Audible Illusions Novels & Stories

I roar, taking a violent step forward. The sound of my voice shatters the spell. The creature on top of my brother snaps its head around. The skin across its cheekbones ripples. The masculine jawline shrinks, the shoulders narrowing in a sickening, fluid motion that sounds like cracking ice. The illusion melts away like hot wax. It is not me. It never was. "Audrey," I hiss, my hands curling into tight fists at my sides.

Davina, one of my favourite students, explains. Richard, another student, stands when Davina sits, I stare at his face, and I see he's intrigued, he loves the course. "Illusions are created when the brain receives conflicting information from the senses, causing it to perceive something that is not actually there or to perceive something in a way that is different from reality. When the brain receives sensory input, it interprets that input based on past experiences and learned expectations. This interpretation can be influenced by a variety of factors, including context, attention, and expectation. In some cases, this interpretation can lead to illusions.

“I will.” I walked away. His heartbeat followed me halfway down the corridor. The library should have been safe. Libraries were quiet. That was practically their purpose. I was wrong. So very wrong. Silence made everything worse. Without conversations and footsteps covering them, I could hear every tiny sound. Pages. Breathing. Pens moving across paper and underneath all of it ...hearts. I sat behind the circulation desk and pressed my palms against my eyes. “Stress.” That was my explanation. Stress could do strange things. Hallucinations. Headaches. Maybe extremely specific auditory superpowers. Probably not. But I wasn't ready for another option.

The Walls have Eyes and Ears The delicate illusion of Violet's isolation had been shattered by the soft, rhythmic scratching coming from inside her room's walls, and the silent victory of discovery had been replaced by a horrifying surge of growing paranoia. Insidious and unsettling, the sound reverberated with a disconcerting intimacy, implying a concealed presence, an invisible watcher lurking just beyond the thin exterior of her privacy. Her heart beat a frantic, irregular rhythm, a frantic drum against her ribs, where it had throbbed moments earlier with the excitement of secrets discovered.

The voices echoed loudly in my ears, making me shut my eyes as my fingers raked my hair. I tried calling out to them, but my voice wasn’t audible, completely overshadowed by the loud voices. The familiar faces suddenly turned into monstrous figures, with sharp claws and glowing red eyes. I took a step back, then I saw it. A small light within the shadows. The familiar scent of coffee and peppermint lingered in the air, reminding me I wasn’t alone. “Lucas is close.” I took a deep breath, calming my racing heart and finally focusing on my environment. My eyes widened, realization crossing my face “This is just an illusion. It’s not real.” I whispered, my eyes sharp with acknowledgement. The mo

As we advanced, the whispers grew more intense, becoming almost audible but never clear enough to fully comprehend. A shadowy creature, eyeless and with a lipless mouth filled with sharp teeth, let out a sharp scream, causing piercing pain in our sensitive lupine ears. Some wolves crouched, desperately rubbing their paws on their ears, trying to muffle the sound. Looking at them, I noticed blood dripping from their ears, indicating impaired hearing. “Damn it!” I roared in irritation, casting a spell around us. “Silence!” The sound of the creature vanished. The monster raised its hands with long, white fingers, clashing its claws together, producing a sound similar to the clinking of glasses

“Faster. Match the rhythm of your breathing – every time you exhale, push deeper. Every inhale, pull back. Let me hear it.” I speed up and the sounds of my hand working between my legs carry through the phone speaker and he’s listening, he’s sitting in his study listening to the acoustic evidence of what his voice is doing to my body from a different room, and the knowledge that he can HEAR how wet I am through a phone is making me wetter.

If I didn’t die, my whole surroundings will perish by my weight. “Ah mou, what should I do…?” I mumbled to myself, occasionally enjoying the brush of air on my scaly face. Hm? Suddenly I saw something moving not too far from me—like an object that’s covered with invisible magic—despite my front view filled with only sky, sky and sky. “Eh? Am I having auditory illusions now?” Just like that one game I played being a character that slowly became crazy after an isolation for a long time? “Eh no way~” I wailed in denial, hoping that wasn’t the case.

Lupa and Lycidas followed closely, their eyes scanning the darkened passageways. They moved cautiously through the winding corridors, their footsteps echoing in the cavernous space. Shadows danced on the walls, cast by the flickering light of their torches. The silence was oppressive, broken only by the occasional drip of water from the ceiling. After a short while, they encountered the first of many illusions. The path before them seemed to split into multiple directions, each route filled with shadowy figures and flickering lights that played tricks on their eyes.

Her hazel-brown eyes were glowing, radiating an otherworldly light. Stumbling backward, her ears became overwhelmed by the sudden cacophony of sounds. The distant chatter of conversations, the rustling of books and papers, even the subtlest movements from a distance, all converged into a deafening din. She could hear it all, her senses had become extraordinarily heightened.