Voices

• Aaron Sheean, Grade 6Z, St Martin Of Tours School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

The end began in an instant for me. The flash. The pain. The ear piercing screech that I only now realise was mine. I had been shot. In the stomach. This could be fatal. I lost all hope. I couldn't blame the man with the gun. He was in the same situation as me. Just fighting for his country and his family. I could only blame the messed up society we live in.
And then I saw it. The look of pure evil on Jayden's face as he threw the grenade on the ground in front of him. Dooming himself. Dooming his comrades. Dooming his best friend. Dooming me.
I woke up with a shock. Voices, sinister voices, we're racking at my brain. Asking for blood. I was petrified. Of myself. What had I become? Was I dead? I jumped out of the hospital bed I had woken up in and without meaning to, grabbed the knife on the side of the table. They had brainwashed me, violated my head and now I was insane. And some dark part of me liked it. When I saw the man, I drove the knife into his throat. And the voices disappeared. The pleasure I felt was sickening to think about. The atrocity in front of me had finally silenced the voices. The voices in my head that had pushed me to my lowest point. That had pushed me to this. I was at war, but that was no excuse. There was no denying the truth. I had murdered an innocent man.
The voices started pooling back into my brain. They preferred knives. Guns were too fast. Ending the voices’ happiness in an instant.
They started speaking to me again. I was scared and tried to hide behind a wall of sanity, but the wall was already gone. “You made me do this!!” I shouted into nothingness, but I knew they heard. “But we didn’t.” their sinister voices whispered into my ear, “The only reason we exist is because you secretly wanted this to happen. You wanted the sensations. And now you have been pushed to this, together, we can watch the world burn.” I realise the truth. "Together, we can watch world burn." I let it sit there. And come to realise that they are right. These monsters ruined me and I need revenge. "You're right," I say to the empty hallway, "and we will watch the world burn."
I recall the day as much as possible. The day when I realised the truth. The day when I rose above all other humans. The day when I evolved. At first I was scared of the voices. Now I am them. I giggled at the sick irony. Now I had achieved more than anyone else could dream of. I had achieved the goal I set that fateful day. The sound of their screams filled me with pure pleasure. I sat there and I watched. I watched the world burn.