The Scream

by Amy Cross

  As they stand quietly, they listen to the scream as it continues all around them. Sometimes it seems as if the scream is about to crack and break into sobs, whereas other times it sounds more defiant, almost as if the person doing the screaming is trying to get some words out, maybe to beg for help. As the seconds tick past, however, Matt and the others begin to look at each other, as if they're all hoping that someone else will come up with an idea.

  “I can't listen to this,” Amanda Cluny says finally, with tears in her eyes. “Whatever's happening, it's just... It's horrible!”

  “Just stay quiet a moment longer,” Matt tells her. “We can narrow it down. We just have to be logical.”

  Shaking her head, Amanda waits a few more seconds, before reaching into her bag and taking out some paper tissues. Dabbing at her eyes, she's clearly struggling to stay calm, and finally she reaches up and put her fingers in her ears.

  “Oh God, how can it be taking them so long to find her? Why isn't anybody doing anything?”

  “We don't even know who's in trouble yet,” Matt points out, before turning to Robert Leary. “There's only a few hundred people in this whole town. We need to get everyone together so we can work out who's missing.”

  “Judy,” Amanda says suddenly, as a sense of panic fills her features. “Oh my God, I have to find Judy! I haven't seen her since last night!” Turning, she begins to run across the town square, before spotting her daughter in the distance and racing over to throw her arms around her in a state of sheer relief. Judy, a little shocked, reciprocates the hug, while looking up at the tops of the nearby buildings, as if she half expects to see the victim up there.

  “It just keeps going on and on,” Robert says after a moment, with a hint of wonder in his voice, as he turns to Matt. “What the hell can be happening to someone, that they make such an awful noise for so long?”

  “This town isn't big enough for her not to be found soon,” Matt replies, turning to him. “Whoever she is, she has to be somewhere close! We just need to stay calm and use logical intuition, and we'll narrow down the possibilities until we find her. Let's not get irrational about all this.”

  Chapter Eight

  In room one of the town's only hotel, Father Thomas Roake kneels at the foot of the bed, locked in prayer as the scream continues outside.

  He doesn't react at all as the door clicks open, or as the face of little Alice Chinnery peers in at him.

  Chapter Nine

  “Hey!” Don Ridley shouts, short of breath as he stops at the end of the street that runs behind the pharmacy. He waves and then snaps his fingers. “You! Get over here!”

  Hurrying toward him, Howard Cooper stops and puts a hand on the older man's back.

  “You okay?” he asks. “You seem -”

  “I'm fine!” Don snaps, pushing his hand away. “Don't go worryin' about me, I'm not the one who's in trouble. Hasn't anyone found the source of that goddamn scream yet?”

  Looking back along the street, Howard listens for a moment as the scream continues to ring out across the entire town. “Everyone's still looking,” he says, turning back to Don. “I swear to God, pretty much everyone's out now trying to find what's going on but -”

  “Then why haven't they got anywhere?” Don hisses, stepping past him and looking around the next corner. “It must be almost twenty minutes now since it started, what the hell is going on in this town? How hard is it to listen out for where a sound is comin' from, and then go to it?” He waits for an answer, before turning to Howard. “Well? What's the goddamn problem here?”

  “It just seems like it's echoing all over the place.”

  “This isn't exactly a big town, Howard!”

  “I think we're gonna have to start searching the buildings.”

  “It's not comin' from inside anywhere,” Don replies. “It's comin' from outside. I've got that figured out now.”

  “Really? I was sure -”

  “Don't be a dumb-ass,” Don adds. “Come on, work with me here.”

  “I'm pretty sure we've looked everywhere outside,” Howard tells him. “The buildings are about the only place left to try. Anyway, if it's somewhere with a window open, or something like that -”

  “Or the roof,” Don suggests suddenly, turning and looking up at the tops of the nearby buildings. “Maybe it's someone up on a roof. Doesn't sound like that, exactly, but sometimes these things, you know, they can be deceptive. If someone wanted to hide, it stands to reason they might go up on a roof where no-one can see 'em properly.”

  “I'll start getting some guys together,” Howard tells him. “We'll go building to building, methodical like, until we find whoever's in trouble.”

  “Get on with it!” Don shouts, gesturing for him to head to the town square. “This sound is starting to drive me out of my goddamn mind!” When Howard doesn't immediately move, Don shuffles over to him and shoves him forward. “Move, man!”

  Chapter Ten

  As soon as Alice takes a half-step forward, the floorboard creaks beneath her feet. She holds her breath, but the priest's eyes have already opened and he's looking right at her. They stare at one another for a moment, as the scream continues outside.

  “Don't be scared,” Roake says finally, getting to his feet and closing his bible. “Do you live here?”

  Alice pauses for a moment, before nodding. She knows her mother would be mad at her for disturbing a guest, but something about Mr. Roake feels strangely calm, especially with the scream still filling the air.

  “Is the noise upsetting you?” he asks.

  She pauses again, and then she nods.

  “I understand,” he continues with a weary sigh. “I imagine Pine Ridge is usually a very peaceful town.”

  “Mommy says it'll stop soon,” Alice tells him cautiously. “I heard Mrs. Eleny saying it'll stop soon too, and Mr. Barridge also. Everyone keeps telling everyone else that it's going to stop any minute now.” She stares at him for a moment. “Aren't you going to say it'll stop soon?”

  He hesitates for a moment, before looking down at his notebook.

  “No-one's been to stay in the hotel for ages,” Alice continues. “I can't even remember the last time someone was here.”

  “Pine Ridge seems like a nice town,” he replies, with a hint of sadness in his voice. “A decent place.”

  “Is that why you're here?”

  He pauses, before shaking his head. “No, that's not why I'm here.”

  “There isn't really much to do in Pine Ridge,” Alice continues. “We don't have anything famous and we're not on the road to anywhere big, so I think that's why people don't come much.” She stares at him for a few seconds as a frown crosses her features. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course.”

  She hesitates, as if she's scared of the answer. “Do you think the screaming will stop soon?”

  “I...” He takes a deep breath, before making his way over to join her in the doorway. “I think you should go and play somewhere. Don't worry, you're perfectly safe.”

  “Do you know who it is?” she asks, looking up at him.

  “The person screaming?” He shakes his head. “No, I'm afraid I don't, not yet.”

  “Do you know why she's screaming?” She pauses. “I twisted my ankle once and I cried a lot. It really hurt, but... Well, I didn't make a noise like the noise out there.”

  “You should go and play,” he tells her again. “There's nothing you can do, and I have to go out.”

  “Where?”

  “Your mother told me about a nice diner.”

  She nods. “Hoare's does good burgers, but... It won't be very nice there with this noise still going on.”

  “I suppose not.”

  Still staring up at him, she seems lost in thought for a moment. “Are you...”

  He waits for her to finish the question. “Am I what?”

  She blinks a couple of times. “I was just thinking about how you showed up just as the scream started,” she t
ells him. “Are you here to stop it?”

  “I should get to that diner,” he replies, as his stomach rumbles. “I've been traveling for three days non-stop to get here, and I really need something to eat.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Is that everyone?” Matt asks, looking at the piece of paper that Robert Leary has used to write down all the names. “Are you sure?”

  “Hang on,” Robert replies, running a finger along the list as he tries to count. “It's hard to concentrate with the scream still going on.” He takes a moment longer, muttering to himself as he turns back to the first page. “Yes Sir, that's it. Two hundred and ninety names, everyone who lives in Pine Ridge.”

  “Start ticking off everyone you can see around right now,” Matt tells him. “We need to work out who's missing. Like I said before, logic is the way to go here. If we account for everyone we can find, there should be one name left.”

  As Robert gets to work, Matt takes a couple of steps back toward the center of the town square, where Susan Etterman has her fingers in her ears in a desperate attempt to block out the scream. She even took a free pair of foam ear-plugs from Stanley the pharmacist, but they haven't done much to help.

  “Anything?” she asks.

  “We're taking a roll-call,” Matt tells her, “so we can try to figure out who's missing.”

  “How does that help?” she asks. “Isn't it more important to find the poor soul first? I mean, listen to her! She sounds like she's in agony!”

  “If we know who it is, we might have a better idea of where she'll be.”

  “I can't find Sammy,” says Mary Hopkins as she reaches them. “She was supposed to be coming in for a shift around now, but she's nowhere around. Donnie at the post office hasn't seen her either.”

  “I saw her a moment ago,” Susan tells her, pointing toward the movie theater. “She was around the back there with Judy Cluny, they were going to take a look in the old woodsheds.”

  “Are you sure?” Mary asks.

  She nods.

  “Strike Sammy off the list,” Mary tells Robert. “I was wrong, someone's seen her.”

  “We need people to be careful,” Matt continues, as he spots Don Ridley lumbering toward them across the grass, red-faced and out of breath. “The situation might be dangerous. We don't know what we're dealing with, but we have to assume that whoever's doing this... Well, it might not be someone we can just approach without caution. We need to be calm, logical, rational and -”

  “What the hell is goin' on here?” Don shouts, pushing a couple of people out of the way before spotting Robert and going over to watch as he crosses more names off the list. “Don't forget me,” he mutters, kicking the side of the piece of paper. “Cross me off too. I'm right here.”

  “I'm well aware of that,” Robert replies, striking a thick line through Don's name, thicker than the rest. “If you -”

  “Give me that,” Don adds, grabbing the piece of paper and taking a look at the names, before grabbing the pen too and scrubbing a few off the list. “I've seen those two already,” he mutters. “Her too.”

  “We're trying to be scientific about this,” Matt tells him, clearly annoyed. “It's easy for someone to mistakenly -”

  “And I saw her,” Don mutters, crossing out another name before tossing the paper and pen aside. “It's been almost an hour now. Whoever's screaming, she must be almost out of lung-power by now.”

  “I'm not sure it works quite like that,” Matt replies.

  “Well?” Don continues, turning to the others. “What are you all doing standin' around like this? We need every single person to get out there and check all the buildings, all the areas, this goddamn scream -” Letting out a gasp of frustration, he turns and looks back across the square as the vein on his forehead visibly throbs. “If it lasts much longer,” he says finally, “I think I might just explode.”

  “It's been fifty-eight minutes,” Mary tells him, tapping the screen on her watch. “I happened to notice the time just as it started.”

  “Fifty-eight minutes of screamin',” Don replies, stepping over to take a look in the direction of the courthouse. “My God, how can anyone last that long?”

  “It's almost impressive,” suggests a girl standing nearby. “I mean, apart from the context...”

  “She seems to get a little weaker sometimes,” Matt points out. “I even thought she was going to stop at one point, but then she just kept going, almost like someone did something new to her.”

  “You think it might be a recordin'?” Don asks, turning to him. “Like, some kind of trick?”

  Matt shakes his head. “Unfortunately, it sounds very real and live to me.”

  “Me too,” Mary adds, wincing a little as the scream seems to choke for a few seconds before it resumes with a kind of whimpering, sobbing horror. “You can hear when she has to stop to gulp in more air. It's so horrible, I can't imagine what would cause someone to scream like that for -” Checking her watch, she turns to Don. “It's been an hour now. How is that even possible?”

  “Makes my goddamn skin crawl,” Don replies. “I will personally give two hundred dollars, cash, to the first person who stops all of this!” He turns to look at some of the others, as if his frustration is starting to boil over. “And if this is someone's idea of a sick joke,” he adds, “I swear to God I will whip that son-of-a-bitch all the way out to the edge of town! Is that clear?”

  “How are you getting on with the list?” Matt asks, turning to Robert.

  “I'm working as fast as I can,” he replies, “but it's hard with people having gone off to search, and not everyone's sure of who they've seen joining in so far. I don't want to get any false positives. Or negatives. I'm doing my best.”

  As his desperation continues to rise, Matt looks back across the town square for a moment, listening as the scream intensifies, as if whatever is happening to the victim, the pain is getting worse and worse. For a moment, the sheer horror of the scream seems to drive all the thoughts from his mind, as if his humanity is being sapped. Every sinew of his body is tense, and he already feels exhausted.

  “Make it stop!” Susan shouts suddenly, dropping to her knees with her hands over her ears. “Won't someone please just make it stop!”

  Chapter Twelve

  “But Mom -”

  “Use headphones,” Mrs. Chinnery hisses, plugging the jack into the front of the TV before placing the headphones over her daughter's ears and immediately turning the volume up. “I don't want you hearing that horrible sound.”

  “The music's too loud,” Alice replies, trying to take the headphones off.

  Hearing the front door swinging open and then bumping shut, Mrs. Chinnery glances through to the reception area. She's not used to having guests in the hotel, but it makes her feel a little better to know that a man of the cloth is staying, especially with the scream still ringing out across town.

  Spotting movement nearby, she turns to the window just in time to see the priest making his way past as he heads into town.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Get me a drink!” Don shouts as he and a few of the others make their way into the bar. “And somebody close that goddamn door!”

  As Mary hurries to the other side of the counter, Matt taps at his phone. The scream can still be heard, of course, even though the closed door and sealed windows have dulled its absolute peak just a little. After a moment, seeing that the door has been left open, Don lumbers back across the room and then slams it shut so hard, the glass rattles.

  “I feel like it's making my bones vibrate,” Mary mutters, before peering at a row of upturned glasses on the bar. After a moment, she crouches down to look more closely. “I can't be sure, but I swear, it's so loud, it's even making the glasses rattle slightly.”

  “Get me a drink!” Don shouts. “And where's your phone?”

  “A drink?” she replies, turning to him. “At this time in the -”

  “It helps me think!”

  Grab
bing the phone from the counter, she places it in front of him and then, clearly annoyed by his tone, heads over to get him a shot of whiskey. Having known Don Ridley all her life, she's fully aware of his temper and his sense of entitlement, but the constant scream in the background is making it more difficult than usual to humor him. She feels almost as if the scream is tugging at the stitches of her soul, threatening to shake her apart.

  “Make it a double,” Don snaps at her as he picks up the phone's receiver and listens for a moment. “This thing is dead!”

  Glancing down at the wall, Mary sees that the cord is plugged in properly. “It shouldn't be,” she tells him, as she pours the whiskey and takes it over. After setting the whiskey down, she kneels and pulls the cord out of the socket for a moment, before slipping it back in. “Try again.”

  He hits a few more buttons, before slamming the receiver down. “What's wrong with you, woman? Can't you even keep a serviceable telephone in this wretched establishment?”

  “Hang on,” she replies angrily, “you might be the mayor, but that doesn't mean -”

  “Calm down,” Matt says, turning first to Mary and then to Don. “Let's not bite one another's heads off, okay?” He holds his phone up. “I have no service.”

  “Me neither,” Don mutters.

  “Internet's down too,” Mary says, tapping at her laptop.

  “What is wrong with this goddamn town?” Don replies, drumming his fingers on the bar. “What do I need now, a goddamn carrier pigeon?” He puts his face in his hands for a moment, and after a couple of seconds he lets out a long, slow sigh of frustration.

  “It's still out there,” Mary continues, turning to look at the window. Outside, there are still people on the lawn, looking around as if they're hoping to suddenly work out where the scream is coming from. “It's been almost an hour and quarter now, how in God's name can this still be happening?” She turns to Matt, and this time there are tears in her eyes. “How can a human being make that noise for so long? It just doesn't seem physically possible. Shouldn't something have happened by now?”