How To Listen

Everyone in the circle called me the chatty woman around Wilson Lewis, who had poor hearing and was notoriously aloof. I would stand up for him, take drinks on his behalf, and accompany him to the hospital. When he had to get his hearing aid adjusted, I would crouch beside the table to replace its batteries for him, yet he never so much as looked up at me. One time, I drank on his behalf until I was dead drunk at a wine party, but he only glanced down at me calmly. Another time, I spent the entire morning waiting with him on the day of his follow-up checkup, but he texted his unattainable love, Noelle Surrey, instead. Wilson: [Have you eaten lunch yet?] During our three years of marriage, I became a joke in the eyes of others. On the night of our wedding anniversary, he wanted to make things up for the birthday celebration he owed me. When I was being dragged away through the back alley of a convenience store, I saw him sitting in the Maybach parked at the alley entrance through the half-open car window, unboxing a cake. I screamed until my throat bled, my fingernails digging into the wall. He glanced up at the alleyway entrance, took off his hearing aid, and put it in his pocket. When I got home in the wee hours, he was still helping Noelle with her resume. Seeing my disheveled state, he just frowned and said, "Jaclyn Scott, can you please stop making such a scene every time?" Noelle chuckled on the other end of the phone. "Wilson, is she playing victim again?" I pushed the divorce papers and a USB drive in front of him. "Wilson, I'm done making a scene. This time, it's your turn to listen."

3:00 a.m. Insomnia gnawed at my nerves like a rusted saw, grinding back and forth mercilessly. On a whim that I couldn't explain, I opened a radio app called "Echoes from Below." The interface was simple and bare. Black background, blue text. No ads, no host introduction. Just a single audio waveform, slowly buffering on the screen. The shape of the waveform felt wrong. It didn't look like soundwaves at all. More like rows of sharp, interlocking teeth. A pop-up window appeared in the center of the screen. [Listening Guidelines] The letters glowed blue, carrying an unsettling eeriness. [This station's signal may extend into dreams. If you hear the broadcast while dreaming, firmly believe that you are awake.]

A single message at 2:17 AM changed everything. “Follow the instructions.” At first, it felt like a joke. A random message from an unknown number. Easy to ignore… until it wasn’t. When the instructions start getting personal, too personal, he realizes something is watching him. Learning him. Controlling every move before he even makes it. Then he meets her. A girl who has already been through it. A survivor of the system. Someone who knows the rules… and the consequences of breaking them. But there’s one problem. The system doesn’t make mistakes. And it doesn’t let people go. The more he resists, the deeper he’s pulled in, into a hidden network built on control, prediction, and manipulation. Every choice feels like his own… until he realizes it was never his to begin with. Now, he faces an impossible decision: Follow the instructions… Or risk losing everything, including the people he’s trying to protect. Because in this system… Freedom isn’t given. It’s taken.

I sighed again. "I understand. I'm sorry for using the tone I used before." I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. "Why didnt you tell me about your problem on day one? I would have spoken louder. I wou-" She shook her head. "That's not necessary." "Why isn't it?" "T-t-there's something about your voice," she stammered nervously as she gently tugged at her fingers. "My voice?" She nodded again. "It's hard to ignore." "I don't understand where you're going with this." "Your voice," she looked down as a light blush stained her cheeks, "is the only voice that I can hear perfectly." ~ Alexia Dawson is a partially deaf woman who struggles to fit in with the other staff at her workplace. Being heterochromic as well, she is the main target for gossip and this makes her very insecure. One night, she is humiliated during a party by one of her coworkers and leaves the building in tears. In the parking lot, she meets a stranger who listens to her troubles and this man later turns out to be the boss' son who happens to be taking over the company the following week! As these two come together in this beautiful romance, a jealous younger brother and ex fiancée get thrown into the mix! What will become of this pair of lovers?

There are three things Deborah love: stargazing, sewing and Eric — her best friend. However, only the first she easily has within her grasp while the other two she struggles to keep and claim. Finding Us is more than just a story: it's also a relatable journey to self-discovery with harsh turns and the need for a happy ending. DISCLAIMER: certain events/scenes might be found triggering, therefore, the reader's discretion is advised.

"Love is; when you look at the person and you knew right away that both of your hearts follows the same beat..."