Muted Novels & Stories

The familiar feeling of isolation creeps in – the same feeling I get whenever I'm around people who can't understand me. My mate finally speaks, his deep voice sending shivers down my spine despite its coldness. "She's mute. She uses sign language." He still won't look at me, his eyes fixed on some point above my head. "Oh, I see," the doctor says, looking flustered. She holds out a notepad and pen. "Here, you can write down your responses." My hands are shaking so badly I can barely grip the pen, but I manage to write: 'Elizabeth Smith, Dark Moon Pack. Where am I?'

:: AUTO-CORRECT REJECTED :: REASON: PRESENCE-LED PATTERN OVERRIDES OLD SILENCE INTERPRETATION :: COMMENT: SILENCE IS NO LONGER READ AS NEUTRAL. IT IS ASSOCIATED WITH CORE USER. ABSENCE CANNOT BE MAPPED. Cassian stood. Quietly. Didn’t move toward the door. Didn’t call her name. He just watched as a room built to outlive emotion began to tremble slightly because the person it had learned to trust was no longer inside it. And Eden? She kept walking. Not to test the system.

the smile on his face continues to intensify as he continues to stare at me without saying a word… this man is a flirt, I am sure of it. “It’s really good to have a new student in the class, I am sure the coming days will be amazing” He signs so effortlessly and I find myself wishing Dominic can do that. It gets tiring not being able to speak to him freely. “How do you sign so well?” “I have a sister who is also mute” he answers, “I learnt at a pretty young age” “Wow, I see” I smile at him, “that’s good, yeah?” “Of course”

His voice joins in, a hum that misses every note. Fucking crazy is what it makes me feel. “Could you lower it a bit?” I say. Aim for calm. Miss by miles. “What?” “The music. Can you turn it down? I’m trying to concentrate.” It gets turned down by him. Just a little bit. The humming goes on anyway. Teeth clench tight. Thoughts scatter every way. Nothing holds still. “Amon. Please. I need quiet.” “I turned it down.” “Not enough. And you’re still humming.”

Aris asked, his brow furrowing. "I'm 'Muting' you," I said. I clicked my fingers. Aris’s mouth moved. His chest heaved as he tried to speak, but no sound came out. He clutched his throat, his eyes wide with a sudden, primal terror. He wasn't being choked; he was being **Un-Rendered**. His voice was no longer a part of the 1998 "Audio-File." "Elara! What have you done to your father!"

Zane asked, looking at Lucien confused. "Quit being a whiny child, Zane. She is not angry with you, the thing is she is mute and I'm the only one that can communicate with her." "And she hasn't said anything bad about you so far, but who knows maybe soon." Lucien explained to him, I watched as Zane's face changed from one of confusion to pity. He didn't seem grossed out by the fact that I was mute. Others would have looked at me like I was a freak or something.

I’m inside a small black space that contains only Kir and Butcher's body cam feeds and silence on the comms where Kir's voice should be. "Kir." Nothing. "Kir."

He didn't shake his head. The silence stretched between us. It was heavy. Suffocating. It felt less like an awkward pause and more like a predator evaluating its prey. Please, just nod or shake your head, I pleaded internally, my heart hammering. Say something. George stepped forward, leaning in slightly with an apologetic smile. "Lady Sylvia, Alpha Eric just mentioned... the gentleman is mute." Heat rushed to my cheeks, burning all the way to the tips of my ears. "Right. Sorry. I must be having short-term memory loss from hitting my head."

[I need the phone you've been using to blackmail my husband. He watched me. "Why do you need a burner phone, when you're mute?" My hands stopped moving. He stepped closer. "Unless..." His voice lowered. "You can actually talk, and you've been pretending this whole time?"

I nodded and went back to packing. That was the thing about playing mute — people got lazy. They stopped watching you properly after a while. They spoke freely in front of you, argued in front of you, made plans right in front of your face. A girl who couldn't speak was furniture. And furniture didn't need to be feared.