The Thing in the White Noise

I started sleeping with noise on because silence was too heavy. The hum of a fan, a podcast playing softly, sometimes just static from my old radio.
A month ago, I noticed something strange. When I switched to a new white-noise app, I could swear I heard… rhythm. Like someone breathing under the static.
At first, I thought it was just my imagination. The mind makes patterns when it’s tired. But then one night, it said my name.
Not clearly — just a broken whisper under the static. “…Eli…”
I laughed, turned it off, and went to bed in silence. But I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about how it pronounced my name — not quite right, but close enough.
The next night, I turned the app back on. The sound was smoother, less random. It didn’t take long before I heard it again.
“Eli. Stay.”
My chest went cold. I muted my phone, but the whisper didn’t stop. It kept breathing through the speakers even after the app was closed.
I recorded it. When I played it back, there was nothing. Just white noise.
A week later, I started hearing it during calls. Just faint static between words. I asked my friend if she heard it, and she said the line was perfectly clear.
Now I don’t sleep with any sound on. No podcasts. No fan.
But sometimes, when everything is quiet, I still hear the hiss.
And if I listen too long, I can tell it’s waiting for me to say something back.