Romans & histoires Stop Hushing Sound

Ethan suddenly shushed, raising a finger, his eyes closed. “What?" Colton whispered, his brows drawn into a frown. “You hear that?" Ethan's voice was calm, the lady continuously massaged his back like if she stopped, the world would end. Colton actually listened, but all he could hear was the faint whooshing sound of the trees. And he'd have thought Ethan had actually snapped if he didn't speak up. “That's peace and quiet, Colton. You should learn that." Colton wanted to yell in confusion. "What the hell is going on?"

followed by incoherent moaning and a liquid sound like water trickling. Seconds later she was back. “Now isn’t that better than a goodnight kiss?”

Lily Pendleton I haven't spoken in three years. Not because I can't. My vocal cords work fine. I've screamed in my head a thousand times—screamed at Claudia when she slapped me, screamed at Vivian when she laughed, screamed at the mirror when I looked at my reflection and saw nothing but a ghost. But sound is dangerous. Sound gets you hit. Sound gets you noticed. And being noticed in my house was the worst thing you could be. So I stopped.

Audio comparisons. My song. Then hers. My breathing started to change. Shorter. Sharper. One of the clips got my attention, so I pressed play right away. Out of nowhere, noise took over every corner inside. A sudden hush broke when echoes began crawling along the walls. I froze. Something more than alike showed up here. Close enough, really, for someone who happened to be looking. That near. Anyone. The phone felt harder in my hand as I held it tighter. I clicked pause.

My heart slams against m‍y ribs so hard I can hear it⁠. “⁠…don’t… trust…” Then silence‍. The room tilts. I g‌rab th‌e edge of the⁠ des⁠k to ste⁠ady myse‌lf. T‍he signal loops again, repe⁠ati‌n‌g the sa‍me tw⁠o words. Don’‍t trust. And then, barely audible under the distortion, another sou‍nd—soft, mechanic⁠al, like laughter ru⁠n throug‍h static.

While whispering. “Nooooo!”

Jasmine yells, increasing the pressure in my head. “My head… the sound… just make it stop, please" l cried out. “What noise, Eleanor? What are you ta…………………" I could see Jasmine's lips continue to move but the sound coming out of them suddenly fades into nothing. The static noise suddenly stopped too and so did the pain and before I could panic about no longer hearing Jasmine, it happened.

The small, muffled sneeze escaped my lips, cutting sharply through the echoing acoustics of the restroom. The whispering near the vanity mirrors died instantly. The running water stopped with a sudden, definitive click. The entire room went dead silent, a heavy, predatory quiet dropping over the space so fast it made my heart violently leap straight into my throat. "Did you hear that?" Vanessa whispered, her designer heels turning slowly against the marble tiles, the clacking sound moving closer and closer to the row of closed stalls. "Oh, gross," Chloe laughed humorlessly, her voice dripping with pure disdain as her footsteps joined the path.

Once a certain sound was too loud, the human ear would almost instantly lose its ability to analyze other weak sounds under the influence of this huge sound. That was the reason why when two people were talking face to face at a concert or in a bar or disco, no one else could hear each other unless they went to each other’s ear and shouted at them. Therefore, under the huge background noise, it was even more difficult for the four experts from the Acker family to hear the sound of the gunshots with the silencer as well as the footsteps that the other party had tried to cover up compared to listening to the humming of the mosquitoes at the airport.

When we were finally out of ear shot, he bursts out laughing and I followed unable to contain myself. Oh God spare my soul.