The October Music: Third Verse - Day 5

Head Like a Hole
I nearly threw up. Why wouldn't I? The guy was just standing there, waiting for the bus, completely oblivious to the fact that the back of his head was open and his brains and the like were pouring out. He wasn't screaming or in any sort of pain, near as I could tell. He was just...going about his daily life as if everything was normal. I couldn't believe it. The gray-pink matter dribbling down the back of his suit should have left him dead a hundred times over but, nope, not a single reaction. Not a damn word.

I didn't want to point it out to the people standing next to me. I didn't want them to panic or, worse, think I was insane. I had been told that before and it wasn't pleasant. Still, I had to be sure that other people were seeing this. Finally, I resolved myself to talk to the lady standing about two feet away but, when I looked, I about jumped into the road. The back of her head was intact but the entirety of her face was missing, replaced by a gaping void. Not like it had been blown off or something grotesque. It was just...gone. Nothing but an endless, yawning crater. I gasped and she turned her head to face me. I think she was confused by me, but I couldn't tell. All I saw was that emptiness going into something that was less than nothing. 

She asked me if everything was okay and it sounded as if her voice was being filtered through a cavern. Echoey. Resonant. I stammered some sort of apology and excuse. Something like I had not slept well last night because of a break-in so I was jumpy today. That seemed to mollify her - near as I could tell - and she turned back to stare at the street. Like she could see it! I saw her hair flip and flounce as she turned away. 

My eyes darted back and forth. I had to know it was just a mistake, a horrible coincidence. It wasn't. Every single person I could see had a sort of hole in what passed for their head. Some had big ones, like the man with no back of his head. Others were smaller - the child waiting with her mother that had the void in place of her left ear and part of her jaw. Nobody seemed bothered. Nobody seemed in pain. It just appeared normal. 
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Something about that snapped something else in me. I started to scream but I couldn't. It sounded like rushing water or a light breeze. I placed my hand over my mouth, but it only disappeared. I couldn't see myself, but I knew there was nothing there. I was stuck, just like the rest of them, but I had the bad damn luck of being able to understand and see it. The void opened again, but this time it was in my heart. It was fear.