Do you hear that?

”Do you hear that?” 

It started out small. 

”Hear what?” 

In the beginning it was only the whisper of a scream. 

“Listen. That.” 

It came with the rain. 

“Do you mean the rain? Come on, let’s go already.” 

And it would not leave. 

The rain hammered the pavement, but the noise of the rain was shadowed by quiet screaming. No one else heard it and I was sure I was going mad. 

The rain was plentiful that time of the year and the screaming always accompanied it. Every time it grew a little bit louder. Every time it grew a little bit harder to ignore. 

As I walked outside in the abhorrent weather the screaming followed me wherever I would go. It had grown yet louder and even though it was unintelligible it was clearly trying to say something, but I could quite not decipher what. 

When the message of the screaming became clear it came suddenly and it was unmistakable. It had been screaming the same word over and over. I froze. 

“RUN.”