CSI: Wherever the fuck I am

Okay, alright, well.  Take a deep breath, chillax...

I'm in a safe place, with soda.  Lots and lots of soda.  I have a drinking problem when it comes to Mountain Dew.  Elaine, TMV, take notes on how to be cool.

Simple matter is, soda usually calms my nerves.  And my nerves are currently doing the reverse double tripe backwards polo jump.     ...as the existence of that sentence proves.  Alright, let me try to explain what happened.  not just to you guys, but to myself.

I was in...well, I guess I can tell you.  Lowell, MA.  It's a pretty neat city.  Lotsa bricks, factories, stuff from the Industrial Revolution.  It has some damn old buildings, and some somewhat old ones.  The old Wang R&D building, which is now Middlesex Community College's Lowell Campus.  Place is pretty massive, and there're almost no windows- mainly cause they didn't want their researchers to ever see the light of day.

Why is this important?  I went there from age 16 to 18.  It was pretty much highschool for me.  Lot of memories there.  I was back there to look for Rise, in short.  I remember way back when she first started making herself known to me, she kept searching through places that I'd spent a lot of time in, looking for me.  I figured...it might be a good place to check, at the very least.

I didn't really want anyone to recognize me, so I wore a hoodie and didn't make eye contact.  And I checked the whole building.  Nothing.  Wasted afternoon.  nothing but a bunch of memories that aren't even relevant any more.  What did any of that matter if I was just going to lose everything?  School didn't help me survive this long, the only things that did that were luck.

But I'm getting away from the point.  I went outside, crossed a bridge, started walking through the residential area on the way back to my bike.

It got dark fast.  Really fast.  That was the first warning sign.  Nobody was around- warning sign number 2.  I drew a knife.

Then I heard...someone singing.

Just a light, pleasant tune that floated on the wind.  I couldn't even make out the lyrics, or where it was coming from, but it was a man's voice.  It was...enjoyable to listen to.  I almost relaxed for a moment, before I remembered what the hell was going on.  Then I smelled something burning.

The singing stopped.  The silence, by comparison, was cold and unnerving.  And it was silent.  Dead silent.  I took a step, heard it echo.  Trying to make as little noise as possible, I kept going, determined to ditch as soon as possible.  The smell got stronger.

I saw it by the light of a street lamp.  A lump in an alleyway.  The smell was coming from it.  I'm not sure why, but...I went towards it.  It was a body.  A man, pretty normal looking from the way he was dressed.  I turned him over.

His face was gone.  Burned clean off.

I almost yelled out in shock.  What did come out was a sort of strangled gasp.  I stepped back, but...I couldn't look away from it, no matter how horrible it was.  I felt sick.  no, sick isn't strong enough.  I felt like I was gonna collapse and vomit right there on the spot.

Just then it started raining.  The cold water snapped me out of it.  I took a few more steps back.

And the singing started again.  Closer this time.  It wasn't in English.  I could hear the man's tone...it was friendly enough, but now there was...something else to it.  Something...eager.  I was suddenly wishing for the silence again.  Then there were footsteps.  Softly ringing footsteps.  I couldn't tell where they were coming from either.  Just that they were getting louder.

Can I just say, fuck that shit.  I ran.  I didn't stop running until I got to my bike and started the engine.  I looked back.

Someone was there.  Someone wearing a heavy coat.  Not too tall, not too short.  He was walking in a circle, not even looking at me.  Singing.

I clamped the rev so hard I hurt my hand.  I was on the road and out of there.  The singing followed me for about a block, then I couldn't hear it through the rain.

Fuck, hands are shaking.  too much dew, I hope.  need to lie down.