Always, Forever: Willow Wood Road

Micah lay in the darkness of his room assaulted by whispers cascading around him, a night time assailed by murmurs, audible but not understandable, composed of many voices: deep bassoons and treble toned vocals combined into a frenzied dirge. They did not come from a specific place in the room but from every part of the room. Sometimes they were nearby, close enough that he could feel a cool breath touching his ear; a moment later they were coming from the closet and then from the opposite wall. The boy tried to comprehend the words. Was it a dialogue, a discussion among the unseen or just irrational syllables strung randomly together? The boy closed his eyes, but the mutterings would not stop. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, straining to see anything, but there was nothing except blackness. He hid his eyes beneath a sheet as he laid his head on the pillow.After what felt like an eternity, he slept until jerked awake, eyes wide opened. The closet light glowed brightly, flicked on by unseen hands. A mumble, a single undecipherable voice echoed through the room. Micah tossed the sheet aside and sat-up looking toward the foot of the bed at a scene that made his heart jump and race, thumping inside his head. Three shadows stood unmoving; black shades watching him, considering him. Their bodies absorbed the closet light, outlines of men--enigmatic and ephemeral. There were no lips or eyes; only a spectral nothingness existed where their faces should have been.Only one spoke; his words were clear and distinct; the language was throaty and familiar. Micah became immersed in the monologue. The sentences flowed rapidly from the presence. The boy knew that their meaning and he were one, an experience of palpable dread. He was immobile as the apparitions studied him, lying frozen for several moments before covering his head and listening--his voice paralyzed. The ghostly oration persisted, and Micah continued to hear the twisted verses from beneath the bedclothes. Time seemed to halt as the speech droned on-and-on through the darkness without pause until morning light broke the night and the whispers stopped.He peeked from beneath the sheets. Faint sunlight peeped into his bedroom. His heart fluttered crazily. His sheets were damp from perspiration. He ran out of the room and up the stairs. Everyone was still asleep, but he needed to be outside where the wind would flow across his face. Raggéd met him on the deck. The boy lowered himself onto his knees, hugging the dog, weeping briefly. But tears could not free him of his vision. The boy stood at the tipping point of madness--his mind on the verge of collapse. He rocked back and forth on his knees. The fiction he had been feeding himself was splintered, his reality annihilated, and he was unsure how to repair it. Micah was being absorbed into obscurity, sucked into the emptiness of his otherworldly visitors.

• | Author: Micah Sherwood
• | Publisher: Independently published
• | Publication Date: May 03, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 285 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1521178720
• | ISBN-13: 9781521178720