//------------------------------// // Chapter one weird morning // Story: My Voice in a Head // by Lord Destrustor //------------------------------// My Voice in a Head Chapter 1 I woke up to find that I couldn’t open my eyes. Not only that, but my whole body just didn’t seem to want to listen to me at all. I could feel it, at least most of it, through a sort of heavy numbness, but my attempts to move even the tiniest of muscles were simply useless. -Okay, no need to panic; this is just that thing I heard about, that “sleep paralysis” thing. My brain is semi-awake but my body is still a sleeping lump. It’s unusual, but no cause for terror. Although I might get those scary life-like dreams soon. If I get abducted by aliens, I just have to remember that it’s all in my head. I waited, at least for what seemed like a few minutes... and nothing happened. I could hear my breathing, feel the slow rise of my chest, my calm heartbeat thumping away the seconds. As time passed, I slowly became more aware of the surrounding sounds, but they only served to confuse me. There were birds chirping outside, not-too-distant voices could be heard, and a clock ticked somewhere in an adjacent room. I shouldn’t have heard any of those. My apartment was on the sixth floor. Hearing people walking right outside the open window was ridiculous. The birds were possible but unlikely, being situated downtown; pigeons I could believe, not... whatever these were. But the clock? -I‘ve owned only digital clocks for the past ten years at least! This isn’t my place! Where am I? I didn’t get drunk last night! How did I get here? Where is here? The light I could perceive through my eyelids was getting steadily brighter, and I could faintly feel a soft warmth creeping up my cheek. My breathing accelerated, losing its slow rhythm. Good, I was finally about to wake up. I felt my body stir a little, apparently on its own, while my eyes slowly crept open to reveal a... thatched roof and wooden beams? -What? My left eye was stuck a bit so a soft, brown hoof came up to rub it. -WHAT? What is that? --Well that’s just your hoof, stupid brain. Duh. -WHO ARE YOU?!? My eyes snapped open, the sleepiness swept away in a fast wave of panic, as the whole world seemed to lurch forward at a dizzying speed. I had somehow performed a sit-up without any conscious input. “WHO’S THERE?” an unknown voice called out, seemingly from my own throat. The room blurred left and right, my vision focusing on every empty space, looking for someone or something that obviously wasn’t there. Apart from the fact that almost everything was made of wood and that it definitely wasn’t mine, there wasn’t anything exceptionally unusual in the room. The same unknown voice immediately continued: --Are there burglars in my home? Why would they speak to me? What’s going on? There was something off about the way that last part sounded, somewhat blurred yet clear as day, like a high-quality recording of an echo, or earphones inside a seashell. Then as the voice spoke up again, the difference became obvious: “Where are you hiding? I swear I don’t have anything worth stealing! All my bits are in the bank! Leave my house! ... please?” The room kept swerving from side to side as I felt legs kicking at the sheets, pushing me further into a sitting position, my back pressing on the wall. None of those self-produced movements mattered as I was dumbstruck by the realisation that that last string of words had been spoken aloud, while the previous one had not made a sound in the room. -But that would mean... “GYAAAAH!” The room rushed forward, stopped with a loud clopping sound, and immediately spun around until I could see the simple bed I had been on for the past few minutes. --That sounded like it was just behind me! But how? There isn’t another room behind that wall! “What’s going on? Who are you? Where are you?!?” The stranger’s voice called out again, frantically looking around the room while panting heavily. The swerving field of view scanned everything numerous times, somehow drawn more and more towards an object I thought I had noticed through the confusing blurs. That object could provide answers, clarification. If that thing was what I thought it was, it would solve at least one riddle. As if my very unspoken will had prodded it, my body inched forward, accompanied by soft, rhythmic percussions. My mind was blank, empty of anything else than a silent dread, a painfully anxious desire to know some horrible truth best left unknown. I didn’t want to know, to validate the fear I’d begun to feel. But I just had to. The object was a mirror, propped up on a dresser, leaning on the wall. I could hear or feel some kind of droning sound, a deafening buzz that perfectly matched the void in my head as my very being was torn between looking at that mirror and just running away. But predictably, my body kept going on its own. I had to look. I wanted to look. A vague feeling of hope filled me. Looking at that mirror would either make everything alright, or just prove it had been all along. Somehow. The polished surface came into view, a somewhat antiquated-looking thing, embellished with carvings full of the little imperfections of a hand-made work. And then I saw something come up to the mirror from the other side. It was some sort of ridiculously soft-looking pony. A brown thing, panting softly through its frazzled dark-grey mane and staring back at me with its ungodly huge green eyes. And then I noticed the brown lump between my eyes was a muzzle, and that voice I’d heard wasn’t mine, and realized why my every movement today was made despite or directly against my will. -I... I’m in your head? I would have whispered that, but despite the fact that I had not made a sound, or that my words hadn't moved the lips on the pony’s reflection, or that-as I was becoming acutely aware- I didn’t even feel like I had a mouth anymore, the pony somehow heard and understood that. A flood of terrified confusion washed over me, as the pony’s eyes widened. His breath held for a moment, his heartbeat racing faster and faster. Then we both screamed for a few minutes.