Prompt 9: Musical Malady

For the contest 'Write me this'

“Hey Karl! Come here! Let’s take a selfie. Who knows when, if ever, we’ll meet next.”

Graduation day was an important day for all the psychology students. They were all clicking pictures, drinking and in general, were having a good time. Dreiser was probably the happiest he ever was in his entire life. If his happiness was like water, he probably had about one molecule of it. But that was the way he was.

Ever since, he was born, Dreiser barely had any emotions. He never cried or laughed showed any sign that he felt anything. He was just... different.

But lack of emotions came with increased rationality and he always saw things the way they were, with no emotional bias. Most people thought that was probably why he wanted to become a psychologist.

Dreiser didn’t think that. Truth was, Dreiser was very annoyed by the emotional bickering of the people around him. He just thought that they should die. And now, he could force death upon them. Dreiser was happy indeed.

A few days later, Dreiser was sitting with his childhood friend Stacy in a white room. She was first on his hitlist because she was almost always crying or having an emotional breakdown.

Even now.

“Why have you kidnapped me? What are you doing?” she asked.

“Humming,” he said.
“What?” cried Stacy.

La la la la la la laa la la la la la la laa la la la la la la laa.....

He was singing the tune to some nursery rhyme she couldn’t remember the name of.

“Can I ask what is going on? You kidnap me, get me to this weird room and start humming. I can see the door you know. I can get out whenever I want.”

Dreiser kept humming.

She got up, went up to the door. This guy’s crazy, thought Stacy. Total nuts. She opened the door. What the-

There was just an empty room with a window.

“How did we get here?” she asked him.

“Through the window.” Said Dreiser.

Nuts. She just sat down on the chair.

And he hummed. And he hummed. For one complete hour.

Just what is going on, she thought. He’s humming the same tune over and over again. I’ve memorized it now.

La la la la, he took a pause. La la la laa... Stacy continued the tune in her head. La la la la....

“Laa. La la la la la la laa.”

What? That wasn’t supposed to be the tune.

It wasn’t. And Dreiser knew it completely well. That was his plan.

He kept on doing it. He took a pause, Stacey continued the tune in her head, he started with the wrong tune.

Ughhh. Stop. You’re doing the wrong tune.

He took a pause. And Stacey couldn’t help but continue the melody in her head. She waited for it to continue normally, knowing fully well it wouldn’t.

“La la laa....” it carried on.

Stacy couldn’t take it anymore. She just couldn’t. This was torture. It’s like some psychopath woke up one morning and tried to see if he could make someone insane just by humming at them.

Stacy looked around, but there was no way to escape. Another pause.... another disappointment. Five hours passed. Five hours of pure torture.

Stacy looked at the window.

Meanwhile, in the street downstairs, Kraig was walking by. He worked at Microsoft. He’d finally finished the design of his new product- the Microsoft Future, a revolutionary tablet.

He walked forward, smiling to himself. Today was a good day. Until a freaking woman fell in front of him. Blood poured out from her head. There was no chance she’d live after a fall like that. He called an ambulance anyways.

Tomorrow’s headline read, “Woman jumps to her death at Times Square.”

Dreiser lifted the newspaper and smiled to himself. One down, Around 7 billion to go.

Author's Note

Sorry for making it shorter than you wanted, but I thought it'd be best to leave it at this

Reviews

[Kayja Symphious]

I was hoping someone would use this prompt. When I first read the prompt, I immediately thought about Silence of the Lambs, and was unsure how to be different from it... you did that well.

I liked your story, though it did seem a bit straight forward. What I mean by that is; I found myself wanting more details. How did he kidnap her? Did anyone ever suspect what he was? Did he have any fears?

I loved the song idea! I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten a song stuck in my head, it can really be madding, so I could sympathize with Stacy.

These are my options of course, so take everything with a grain of salt... unless you have high blood pressure... but I find it best to try to avoid simple generalizations like: "Ever since, he was born, Dreiser barely had any emotions. He never cried or laughed showed any sign that he felt anything. He was just... different."

Perhaps instead of that, maybe something like: Before the doctor spanked his a*s, trepidation arose as a new evil took it's first breath...etc. This is just off the top of my head, but I think you get the idea.

Anyways, good write! I'll be sure to read more of your works soon.