SHORT STORY – THE ECHO IN THE MIND
THE ECHO IN THE MIND
Automatic traslation from the original story in Spanish. Not checked manually
Ever since moving into that old house on the outskirts of town, Laura felt that something wasn’t right. It wasn’t just the dampness seeping through the walls or the constant creaking of the beams at nightfall. It was something deeper, a barely perceptible whisper that seemed to emanate from the shadows themselves.
At first, she thought it was her imagination. The stress of work, the loneliness—everything could play tricks on her. But the voices began to grow clearer, more insistent. They weren’t outside voices, but echoes of her own thoughts, distorted and twisted, as if someone inside her head were playing with her fears.
Every night, when she turned off the light, the whisper became a murmur that enveloped her. Isolated words, fragments of sentences she couldn’t quite understand, but that made her feel watched, judged. She tried to ignore it, but the feeling that someone was stalking her from inside her mind grew stronger with each sunrise.
One night, she decided to record the sound. She placed her phone next to her pillow and drifted off to sleep. The next day, she played the recording. At first, there was only silence and her own breathing. But then, a clear, cold whisper emerged: “You are not alone.”
Panic paralyzed her. Who was speaking? How was it possible? She tried to rationalize it, to think it was a joke, a device malfunction. But the truth was, she felt something consuming her from within, an invisible presence feeding on her fear.
In the following days, Laura began to lose track of time. The voices mingled with her thoughts, making her doubt her own sanity. She saw shadows moving in the corner of her eye, felt invisible fingers brushing against her skin. The house, which had once seemed like a refuge, had become a prison.
One night, as she tried to sleep, she heard a different voice, closer, more personal. It was saying her name, whispered with a tenderness that chilled her blood. She got up, trembling, and searched the house for its source. But there was no one there.
Suddenly, the voice changed, becoming cruel and mocking. “See? You can’t escape me. I’m part of you.” Laura screamed, but the sound caught in her throat. Reality began to crumble, and the house transformed into a labyrinth with no way out.
In her desperation, she tried to break the windows, to bang on the walls, but nothing worked. The presence was inside, and there was no way to expel it. Her mind became a battlefield, where darkness was gaining ground.
Suddenly, a sour smell reached her nose. Something or someone, she thought, had slipped into her room.
Finally, Laura gave up. She sat on the floor, hugging her knees, as the voices and the nauseating smell enveloped her in a cold, eternal embrace. She knew she would never leave, that the house and the shadow within it would be her eternal damnation.
And in the silence that followed, only an echo remained: that of a mind lost in its own terror.
Suddenly, after a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, a friendly voice sounded from behind her bedroom door. “Are you alright, Laura?” said the familiar voice.
“Is that you, Mario? No! There’s someone or something in here!” The door opened quickly, letting in a sliver of light from the hallway, illuminating Mario’s face as he stepped through. The young man flicked the light switch, and the room emerged from the gloom.
“Don’t be afraid. Open your eyes. You’ll realize you had a bad dream and that it’s just you and me here.” “Here, have a drink and lie down again,” Mario said, handing her a glass.
Laura took a few moments to react, and with frightened eyes, she scanned the room. Her nose no longer detected the unpleasant stench, and the echo of her thoughts had vanished from her mind. She felt drowsiness creeping over her, and with Mario by her side, she lay down again on the bed. Then she whispered, “Thank you, Mario,” and her eyes closed, her breathing becoming rhythmic with a sleep that, for the moment, was peaceful.
It was eight in the morning when Mario, standing quite close to the girl’s bedroom door, was talking to a grey-haired man who asked him, “Is everything alright, Mario?”
“Last night,” the young man said, “Laura had a nightmare. She heard voices, said there was an unpleasant smell in the room, and was convinced someone was inside.”
“Did you give her anything?”
“A few drops of Sedonat. She fell asleep right away.”
“We’ve been trying for a week now without managing to stabilize her. I’ll increase her antipsychotic dosage, and if there are no results in three or four days, I’ll discuss the need for electroshock therapy with her family.”
The Echo In The Mind – Short stories series – Copyright ©Montserrat Valls and Juan Genovés