Ting. Ting. Ting.

Copley Square | Ananya Roy | Photography

Ting. Ting. Ting. by Louise Brophy

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

There it went again. Every few minutes, my ears were cursed with the faint ringing of a high pitched bell. Or maybe it was more similar to someone playing the triangle. Or long nails tapping on blown glass? And not so faint that I wouldn’t hear it. It was unmistakable. Everytime. 

“Did you hear that?” I asked. 

“Hear what?” said Sadie, my best friend that I invited over after dinner for some tea. 

“You didn’t hear it? God, it’s like high pitched and tinny. Like a bell or a chime maybe. I don’t know.” I replied. 

“Like this?” she giggled as she clinked my teacup. 

“No, I don’t really know how to describe it, but I’ve been hearing it almost all day. It’s killing me.”

“Maybe you’re just tired. I mean, once I was so tired and jet lagged after my trip to Aruba last spring break, I swear it actually caused me to hallucinate. I’m not kidding! Get this, the next day I told all my coworkers that I met Tom Cruise, and that he asked me on a date! And then I was just searching and searching for his contact in my phone to prove that I was telling the truth, but I couldn’t find it, so I assumed I must’ve made it up, but oh, wouldn’t it be amazing if it had been true?” As she finished rambling, she gazed off dreamily,  but before she could start again, I cut her off. 

“Oh for sure, but I’m pretty sure your issue wasn’t from your pure exhaustion induced from going on a tropical vacation, but probably because you watched Top Gun on the plane for, what is it now, your 1000th time?” I asked jokingly. 

We both began to cackle. If the cast of Top Gun had only one fan, it would be Sadie, and if they didn’t have any fans at all, Sadie wouldn’t exist. She also had the funniest stories, and her bubbliness was so contagious, she could get a laugh out of just about anyone. 

“Oh that reminds me. Another time, I was…” Sadie started.

Ting. Ting. Ting.

“There it is again! Can you really not hear it?” I was starting to get annoyed. 

Sadie looked at her phone. Her lock screen read 10:20. 

“Aww geez! Sorry Carly, but I gotta get home. I’ve got to work early tomorrow morning,” said Sadie. 

She reached for her coat and put on her patent leather boots, but she paused once she reached the foyer. 

“And no, I didn’t hear it. But you should get some rest, it’ll definitely be gone by tomorrow morning,” she said as she opened the door to leave. 

“Yeah, you’re right. I am pretty tired. And thanks for coming over, by the way,” I replied. 

“Thanks for having me!” called Sadie as she was walking to her car. “We’ll talk tomorrow!”

As I waved goodbye, I shut the door and locked it. I began to sweep the house, locking the rest of the doors, and turning off all the lights downstairs. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

“Oh my god, just stop.” I grumbled to myself as I stomped up the stairs to my bedroom. 

I threw on pajamas and brushed my teeth. I was so annoyed and desperate for this incessant ringing to stop that I wanted to be asleep as soon as possible, so I disregarded my usual night time skincare routine. I turned off my overhead light, slammed my bulky, creaking door, and climbed under my covers. I switched off my bedside lamp as I checked my phone once more before I hit the rack. The time was 10:37. The earliest I had gone to bed in years.

“Finally,” I sighed as I let my head fall into my pillow, and my feet shuffled against each other, trying to warm up on this cold January night. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

“Just go to bed, Carly,” I whispered to myself. “It will be gone the sooner you fall asleep.”

I rolled over, shifting to a new position. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. This time there was a shorter break between the rounds of mysterious chiming. 

I rolled over again. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

Back to the other side. This pattern continued back and forth until I had nearly broken a sweat. 

Ting. Ting. Ting.

“Ugghhhh. Let me sleep!” I grunted. 

I snatched the pillow to my left and clamped it over my ears, my fingers gripping the fabric so firmly that I could feel them start to tense up. I was also holding it so tightly to my head that I could feel my temples start to pulse.

Ting. Ting. Ting. It was louder now, as if it, whatever it was, knew I was trying to block it out. 

What could it be? I guess it could be the smoke alarms, but I swore I had just changed the batteries. I decided I’d check regardless, as I couldn’t sleep anyway. 

I leaned over my bedside table and flipped on the lamp. I began to put on my slippers, when it switched back off. 

“Weird,” I muttered. 

I switched it on again. It had its usual, buttery yellow glow, but after a couple seconds, it burnt out again. 

I grabbed my phone and ran to the other side of the room and flicked the light switch corresponding to my overhead lights. They shut off too. I mean, they turned on just fine, but it was the same problem, they wouldn’t stay on.  

I froze in my doorway. This house never had any electrical problems before, not even during the wildest of rain storms or blizzards. I could feel fear beginning to plague me like a disease, accompanied by the even creepier feeling that the lights somehow had something to do with the noise. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. It grew louder still. 

“Move, Carly, go check the smoke detectors,” I whispered slowly, trying to force myself out of my trance with logic. 

I dragged my slippered feet into the hallway and quickly moved to the staircase, but as I had just begun to descend, there was a new noise. 

Creeeeeaaaakkk. 

The sound of my bedroom door. I reeled my head in horror as I watched it click shut. The door was far too heavy to close on its own, as it was crafted from a rich, antique oak, and the only reason I was able to slam it earlier was due simply to my pure exasperation from hearing the unceasing ting-ting-ting-ing. 

“What the hell,” I exhaled. 

Whoosh. Something had breezed past me. 

“What the HELL!” I repeated, in shock.  

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

Shhh. Shhh. Shh. 

There were now whispers behind each chime, but I couldn’t make out the message. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. It was even louder. 

I bolted down the stairs. Forget the smoke detectors, this was obviously something else. I scrambled into the kitchen, frantically looking for my keys. I had to get out, but it was painfully dark since none of the lights stayed on for more than a few seconds at a time. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

Shhh. Shh-is. Shhh.

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

Shh-ime.  Shh-is. Shhh. It was so frequent and loud now that I was starting to hear words behind the muffles. 

“Are you saying the word ‘time’? ‘Time is’? ‘Time is’ what?!” I yelled at the ceiling. 

TING. TING. TING. The ringing boomed so loudly as if in response to my fury, and I lurched my head straight back into the door of my refrigerator. 

My head was throbbing. The little visibility I had dissipated into mere splotches of light. 

“Owww, oh my god,” I groaned. I needed real help. I reached for my phone and dialed 9-11.

“What seems to be the problem ma'am?” the dispatcher asked calmly.

“I don’t know. I’ve been hearing and seeing things that other people can’t see and I hit my head real bad and I need help!” I sobbed into the phone. Tears had begun to gush from my eyes in sheets which did even less for my vision. 

“Help will be there shortly. They are readying a room for you in the mental ward at your nearest hospital as we speak, and we’ll have something for that head of yours in the ambulance,” replied the dispatcher. 

“Thank you,” I sniffled back in response. I hung up. 

Ting. Ting. Ting.
Shh-ime. Shh-is. Shhh. 

“STOP!!!” I wailed. “I can’t take it anymore!”

I ran out the door, ears plugged, and slumped down on my front stoop, praying the ambulance would come soon. My nose had begun to stream nearly as much as my eyes, which were now puffier than toasted marshmallows. 

Ting. Ting. Ting.
Shh-ime. Shh-is. Shhh. 

Ting. Ting. Ting.

The unrelenting sound of the eerie chimes, along with my own cries and gulps for air, were so overwhelming that it drowned out the siren-filled arrival of the rescue squad. Come to think of it, I couldn't really recall the ambulance ride either, I was so emotionally exhausted, and the ting-ing and unintelligible whispering remained non-stop. The only thing I remembered from the drive to the hospital was that even the lights inside the car began to flicker when I first got in. 

I woke up hours later, now in a hospital room, early into the next morning. I don’t know if they gave me a sedative or if I really had been too fatigued to function any longer. I had begun to develop a rash on my shoulder from the sandpaper-like patient gown, and I realized my head had been wrapped in some sort of contraption forged from an ice pack shrouded in gauze. 

“Talk to me, Goose,” I heard an oh-so-familiar voice whisper as my eyes fluttered to where she was standing. Sadie had come to see me, and there were a few nurses with her, also awaiting my wake up. 

“Thanks for coming, Sadie. You didn’t have to, especially since you had work,” I said guiltily. 

“It’s alright. I’m just glad you got some help. I feel like you really…”

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

“Uggh, here we go again,” I mumbled, twiddling my thumbs, knowing no one would understand. 

But when I looked up, everyone’s faces were turned in a shared terror to where I imagined the sound was coming from: the hallway. As I watched in sync with the group, every light in that corridor went out at once, and a shadowy figure blacker than ink appeared in the doorway. The only thing that was really visible was its spider-like hand with spindles for fingers, and the tiny, dented bell it was holding outstretched into the light. And as it rang, and as the creature spoke, at last I was able to decipher what it had been whispering all along. 

Ting. Ting. Ting. 

Time. Is. Up.