Ominous Stories

That Damn Buzzing Sound

For the past few days, I've been hearing this intermittent buzzing sound. At first, I thought I'd become used to it and stop hearing it entirely, but to me, it just became more obnoxious over time. It transformed into something akin to a constant, vibrating noise in the back of my head. It was difficult to focus on anything. It became so bad that I had trouble sleeping, and it's beyond me how my parents never noticed it. You know what they say though. You lose hearing with age, so I wasn't surprised when they gave me confused looks. Tyler, my neighbor, heard it though, and I was relieved at that. It meant I wasn't going crazy. He's actually the one that brought it up when we were in my bedroom playing video games. With him at my side, I became determined to find the source of this noise.

We searched my house first and placed our ears all over the walls. The buzzing sound never seemed to become stronger or weaker, so we went outside. My original thought was that something was wrong with the air conditioning unit. If I was right, it would explain why the sound transferred throughout the entire house. Needless to say, my theory was wrong. We stood beside the thrumming unit, watching the gigantic fan spin around inside. The unit was vibrating, but it wasn't the sound we were looking for. However, we realized the sound was louder outside than it had been in my room.

Searching my backyard up and down, we came to a stop at the wooden face surrounding the yard. We placed our ears to the fence and exchanged a knowing stare. The sound was coming from beyond the fence, and that was enough for the both of us. We climbed the fence and dropped easily to the other side.

The area beyond my backyard was filled with untouched forest. I had been over my fence a few times when I had accidentally kicked a soccer ball over but not often enough to explore. My parents always complained about there being poison ivy everywhere, and there was. We skirted around it and created a path without a problem. It was really bizarre though. All we could hear was this buzzing sound - nothing else. I mean, we could just barely hear the leaves and sticks crackling beneath our feet, but all other sounds seemed absent. There were no birds chirping which was the weirdest part for me. You'd be hard pressed to find an area of woods where there aren't birds constantly singing to each other.

As we kept walking, the buzzing sound grew louder, and eventually, we couldn't see my fence anymore. We stopped several yards from a cluster of trees covered in tumor-like growths. We just stood there, staring at it, and neither of us could explain what they were. They appeared like they were apart of the tree as if the bark had bubbled outward in these strange formations. Trees can actually develop deformed growths called burls, something I learned in hindsight. Naturally though, our first thoughts were to poke it, but both of us were too chicken to get any closer. So, we grabbed rocks instead. It only took one toss; Tyler was a baseball player. The rock collided with one of the large growths, and upon contact, the growth exploded outward, sending chunks flying.

Not even seconds later, bees, thousands of bees, swarmed out of the opening and formed into a thick, throbbing mass. Both of us screamed and ran. I had never run faster in my entire life. The bees were hot on our heels, and I could feel their stingers plunging into my arms, my back, my legs, anywhere they could swarm. I don't remember hopping the fence or how I arrived in my front yard, but I must have been screaming bloody murder. I stripped down to my underwear, and my mom began spraying me and the persistent bees with the garden hose. The icy, pressurized water didn't hurt as bad as the stings or the welts that formed instantly.

I was ushered into the kitchen, given a towel, and my mom began meticulously removing the stingers with a pair of tweezers. She lost count how many she removed from my body. I was only allowed to change into dry underwear since the stings needed to be iced. The swelling and welts had been unimaginable, and now, I understand how people can die from bee stings. I was forced onto the couch with ice packs positioned all over my body. The majority of the stings were on my back, so I laid on my stomach and must have passed out some time later.