Songs in the Dark

Chapter 6 of New Voices in the Dark: Splatter Film.

Plot

Tamayo comes across a busker who is singing a song about "hate you", "leave me", "get out of my head." The song gets stuck in Tamayo's head, and she can't sleep that night. She visits the hospital and is referred to specialists but the song doesn't go away. Tamayo decides she must find the busker, however, there's no way of knowing who she was. But that evening Tamayo is listening to the radio when the song plays. The busker, Yuu Kanade, was scouted by a record company and is soon to play her first live concert.

Tamayo goes to the concert looking for her. On stage, Kanade has a breakdown, destroying her guitar and smashing her head into unconsciousness as she screams that she wants to be left alone. She is taken to hospital. Kanade's song hits number one in the charts, and everyone who has heard it is unable to get it out of their heads. They begin to have nervous breakdowns, and damages are brought against her, including by her fellow hospital patients who were affected by her constant singing. Sales of her CD are suspended and she disappears mysteriously, her apartment left abandoned. 

Tamayo has discovered the only way to get the song out of her head is to listen to loud music through headphones, but this leaves her unable to concentrate. She goes to see a professor at a sound studies laboratory and asks if there is a way for him to help her. He has been working on a cure already, and she discovers he is treating Yuu Kanade.  

The professor tells Tamayo the story of Kanade: she fell in love with a fellow busker, but when she tried to end the relationship, he wouldn't take no for an answer and began stalking her. He eventually committed suicide in front of her. One of his songs crept into her head and wouldn't leave - a song that he had written begging her not to break up with him. The professor began therapy with her to try to correct her brainwaves by hitting them with the sonic inverse of the song; but after a while, she could take no more, and ran away. This is when she began living on the streets. 

Tamayo watches as he tries again to cure Kanade. At first, it appears to work. The song in Kanade's mind finally stops - but then her head literally splits apart and the original song pours out into the air. As Tamayo screams, the professor announces there's still work to be done.