I was an only child just like my mother, grandmother and great grandfather and a very obedient one at that. I never found it queer that I was the only kid at school without cousins or uncles or greataunts. Everything was always well in our little countryside house which was passed down from generation to generation, my father had left well before I was born so there were never any fights and with no one to share my toys with, I was most of the time in a jolly mood, until night came.

 The absolute and engulfing darkness that came with it never terrified me much until the day I turned 10. My mother was extra paranoid with everything that fateful day, checking the clock every minute, making me skip school, keeping me in the same room as her, keeping all the lights turned on, keeping the blinds shut at all times, all the windows and doors bolted shut, I brushed it off as her paranoia acting up again. After the birthday celebrations, my mother tucked me in bed and kissed me goodnight, only it wasn't a "good" night. I woke up in the middle of the night to a faint whispering coming from under my bed, I clutched my blanket a little tighter and tried to ignore it but the whispering switched to my closet, only this time I was louder and more hurried, then it switched to my ears, 

'Open your little eyes, little boy, look at me, look at us, why do you keep them shut so tight, show us your pearly eyes, show us good and we we will be bestfriends'

This went on for the rest of the night, but I never once opened my eyes, fearing I would come face to face with a dark beast with sharp teeth, ready to tear my flesh off my bones. When morning came I was still shaking, my eyes hurt from shutting them so tight for hours. I didn't get up until my mom came to get me ready for school, when she saw my petrified expression, her face became all serious and said that she needed to tell me something. 

'Mal, I know what happened last night, I know what you heard and I'm so very happy that you didn't open your eyes. You're such a good little boy'

I was shocked. How did mom know about this? Was this some sort of prank? Was she the one whispering to me all night?

'Before you ask me any questions, I have something to tell you. The whispering that you heard last night was real, it wasn't a dream, and it'll come back again,every week,stronger as you grow old up until the day you die. But you should never EVER open your eyes when you hear it. Please for the sake your mommy please never open your eyes. Promise me that you'll never open your eyes.'

I loved my mother more than anything in the whole wide world and so I promised her that I would never open my eyes to the whispering but it wasn't easy, just like my mom said, the whispering grew louder, more aggressive every week and the urge to look got stronger too but every time I felt like my eyes would fly open on their own, I got up and left my room, eyes always sealed shut. 

Eventually, I got used to the whispering and it wasn't such a hassle to ignore it anymore, I got enough sleep, did well in well, moved out for college and got married. 

When I asked for my mom's advice on getting married to my college girlfriend, she only had one thing to say : when I have a child the whispering would haunt them too. I paused after hearing that, I had never questioned the whispering until that moment.

"What? Why?'' I asked her 

''I told you to never question it, just know that your actions will have consequences.''

I wish I had listened to her, I wish I could go back in time and shake my past left into reasoning, but i didn't and I can't. Or altleast I wish I had told my wife about it.

Shortly after i got married, my wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl in my mother's home which was now passed down to me. We named her Marjorie after my wife's late mother.

Marjorie was rebellious, right from the start. Causing trouble at school and at home, but I loved her, I loved her so much. The whispering started for her right on the day she turned 10 and I warned her, i warned her so much to never open her eyes, to never look at it and she listened and I worried less and less as weeks went by without any issues.

 Everything was fine and well and we were happy until one day I woke up to the sound of screaming from downstairs. I turned to wake my wife up but she was nowhere, instantly alarms started blaring in my head. I went downstairs to see my wife hunched over the kitchen bin her back to me, retching loudly and Marjorie sitting the kitchen island, facing the other side. She was shaking uncontrollably, twitching like a mad woman, I slowly walked towards her but my wife clutched my wrist so hard it hurt. 

"No, don't, don't look at her please, don't look at her eyes."

"Nina, what's wrong, what's happening?"

"No, don't look at her, leave, leave and never look back." At this point tears were streaming down both our faces. 

Some part of me knew what was happening, some part of me knew that it was the whispering but I had to look I had to look at the child, my child, the one I loved more than life itself and so I did. 

I grabbed my phone and opened the camera app and looked at her through my phone's camera, I slowly walked around the kitchen island and turned to look at her. My sweet little girl had bloody, dark, empty sockets for eyes, her beautiful olive skin was smeared with blood, her barely there lips had teeth marks on them and I realized with a start that she had eaten her own lips, just like she was eating her hair, pulling it so hard that chunks of skin was tearing off with it, yet she showed no sign on pain, not even a wince or a scream. She got bored of her hair soon enough and started plucking her nails one by one, and putting them in her bloodied mouth, everytime she opened her mouth, I saw a stump that was once her tongue, she had eaten her own tongue. After her nails she proceeded to chew on her fingers,until there was nothing but bits of  flesh and blood dangling off of bones and I tried, I tried so hard to stop her but i was frozen in place, i couldn't move, no matter how hard i tried, I just couldn't move, I had to watch as my baby tore open her stomach with her finger bones and drank her stomach fluids. Acid burning whatever remained of her lips and mouth, I had to watch as she pulled out her intestines still full with partially digested food and eat it, blood and tissue and digested food splattering everywhere, spilling down the sides of her face, I watched the chewed intestines land with a plop on her lap as there was no stomach to hold it. I watched, praying for God to take her, so I wouldn't have to watch her but, thinking myself horrid for doing so, but she never stopped, she went on chewing and swallowing, she didn't even balk as she pulled on her food pipe, neither did she die. 

I saw my wife move from the corner of my eyes, and when I saw her pulling out her eyeballs with her bare fingers all while screaming in agony, I knew the family that I once knew and loved was long gone. I ran, ran from it all, ran like my life depended on it because it did, I ran until I reached my mom's apartment. When she saw the look on my face she knew like she did all those years ago that it was The Whispering, she grabbed her coat, her keys and a can of gasoline and matches and drove us to my house, she doused the little house in as much as gasoline as she could, entering the house with her eyes closed and lit in on fire and I screamed, I screamed as loud as I could I tried to run into the house but my mom held tight, I watched my whole life go up in flames, I watched it all burn red. We were far from civilization so the fire never got reported. The house didn't burn an inch, the fire did it no damage. But my family were little more than ashes. I know that when a person's burned, bits of flesh and bones still remain but there was nothing left of my beloveds. 

My mom and I reported them missing after scattering their ashes in the river. I see them every time i close my eyes. I smell the gore. I hear the tearing and chewing of raw flesh. I hear the drops of blood ricocheting on the floor. I hear it all too well. I know it's all in my head, i know it's not real. 

But I can't bring myself to live with it. So tonight I'll open my eyes.