The Mind Watcher

Published: October 1, 2024 — written 1 year and 9 months ago.

I know this sounds strange, but in the blink of an eye, everyone lost their minds. You could see it and hear it, and soon you could smell it. At first, I thought it was a prank, like some elaborately planned flash mob happening around me. So I immediately tried to blend in for a bit, looking for hidden cameras, trying not to spoil this event. But when I saw what was happening around me, the damage of cars colliding, of people falling off their bikes, it dawned on me that this was something else. My stomach turned into a knot, and I felt sick.

I was in the middle of the city when it happened. It was eerie how everyone fell silent, like someone magically muting the voice track of a film. I couldn’t believe that without warning, the entire population went nonverbal. Then, I saw how everyone changed what they were doing. There were those that had fallen off their bikes or out of busses that kept lying on the pavement, staring into the sky. Others began to crawl away like worms, scratching their clothes across the tarmac. Others carried on walking down the street and out of sight, with others appearing from every direction. Busses and cars had run into shops and walls. Those that weren’t too badly damaged kept idling until their petrol ran out, leaving only the mechanic hum of motors ebbing away over the days. And everyone around me remained silent. Not a word was spoken. I could hear them breathe as they walked past me, walking aimlessly through the streets. Nothing like the zombies I’ve seen on TV shows, though. They didn’t scream or growl or try to run after me. They were quiet and peaceful. At least to others.

I saw one eating the wood chip in a playground. Another trying to bite off a chunk out of the pavement. The sound of his teeth scraping across the tarmac sent goosebumps across my skin and sent my stomach turning. When I approached him, he ignored me, his eyes not seeing me in the slightest way, looking right through me. When I stopped him from gnawing the concrete, he only waited for me to release my grip, just to bend over again, push his teeth against the curb, and bite into the stone.

My heart sank, and I panicked. I thought of my partner. I tried to call them, but no one picked up. I ran home. Forty-five minutes of passing those that I ended up calling the walkers, the starers, the touchers, and the worst, the eaters. The latter were the first to die, depending on what they managed to eat, lying on the ground with liquids running from their mouths. They only helped me to run faster. When I got home, my partner was gone. It ripped my heart apart. I knew they were one of them. My next thought was, at least they were not an eater. But I had no idea where they were. I searched for the rest of the day, systematically running around the blocks, marking streets on a screenshot of maps, until I had no energy left in me to go on. In hindsight, I can say the running helped me to calm my mind, to be able to do something. But not finding them hurt every fabric of my heart.

I was desperate to find out what was going on. The emergency numbers remained unanswered, and soon the lines were dead. With everyone out of their minds, not responding to me in any way, I soon felt alone. And my loneliness and fear increased with every waking hour and every day that passed. The streets filled with bodies that wouldn’t eat and wouldn’t sleep. Dogs began roaming around, hungry and looking for food. A few canines followed me on my way out of the city, joining me on my way, to nowhere. When I turned around to shoo them away, they stood still, our eyes locking. And I could read our shared emotion, that we had no idea what the fuck was going on. At night, they kept crawling closer to me, sleeping next to me in the fields, some of them quietly crying into the night. During the days, I didn’t look where or what they found to eat.

The first nights I couldn’t sleep, I spent hours restlessly screaming into the neighbourhoods. And if I nodded away, I was woken up by dogs barking in the streets as the sun started its crawl into the sky.

Animals were not affected. Only humans. There were no more planes in the sky and no more lights on at night. The world turned dark, and then bright, illuminated by the stars above me. I looked at the universe like I had never seen it before. And then, I could sleep. And when I slept, I dreamt, and I could suddenly hear them. All the voices, talking one after the other and at the same time. They said all the things they were doing, over and over again.

I am the one who eats copper. I am the one who eats stone. I am the one who keeps walking. I am the one who looks down. At first, they frightened me, but soon they carried me into my much-needed sleep and into my dreams, all until the voices died down one after the other. And it was only when my own voice was the last to subside that I knew who I was.