Eeeeeeeee

It started with a whine, a very high pitched "eeeeee". The sound was an alarm of some sort. Apparently, I, with my hearing in the range of the large Aricebo array, was the only one to hear it. Even Ink, asleep on his corner of the loveseat, slept peacefully unaware of the tortuous sound, of a nail being driven through my skull. I directed a hunt through the house.

The hunt came to an end in the basement. The carbon monoxide detector was squealing., "I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew batterieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees." Only the "push here" to get to the battery wouldn't budge. Prying, poking, shaking didn't reveal the batteries. The sound was monstrous. So I put the heinous device in the front porch against the open window.  Maybe cold air would quell the sound. And it did for all of ten minutes.

That's when I grabbed the detector and threw it in the snow, your Honor. That incessant shrieking was driving me insane. Lying in the snow, the device chirped a few times before it wheeeeeezed into silence. All was calm. All the animals went back into the forest. Until last night. a week from the first incident, I could hear it from the dining room, like some electronic tell-tale heart. The sound was piercing and frightening. I did the only thing I could do.  That's when I buried the apparatus in the snow and snuffed its shrill shriek. I'm very sorry, your Honor. I didn't mean to kill it. I just wanted the squealing to stop piercing my brain.