I have a mouth, but cannot scream

“Hello sir! I’m sorry to bother you like this, but would you happen to know of any public restrooms nearby?”

That was what you intended to say. But when you opened your mouth to speak, nothing happened. The stranger stared back at you, utterly bewildered. You tried again, and once more your mouth moved, but no sound came out… How strange! Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha-ha… your eyes grew wide with terror. You grabbed onto the stranger’s coat and wordlessly screamed at him.

“Um, are you ok?” The stranger asked with a worried yet fearful expression. You pulled even harder on his coat, you desperately tried to say anything, anything at all. Proper nouns, common nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, even animal noises. None of it worked.

“Get the hell off me! Go bother someone else!” The stranger said before casting you off him and walking away in a fuss. You collapsed against the side of a building, your girl on the wall the only thing that kept you standing.

This couldn’t be. How did this happen? Was it the curse? But the woman on the phone hadn’t mentioned anything about your voice. And didn’t you speak earlier that very day? You scoured your memories of that morning, it had all happened so fast, you hadn’t noticed you didn’t say anything for the whole day. Wait! At the very start of this morning! You said “mmmm-hhhhh” twice, to your sister Gwen! You took a deep breath in and attempted to make the same sound again.

The sound of footsteps echo

A car passes by

I am consumed by silence.