Novel & Cerita Silent King

The room was dark and cramped, full of clutter and an old bunk bed he dragged in from the construction site next door. Without warning, the boss lunged forward and pinned Nissa onto the lower bunk. Startled, Nissa let out muffled cries, struggling with all her might, hands pushing at his chest. The boss grew impatient and furious, cursing, "Damn it, a dumb mute like you making so much money! Who the hell are you earning it for? Walking around here every day, don't think I don't see it. You're trying to seduce me!" Nissa's eyes widened in shock.

The previous playfulness disappeared from his face as he sat frozen on his soft side, not even moving a bit. His prolonged silence thumped my heart as if it challenged me to correct the mistake I made unintentionally. However, I had no idea what I did wrong. So, taking a safer route, I closed my eyes, pretending to be asleep. That was when Cassian finally broke his silence. He grabbed my wrist, catching me off guard. “No!” he said, his voice rough. “You can’t ignore me like this.” My heart leapt to my throat as my eyes flew open, only to find shadows of darkness clouding Cassian’s features. He narrowed his dark eyes and said,

"I'm sorry, Grace. The forest really isn't safe. I have to find him. I promise I'll come back and finish this with you." I gave him a faint smile, though I could barely breathe through the pain in my chest. He would not come back once he left. That was always how it ended. As he bent down to comfort Laila, I quietly poured the bond-breaking potion into the wine glass. I walked over and held it out to him, my voice soft but firm. "Finish this, and I'll forgive you." Philip smiled and finished it in one gulp. He put the glass down and left with Laila without a second glance.

--- It would be silent. --- And unstoppable.

* The pillar pulsed once. A voice spoke, but not with sound. It was inside their skulls. *You are late.* Aria stopped ten paces from the stone. “Who are you?” *I am what remains when oaths are forgotten.* *I am the Silence.* Ash raised her blade. It did nothing. The blade felt heavy, distant, like it belonged to someone else. Kael stepped in front of Aria. “You can’t have her.” The Silence laughed. It had no mouth. *She already belongs to me. She carries my brother’s prison in her blood.*

Once inside the gymnasium, Niko lines us up, squeezing me between Ace and Dax. I would have hated to be the victim of Niko’s infliction last night. Those eyes are hardened from years of experience. He may be young, but he’s seen more than any of us combined. Whatever he wanted from his victim last night, he would have gotten. And something tells me it was Aric. “The key to being a Silent is to obtain information without it being known to the subject. This is so essential, we get this out of the way right now in order to find the weakest links to eliminate out of the competition,” Niko explains.

--- The Forgotten Name That night, she dreamed again—but this dream was not her own. She stood on a field of endless night. The stars were gone. Even the moonlight could not reach this place. Something moved in the dark—massive, soundless, ancient. When it spoke, it was not a voice. It was an idea pressed directly into her thoughts. > You have opened what was meant to sleep. Kimberly turned, her body trembling. “Who are you?” > The First Silence, it said. The breath before the Heart. The darkness rippled like water disturbed by a single drop.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧

but the reality was a plush, silent room and a voice, a stranger's voice, that had just greeted me from the shadows. "Comfortable?" it asked. It was a man's voice, deep, smooth, and utterly calm. It held no identifiable accent, just a polished, resonant tone that seemed to vibrate in my lower belly. "Yes," I breathed out, my own voice sounding small and shaky in the vast quiet. "Good. My name is Silas. For tonight, I am your guide. Your only guide. You will see nothing. You will be led only by my voice and by touch. Do you understand?"

Bleeding. SILENCE