Silent Circles Novels & Stories

I saw two silhouettes moving towards us before everything went black. -----☆----- I could hear voices speaking but didn't know who they belonged too or what they were saying. I slowly stirred from my sleep and buried my face into the pillow. Wait, a pillow? My eyes immediately flew open and I was surrounded by white walls with pastel flowers painted on them. My hand was connected to an IV tube and the heart monitor was slowly beeping. I immediately knew I was in hospital but how I got there I did not quite know. The voices speaking were coming from outside the door and soon enough the door opened to review Dr. Dave with a clipboard in hand and mum closely behind him.

"Sometimes silence is the truest record." A volunteer stepped forward with a tiny engraving rod. "May I write something that hasn't been spoken aloud?" "Certainly," Elira replied. "The system records quiet as well." --- 8:38 PM — Sector T, Outcrop Overloop Resonance Sink Evening light filtered low across the ledge. Volunteers had started lighting small ground-globes—each of which reacted to tone, not touch. A group of young people sat in a cluster, chanting soft repetitions of Clause Thirty-Eight.

Isolde said, bringing another basket of stones from the garden path, whose pebbles had, until this hour, only known the weight of rain. They began again, a slower litany now—the kind you speak when you are interrupted by the sound of men gathering in a room built to echo. Every few names, Maera touched the stone and felt the hum move farther away, as if the circle had decided to become what it had been: a choice disguised as a fact. Silas waited like weather that wants to be named storm. His patience glittered. When he spoke at last, it was with the calm of an accountant who has discovered a way to reclassify murder as philanthropy.

SIERRA The silence in the cave was suffocating, wrapping around me like an iron chain. I slumped against the cold, jagged wall, tears streaking down my face. For days—or had it been weeks?—I had been hearing their voices. Soft, familiar whispers that called out to me, a lifeline in this dark abyss. But now, even they were gone. I was utterly alone. I pressed my hands to my ears, trying to drown out the oppressive silence. “Why?” I whispered to the emptiness, my voice breaking. “Why is this happening to me?”

The cicadas sing to the full moon as I stir, unable to completely fall asleep. I’d forgotten how beautifully annoying these things were. Even with jet lag falling asleep is difficult. Hmm... that’s not a cicada. Stirring again, I reached my phone as the screen lit up, my ringtone blaring into the silent room. It’s after Three AM right now... “... who the hell is calling at this...” Oh. My annoyance crumbles and a smile plasters across my face at the caller ID.

"That’s the secret. The machine runs itself. I am just the ghost inside it." The silence stretched, becoming heavy and suffocating. In the total darkness outside the light, Lyra felt as though the walls were closing in. This was the sensory deprivation she had asked for—the stripping away of the world until there was nothing left but the raw, uncomfortable truth of the person sitting across from you. Suddenly, Silas’s hand twitched. He looked down at the Ledger, his eyes wide. "Do you hear that?" he asked, his voice trembling. "Hear what, Silas?"

The mechanical zip-zip-zip of the plastic teeth catching was the only sound in the room, a sharp, clinical punctuation to the end of their curated lives. "Sophie, Sienna, Stacy," Silas said, his voice dropping into the deep, final silence of the canyon. "The signal is dead. The show is canceled. Now, we find out what’s left of you when there’s no one left to watch." He moved forward, and the shadows of the library swallowed the last of the plastic dynasty, leaving only the sound of the wind through the broken glass to tell the story.

…Selena's pov… As I arrived at the designated meeting point, Silence's words struck me with a sense of unease. He instructed me to turn off my phone—a demand that challenged my instinctual need for control and communication. Despite the urge to protest, I understood the gravity of the situation. With a reluctant nod, I powered off my phone, severing the last thread connecting me to the outside world. Led by Silence, I ventured deeper into the enigmatic building. The air held a subtle mix of secrecy and anticipation, tangible enough to make my skin prickle with anticipation. The corridors were dimly lit, casting long shadows that seemed to whisper secrets to those who listened.

“ Meara!” The whispers started again, soft but notable. I tensed, my eyes snapping open. I scanned the field, but there was no one in sight. The sound seemed to come from the tree itself, from the rustling of its leaves. I pressed my palms against the rough bark and closed my eyes, focusing on the whispers. " Come... find... me..." The words were faint but distinct. My heart raced. Was I losing my mind, or was there something more to these whispers? I stood up, brushing the dirt off my jeans, and took a few steps back. The whispers grew louder, more insistent.

Genevieve hadn't looked at me once since I walked in, which felt worse than a direct insult. The Matron entered the room, and everyone straightened up. "The Circle of Silence tests the vessel's mind," she said, her silver rod clicking against the marble floor as central runes lit up, glowing faintly. "Unfiltered resonance will move through you directly. What lives inside this mountain will enter your mind, and you will either hold it or fail. Inside. Now." We moved into the circle together.