Harsh Sounds [Part 1]

I woke to more jostling and the sound of things being crushed and ground beneath the moving seat. I was able to move a little bit, but still not much. Clicking, grinding, slamming followed the end of moving. The big hands lifted me and carried me to the place where they had me sleep. I pressed my face into the soft thing that was always under my head. The hand rubbed my arm a little before I slept. I lay there for a long time not feeling very well. I cried more, and more, and a softer touch came allowing me to sleep better and not feel as ill.

But when I woke, feeling okay, the minimal amount of touch returned. I took myself to the elimination room. Then I took my time scooting down the stairs. I felt my way to where the food was.

"Finally!" Shirhar sighed.

I ate the mush I was given before returning to my sitting spot out the far door. The soft stuff beneath my feet and the warm thing above me felt wonderful. I focused on how this felt, still cringing at the thought of what I had gone through by going out the other door. A bark and yap on my left preceded the thumping of the ground and swish of grass. The same warm, rough, wet thing attacked my cheeks until I could get my hands to push it away. What my hands felt today was not the same as the first thing I had grabbed. This was soft, kind of wiry, and long. The ground thumped rhythmically as my hands and fingers explored this new texture.

The same energy I had felt when my ears opened surrounded me again, the penetration much swifter. A crawling sensation covered my head where my short, rough hair was. I stopped feeling the thing beside me and reached up. Hairs longer than those I already had, had grown in. It felt weird, but as I moved my hands across my head to stop the feeling the faster and longer the hairs were growing. A whine left my lips. I wanted this to stop, but it wasn't seeming to.

Whatever I had been touching pressed up against me and rested something boney near my head. I brought my arms down and held it. No sooner had I done so then the crawling sensation stopped. I shivered, but didn't let go. The thing wiggled out of my hold. It barked once then tore up the grass as it thumped away. Strange that the beings without hands were opening up my world. I continued to sit in the warmth of the thing above me for a time before I stood to find the door again. I hadn't gotten two steps past the door when I heard.

"Great. Just great." Shirhar's tone was not happy.

A small hand gripped mine then towed me upstairs. My coverings were removed. Then I was set in a cold, smooth thing. A few squeaks sounded behind me before hot liquid moved under my legs. I called out and tried to get out, but the hands kept me from going anywhere. The temperature of the liquid changed slowly until it was warm. Then a lot of liquid was dumped over my head. It startled me. I got some in my eyes and mouth.

"Ung. Smells awful," Shirhar said.

More liquid was poured over my head before the hands gathered my hair and moved it. They crunched it, twisted it, even pulled it from time to time. Then the fingers pressed against my head. They scraped and pulled all the smaller hairs. It hurt and I cried.

"Shut up! You weren't supposed to change again so quickly."

I stopped making noise, but cold liquid still left my eyes.

I closed my eyes when the hands pulled my hair back and dumped liquid over me again. This repeated three more times—several dumps of liquid before massive hair pulling and head scrubbing. Once the process was done, I was pulled out of the liquid and scrubbed down by a scratchy something. Then the hands pushed me down so I would sit. Shirhar was saying something, but the words were unintelligible as the hands pulled and yanked something through my hair. My head was tipped back once the tool could move smoothly through my hair.

The fingers returned after that, pulling on small sections of hair. The pulling hurt, but I tried not to cry only because I knew there was no escaping these hands. Little by little the fingers pulled and twisted my hair from my forehead to the back of my head and down a little further. When the pulling stopped, I was lifted slightly under my arms. I stood. Then I was pulled to where they had me lay down. A door slammed shut after I was laying down. Several squeaks sounded in the walkway, a couple farther and one near my room. It didn't take long for Shirhar to start yelling. I buried my head under the coverings to try and muffle what was coming through the walls.

"More changes! They came out of nowhere. …No. …Long silver hair! Growth that would take four years, just appeared."

I tried pulling the head cushion over my head, but I could still hear the yelling clearly.

"…No, the brown hair is still there. …I don't know! …I couldn't see anything else, Bodrai. And if there are internal changes, we won't know what it is…. We can't afford to keep going to the doctor like this for something we don't truly know what it is. …I understand, but….

Shirhar's voice stopped for a while and I dared move my head cushion off my head.

"Alright, Bodrai," Shirhar sighed. "Yes. …Okay."

The squeaking stopped. There was a soft click before the covering was pulled off of me. There was a light breeze that passed over my face, but nothing else.

"We know you can feel," Shirhar said. "That became obvious with the appearance of the short brown hair. But what has changed with the silver hair?"

The thing I laid on shifted and they didn't seem to move for a while. I was starting to wonder if the voice had gone, when a loud snap sounded next to my right ear. I yelped and struggled to move away. I curled up and pressed myself against the headboard.

"You can hear us," Shirhar whispered. "You can…."

The floor creaked and the hands left.

I stayed sitting on my bed for a while. I rubbed my right ear still feeling something after the snap. I hugged my legs to my chest. There was a lot of information about how the high voice viewed the opening of another sense—fear, panic, anger. There was none of the happiness I heard when that voice spoke with the deep voice. Was I really that different? Was that why their hands rarely interacted with me? Is that why they allowed the other hands and voice to hurt me? I ran these questions through my head before pulling off all my coverings and slowly drew my hands over my body.

I knew they had limbs like me because they had carried me and walked. Did they not have hair? Was that why mine was such a shock? My fingers continued their travels. Smooth save for the two holes between my legs. …And two minute bumps on my chest. I sighed and let my hands drop. Was hearing such an awful thing? The hands hadn't seemed upset when I started being able to feel. I sat until I needed to expel stuff. I covered myself again then did as I had been instructed.

After, I went down the stairs and sat in the feeding spot. But there was nothing there for me. Nor were the hands there to guide me into finding food for myself. Tears filled my eyes. Was I going to starve because the hands would no longer help me? Or would they allow me to try and find something on my own? Other than sitting in this place, I hadn't explored this area much. Slowly, I let my hands slide across the surface. There was a covering about an arm's length away. I stood and felt further. On the cloth was a dish. Inside the dish were objects, some irregularly shaped and smooth, one round and a little bumpy. Were these edible? I didn't know because the hands always gave me mush.

Leaving the objects in the bowl, I continued to explore. There were a lot of smooth surfaces, some with odd bumps and rings on them, but still nothing I could identify as food. I cried more, no longer sure of what I could do anymore. I hadn't heard any squeaking, so I didn't know where to find the hands that accompanied the high voice. I felt my way back to the sitting place and the bowl of objects. I picked up one of the smooth things that fit nicely in my hands and took a bite. There was a very soft crunch. Liquid entered my mouth and ran down my chin. I chewed what I bit off, getting more liquid in my mouth before I swallowed. I lowered myself into a seat then took another bite. I continued to take bites, until the fleshy liquid rich substance turned a little harder. Then I set what was left on the smooth surface in front of me.

"No, no, no. That does not belong there," Shirhar's voice seethed. "Pick it up."

I didn't move.

"Pick it up!"

Hesitantly, I picked up the thing I had set down.

"Now stand up."

I stood.

"Put it in the trash can."

My brow furrowed. Put it where?

The voice sighed before a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me over to where I had been exploring previously. The hand pulled my arm down a bit until I felt a waist high circle that crinkled as my hand moved around it.

"Put it in there."

I dropped the thing into the center of the ring and the hand let go.

"Now wash your hands," Shirhar demanded.

Turning, I started for the elimination room to do as the voice asked. But before I could feel my way out of the room, the hands grabbed me again, completely turning me around, and pushed me to another place. The washing place was a little different, but I still found what I needed to wash and dry my hands. There was a rustling of something off to my left. A small bag was put in my hands.

"Eat these outside."

I started to open the bag.

"Outside!" Shirhar screeched.

Crumpling the bag in my hands, more tears filled my eyes.

There was a grunt before the hands pushed me out into the soft under-footing and the warm thing above.