I was eleven years old at this point in my life. I was told by numerous adults that I was kind, full of heart and very social. But there was one thing people didn’t know about me. And no this isn’t one of those things where I have a fetish for murder or anything and become a bloodthirsty killer. I have a fear of people crying.
I-I don’t know what it is about crying, it just makes me feel like no matter what I do it’s not going to help that person, and it makes me feel woozy and faint. Now that I’ve explained myself a little I’m going to tell you about the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me.
It started on a Monday morning on January 5th I’m quite sure. I was on my way to the bus; just a casual morning, nothing else. I was waiting at the bus stop for quite some time. Yet again I was there about 20 minutes earlier than I should’ve been. I just wanted time alone, that’s all. But for a brief moment, just a couple seconds, I started to hear faint crying.
It was almost inaudible; it didn't make me freak out and feel uncomfortable since I couldn't hear it well. It went on for quite some time though. Until the bus picked me up and I went to school. In my head I was quite curious why that person was crying, but I decided to ignore the fact and just move on with my day. I got off the bus and went to my classroom and the typical schedule went on as usual. Then the crying started again this time a little louder and seemed to be almost like two people now, but I wasn't quite sure since it still sounded faint and from a great distance. I was looking for the noise as if it were around me which was silly since it would have been louder if it was close to me.
I gave up searching for the noise. The bell had rung and it was time for lunch I grabbed my Spiderman lunchbox and headed into the gym. Now you’re probably thinking that this doesn't go anywhere and the crying gets louder so what?
That’s the weird thing, no this is where things get really weird.
I sat down next to my friends we laughed and talked about what games we played and what we did this weekend. I took out my sandwich from the Ziploc bag and it felt wet. But it wasn't cold it was warm, almost as warm as a tear. I threw the sandwich away feeling grossed out and a little creeped out. The rest of the day nothing happened. When I got home my mom wasn't there. I locked the door behind me, threw my bag on the floor and rushed to my room. My friends had called my house phone and asked if I wanted to have a Nerf gun war, I said sure and hung up. I rushed to my closet and grabbed my favorite Nerf branded gun. I checked my sight to see if I needed to clean it or anything and inside instead of a recital was a smiling face. I dropped the gun and saw something that had dropped on the floor that was a like a cut out of a mouth that showed its teeth a little bit. It creeped me out and I looked to see that there were stitches on the side of it. Bloody stitches. I ran out to the home phone once again and saw that it was drenched in tears. Soaking wet I might add. I ran to the front door to see if someone had gotten inside. No one had opened the door; it was still locked from when I had locked it earlier. I heard someone crying again this time it was multiple people and it sounded like it was in my kitchen.
I said "Hello is anyone there?" All I heard were the voices of people crying and not just all adults’, kids', babies', and teenagers' you name it. I started to panic as I slowly walked towards the kitchen to find multiple people wearing the same cut out mouth as I had just seen before. They noticed me and looked straight into my eyes. My god were those eyes nightmarish. They had been stapled open so the tears that had been produced only created more from the pain of not being able to close them. While crying there skin was pale with words that had hurt them from the past I would think saying rape, abuse, torture, and names of lost loved ones. I felt dizzy and tried my best to reach for the door; I reached my destination, unlocked it, and made my way outside.
I fell on the ground; I couldn't move an inch more. I had just made it from the first step of the doorway and the crying group grabbed my ankles, pulled me inside and stripped me of my clothes, carving the words that would hurt anybody while weeping and moaning. I started to cry myself. One of them went into my room and grabbed the fake smile and shoved it against my own, then the only words I ever heard for the longest of time were "we always told you that you were kind, full of heart and very social didn’t we? Well we influenced all of our kids to think so as well but you always had that one thing that no one knew about. Your fear of crying. Well now you can see how it feels to never stop crying. It will be great won't it? That way you never have to fear of never helping anyone who cries again."
Sincerely, The Tearjerkers