Whispers

2023 3rd & 4th Grade Prose Winner

You’re not what you seem to be.

The voice sounds in my head while… I can’t say I’m sleeping. I never sleep. It’s weird… like I
don’t need to sleep. But that’s impossible: humans need to sleep,right? I’m a human, so I need
to sleep. But I never do… it’s strange. I’m strange; I can’t sleep, I can’t feel pain, I can’t cry…
And I know what the doctors tell my grandparents. My body is different… too different.
 The Whispers are right.
I’m not what I seem.
Remember that day? Remember?
I’m panicked, like I always am when the Whispers come to me.
That day, in the car, remember what happened?
I remember, but I don’t want to.
It was the end of your parents…
I want to cry out, but I also want to listen. I’m too curious.
Remember, Emily?
I don’t like this. I usually yell out before the Whispers get to this point… But this time I don’t. The
Whispers have something to tell me… I just don’t know what.
That’s when you couldn’t sleep anymore… That’s when you couldn’t be a human anymore.
I break out in a cold sweat.
Because something happened to you.
It’s quiet for a while. I wait, but the Whispers don’t start again.
I sit up and push the blankets down. Then I slip out of bed and run down the hallway and into
the bathroom.
I splash water on my face. As I dry it with a towel, I notice something.
My body is unusually cold.
I stare into the mirror and yell. Well, I try to.
My mouth doesn’t budge.
I stare at my reflection. My face is yellow and gray and my skin is peeling off. My face looks
rough. As I raise my hand to my face, I realize I can’t move. I look like that mummy from the
scary movie I shouldn’t have watched. No! The mummy was prettier.
I look at my reflection in terror. I stand there for what seems like an eternity.
This face is familiar.
It takes me back to the terrible, terrible moment.
You were in a car, driving home from the parent-teacher conference. Your mom saw a dog on
the road. She slammed on the brakes and you were thrown forward. You saw another car
coming up behind, but your parents didn’t.
My breathing is ragged. If I am breathing, that is. I want the Whispers to stop, but I’m curious
how much they know.
like you see yourself now. You were knocked out, and when you woke up in the hospital, the
first thing you wanted was to know where your parents were. They didn’t survive. Neither did
you.
I’m… afraid. More afraid than I’ve ever been. I’m not curious anymore. I just want help.
The Whispers said that I didn’t die.
I look at myself in the mirror and push that thought out of my mind. I’m either sick, or this is a
nightmare.
I’m suddenly glad I can’t move. If I could move, I would pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming or
not. But…
If I’m not dreaming, if the Whispers are right, then… most of my life wasn’t even a life.
I’ve figured it’s better not to tell you until you need to know.
What do I need to know?
I’m so scared I listen for the beating of my racing heart.
It’s time. You can’t stop it.
And then I see smoke.
I only postponed it.
Black smoke, that curls and uncurls in front of me. It looks like it’s reaching out to me.
You don’t have a choice.
‘What will happen?’ I think to myself.
You will become like me.
I don’t want to become a Whisper. I want to be something everybody can see. I don’t want to be
in the shadows.
Come.
The smoke is dangerously close.
‘Please help me.’ I silently plead.
I helped you stay in this world for as long as you can.
There’s a flash of white light, and then I can’t see the smoke anymore. I can’t see anything. I
can move again, but it feels like floating- no gravity.
‘Am I on the moon?’ I think.
No.
And that’s when I understand what the Whispers have revealed.
I went through something that most people fear, and you can’t come back.