White Noise
Late on an ordinary school night in Dimmitt Hall, I lay sprawled out on the couch in my dorm room doing homework. The weather outside is windy to say the least, as it normally is during the late stages of autumn. I hear the whistling of each gust rolling though the cracks in the windowsill, like the high pitch scream of a young girl.
My roommate is also in the room, lying on his bed, also consumed by the allure or his laptop with his headphones on. He continually asks me random questions, distracting me from my studies. I hear the distant yelling of horseplay down the hall, surely the sound of the freshmen drinking during a weeknight simply because their parents aren’t around anymore to stop them.
Then, I hear it. A voice consumed in white noise. It was gone as soon as it came. But where did it come from? What did it say? I look around the room. My roommate doesn’t seem to have noticed, still jamming out to Linkin Park and playing games on Facebook.
Suddenly, an eerie feeling rolls over me, sending a chill down my spine. I tell myself it’s probably just my imagination playing tricks on me. Limbs from the trees blow in the wind, scratching the walls outside my window.
There’s the voice, again. Again, I cannot make out what it is saying. It sounds like it is coming from my roommate’s old television on the dresser beside me. The TV hasn’t been used since we moved in, collecting dust with its plug dangling over the edge of the dresser unplugged.
I get up from the couch to investigate. The television has seen better days. During its years of service, it lost a number of its buttons, including the power button. A cheap Bic pen sticks out of the empty hole where the power button once was so it can still be turned on and off without using the remote that was lost years ago.
When I put my ear close to the speakers, I can hear the faintest crackle of white noise. But how is this possible? The television is not only turned off, but it isn’t even plugged in! Could my imagination be playing tricks on me?
I get the attention of my roommate to see if he can hear to the noise, too. He gets up from his bed to take a look. With a quizzical look on his face, he shakes his head telling me he doesn’t hear a thing. He jumps back on his bed and plugs his headphones back in to his ears and cranks the volume so loud that I can make out every word.
Not believing him, I put my ear to the speakers again and it’s gone. Not even the faintest noise can be heard. My mind starts darting back and forth, trying to decipher what just happened. Maybe I need to catch up on sleep. Afterall, it has been a long last few days. That must be it, just my sleep-deprived mind playing tricks on me before bed.
As I lay down my head a couple of hours later, my roommate fast asleep on the other side of the room, I stare at the ceiling waiting for sleep to come over me. Just as I am in the state of hypnosis, so close to sleep, I hear the voice again. White noise buzzes from the old television, seemingly getting louder and louder.
I lay awake, my eyes darting around the room just waiting for a Paranormal Activity-like disturbance. It never comes as I fall asleep, the chilling sound of white noise eventually lulling me to sleep.
I never did hear that white noise or the voice again. Perhaps it was a spirit trying to make contact with the living, or just my imagination.