Madness, disparity, hopelessness. On this episode, Zack unveils a tale inspired by H.P. Lovecraft meant to dive into a simplicity of human life: what does it take for your own surroundings to drive you mad?
Welcome to Smirk. A podcast that covers society and culture through a storytelling lens. Part creative writing, part discussion, and always interesting. Each week our hosts brings a story to the show, a story they wrote themselves, which is immediately followed by discussion on the author’s moral or theme. These stories can cover any topic the host wants to discuss, it can be lighthearted or more serious. No one but the author knows if these tales are truth or fiction, and part of the fun is guessing while you’re listening before the reality is made clear. We want to hear from you! If you want to share YOUR story, join the conversation by writing in to mystory@smirkpodcast.com, and include your moral, or you can let us guess at it. This is the podcast that looks at truth, fiction, and reality. With a Smirk. Don’t forget to subscribe to Smirk and share the show with your friends!
Want to read Zack’s story “For The Black” in full? Think you can identify the moral or theme for this episode? Read it below, and then take a listen to the podcast.
For The Black
Chase had only lived in his new apartment maybe two weeks org so. Life threw him quite a curveball, and he had no choice but to adapt. So he didn’t exactly get to choose the greatest place.
Sure, it was small, but that was manageable enough. Every night, however, a faint rapping sound could be heard. It seemingly only appeared once Chase’s eyes were closing. As he lay there drifting to sleep, the noise would happen. Easy enough to ignore at first, but not for long.
One cold and rainy night, Chase finally tried tracking down this abominable noise. During his evening exploration, it was easy to deduce the noise came from the kitchen. Attributing the noise to a leaky faucet, Chase opened the cupboard underneath the sink. It wouldn’t budge.
Pull as strong as he might, the cupboard door simply wouldn’t open. He decided the best course of action was to ignore the sound one more night, and call the landlord about it in the morning. Surely if the cupboard was sealed, it had to be for a reason.
Chase’s landlord proved just as unreliable as most when he got nothing but an answering machine. Left with no choice, he went through the day ready to ignore the noise once more, he even prepared with a nice, new pair of headphones. But this night had a fun twist for poor Chase. The rapping sound had grown louder into a very obvious knocking. Chase sprang up from bed.
He pulled, tugged, and kicked at the door to no result. He grabbed a kitchen knife to pry at the opening. Nothing. The knocking turned into banging, the noise was getting louder and louder. It was obviously no drip, but maybe a trapped animal. Chase began punching and screaming at the door, overcome with an anger and determination foreign to him.
The punching led way to the door cracking, so Chase kept at it. His knuckled cracked and tore just at the door did, but there was no stopping him now. This was a curiosity, a hunger for knowledge, he had never experience before. What manner of creature could be under there?!
Finally, with blood staining the wood and trickling down his knuckles and hands, he got through. He tore the door apart, forcing an opening. He could finally get a glimpse inside. What he saw was indescribable. A creature so foreign and unfamiliar, Chase’s feeble human mind couldn’t comprehend what it was seeing. A shivering puff of black smoke, a cloud of hatred and despair, and at the center of it a small metallic mass. Every dark thought Chase had ever had found the forefront of his mind. Murder, hatred, bigotry, rape, suicide. And it produced in him euphoric joy. He stared for what felt like hours, but was in reality seconds. And then his mind broke.
When he was finally found, some six days later, he was found staring into that cupboard under the sink. Surrounded by blood and wood. Muttering only one phrase, “For the black.”