How many times did she heard this song?
Too many times to count it any longer.
She has both hated and loved this song, so many times before. Her head hurts from listening to it. It makes her angry, it makes her puke... yet sometimes she would feel calm listening to this very song.
That day, the song was playing, as always.
*
It was a gloomy, rainy morning of November. Tired of the same unchanged weather, she opened the umbrella while walking out of the block flat.
Slow, mindless, walking to work each day... as usual. In her way, she would pass by the bakery. No matter what hour of the day or night, there would always be an inviting smell of freshly baked bread coming from that place. Sniffing the air she said as to herself "Aaah, this smell could make even a dead person hungry." A slow instrumental song start playing "but this..." listening to the song "can really make someone angry..." said her lazy as she looked tired at the bakery.
Why was there always that stupid song coming from the bakery? Do Bakeries need music? And that's when she saw him.
In that morning, unlike the other mornings, at the corner of the bakery, sitting in the rain there was a mime. He was doing a performance all by himself on the slow song, even if there was barely anyone passing by.
She stood there staring at him.
The song stopped.
He stopped.
As soon as he moved the song could be heard again.
"Where did I saw him before... He looks so familiar"
The mime looked her. He grinned
"Ah, it's you!" she remarked.
**
Days passed by.
Weeks?
Months?
Who can remember... Same song, same days of November.
"Wait, is it November still?" she asked tired as she crawled down her bed and looked outside the window. "I don't feel like going to work today" she just sighed tiredly and went back to bad.
***
Dark, deep circles under her eyes. Messy hair. She felt lifeless. "A new morning, a new day of monotony" she thought to herself.
She listened a few minutes the silence. "What is it?' she asked still lying in her bed staring at the ceiling "What is that?... That sound....is that .. a bird?" she jumped of her bed and grabbed the heavy curtains pulling them over letting strong rays of light falling inside the room. She opened the windows astonished at the view. The warm weather, the bright sun, no clouds... "is this Heaven" she mumbled still shocked.
She couldn't care less about the fact that she was still in her nightgown. She grabbed fast a coat and run downstairs, barefooted.
---
She spent most of the day walking around the town. The sun was warming both her body and her heart. She was happy. She couldn't stop smiling. It didn't matter where she was going. She just followed her instincts but her feet eventually took her back home. On the way home she would have passed the bakery.
Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the mood, but today the bakery looked really beautiful.
There were lots of people going in, unlike the the gloomy days from before. As expected an inviting smell of freshly baked bread hit her and she couldn't resist it. It felt weird that even if the bakery was there since ever, she never actually visit it.
She opened the door. A small sound of bell ranged above her head, letting the baker know that clients came in. She looked across the shop and was almost shocked to notice there was not even one person inside. A single bread counter was sitting on the other side of the room and next to it, the baker. He smiled at her "Welcome~"
She heard the sound of a bell ringing somewhere afar than the sound of a door closing. She looked behind him and all the way to the other side, there was another window. She recognize some of the people that entered the bakery before and she sighed relieved "So there was a back door." she thought.
"We don't have that many assortments left. But they are all delicious! Please pick what you like best." he said and she smiled, ungainly trying to decide what to choose.
The sound of the bell behind her ringed and she felt somehow relieved that there are other customers in and that she doesn't have to be alone.
She looked up at the baker.
He had a terrified expression on his face.
She turned to look at the door as well and there she saw, the mime.
The mime was just standing there. No movement.
Deep, heavy silence for couple of moments as the mime grinned and moved his hands, the song began. She knew this song so well. Such a sad song. But why? Why at that moment it sounded so terrifying!?
The baker screamed and fell on the floor grabbing his head between his hands. She flinched and turned back at him only to see the baker being eaten by rats. She almost left out a sound when she looked over the bread counter and she notice it was covered in mold, hundreds of small worms devouring everything. Roaches climbing up the counter. The inside of the shop itself crumbled, turning into an ugly shabby place. The song louder and louder. She felt her fingers tingling and when looking at them her heart stopped. Worms were coming out of her fingers, eating her hand. She left out a terrified scream but choked as roaches climbed from her insides up her throat, out of her mouth. She crushed on the ground only to see the mime bending over her.
****
The clock alarm went off. A wrinkled hand stopped it. The old woman got up and stood on the edge of the bed for minutes.
She eventually got up and slowly moving, she went to the closet.
The closet was closed with a few extra improvised locks and heavy padlocks.
Next to the closet there was a small drawer chest. She opened one of the drawers taking out some keys, then one by one unlocking the padlocks on the closet.
She slowly opened the doors which made heaving cracking sounds and she spoke "You never ceases to amaze me" her voice was hoarse. She sounded evil. She looked inside the closed and there he was.
The mime's body pinned with long metal pipes. His skin pinched with sharped hooks, each of them having chains that went to the walls and then back through his body giving the impression of a well built web. Open wounds. Teared flesh. Barely breathing. "p ..lea...se... stop..." he begged with a small lifeless voice.
"SHUT UP! MIMES ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO MAKE SOUNDS!" she raged at him revealing herself. He closed his eyes. It was all he could do. His body was stuck. There was no way he could move a muscle. He was scared. He wanted to die. She looked more terrifying with each day. Old, hideous, wrinkled, disgustingly skinny, with what was left of her once long hair now messy and filthy. He didn't wanted to see any of it.
"I really love" she began with a sudden calm almost gentle tonality "how you try so hard every night to invade my dreams; showing me always the same nightmare. But you know, I was surprised..." she continued talking as she went away from the closed "when last night things changed. Are you trying to tell me something?" He heard her footsteps going farther and farther and as they stopped, the click of a door opening.
"I will offer you a reward" she said devilish and he opened his eyes wide, horrified. He knew what was coming next. "No... please.. don't!" he cried with a weak voice trying to move, only causing the hooks to hurt him more.
"shhhhhh" she whispered on his ear. He gasped. His body trembling in fear. Over his already dried blood on his face, a fresh blood tear rolled down his cheek.
She was there! He knew. The monster was already there, behind him.
"GYAHAHAHAHAAAA" she laughed insanely. The closet doors were slowly closing.
"NO!" he cried.
He struggled as the hooks ripped of his skin, but he didn't cared, he wanted out. "STOP IT!" he manage to let free of his hand and reached out as the doors closed in front of him with a bang.
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