Loud

• Elijah Potter, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2018

I threw myself at the overhanging window and hoped I'd crash through like they do in the movies.

A questionable idea, perhaps; but It wasn’t meant to end up like it did...

It was just a flick of a switch, another straightforward job that shouldn’t of been so difficult; a supposedly simple task - until it all went terribly wrong. My mind had raced with a thousand incoherent thoughts and the blaring screams of the buildings alarms rattled within my head and pounded through my chest like the deafening judder of a drum, taunting my already fleeting sanity. All I had to do was turn the machine off, but it was all too much.

I covered my ears in a desperate plea for silence, but even the thought of it now seemed almost impossible when trapped in a world filled with chaos and noise. I was alone and afraid, aimlessly praying for the curse of lonesome anguish that disoriented my cries and muted my words to set me free... but yet I could barely even hear myself think.

It was only then when I actually heard something; a feint ticking that lurked ominously in the distance just barely audible over the hissing of the overheated machines and the menacing groans of a building threatening to collapse. It didn’t mean anything to me when I first heard it; just another sound to cause me suffering and pain. It would simply fade along with all the others noises I once heard individually, moulding together instead of staying seperate just to then become louder and louder until it was unbearable. The noise however, much to my confusion, stayed. It continued its rhythmic tune, singing out to me beyond the unorganised haze that plagued me. With curiosity and a dreaded sense of understanding I hoped wasn’t to be true I continued to let myself listen, trying to deciphers it’s melody…

Tic tok, tic tok, tic tok...

Through fast, uneven breaths and a racing heart I swallowed down the brine of sudden poisonous fear that sat in the back of my throat, drowning me within endless waves of frantic panic. The room was going to explode.

In a hushed voice only my conscious heard speak I muttered, “Focus, focus...”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

“Jump through the window.”

So I did, and I didn’t even consider to give it a second thought. Before I knew it I was running at full speed towards the wall of glass that sat ahead of me like a beacon of hope. I ran faster and faster, my feet burning on the heated tiles and my heart racing as if it was going to explode as well, but yet still I didn’t stop. Faster and faster, and when the glass vibrated and rattled with the extreme tension and unimaginable noise, I simply stared it down; no longer afraid.

SMASH!

I took a leap of faith.