Mold

Of course, it had to be too good to be true. Why I even fell for it at first, I have no idea. And the worst part is... Well, I'll get to the worst part.

Even though my bed had never felt more comfortable in years, I somehow woke up in the middle of the night, coughing violently. Seeing as it's the middle of spring, it struck me as odd that I had suddenly developed a cough.

That was the least of my worries, however, as I looked up and saw the walls, the ceiling, and even the windows of my room all covered in a mysterious gray mold.

Surely this must be some trick of the light, I thought. I refused to believe these... things were antagonizing me again. My life had just gone back to normal. Sure, a part of me couldn't really believe it, but... I had hoped...

So, I got up, turned on my lights, and saw the gray mold, spread all across the walls and ceiling. Upon a closer look, I realized it was moving. The mold was moving back and forth, like... Well, like it was breathing. The mold was breathing. Does mold normally do that? Well, probably not.

In a bout of curiosity, I reached up and touched the mold with the tip of my finger.

Immediately, all my senses were assaulted.
Flashing colors filled my vision, colors I'd never seen before and colors that I didn't think could exist. Colors that hurt to look at and colors that flashed by before I could see them.
Loud noises filled my ears: Nails scratching across a chalkboard, knives being sharpened, a cat screeching in fear. All the unfortunate noises you could think of, combined into one and forced into my ears.
Strange smells entered my nose, smells that made me gag and smells that I couldn't identify. And what I smelled, my mouth tasted as well.
And finally, feeling. Pain assaulted every part of my body, eclipsing all thought, and all I could feel was the pain and the torture filling me to the brim.

And then I pulled my finger away and the pain left. The smells faded, the noises died, the colors dissolved, and slowly, I could think again.

The first thing I thought was that I had to get out of the house. The second thing I thought was to check on my family.

My mother's room was empty, and my brother's was the same. It looked like neither of them had been there for months. The mold was all over the house.

How long had it been there? How long had the mold, the Choir, been manipulating my surroundings, making me hear and see things that weren't there? How much of my life had been real... and how much of it had been a lie?

How much of the last few months have been a lie? Has the Choir been following me, or has it just stayed in my house? Do I have to retrace my steps to find out? Do I really want to?

Well, it looks like I will. The Choir's apparently decided to show itself after who-knows-how-long, and I'm quite curious to see if it's followed me or not. So, I'm stocking up on more food, and typing this up before I leave. So, uh, yeah. Looks like I'm not gonna get that good night's sleep after all. Well, it was good while it lasted.

--Branden