Chapter Thirteen – The Untold Threat

Darkness, the only source of light in the room being the warming red glow of the digital clock sitting on the end table… Silence, the only source of noise being the ever so rare car driving passed. Nikki stirred as a car drove by and sat up slightly looking at the clock, 3:17am… The silence was broken by a faint crackling hissing noise which slowly grew louder and louder until Nikki noticed what it was… The sound of white noise, more commonly known as “radio static” created by un-tuning an FM Radio… Slowly Nikki got up and walked over to the clock thinking Brian had messed with the alarm and tuning. Nikki tried pressing the buttons on the top trying to re-tune the radio but to no avail, so she tried turning the volume dial down which was at the highest setting but the noise just got louder and louder. Nikki dived back onto the bed and woke Brian, “Brian… Brian wake the hell up!” she yelled as Brian stirred and slowly sat up covering his ears, “Ugh, what’s with the god awful noise?” Brian asked unaware and Nikki simply pointed towards the radio, “It’s the radio the stupid thing won’t turn down or anything!” she yelled loud enough for Brian to hear through his hands over the white noise so he got up and walked over to where the radio was plugged into the mains and ripped the plug out but the noise continued, the red numbers on the radio display were still showing but they were no longer numbers, instead they read “Ha:ha” Nikki whimpered as she sat shaking on the bed as the static got louder and louder for another fifteen seconds then just stopped, and with it the display on the radio died as well and the room plunged back into darkness. Brian quickly flicked the light switch and ran over to hold Nikki who was still shaking like Brian was the night before, “Nikki listen to me, calm down the radio has an inbuilt emergency battery in case there’s a power cut that’s what kept it on. I’ll take it back to the store today and get it looked over alright? I’m sure the buttons are just faulty.” Brian tried everything he could to get Nikki to calm down but it didn’t work. In the end he hugged her tightly and kissed her softly, just as Brian was leaving the room to get a drink Nikki jumped up and wrapped her arms around him, “Babe did you see the display… When you unplugged it,” Brian held Nikki and breathed deeply, “Yeah it was stuck on 3:17am.” Nikki shook her head slightly, “No… It said ‘Ha:Ha’ like it was laughing at you trying to turn it off.” Brian just looked at Nikki as if deep inside him he thought she was trying to scare him but on the outside he knew what she was saying was true, “Hun I’m pretty sure you were imagining it… All I saw was it still on 3:17am, come on we’ll go downstairs, have a drink and watch Rio again.” Brian said with a worried smile, Nikki nodded in agreement and followed him glancing back quickly.