of fear. What was happening? Peggy had no idea, but she knew she'd done something. She knew her friend which was most definitely not a friend, and absolutely was not a dream, she knew this nightmare was not a nightmare but actually happening.

And then the calamity of the darkness, and the night crawling dust bunnies that flooded her room outside her blanket rose in a crescendo, and what sound like crashing symbols, or the body of a man hitting the floor and knocking chairs over, settled the house into its usual nightly silence once more.

Peggy's face was wet with tears, she was too afraid to move, too afraid to see what had happened, too afraid to see what she'd done. And what had she done?

Slowly, Peggy pulled the blankets off her face, consumed by the curiosity of the noise downstairs, she listened, angling her ear to the door.

She could hear the soft padding of feet, a family padding, the padding of her mothers feet.

She jumped off her bed, smiling from ear to ear and ran out into the hallway.

Her mother stalked down the hallway, past Peggy, and down the stairs.

She wasn't excited to see Peggy, she hadn't hugged her, or bent to listen to Peggy whisper in her ear that she loved her the most. No Mildred, Peggy's mother quietly walked down the stairs. And Peggy determined to get her mother's attention, forgetting all about what had just happened, and about the noise, ran up behind her mother and pulled at her night gown, but instead of pulling her back, instead of Mildred turning around and hugging her daughter, she pulled Peggy along with her, down the creaking and groaning stairs, and into the living room.

Her mother stopped abruptly. Finally Peggy thought, as she hugged her mother's leg and cried.

Peggy cried a good long while, long enough to soak the nightdress, in a large patch around her face. Peggy was so happy to have her mother back, so happy to hug her and touch her. She'd missed her mother, she'd been so afraid but she knew now she had nothing to be afraid of, her mother was the same she'd always been, the same ---

Mildred reached down and grabbed Peggy by the hair, twisting her wrist and wrapping the fine long hair that fell from her head around her fingers. She balled her hand, and tore Peggy's face away from her, and held her at arms length, ripping Peggy's arms from embracing her leg.

Peggy threw her hands up, and grabbed her mother's hand, she face contorted in pain.

Mildred threw her forward.

Peggy put her hands in front of her face to brace against the stiff wooden floor, but she instead of cracking her elbows against wood, she fell into something warm and soft.

Peggy jumped back.

Her eyes wouldn't focus at first. The tears, and darkness, obscuring what it was that she'd fallen on.

But as her eyes adjusted Peggy stood frozen in shock.

She saw his toes first, broken and bent out of shape, and stuck in place.... stiff and cold.

Her father lay on the floor, bent and twisted like a wilted leaf. His eyes were red, and dark, and lifeless. From his mouth flowed a foul smelling puddle of dark brown puss. Hair was ripped violently from the scalp, but still half hanging, clinging to skin that had come with the hair, like a hang nail torn too low.

And his body. Oh god his god was covered in hundred... no.... Thousands of teeth marks.

...

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