This is my post on #freewriters2794 #dailyprompt. What’s the frequency? hosted by @marinnewest's.
David locked up the store at almost midnight. As he changed the dial on his old portable radio and slung his bag over his shoulder, the wind rustled through the alleyway. After the static stopped crackling and cleared, an odd voice could be heard:
"What’s the frequency?"
He froze.
It was not a DJ or even a typical show. The voice, which was aimed at him, was cool, collected, and almost... His gaze swept around. Other than the flickering street lamp overhead, the alley was deserted. He turned the dial again.
"What’s the frequency?" The voice repeated, more urgent this time.
David dismissed it as a joke or some pirate station and rushed home. However, it occurred once more later that evening, this time from his TV rather than the radio. As the screen went blue, the same line kept repeating:
"What’s the frequency?"
became increasingly strange in the days that followed. He was troubled by the question. It played on a car stereo as it went by, cut off the music at the café, and even reverberated from a stranger's phone as they passed. It is always the same words.
With obsession, he began to research. Online rumors circulated about a mysterious signal that only specific individuals could hear. a frequency out of the ordinary range. Some from another planet. Some believed it was a test of consciousness or a government experiment. And according to some, unless you responded, it would never stop once you started hearing it.
But what answer?
David stopped sleeping. He jotted down numbers, scanned the airways, and even constructed a crude antenna in his apartment. Then he responded one evening as the signal hummed through his speakers.
“95.6,” he guessed.
Silence.
He tried again. “114.7.”
Nothing.
Then he said in a whisper, "I am not sure."
The room grew dark. The electronics turned off, and nothing moved. Then the voice came back in a low hum that swept through the air like a breeze through wires:
"Correct."
David fell back. He opened his eyes to find the world quiet once more as morning sunlight poured through the windows. The voice disappeared. But occasionally, when he adjusts the dial precisely, he hears the tiniest hum, which is like a secret that is just waiting to be revealed.
He never makes contact with the frequency. Not anymore.