Escape Characters

Blue buckets

So, I'm standing in the middle of a dark strip mall parking lot, without cars or people, only the street lights and the storefronts lit.

From seemingly nowhere, a jeering voice starts singing, "Josh. Josh josh. Josh-josh-josh-josh..."

I walk towards the source of the sound. In front of one of the stores is a blue, empty bucket, from which the voice seems to be emanating. I overturn the bucket and stomp it into blue plastic shards. The jeering voice stops singing.

I walk back out to the middle of the parking lot and look back at the stores.

Music starts playing. It's playing music in a muted tune, but to the same cadence as the jeering voice. I get the sense that I didn't take care of the source of the voice.

I tell the music to stop. It asks, "Why?"

"Because," I say, "it's now quiet except for me."

And that's what I woke up to last night, far too late. I decided to write it down. And here it is.