Into the Abyss

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space or so they say. Who is this they anyway?

It seems to me, they have an awful lot to say, But never a name attached in anyway.

They don’t know anything do they? For still, we scream night and day.

They expect us to listen to what they say, But never they listen when we scream.

They say no one can hear your screams, Cause they fear our listening for others screams.

If the day should come when we hear the other’s screams, Then our collective pain we could heal.

The world the theys built would be destroyed, And a world of ours would be born in its place.

A world where only we reside, And there are no theys to say.

A world of peace and ours, To replace the violence of the theys.

A world of listening, Instead of forced silence.

A world where screams are quieted, Only by loving the screamers face.

This world I swear it’s possible. I’ve heard the screams of all!

And tested the lies of they. It is they who’s world is fake.

For no one knows just who are they, But, we, I know and know is true.

Darkness, Space, hear our screams. Carry them to each other’s ears”

Jillian collapsed across her bed and was asleep before she could close the circle. The spell had taken more out of her then any before. Her feet dangling off the side of the bed, were hanging right over the glowing pentagram on the floor and still in the circle.

No one seeing this scene would believe that five years ago Jillian didn’t believe in any magic, but it was true. Five years ago she had been a new astronaut obsessed with all things science. She was an atheist and a realist, who had no sympathy for those who believed in anything paranormal.

However, four solitary years on a space station with only a computer for a companion changes a person. Four years ago everyone on her mission had died, but her. She still wondered why she survived.

It had all started with the screams. She had been the only one who heard them. The rest of the crew claimed she was having auditory hallucinations, but she knew she wasn’t. She knew someone was screaming.

Against the advice of her crew, she had disengaged the auto pilot and steered the ship towards the screams. She was, after all, the captain of this mission.

She was tired of their constant doubting of her decisions. She was tired of being told what to do by her inferiors, of the constant babble of they.

With the autopilot disengaged, the ship sailed through space towards the screams. They became louder and louder, till she could barely stand them. Still, the crew insisted they heard nothing.

As the voices got louder, Jillian started to regret her decision. The noise was unbearable and her ears and head felt like they would explode. She tried to set the ship back on its original course, but it was as though the ship was being drug along by something outside of itself. None of the controls worked.

She laid down and tried to sleep to relieve the headache, but sleep never came. For four days and nights sleep never came. She couldn’t eat without vomiting, because of the headache. The rest of the crew, who couldn’t hear the never ending screams, seemed to be fine. Jillian, however, feared she would die before they reached the source of the screams. Now she’s the only one left. Fate has an ironic sense of humor.

On the fourth day, Jillian found, Angie, the pilot strapped into the pilots chair with blood dripping from her eyes and mouth. She wasn’t breathing.

The crew became suspicious of Jillian. The ships therapist, Sarah, had pulled her in for a long session. Sarah called it a session, anyway. Jillian knew it was an interrogation. “Before this started Jillian you were hearing voices no one else could hear. Now you’re sleep deprived and dehydrated and we have an unexplained death on board. And it just so happens you’re the one who found the body. You have to admit, it looks suspicious. Maybe you have a virus, or maybe the void of space has taken a mental toll? Let me run some test.” She had said. Jillian was offended. She would never hurt anyone, but she agreed to the test.

The next day, Jillian had found Sarah hanging from her office ceiling. Her brown eyes were bulged out from her head. Blood was coming from around the noose and staining her blond hair red. Jillian panicked. She knew what the other crew members would say. She cut Sarah down and hid the body in the storage bay.

By this time the screams were unbearable to Jillian. She hadn’t showered or combed her frizzy black hair out in days. Her eyes were blood shot and bulging. Her reflection in the storage bay mirror looked like a witch carrying a dead body. She dropped the body out of shock. Had Sarah been right? Was she the murderer? She drug Sarah’s body to the furthest corner, threw a sheet over it, and ran to the lab.

She went through all the files until she found her’s. She pulled out the lab results from the day before. Everything looked perfectly normal. Whatever had killed her crew members it wasn’t her.

She went back to Sarah’s office to clean up the evidence. That’s where she found a book of spells lying open on Sarah’s desk. “What nonsense.” She thought, but still, curiosity got the best of her and she opened the book.

That afternoon no one showed up to lunch in the cafeteria, and when Jillian went looking for them she found out all of them were dead. She was all alone except the ships AI, Tina.