Distant Heart Sounds Novels & Stories

I signed my name at the bottom of the final page that night, alone, my father's hospital room quiet three miles away, my mother's photograph propped against the salt shaker like a witness. I had no idea how much of that ground was about to move.

Separate them. And when they were far enough apart, strike.

She slipped the disk beneath the collar of his shirt, the plastic cold against his skin. “Breathe,” she ordered. He inhaled. The sound vibrated through her fingers through her chest. Too close. Too familiar. She focused on the sound in her ears instead. A faint murmur. Valvular irregularity. But more than that—a subtle hitch in the electrical conduction, something out of sync between heart and lungs, human and wolf. She moved the stethoscope, listening as long as she dared before the mate-bond heat under her skin became unbearable.

Marcus was still standing outside the hospital room with a hand still suspended in front of the door handle. The low tones were still present on the inside. Thump... thump... thump... His swallow stopped, and his breath. “That... that is a heartbeat,” he said. The sound echoed again, and tightened his chest, his heart real. "No... it can't be..." he grumbled, and shook his head. Daniel moved closer behind him with a dark expression. “You need not be here,” said Daniel sternly.

The sound ricocheted off the high ceilings and my heart flat out stopped beating Cardiac arrest? Sure. Now was a good time for that Mr Voss turned instantly, His eyes zeroing in on the direction of the noise. “Who's there?”

His face went from concerned to confused to completely shocked. "That's impossible," he whispered. "What's impossible?" I demanded. "I'm hearing two heartbeats," he said, looking up at me with wide eyes. "Two heartbeats?" I repeated. "One strong, one very faint and very fast," he said. "Like..." He stopped talking and started examining Daisy more carefully, pressing gently on her stomach and checking her pulse in different places. "Dr. Martinez," I said impatiently. "What is it?" He looked up at me with an expression I had never seen on his face before. Complete amazement mixed with disbelief.

Although my legs wouldnt move every part of me cried out that I had to get out and run but I wasnt sure what it was. They felt heavy as though they were cemented to the ground. I attempted to move forward but I had the impression that the earth was dragging me downward and into the shadows below. Then I heard it. There was a distant dragging sound. At first it seemed as though someone was approaching me slowly but not in the typical manner. No there was something wrong about this sound. Something that isnt natural. The sound was getting closer and louder and my heart was racing. I attempted to scan the area but it seemed to go on forever. The sound of those footsteps approaching was the only

Liam asked, his own voice a rough gravel compared to hers. “A specific sound wave, delivered via a resonant emitter, to coax the rhythm back to stability.” She turned her head, and her gaze landed on him, not on his eyes, but on the stethoscope draped around his neck. “The principle is not so different from auscultation. You listen for the discord. I propose we correct it with a counter-melody.”

I have nothing to relax about. Looking forward, beyond where the fragile illumination of my mobile reaches, there's... something... I strain to see... And there... From somewhere ahead of me... Footsteps...and... another noise... A warbling, quaking rattle of a noise... My heart makes a single mighty bound, jack-hammering the blood to my head and fingertips, then bangs inside my ribs like some maddened jack-in-the-box. What the hell was that? Distorted by echoes, I can't identify it...