June 2nd 1:00pm 20XX

I sat at home for the rest of the day, listening to the radio for news of the storm. I should have been off looking for work until I went back to the rig, but I just couldn't stop thinking of the storm.

Not much more news came on for a while. It was the same thing over and over again. There was talk about a mysterious fog in the storm, how it shouldn't have been able to persist in the high winds and rains. More and more survivors were interviewed, most of which were from areas around the edge of the storm, so they didn't have much new information. But every once and a while there would be someone that had been near the center. They'd almost always bring up the big noise, but nobody else brought up anything about screams.

I decided to let it go, maybe that woman was just crazy.

But something deep down kept tugging at me, a gnawing doubt.

I didn't completely stop thinking about the screams.

Later on, there was a researcher who came on, talking about how they recorded seismic activity in the areas affected by the storm. He said that by some strange means, an earthquake must be occurring in each of the areas the storm hits. That was the only explanation that they could come up with. It explained a lot, the loud noise, the toppling buildings and the holes in the ground. I almost sighed with relief. Though it didn't make sense how an earthquake would be following the path of the storm, it was something in the realm of reality, something I could envision. There wasn't any new information until the radio said the storm was now in Massachusetts. I was about to shut the radio off when the announcer said something that chilled my body all the way down to my bones.

Five bodies had been found in the basement of a bank in Boston. There was no way a person could have made it into the basement without the proper tools, as it was sealed off entirely by ten feet of debris. The wall of debris had fallen before the people were killed. The bodies, the authorities claimed, were mutilated beyond recognition. Attempts were made to identify the corpses.... They failed. Though they are unsure how exactly they died, all the evidence pointed towards a human culprit. It is unknown what was used to murder the people in the basement, but the markings on them didn't quite match up with any known weapon. It definitely wasn't one of the five, because there was no way any of them could have mutilated their own body to such an extreme before succumbing to their wounds.

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Search for a suspect is underway, but not a priority....

They're too busy trying to find out how it even could have happened.

My stomach did somersaults as I heard this. I couldn't stop myself from exclaiming out loud: "What in the hell is going on?!"

Just when I had been calmed, just when I had been reassured. "The screams!" the woman's voice played back in my mind. "So loud! Not like any person.... Not like any animal!"

I shut the radio off. I realized that I had been sweating. My entire shirt was soaked. My mind tried to wrap around what could have caused the deaths. The screams. There had to be a logical explanation. The screams. There must be some kind of logical explanation. My mind raced for an answer. What could have done that? What? I started to get dizzy, I felt physically ill again. "The screams... and then the laughing!"

I almost collapsed, but suddenly the phone rang and snapped me back into reality. It rang again, and I tried to clear my head as I went to pick it up. It rang a third time. I still felt dizzy, but I answered it. I didn't say anything for a moment as I tried to collect myself, but the thoughts lingered.

"H-hello?" I managed to stutter out.

"Hi Markus" it was Jessica.

"Oh, hey... Jessica." My voice sounded like I had been crying.

There was a moment of silence before Jessica spoke, "Are you.... okay? You don't sound too good."

"No, nothing's wrong... Just a bit of a runny nose I think" I lied.

"Well alright. Could you meet Aaron outside the apartment? He's going to be home in two hours and I think it would be a great surprise if he gets to see you first thing when he gets here."

"Okay, will do. See you tonight"

"Love you"

"I love you too, Jessica."

I hung up.

I went to the bathroom and had a quick shower, which eased me a little bit. I tried to push the thoughts away, but they persisted, lingering at the back of my mind. I did my best to act like nothing was wrong. Despite my greatest efforts, I just couldn't push my paranoia away.

Against my better judgement, I couldn't resist the temptation to turn the radio on again. "More bodies like the recent incident in Boston have been fou-" I shut it off again. I didn't want to hear any more.

...God damn it.