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The Drum

Hailey MacGahee

It all started with a small sound of a drum, dum ba dum dum, dum ba dum dum, in Sam Donahue's head. The drum was content, and never ending. Sam thought about going to see a doctor about the drumming, but he always found a reason not to go, like “its nothing I can’t handle by myself”. At this point in his life Sam was doing well, he has a well paying job, a wife and two kids named Rose and Amy. Rose is 17, Amy was 13. Rose and Amy are both in High School, Amy skipped a few grades in Grade School. Sam was on his way to pick up Rose and Amy, when out of the blue the small drum turned into a loud overpowering feeling of power. Sam turned the car around and hit the gas. He was so consumed by the drums that he crashed into a tree, almost killing him. As the drums died down to the small sound they were before, Sam opened his eyes. What he saw was an old lady calling 911. She called to him but Sam had fallen into a deep coma. Sam was taken to the hospital. The doctor said Sam would never wake up again, but in two weeks Sam was awake and talking. Sam's wife often asked him what had happened; he often lied and said he didn’t know. But Sam remembered it all, the drums, and the power. He could not tell his wife because he didn’t want her to worry any more. Sam was told he could go home in a few weeks, but until he could go home the doctor was going to run many tests on him to find out what had happened. The doctor ran many tests on Sam, head scans, blood tests. They found nothing. They said Sam could go home. His wife would not let Sam drive home because she was scared. Sam knew that his family as a whole would not trust him to be alone. He was fine with this. Nothing happened for a few weeks. Sam’s wife let him walk to the gas station for a pack of cigarettes. On the way to the station the drums grew louder and louder. Sam tried to ignore them. And he was successful for a short while, until he fell to the floor and clutched his hands over his ears screaming out for them to stop. Suddenly out of nowhere the drums stopped. Sam looked up and there standing next to him was the old lady who called 911 when he was in the car accident. She looked down at him and asked as she was taking out her phone “Are you alright?” Sam looked up at her, stood, and answered “Yes, I am quite alright.” The old woman offered to give Sam a ride home, he declined. The woman waved goodbye and Sam started home and as he did, the drums started again. Once Sam was home his wife asked him what took him so long and Sam looked puzzled. He exclaimed that he was only gone for five minutes and that's when his wife then told him that it had been out for 5 hours. His wife then felt his head and sighed stating, “ You don't have a fever, maybe you should get some rest” and sent him to bed. The next morning His wife left for work and Sam stayed home with Amy, who was asked to stay home with Sam to “babysit him”. Sam told Amy that he had a small headache and would be sitting outside on the patio for a bit. Amy said she would check on him in about 20 minutes, When Amy went to check on him he was sitting on the floor rocking back and forth with his hands over his ears crying, screaming for the drumming to stop. Amy reached out to comfort Sam, but Sam grabbed her hand and pulled her to the ground. She hit her head on the floor and cried out. Sam put his hands over her mouth to try and stop her screaming, after a little while Amy's screaming stopped, and so did her breathing.  Sam looked down at the body that once was his little girl the drumming stopped. Then as he looked down at her body the drumming came on even louder and stronger than before. He stood up suddenly, turned around and ran. He ran as fast as he could, not going anywhere just running, and as he ran the drumming got louder and louder to the point of it almost deafening to him. He had run for miles, until he came to a bridge. This is the bridge he asked his wife to marry him, but that was not what he was thinking. all he saw was a way out. He stood up on the ledge and looked up. He cried out “ PLEASE FORGIVE ME!” and he jumped...

Curios Magazine
Coconino Community College

2800 S. Lone Tree Rd.

Flagstaff, AZ 86005

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