A Silence Haunts Me Novels & Stories

If I slept, I'd see my parents again. I resisted, fighting the seductive pull of darkness with all my might. I knew it was lying to me, but I couldn't speak. It felt like I was choking. I could only run—run... Just as the suffocating sensation threatened to consume me, a beam of light tore through the darkness like a sword. I, too, overcame the heaviness in my chest. For the first time, I heard my own voice, clear and true. "Harvey... help me."

"With cameras on every corner, Charles won't be able to hide for long. He's bound to be caught any minute now." Olivia had barely hung up when a loud knock rattled my door. I did not bother opening it. Instead, I peered through the digital peephole and saw the unmistakable silhouette. "Charles, I can see you out there. Don't mess up again. Turn yourself in, and maybe you can get a second chance," I called out. The knocking grew fiercer as Charles heard me. He was cursing up a storm, but I tuned him out, still pushing for him to give up.

Then I sit back, let the cold air bite at my skin, and whisper to myself: “Let her guess.” Because this time, I am not coming with noise. I am coming with silence. And silence always cuts deeper.

"One absence experienced from a thousand perspectives." "If that is true," Katherine said, and her voice dropped to the register she used when she was about to deliver news that would ruin everyone's day, "then we are not fighting an invading force. We are living inside one. The Silence is not coming through the membrane. The Silence is the space that the membrane exists in. We have been building our choir inside the belly of something that is now waking up." The compass burned. Jack closed his eyes. Behind his eyelids, the Utterance stirred with ancient, weary understanding.

Chapter 12 The silence did not feel normal. At first, Aria thought it would be easier. No messages. No control. No voice on her phone. Just peace. But it did not feel like peace. It felt empty. Too quiet. Too still. Like something was missing. She sat on her bed, staring at her phone again. Nothing. No new messages since last night. Since— “Now it is just you and me.” Her chest tightened. She dropped the phone on the bed as if it burned her hand. “This is good,” she whispered to herself. “This is what you wanted.”

"You’re still the same arrogant, delusional fool. You really don’t know, do you? That child you’ve been dreaming of, the one you thought was waiting for you, died five years ago." I paused, letting the weight of the words settle. "Funny thing is, he could’ve lived. You remember those dozen missed calls right before I disappeared?" Aiden’s face drained of color. His lips trembled. He stared at me as if he were staring at a ghost. I remained calm. Time had dulled the pain and made my voice still. "I was in a car accident. A bad one. They rushed me into surgery, and I needed a next-of-kin to sign off. I kept calling you over and over. But you never picked up.

"Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence In restless dreams I walked alone Narrow streets of cobblestone 'Neath the halo of a street lamp I turned my collar to the cold and damp When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light That split the night And touched the sound of silence And in the naked light, I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence "Fools", said I,

Another knock. "Who is it?" Silence. Then Max's voice. "It's me." Nate closed his eyes. For several seconds, he didn't move. Then he walked to the door. His hand rested on the handle. He hesitated. Everything inside him screamed not to open it. But eventually, he turned the lock. The door opened. Max stood in the hallway. The party had left his face. He looked calm now. Serious. His eyes met Nate's. Neither spoke.

At the leaves falling slowly around them. She sat. The silence stretched. "You were right," Idris finally said. "About the performing. I've been doing it so long I don't know who I am without an audience." "Then find out." "Just like that?" "Just like that." Maya turned to look at him. "Stop talking to crowds. Stop charming rooms. Sit in silence and see what's left." He met her eyes. "Is that what you do?" "I don't have a crowd." "Maybe that's why you're the only person here who seems real."

Auracio Silence is the ultimate weapon. Not the silence of emptiness, but of fullness. A charged silence, taut like a bowstring, whistling in the ear the imminence of the arrow. It is this silence that reigns in this house, in this room, in the twenty-centimeter space between our two motionless bodies. It is not a ceasefire. It is the preparation for a war of a new kind. I know her. That is my first thought, my only certainty in this chaos. I know her better than anyone, better perhaps than I know myself. And that is why this icy serenity frightens me more than a cry of rage.