The writing prompt was – The main character is in a frustrating situation.
“I don’t know what to do,” was heard.
No one in the group acknowledged saying it, but everyone had heard it.
The voice was quite forlorn. You heard the anxiety and frustration in their plea. But who was it? And what was the answer to the unasked question?
There was a mystery to be solved.
Then the voice spoke again. “It will be too late, but I must make a decision.”
Now, we were all perplexed because we had our eyes wide open when the person spoke, and we did not see it created by anyone in the room.
Was someone a ventriloquist and trying to play a joke on us?
Wanting to disprove that theory, I asked everyone in the room to open their mouths wide and hold it that way for 30 seconds.
It seemed a silly thing to do, but everyone did as I asked. I was hoping that the voice wouldn’t sound again, for a ventriloquist cannot perform with a wide open mouth,
It was but 10 seconds in that the voice sounded again.
“I’m doomed,” it said, “There is no help here.”
One of the group members answered quite quickly, “Yes, there is. You need to give us more information. Who are you? What are your choices? What can we do?”
We all waited. That’s when a burly man entered the room.
“HIM!” was the voice’s response.
Everyone in the room looked at the man. “Who are you?” I asked.
“Why do you ask?’ was his gruff reply.
“Don’t tell him, please,” pleaded the voice.
None of us spoke.
“I asked you, why do you ask?’ he said.
I tried to take charge, “I’m sorry, this is a group meeting for registered-only. Is there something we can do to help you?”
The man hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’m looking for someone. But, apparently, she’s not here.”
The man turned to leave. We all heard the tears falling from someone crying in the room. Obviously, the man could hear nothing. He left as mysteriously as he had arrived.
“Thank you.” said the voice. And that was the last time we heard it.
We never did find out who belonged to that voice.
However, I suspect it had something to do with the newspaper article in the paper a week later. The article showed a picture of a missing woman in the local area who had been missing for some time. There was suspicion of foul play, and the lead suspect who police were looking for, whose picture was also in the paper, was the man who had entered our library writing group that day.
