The Voice Changer

The Voice Changer is the fourteenth episode of Season One.

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Ezra heard loud sobbing downstairs. The sobbing continued. Then it got louder. So loud, it sounded like there was a baby whale at the bottom of the staircase. Ezra got up out of bed, and looked through the gap between his door and the wall, and saw Lois Young crying into the arms of his his mum, Ursula.

This is all my fault, Ezra thought. Ezra reluctantly pulled his PJs off, and changed into his new Winter school uniform. Ezra was one of those kids who didn’t like to coat himself up, but this Winter was a harsh one.

I should’ve just stayed out, if only.. but I couldn’t! Ezra tried to shut off that part of his mind, knowing his day couldn’t get any worse as it was, and walked downstairs. He didn’t know how to walk into the room. Should he march down the stairs, into the sight of Lois and his mum, and give them reassurance that Dane is still alive? Or should he pull himself along, letting Lois know that she’s not alone in her sorrow? Or, should he just tell them what really happened?

Ezra approached the couch in which Lois and his mum were sitting. Ursula beckoned him to sit with them, without looking at him. Ursula had a soft spot, and Lois’s tears were as contagious to her as a parade of yawning people. Ezra wondered if he should tell his mum that he’s actually late for school, kiss her on the cheek and leave, or take his time to comfort the two, who didn’t seem to acknowledge the fact that Dane’s bond with Ezra was more than equal to that of a family’s.

At this stage the whole community in which Ezra lived was shaken. Shaken so, that Ezra was the only one walking to school now, everyone else took the bus at the back street, which Ezra was never early enough for, or woke their parents up to drive them. Ezra felt his world was melting. Something had to be done. But something else had to be done as well. Ezra was trapped inside a box, he was a fish stuck in a filter. He was on the verge of death. But he felt responsible for it all. Reminiscing the many motivational speeches he had attended throughout his life, the one quote that came to his mind was “With great power, comes great responsibility”. But where was the power in this?

Ezra slivered into school, failing to acknowledge the numerous questions being thrown at him about Dane. He saw several familiar faces from the graveyard party, including that of Adrien, who soon disappeared among the groups of people. Glancing at the groups of people standing around, it reminded him of the movie The March of the Penguins. He was debating whether they were huddling together in fear, or because of the weather, but he knew what the answer was. He felt like joining them, blending amongst the rest, but he couldn’t. He felt he carried a curse and no one could cross it. Except him. Ezra once again sat through all of his classes without focusing, the first one being Politics, led by Mr. Matthewson. Mr. Matthewson, despite being a Politics teacher, was very dismissive, believing words were the things in life that talked the least. He had noticed Ezra’s mood, and also picked up on his declining test result. The look on his face just wanted to go over and hug Ezra. But being a teacher, this just couldn’t happen. He continued marking all of the tests.

The vibe of the whole school that day was in suspense. It was like everyone was ticking- something was bound to happen. As Ezra left the school that afternoon, he bumped into somebody outside the front gate. It was Adrien, from the graveyard party.

“Ezra?” Adrien smiled, tilting his head like a bird.

“Hey...” Ezra uttered. If Dane were with him, he’d happily be on his way with Adrien.

“Look, I’m so sorry about Dane, but trust me, I’m with you, and I know, you believe he’s still alive, don’t you?”

Adrien tried to maintain the brief eye contact he could get with Ezra.

“I know he is.” said Ezra. “I mean-”

“It’s good to hear you have such faith. You know, you should try religion.”

Ezra turned his head slowly up at Adrien and frowned. The look on Ezra’s face just spat out the words “Don’t go there”.

“I know how you feel, man, one of the people shot at the graveyard party was a friend of mine.”

Ezra turned his head back at Adrien, not looking so much like he wanted to be out of there. After a brief pause, just as he was about to tell Adrien he was sorry, and he had to leave, Adrien dismissed his own presence.

“Look man, I’ll catch you tomorrow, if I can, it’s good meeting you again, haven’t seen you in ages, bye!” Adrien turned around and joined a chain of his friends who were walking his way, stepping into the middle like he was the missing piece of a structure. Ezra checked his phone. One new voice message.

“Mr. White, time is not an unlimited supply. Bring her to Seattle Central park by 5:20PM, and don’t even think about bringing a greeting police squad. I have a squad of my own, who specialises in greeting YOU.” The recording stopped.

When Ezra reached the front of his house, he saw his mum in the car, with Lois, trying to start it up. “What is wrong with this damn thing now?!” she hissed. “Ezra! Can you check the front of the car.”

“You have... a flat tire..” Ezra pointed out.

“What’s this? Someone’s slashed it?! Argh, your idiot father needs to get that garage door fixed right now, vandals around here these days! It never used to be like this! Lois?”

Lois had fallen asleep.

“Ezra, would you mind escorting Lois to the parking bay over there, I’ll call her a taxi.”

Ezra slowly approached Lois, and softly spoke. She woke up instantly.

“EZRARZ, how was school?”

“Well, you’ve cheered up,” said Ezra, assuming she’d forgotten to take her medication.

“HUN, I’m as tame as a lemur!”

“Okay, let’s go then?” As Ezra’s mum stormed out the back of the house to find his dad, Ezra walked Lois over to the parking bay. “Err.. your husband said he was going to be at Seattle Central park, I-I’ll pay the extra for the trip.”

Lois’s mum grinned at Ezra as she fell back into the back of the taxi that had just arrived. “He said he’ll be there at 5:21PM, he has a.. early present for you. Under the bridge.”

“Oh ho ho, I always knew he was a troll!” she grinned, as the taxi drove off. Ezra turned away from the taxi and burst out in tears, which he had been containing for the last couple of minutes. This has to be another nightmare, he thought, pinching himself. But it was true. Ezra felt the only way he could preserve someone else’s life was by sending another person to their doom. Maybe I should just shoot myself, after all, we only have friends so we can benefit ourselves. If I’m dead, it won’t matter. But am I thinking? Hang on, life probably is an alien reality tv show, anyway. Ezra spoke indistinctly to himself, as he stormed down the road back to his house. He didn’t even notice a couple walking their dog, who he just flew straight into, startling them and letting the dog off the leash. He walked straight upstairs and planted his face into the pillow. He then got up and turned his soothing fan on to blur out the background noise, but he could still hear his mum and dad yelling from out the back.

Then came a new voicemail message. “You have done well. For that, I will shorten Dane’s death for you, by 2 minutes. If you want more time shaved off, you’ll have to do more than that. Mwaha.”

Ezra couldn’t catch his own breath. This was now beyond his own imagining. He grabbed his desk lamp and smashed it against the wall, sending sparks over the place. He kicked his wardrobe door in, leaving a dent. He grabbed his pedestal fan, and bent the mesh out, then grabbed the blades from inside it and threw them into the door. He then stood still and looked down at his feet.

After breathing heavily for a passing moment, he was out of his room in the flash of an eye, and outside, calling for a taxi. Minutes later, Ezra was in the city, in the same spot he had been threatened with the sniper and got the first phone call. No more phone calls came through. And there was no sign of a red laser. He paced around in circles in the same spot, outside the police station, waving his arms, but after seven minutes, nothing had happened. It’s then that a rush of conviction suddenly came to his mind. What if they don’t have real weapons? What if they aren’t as advanced as they say? What if this is all a sham? What is happening to me?

Then someone came up behind Ezra. It was Ben.

“Ezra... I’ve been calling, I even looked around for you.”

Ezra shot his eyes up, in panic. Something was up above them, slowly coming down. But it was only a pigeon. “Ezra, are you okay? Come into my office...” Ben put his arm around Ezra’s back, and Ezra gripped his arm.

“I... can’t...”

Ben stared in disbelief. “Oh, please no...”

Ezra swung his head around, to find himself looking at an oddly dressed person, almost like the gypsies he used to stare at in his medieval picture books as a child. “ANNUAL PSYCHIC CONVENTION, BE THERE OR BE EATEN BY A BEAR!” The gypsy attached a bunch of pamphlets to Ezra and the detective’s back. Ezra ripped them off and trampled on them, but the detective held onto his.

“Wow.. the convention has started already. Okay, Ezra, we’re going to put your mind to rest! Well at least we’ll take a chance. Come on, we can have some catch up time!”

Ezra uttered a few sounds, almost like seagull calls. He didn’t know whether to go along with it or not, but then he had to remind himself what he was even going along with in the first place. The detective didn’t question Ezra during the car trip, thinking it should be left to the psychics, and he was reading out the pamphlet to the indifferent Ezra. He had only recently believed in psychics, after his wife had visited one and identified a back problem that doctors wouldn’t consider, and found the right treatment to stop the symptoms, at least more than the doctors had. He thought that even if what the psychic said wasn’t spot on, maybe they could still believe it was real and develop a sense of order and stability. Ben guided Ezra through the convention. Showing his badge, he was allowed access without waiting in the enormous queue, which was filled with people wearing all sorts of wild and mystical outfits. They looked through each stall, until Ben pointed out a large live readings gathering towards the end of the warehouse. He pointed it out to Ezra, but noticed he had gone somewhere else. He shrugged, expecting Ezra would assume he’s gone to watch the gathering, and catch up to him. Ezra had noticed an empty tent that looked like it had been unattended for days. He wondered what attracted it to him, but he just had a burning feeling something was in there and he needed to check it out. After failing to unzip the tent, he cut through an already existing hole in the tent, and climbed through, to find a pile of suitcases and boxes. He checked through the rip in the tent to see if anyone had noticed him, before moving over to a half-open suitcase. Inside was a set of crystals. There was also a small pile of books resting near it, one of them reading on the front cover “THE GUIDE TO GIVING THEM LESS THAN THEY PAY FOR”. Ezra held one of the crystals. It felt like nothing he’d ever felt before. In fact, it almost seemed to have no weight at all. A loud cry from outside, on the other side of the tent, started Ezra. “BUT I WANNA BECOME A PONY!!!!” Edgar cried, slipping out of Mrs. Swann’s arms and running off towards the mystical crystal ponies souvenir stall. Ezra continued looking through the suitcase, to find a small note slipped in the side. “We all have a sixth sense, in one form or the other, we just need to find it. Or in some cases, it finds us.” Ezra sensed someone standing behind him, and dropped the note in fright. He looked to see the figure of an old woman, but suddenly his vision blurred and he felt dizzy, then dropped to the floor and passed out. It was music time. All the kids sat eagerly with their instruments, ready to play their favourite musical song, but instead of Mrs. Tenace, the cheerful Friday music teacher walking in, they got Miss Tanen, who was strangely holding a large box, instead of her usual super-thin black folder and the role. She never carried computers with her, believing them to be the meaning of distraction. Ezra thought she was clearly against technological advancement, and dreaded the very thought of her being a politician, which she often told the class was her original intention, but at the last minute she discovered she had an eye for art... She even claimed she is behind the architectural designs of some of the libraries in America, but ironically never specified which of those they were. “Right, today, I’m not going to have any of that racket, so put your saxes and what not away. Away!” The kids all moaned and put their instruments to the side of the room. “These.. used to belong to my father.” Miss Tanen opened the chest, and pulled out, one by one, a variety of flutes. They were all sleek, black and curvy. Ezra could not make out any markings on them whatsoever. Miss Tanen held them up for everyone to see, and explained the differences between each of them, despite them appearing to be exact clones of each other- Miss Tanen even gave a demonstration, the very sound of minimalism, and Ezra didn’t even know that was possible. Suddenly, Micah pulled out a kazoo and blew madly through it, almost deafening the whole class. Miss Tanen confiscated it promptly. She then pulled out another chest from underneath her table, and opened it to reveal a small, flat, grey box, with yellow buttons, a mini microphone attached to it and a small control panel.

“Oh, wrong one, but this.. it’s just a voice changer my father used to play around with us kids when we were young. That’s right, a voice changerrrrr...” Ezra woke. He was in the tent, alone.

Characters

 * Ezra White
 * Damon White
 * Lois Young
 * Ben Walden
 * Urula White
 * Miss Tanen
 * Edgar Swann
 * Micah Swann

Trivia

 * There was originally meant to be more scenes in this chapter, but they were cut out.