The Growl Only I Could Hear

My town was the sort where nothing happened. Law enforcement was bored, and as a result, parking tickets were pretty common. It was the sort of town where the only skatepark didn’t have anything more interesting than a half-pipe, and not more than six feet at that. It didn’t even have walls. And it was right across from a horse pasture, with an old folks’ home a block up and the elementary school a block down.

Nothing happened.

And so when I started hearing things interrupting my music, I was… confused.

It started innocently enough one Friday, while I was putting dishes away. I reached up to touch my earbuds to skip to the next song, not much wanting to listen to Three Days Grace at that moment. But as soon as my fingers touched the device, a distorted growling sort of noise filled my ears. I flinched and blinked in confusion. I pulled out my phone. Three Days Grace was still playing there, and now on my earbuds as well, like nothing had happened. I was confused. I tapped the skip arrow and moved on, figuring it had just been a sound glitch.

But a few minutes later, when I wanted to skip Imagine Dragons, it happened again. I touched my earbud and the distorted growling, almost an animal sound, filled my ears. I jerked my hand away and they kept playing like normal. I frowned and pulled out my phone, skipped the song, and made a note to buy new earbuds.

I never did.

A few days later I was home alone, playing my music aloud on my phone. This time, when I went to touch my phone screen to skip a song, that growling came from the phone. I stared at it and paused the music. Then everything was fine. I wondered if it was a problem with Spotify, and I typed into Google ‘recent Spotify glitches growling.’ I found nothing. Apparently I was the only one experiencing this. That was odd. I sighed and decided to just listen to an audiobook. But as soon as I selected the book and pressed play, the second I touched my phone, that horrible growling, distorted, melted together with radio static and whining, came from my phone. It stopped as soon as I hit pause on the audiobook. I stared at my phone, a little unnerved.

I was so confused.

I wasn’t a tech person, by any means, but somehow I doubted this was anything tech-related. That night when my mom was listening to some of her music off of her phone, I quietly went up to her and asked, “Hey… Mom? Can I… see your phone?” Confused, my mom nodded and pulled it out. I went to skip Chris Stapleton — sorry, Chris — and that growling came again, from her phone.

“Why’d you skip it?” She looked at me, completely straight-faced. I stared at her. I could hear the growling and hissing of distorted radio static.

“Mom… don’t you hear that?” My spine was prickling with cold, and I was feeling sweat break out. She raised an eyebrow at me. I put her phone down.

“I hear Drake White,” she said slowly.

“Mom… this… this growling has been happening whenever I touch whatever device is playing sound. Music, audiobooks, podcasts, from my earbuds, my phone, my speaker, it’s all… weird.”

She shook her head. “No, honey, I don’t think so.”

“Mom, I’m not kidding. This is for real, look —“ I pulled out my phone, pressed play on some of my own music, and just held the thing. Instead of Creed it started growling and whining again, all distorted, like radio static. I was shaking when I dropped the phone on the counter and Creed started playing just fine. I looked at Mom. She looked at me. She poked her head out the kitchen door into the living room.

“Hey, babe, can you come here for a sec?”

My dad got up quick and walked over. “Yeah, what’s up?” He put his hands on his hips and looked between us. “Something wrong?” He gave me that look of curiosity and half-suspicion he always did when he found me and Mom in a private discussion with our faces so serious.

“Dad… I have to show you something.” I reached for my phone.

“Have you been texting someone?” He said quickly, his curiosity giving way to incredulous disappointment.

“What? No, Dad, it’s…” I touched my phone again which was playing something Green Day, and instantly that awful growl filled the kitchen. He blinked fast and stared, his forehead furrowing in confusion and anxiety.

“Kiddo… what…?”

I jerked my hand away and clenched it into a fist at my side. “Dad, what is that?” I said, throat tightening.

“What are you talking about, kiddo?”

“It happens whenever I touch anything playing sound, look!” I poked Mom’s phone, lying next to mine still, and her country music was interrupted by that static growl for half a second. “That growling, like with the radio static and stuff, don’t you hear that? My earbuds, my speaker, heck, I tried it with the TV speakers the other night, Dad!” I turned to face him. “What… what’s going on? Is it me?”

He glanced at my pale face and then he looked at Mom, chewing his lip.

I know I’m not crazy. I hear that growl anytime I touch something playing sound. So I don’t anymore. Because lately, the growls have begun to turn into words. Horrible words. Something cursing, in English; sometimes words in a language I can’t identify as anything modern. I’m starting to wonder… why can only I hear it?