By The Creek

She found it by the creek, the one she was forbidden to visit. Every day she begged her mother to take her to the creek she heard all the stories about. After vehement refusal from her mother, the girl finally snuck out to the creek at the break of dawn. Faint sunlight barely streaming through the dense forest, she stumbled over rocks and roots on her way. At last, she arrived. Tired and out of breath, she plopped down on a mossy rock. A glint of silver caught her eye under the muddy leaves. Curiously, she reached around past the soggy dirt and pulled out a bracelet. It was not much to look at, but the girl seemed drawn to it by an unseen force. She fastened it on her wrist and admired it. Upon doing so she thought she detected a faint voice in the distance summoning her. Assuming it was her mother, the girl hastened back towards her house. Once safely back home, out of breath, the blustery wind whipping against the window she questioned her mother on calling her. Confused, the mother replied she hadn’t even noticed the girl was missing. The girl began to detect faint murmurings and craned her neck around to see if they had house guests. When no one appeared at the door, she was perplexed. Dismissing her thoughts, the girl hurried up stairs to get ready for school. Throwing on her clothes and grabbing her bag and a banana for the road she left the house. Sliding into her desk mere seconds before the first period bell she was certain she could hear people speaking. Casting off the notion as silly and thinking it was just her classmates muttering to each other she settled in for the lecture. The professor enters and the class goes silent. The voices the girl hears grow louder as the class gets quieter. She discreetly scans the classroom for another peer who may be experiencing the same thing as her. Soon she begins to panic. While no voice save for the teacher’s is heard by the rest of the class, a clashing cacophony of chaotic cluttered chatter overwhelms her senses. At last she can bear it no longer. A shout erupts from her mouth demanding silence. All eyes now on her, she flushes with embarrassment. Receiving a stern look from the lecturer, she is sent to the principal’s office. Horrified, she gathers her belongings and trudged down the hall to meet her apparent imposing doom. This is it. The end. It’s surely approaching. She must be going insane and losing her mind. She wonders if they will send her to an asylum. Racking her disorderly brain for an answer to her plight, she begins to feel woosy. She collapses to the floor. Then, darkness.