The Noise Trap- A Suspenseful Short Story I Wrote

The Noise Trap

WHRAHHHHHWARWA! I heard a noise so loud that I have never had good hearing since. It came from behind me. I tried to run away as fast as I could. I realized I wasn't moving! I then tried to run again, and I heard a boom that sounded like a gun being shot inches away from my ear. I was mortally terrified. Then, the noise stopped and I started moving.

I'm Will Ziamblekelt, and this happened to me one night, five years ago, when I was a college student. When I got home, it was pitch black outside. The clock in the living room made no sense. It was 3 in the morning. I had left the campus at 9. I didn't go to sleep until 7 in the morning, and I slept until 9 the next night. I missed all of the day's classes. I got up and drove as fast as I could to the police station. In the weeks before my strange experience, there had been many strange disappearances of people from Boston University. Two of my best friends, Danny Elmjabosquim and Lila Arjenald, were among the 24 missing people. I worried about them so much in those days.

When I got to the police station, I ran up to an officer and said, “I need to talk!” in an urgent voice.

“Why?” he asked. I explained my very strange experience that from the night before, and I wanted to know if he knew anything about it. We sat down and he introduced himself as Jack Langston, and he said he was leading the investigation into the disappearances. When I told him what had happened, he was shocked but looked like he had a major breakthrough.

The next day, all of Boston's back alleys were closed, and police stood guard, but were ordered by Officer Langston not to enter. All of the mysterious disappearances had happened in a two week time frame, from the start of the second semester through the second week in February. The police had a hunch that they were all walking down back alleys at the time of their disappearances. After spending all of the next morning learning this news, I went to the doctor. Everything I heard was muted since I heard that extremely loud noise. The doctor said my ears were perfectly fine, so I went to the ear doctor. He found tiny red dots that were attached to my eardrums that he had never seen before. He thought that he could remove them, but he somehow couldn't. He sadly said there was nothing he could do.

I went to the police station the next day to tell Officer Langston about the tiny red dots. When I got there he seemed very exited to see me. He told me that he had created a plan to find out and capture whoever or whatever caused the extremely loud noise.

He then said that, “I have decided that you will be the one who will rescue the others, because you have escaped the noise trap. You don't have to do this, but it is our best chance of saving the others.”

I was scared, but I stated, “OK, I'll do this. Do you have any information about how we are going to perform the rescue?”.

He replied, “Yes! I have evidence that the sound came from inside the buildings along the back alleyways. I have a hunch that the criminal makes the sound and then rounds up people, and travels to another building and alleyway. Can you be here at 7 O'clock tonight, so we can start the mission?”

I said, “Yes”, and we said goodbye. As I left, Officer Langston's phone rang, and I swear it sounded like a muted version of that wretched noise I heard that terrifying night. I was stupid to forget about this point.

I spent the next few hours worrying about how my mission would go. I was so worried that I forgot to ask Officer Langston about the strange red dot in my ear. I then reported back to the police station, but Officer Langston was not there. Instead, an officer who introduced himself as Gomez told me about my mission. He also said that Officer Langston was on very important duty. He told me that a few police officers, including himself, would follow me. I would enter in a side door of one of the buildings, and we would capture whoever was responsible for the disappearances. Gomez told me that Officer Langston had found a tape of the bad guy saying where he would be that night, and that this was our only chance.

On the car ride to the back alley, I was extremely worried, but I also tried to stay confident. “I had all the officers on my side anyway,” I thought. Five officers, including Gomez, and I got out of the car and stepped into the back alley. Seconds into our walk to the back door, I heard that wretched noise, a deep, screeching voice that makes you want to go deaf (and almost does), and I was frozen in place! The noise stopped and I tried to run, but I couldn't!

Then I heard a loud voice exclaim, “Got you. No escaping this time.” The voice I heard was Officer Langston's! I was thrown to the ground by him, and the sound rang in my head until I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I was in a dark room. My hands and feet were tied to the floor, and I was blindfolded.

I heard a faint voice ask, “Who are you?”. I realized it was Lila.

I excitedly replied, “It's Will”. She screamed with delight, but this was the wrong move.

I heard loud footsteps, and a devilish voice that I barely could recognize as Officer Langston's said, “Well, look who we have here! The man who was supposed to save the day. You played into my plan perfectly. I, Ronny Candolini, am a famous Italian scientist who has created a weapon that can kill with sound waves. Oh, I love that sound! It is so accurate and always kills when fully loaded with screams, and guns will become a thing of the past, so it will make me famous. All I needed was someone to test it on, to prove myself to my doubters. BU's president never gave me a grant that he promised me. Disguised as a police officer, I captured the real Officer Langston. I needed to collect the voices of 31 people to make the weapon powerful enough to kill, and you and the officers make 31. Now give me your loudest scream, as I already have 30 screams, and I will release all of you on the condition that you will never tell about my weapon. If you don't, you will hurt very much. I sent a little red tracking device that cannot be removed from your ear through that loud noise, which is a one scream powered dose of my weapon, and it tells me all that you say. If you break this promise, you will be the next victim of my weapon. NOW GIVE ME THE SCREAM!!!”.

There was a small but crucial flaw in Candolini's plan. He was quick to tie me up because he was so exited with his success. He became overconfident and he only tied a square knot on the rope that held my wrists and ankles. With all of the anger that I had just built up from what Candolini had said, I broke through my ropes and lunged and stole Candolini's bullet-shooting gun! A figure who I realized was Danny broke free too, and he tackled the startled madman. Then, I freed the real police officers. Some of them arrested Candolini, others freed the remaining captives, and the rest confiscated the sound gun. Danny said “Thanks, bro!”. I returned the thanks to him. Lila then hugged both of us. What a relief!

The sound gun was eventually destroyed (nobody knows or will ever know what technology was used to create it), Candolini was sent to prison, and the real Officer Langston was reinstated. As for me, I became famous (along with Danny and the officers) for helping to destroy a weapon that could have spiraled the world into chaos. Danny, Lila and I all got our degrees from BU, and now all travel the world as geographers. We are going to go on a tour of Europe together next week.

THE END