Distant Heart Sounds Novels & Stories

’ And then, as the last banner swayed in the draft of the closing doors, my gaze caught on the high balcony above the council table. Someone had been there a moment ago. Now, it was empty. And then, suddenly, a faint sound of a heartbeat, steady, unhurried, and not mine, echoed from the shadows that rang within me, but before I could realise what was happening, it vanished, as if it never existed, leaving me in a state of confusion. How? How am I able to detect a sound so far? Or did I detect it at all?

Diana was regardless holding her legs as she was still in so much pain. She was flapping her head from side to side and her marbles keep reflecting on what recently happened between her and Delis Meanwhile, the car arriving close to hers has been beeping loudly but it appears like her ear is blocked. The cars are already smashing into each other when she slowly brings up her head. And she was not seen her way clearly because tears have already suppressed her eye. Not up to a second her eyes get cleared up and she saw the car was already too close to hers.

The unfamiliar voice sounded distant, and with everything spinning around me, it sounded from every corner in the room. While I struggled in vain to focus, I heard the distant sound of footsteps but I couldn't tell whether it was approaching or retreating because it sounded from every corner. Slowly, my eyes shut close, my heart finally stopped beating, my whole body was numb, and suddenly too heavy to lift. My mind was blank, but my ears remained highly functional even though the sounds were distant. For a long time, there was no sound in the room, and then I heard the door pull open, and someone walked in. More sounds followed after he got in, and soon I heard sobs. It sounded distant but

Understanding the shape of what he apparently was. He could hear heartbeats. Not always, not from everywhere, but in the right conditions — quiet spaces, close proximity — he could hear them. He had been hearing them for weeks without knowing what he was hearing, filing the information under background noise. He could hear Dravon's. Or rather — he could hear the absence where a heartbeat should be, which was its own kind of information, a negative space that his body had apparently been tracking without his consent. He found this more unsettling than the other things for reasons he chose not to examine directly.

“I—well, I didn’t want to pry. I figured you’d tell me when you were ready.” He nodded, a faint smile on his lips. “I appreciate that.” He exhaled, as if preparing himself. “I have Dilated Cardiomyopathy. It’s a heart condition. It means my heart has to work a lot harder than it should, and it doesn’t always keep up.”

Before I can even take a step in its direction. A sound seizes me to a standstill. Thump. Thump. Thump. I freeze and incline my head, concentrating on the peculiar sounds. My eyes zoning into the distant, far-flung sounds that deeply echo into the bedroom. Loud in its volume, but the far-off resonance confirms its distance. Suddenly Joshua and Atticus burst into my room. I clap a hand onto my chest to ensure that my heart remains in its cage. My jaw taut, I lower a frightened fist to my side.

I manage the words before I can no longer speak. The sound of the heart monitor rings in my ears but it sounds farther and farther away. Beep . beep . . . beep . . . . . . beep . . . . . . . . . . . . .beep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Then it all fades away.

Mandy’s POV The sound hits me all at once, so wrong my mind refuses it at first. For half a second my brain insists I heard wrong. Old equipment. My own pulse echoing back at me in the small, quiet room. The fire crackles softly to my left, steady, ordinary. A cruel contrast to what is happening beneath my palm. Not one rhythm. Not two. Three. Three distinct heartbeats, overlapping but separate. Each strong. Each undeniable. My grip tightens around the stethoscope without me meaning to. I adjust the angle, listening again, as if precision might correct the impossible.

"You're going to be fine, My miracle, I will never lose you." The distant sound of my heartbeat slowly made its way into my subconsciousness, bringing my mind back to life. I listened carefully to the heartbeat, following the sound. The beating slowly turned to a beeping, a machinery beeping. It increased with every step closer I got to the location of the sound until I snapped my eyes open with a gasp. Damn.

"Tell me what's wrong with her." Only silence met my words. Dr. Farrow came in soon after, listened herself, frowned in the same way, and pulled a chair beside my bed, which told me everything before she opened her mouth. "There's an irregularity in her heart rhythm. A fluttering, inconsistent beat. It's consistent with a congenital defect, most likely a murmur that formed sometime during your pregnancy." I stared at her, waiting for the rest of the sentence to make sense. "We'll need an echocardiogram to know the full extent. Depending on results, this could mean lifelong monitoring, ongoing medication, and in more serious cases, surgical intervention down the line."