Story 5: Silent But Dreadly
3:20 pm
It's a partially cloudy Wednesday afternoon down in Royal Woods, Michigan, with light gray skies with a pretty humid temperature. Lincoln and Lynn Sr. entered into the living room as they carried paper bags inside, making a father-son discussion about a brand new item they recently purchased down at the pet store earlier in the day. They spent a good amount of cash on a dog whistle that was on sale for approximately thirty three percent off its base price of twelve dollars and ninety five cents, along with some treats for the four family pets to sink their teeth into at a reasonable, yet affordable price. Charles was sleeping right on the blue family couch, getting more and more comfortable as his canine body warmed up the surface of the cushions he has direct contact with.
"Now son, things are gonna be a bit different here starting today. " The father figure stated loud and clear. "Remember that this particular whistle must only be used whenever Charles or Cliff start to misbehave in the house. "
"Oh, really?" Lincoln asked.
"Yes. All you need to do-"
"Okay Dad, I'm pretty sure I know how a whistle works. "
The titular white-haired boy took deep breaths in, before inserting the whistle between his lips, blowing on it, only to not hear anything coming out of the item. It was nothing but total, dead silence, but an high pitched ultrasonic sound started to befell Charles. He was suddenly disturbed from his afternoon nap, to the point where he immediately opened up his canine eyelids without any noticeable hesitation in his reaction as he jumped up to all his fours. The subtle sound of the whistle assaulted the white dog's eardrums, lasting only a second before it went away. Charles was understandably confused, albeit a little mad in the slightest that it just happened out of nowhere as if it was some sort of jumpscare appearing directly out of the blue before the dog proceeded to audibly respond to the situation.
Another second later, some more chatter resumed again between the two men in the household, but not before Charles laid back down on the couch in an annoyed motion to try and get a couple more minutes of sleep in for the middle of the day.
"Remember son, only if he's misbehaving. "
"I understand you loud and clear, Dad. "
"Alright, I'm gonna go into the kitchen and whip us up some lunch. "
"Thank goodness, I'm starving! I had to miss out on the lunch in school because of the disgusting food they were serving today in the cafeteria. "
The middle child of the household, walked over to the family couch just before sitting on it, petting the tired dog on the head with intermediate force. He was already disturbed by a sudden, yet subtle sound of the dog whistle that pounded his canine eardrums, he wasn't willing to let anything else do him the same way as he was desperate to nap in peace right there on the blue couch.
"Hey, Charles!" He said, just before the canine himself quietly growled to him in response. Lincoln stared down blankly at him, hesitating for a bit as he thought he was disturbing the white dog's peace before he rose up from the soft cushions of the couch, giving Charles some space and more importantly, quiet. "Oookay, I'll leave you to... whatever you like to dream about I guess."
Lincoln suddenly hummed as he made his way upstairs, walking all the way down to his slightly tight little room on the end of the hallway, curious as to why the whistle in the palms of his hand was unable to emit a single notable sound when blown into.
"That's strange." Lincoln thought to himself, gyrating the item around. "Did we really just pay eight dollars and sixty seven cents for a broken whistle?"
The pre-teen inhaled again through his mouth, blowing with a little more force on the tip of the whistle this time, with no audible sound being emitted.
Back downstairs, the ultrasonic sound of the whistle befelled the canine's ears yet again, disturbing his peace as he started squinting his eyes tighter for each second he tried to endure through the sudden annoyance of the whistle. It felt like it was utter torture to his delicate ears. He didn't do anything to deserve such a thing like this, but one more second later, he had enough.
Charles awakened from his disturbed slumber, feeling angry with determination and ready to fight back as he softly growled. But first, the canine would first respond with a little bit of a petty, yet disproportionate retribution from the shear annoyance of that whistle. As Cliff walked into the living room alongside with Geo by his side, he closed his eyes, lifting up one of his hind legs, followed by showering one of the blue couch cushions with his warm urine immediately after.
The cat looked upwards, staring directly into the eyes of the mischievous canine just as he was about to lower his hind leg down after relieving himself out of revenge, causing his anxiety to quickly skyrocket as he opened his eyes, noticing the cat looking rather fixated at the scene. He hesitated for a small beat before nervously speaking to the two of them, all the while drooping his ears down.
"Oh... um... I can explain."
Cliff and Geo shared a confused glance at each other before looking back over to the dog.
"Please do." Cliff responded, massaging one of his ears due to the silent whistle being heard earlier for the two house pets.
"Wait a sec." Charles said, noticing the cat's action. "Ya
heard it too, cat?"
"If you're talkin' about that high pitched sound, then yeah. "
"Huh? What high pitched sound?" Geo asked.
"It's annoyin' as all livin' heck!" Charles seriously stated, putting more anger into every word he uttered. "That sound has disturbed my nap more than once so far and I've had enough!"
"Yeah same here, dog." Cliff agreed, before he offered a simple suggestion to get to the bottom of the situation. "What say we find where that annoyin' sound's comin' from, and we destroy that caper once and fer all?"
"I was honestly thinkin' of the exact same thing, cat! This is actually more annoyin'... no, infuriatin'than the day that one girl pinned her fartin' on me!"
Few weeks back, the slightly irate social media teenage girl Lori Loud walked down the hallway, whistling as she slipped past the sleeping dog. As she got to the staircase, she looked around the interior to check if she's in the clear, lift her leg into position, clenching her fists as she brought them up to her chest, before she ripped one right there on top of the stairs as she took one step down them to imitate a creaking stair step to make her fart sound more subtle, quickly sighing in relief. It was clearly a short and sudden one, causing Charles to wake up startled, almost immediately the second the sound ofher farting befelled the canine beast. He looked to his left and right, trying to figure out where that noise ofLori's farting came from before the stench became overwhelming to almost half of the upstairs hallway. Before the seventeen-year-old could continue walking down the stairs, Lynn Jr. emerged from her bedroom door, plugging her nose up with her hand as she confronted the oldest sibling in the house, causing her to pause her movement.
"Whoa Lori, nasty!"
Lori was not gonna go down for this one. She was quick to find somebody, or rather some animal to put the blame on to cover up the truth as she wouldn't have the guts to take responsibility for letting one slide a few seconds ago.
"It was the steps!" she said, as Lana also emerged from her bedroom door.
"Pretty sure it wasn't. " Lana rebutted.
"Then it was... Charles!" She quickly pointed at the innocent dog, as he was quick to realize who the true caper was before he glared at her, straight in her eyes as he softly growled, due to her sudden hesitated accusation. Lynn Jr. walked over to the dog, petting him on the head as she was willing enough to praise him as she smiled, instead of telling him off. He was confused now, he didn't know what to do.
"Nice one, Charles!"
Lana sighed. "Oh sure, blame it on the dog. "
"We're gonna put a stop to this!"
Geo was growing concerned, albeit rather perplexed as to what the dog and the cat were talking about. "You guys, don't you think this a bit too much for something like this? Or... whatever we're talking about?"
Cliff and Charles shared a glance before they answered the brown coated hamster, together in unison.
"No. "
Geo sighed as Walt flew in the living room, landing nest to the hamster. "Oh, come on now..."
"I feel that this lil' plan of ours is totally warranted. " Cliff seriously stated, crossing his feline paws in a blunt motion. "There is absolutely nothin' in this world that's gonna make us have second thoughts. "
"...What are we talking about?" Walt asked before pointing out the wet, warm couch. "How come the couch is all wet now all of a sudden? Did one of you have another accident?"
"How 'bout ya ask the dog there, bird?" Cliff answered, subtly hinting and motioning his paw towards the canine, still with crossed paws as Charles looked into the eyes of a snitch, squinting his eyes as he didn't like to be the center of attention due to the black cat's little accusations. The pets didn't even utter a single word for a brief moment before Walt made a nice little attempt to keep their conversation going, and it did not fail.
"Again... what are we talking about here?"
"What's going on?" Geo added.
Charles was quick to answer the yellow canary's curious little question.
"I'll give ya the short version so we can save us some time: Some high pitched sound's annoyin' me and the cat, and we're gonna get to the bottom of it."
"As soon as we find out where that noise is comin' from, we gonna give that thing what for!" Cliff added in determination.
Geo and Walt glanced at each other in understandable confusion, as they have no idea what noise they were yapping on about before reacting to the two pets with little hesitance.
Huh
The four family pets heard some footsteps coming down the stairs before they all turned their undivided attention to whoever was descending down to the first floor of the household. In this case, it was Lincoln, still not knowing about the whistle actually emitting a sound that only some animals can hear was almost convinced that they've wasted close to ten dollars for a broken whistle.
"Hey dad, I should've mentioned this earlier but I'm coming to this conclusion that this whistle we bought is broken. "
"What? How can it be broken already?" The father figure answered from the kitchen as he was still preparing something to eat for a father-son afternoon snack.
"Like, it's not making any kind of sound at all. It's pretty strange. Listen..."
The white-haired eleven-year-old boy inhaled through his mouth again, blowing on the tip of the whistle again, with the same exact result the last time he blew the whistle from upstairs in his room. The cat and the dog found out where that annoying sound was coming from all along. The dog whistle emitted a high and pitchy sound that only Charles and Cliff could hear, but not Lincoln and his dad. It filled their ears with absolute torture, causing the two animals to cover their ears as the dog reacted with a serious howl while a confused Walt and Geo looked from side to side a few times, looking at Lincoln and back at the two pets as they were trying to piece together what was going on so they'll at least have a better understanding from the pain the canine and the feline were going through at the very moment.
Lincoln stopped blowing on the whistle as soon as he heard Charles' unexpected howling to his right side, shifting his attention to the four pets while Lynn Sr. responded to the kid regarding the whistle they got from the pet store before looking back to his other side. "Oh, that's because that whistle we bought is a silent whistle. We can't hear any noises that it makes but Charles and Cliff can as the ultrasonic sound provokes their attention as you blow on the whistle. But let me reiterate once again, only use it when they're misbehaving as it is mostly used for training purposes only. You can't abuse that thing all willy nilly now, or you might certainly annoy them without even knowing!"
The dog and the cat stared the boy down in the process, glaring at his face more every second that passes to the point where they started growling to show how annoyed they were at the pre-teen violating their ears with the subtle sound of the whistle.
"Oh, I see now. Okay!" Lincoln said, finally piecing together how to use the item responsibly before ascending back up the stairs as he had the whistle in his lips, softly blowing through the whistle, emitting soft ultrasonic sounds as it faded out as he reached the top, heading down the hallway again into his room.
The pets were in the clear now. The canine and the feline were sighing in relief as they managed to catch a break from having to hear that annoying sound. The two animals, fixated their attention to Walt and Geo, irritated and more determined than ever to put their devious plan into action as soon as they get the chance.
"You two noticed that whistle the boy's handlin'?" Charles said.
"That's what's makin' those annoyin' sounds!" Cliff added, pointing up the stairs.
"Really? You're gonna be mad at the boy over playing with some dumb little toy?" Walt said.
"I still couldn't hear anything..." Geo mumbled under his breath, looking towards Walt.
"Yeah, me either. "
Charles grabbed hold of the hamster's clear ball while Cliff got up in the canary's face.
"You don't even know how it feels, Ham!"
"You don't have the same kind of hearin' me 'n the dog have! It's torture, a pet's worst nightmare! It's the opposite of heavenly peace!"
"Wait, wasn't thunderclaps your worst nightmare..?" Geo thought.
"No, it's not!" Charles and Cliff said to the hamster.
Silence took place between the pets for a little while, just before Charles and Cliff walked over to the first step of the staircase, growing more irritated with every step. "Like I said before, we're gonna go put a stop ta this." The dog said.
"Okay, if that's what you really want, go right ahead. " Walt replied with an unamused look, flapping his wings in midair before the two animals made their way up the steps, but not before he sighed from that disproportionate remark, or so he thinks.
"You know, even if we could have the same kind of hearing as the dog or the cat, I'm sure it wouldn't sound that bad..." Geo quietly wondered, before Walt replied to the hamster with half of a shrug. "Eh."
Upstairs in the hallway, Cliff and Charles looked all around the place, before they slowly snuck their way towards the bedroom door of Lincoln's room. They listen in, trying to figure out what the boy was doing before they both glanced at each other, angrily nodding in unison before the dog made his move into the room as the cat laid down on the floorboards, pretending to take a nap.
Back downstairs, the father figure of the house called his son down for a late afternoon lunch with him as he set foot into the living room with the food on slightly soaked dishes, heading over to the blue couch.
"Hey Lincoln, the late afternoon lunch is ready! Come on down so we can enjoy it while we watch a family friendly movie!"
As he was about to take a seat, he noticed the couch was soaked in dog urine from earlier in the day. He stared at the furniture for a second, wondering how that could've happened, before he groaned in understandable irritation now that he had to clean it off first before he could eat with his son.
"Gosh dang it!" He said as he set the food on the table in front of him before he walked back into the kitchen to get some cleaning supplies. "One day, that dog's gonna learn to quit marking his territory on this furniture. The next time he does it, it's whistle time for him!"
Lincoln was in his room doing the only habit he knows best, reading quality comic books in his tighty-whities to pass some time. Charles took note of this, as he crept in front of his dresser and sat there before the pre-teen himself suddenly finished reading the penultimate page of the comic he was reading, jumping back into his clothes as he noticed the dog's sudden appearance in front of him before exiting his bedroom fully clothed as the devious canine watched.
"Hey Charles! Coming dad!"
As soon as the dog was completely certain that the coast was completely in the clear, he began to rifle throughout the room, going under the bed and through the compartment of the dresser, searching around for that dreaded whistle.
"Tee shirts... socks... underwear... remind myself to chew through some of those later. "
It lasted only a brief period of time, seemed like forever to the canine animal. Cliff walked in the room, curious about the progress, but not before he observed the slight mess Charles made in the room.
"Any luck, dog?" He asked.
Charles turned to the cat, answering without missing a beat. "Not a lick, cat."
"Well it's clearly not in the kid's clothing that's for sure. "
The cat whipped out the silent whistle that he somehow managed to get his feline paws on, leaving an understandable confused reaction on the dog.
"Huh?! How did ya get that?"
"Wasn't hard. It was stickin' outta the boy's pocket and I took it when he stopped to bend down tyin' his shoelaces. "
Charles stood silent, staring at the cat and the whistle before shaking his head, returning his focus to their devious little plan as he glanced over to the audience.
"Well that was quicker than I thought, also a bit anti-climactic, " He said before turning back to the cat, snatching the whistle from his paws. "Now that we have this livin' nightmare, it's time ta destroy it!"
Charles grabbed a hold of the whistle, both paws on each side, grunting and struggling to attempt to break the metal item in half, only to give up about a few seconds in.
"I was thinkin' we should just bury it and be done with it." Cliff suggested, but the dog was quick to decline the cat's idea.
"Nah cat, one of the kids'll eventually find it again, especially the one with the red hat. "
"Wait a sec, how do you know the color of the kid's hat?" The cat questioned as if he had some kind of point. "Aren't we color blind, seein' the world as black 'n white all over?"
"No time for potential questions. We've got to get rid of this thing. "
Charles grabbed ahold of the item with his mouth as if it was a brand new bone he has yet to taste before walking out of the tight room and into the hallway as Cliff stayed put, trying to grab the dog's attention as he forgot to do something.
"Wait dog, what about the mess ya made?" The cat questioned.
"You take care of that!" The dog replied.
The cat looked back inside the messy room, clothes scattered over the floors, including socks, pants and underwear. He sighed as he slightly threw his head down, drooping his feline ears before he took action, grabbing hold of the pair of socks as he opened one of the drawers to throw them in.
"...Oh I sure hope none of those tighty whities have been used. "
The determined dog of the house entered the bathroom, lifting up the lid of the toilet seat as he spit out the whistle into the toilet water below.
Sploosh.
He glared down at the item as it started to release trapped air bubbles from the blow holes it had.
"Alright... I'm sorry it's come down ta this... but it must be done!" He said. He grabbed onto the toilet handle, pulling it down. The toilet water swirled around the bowl, along with the whistle before it flushed down the drain, never to be seen again.
It was over, the deed was done now as Charles sighed in relief, brushing his canine paws off with a smile.
"Finally. I'm free from that evil soundin' whistle." He said as if he was satisfied with what he'd done before exiting the bathroom. "Peaceful nap, here I come again!"
Cliff jumped in front of the dog, hatching a heel realization regarding the whistle. "Wait dog, I just had a terrifyin' thought. "
"What is it?" The dog questioned out of curiosity.
"That whistle of theirs doesn't look that expensive at all. I mean, what's gonna stop them from buyin' another one?
Charles gulped in fear as he hesitated on an answer. "Oh yeah, I hadn't thought about that. "
Cliff scratched his head. "What are we gonna do?" The dog came to a small, yet simple suggestion. He pulled out two sets of ear muffs from behind his back, one in each paw. Cliff hesitated to agree as he stared down the two ear muffs. "Yeah, I guess that could work..?"
The Next Day - 9:30 am
Charles and Cliff yawned in their sleep, finally getting the peace and quiet they wanted since yesterday afternoon. Lincoln rushed down the stairs, calling out to the father figure of the house for something all the while in a rather concerned tone.
"Hey dad?"
"Yeah Lincoln?"
"I can't seem to find that whistle we bought yesterday! I look all around for it upstairs so I could train Charles as we were going to take a walk later on today and-"
The father figure pulled out another silent whistle that he bought without his knowledge. "Not to worry son! I bought a spare!"
The two animals predicted this would happen a mile away. They were quick to act as they had muffs equipped to each other on their furry ears to block out most of the surrounding sounds around them, possibly even the ultrasound. Lynn Sr. inhaled deeply, before he blew with intermediate force, emitting a rather different sound that lasted for a brief period of seconds.
Charles and Cliff could still hear it's noise even with the muffs on their ears, but it turns out to be not as serious or irritating as it was with the other dog whistle they managed to get rid of. They were understandably confused, both glancing at each other as they wondered why the whistle sounded real different than they thought the first time before the father of the house was short of breath as he stopped blowing on the item.
Lincoln was satisfied with the design of the whistle that he was determined enough to not let this one out of his sight.
"Awesome! Thanks dad!" The boy said.
"Now sport, I will mention that this was the last one they had in the store. So you better not lose it!" The father warned, before he headed out the front door to proceed to do his business.
"Don't worry, I won't!"
Lynn Sr. closed the door from behind before Lincoln walked back upstairs to get a couple things ready so he could take the dog out for a walk later in the day.
~End~
"Now where did I put that leash?"
As soon it was quiet again back in the living room where the two animals were barely awake, they both sighed together in relief.
"Y'know cat, at least it's not as annoyin' as that other whistle those humans had the other day."
"Yeah... that wasn't as bad as I thought it would turn out ta be." Cliff yawned.
"Well, at least we can get a bit of peace after all we've went through."
"Thanks heavens for that. "
The two fell back asleep, dreaming peacefully about what they do best: dancing in the rain and mud.