Speak No Evilby
JakerComment by K3Master: Darcie walked along the shore, whistling to herself, feeling the light breeze on her face and whispering through her hair. She loved to take walks on days like this, with the sand tickling her toes and the sounds of the sea like music to her ears.
She grinned as she saw a little plover tucking his head beneath his wing closer to the water. Even the birds were relaxing on this d...
*pop*.
She stopped dead, her sudden cease of movement kicking up a small dusting of sand. There was no way that she saw what she thought she just saw. No way. She rubbed her eyes hard and then looked again, but no, now there were two plovers where before there had been only one. But how? It didn't fly in, she'd have seen that. How did it just suddenly...
*pop*.
A little sound escaped her throat just then, a thin keening, like a kettle about to boil. In front of her eyes, a third bird winked into existence, and when it did, it made a little popping noise, not unlike a child learning to pop his cheek. Now, Darcie began to worry. She began to back away from the birds. This sort of thing did not happen. She was going insane. Too much sea air. Perhaps she'd fallen and bumped her he...
*pop* *pop* *pop* *pop* *pop**pop*pop*poppoppopopopopopopopopop*
They exploded out of nowhere, hundreds and hundreds of them winking into existence, appearing everywhere, all around her, endlessly. Darcie's last nerve snapped and she dropped to the ground on her knees, head in hands, her screams drowned out by the popping noise. Then, with a sound like a shotgun in a concrete bunker, the birds took off in unison, and scattered throughout the sky.
But Darcie did not see or hear this last departure. The unreality of it all had unraveled her mind. She remained there, on her knees, unmoving, sightless, deaf, empty.