Stories tagged “hearing”
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Hideaway and Lullaby
“Pity,” Miss Schumann signed, frowning in a good-natured way. Harold made his cross face and signed back, “What?” Smiling as she looked around Harold’s room, his new room, his perfectly sound-proofed room, “You regai...
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The Heavy Breath of the Dark
I awake into the deepest, darkest black imaginable. I can see nothing but the heavy breath of the dark. It clings to my body like a tangible force, but it’s all psychological—it’s just my eyes not registering the fact that there is no...
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5 Senses (Part 2)
Every sound, no matter how loud of soft, stood out. Bees buzzing around the flowers. Cars on the freeway a few blocks over. Muffled by the hedges around my house, but always there. A humming bird, graciously inspecting the feeder I had hung out front f...
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Loss of Hearing
I lost most of my hearing when I met you. All the negativity I was told all my life, I couldn’t listen to anymore. The only thing you let me hear was you. I want to know how you did it. I want to know why you did it. Why did you protect me from a...
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Listening and Not Hearing
This is always problematic… difficult. I stand beside her recliner, awkward, scared. “Can I talk to you?” Here it comes: The casual glance; re-focus on the television. “Um, sure. What?” I can’t answer. It’s not...
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HEARING DAMAGE
Something weird is happening to me. No, please don’t go! I know you’ve probably read that line trillions of times in horror novels, but I swear this is not fiction. This is real. And it won’t stop. So, just humour me and keep reading....
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HEARING DAMAGE: Part II
“…why can’t he just do what I ask him t—” “…uch a stupid film. Never seeing that aga—” “…car’s on fire and there’s no driver at the wheel and the sewers are muddied with a th...
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HEARING DAMAGE: Part III
When I burst into my house and slammed the door firmly shut behind me, I felt slightly better. After taking my rain-soaked clothes off, I collapsed into my armchair, staring at the blank TV screen. I checked my wristwatch: 17:34 I had some time before ...
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HEARING DAMAGE: Part IV
The ambient whine suddenly stopped and the sound of the front door opening was unexpectedly amplified up to eleven, making me jump out of the chair. Footsteps came up to the door of the front room I was in at that moment. And then Ellis walked in, gorg...
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HEARING DAMAGE: Part V
That night, I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Ellis had said when she’d come in. “Please let him be out…” Did that mean she didn’t want be to be there? I lay on my side, staring at the back of...
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HEARING DAMAGE: Part VI
Now, I must interrupt my story from the perspective of knowing what is going to happen. After hearing that voice say those words in my head, I very nearly shit myself, I was so scared. If I was a proper narrator, I would just gloss over that titbit of ...
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HEARING DAMAGE: Part VII
Seven days previously, me and Ellis were out celebrating the news of her being pregnant. But when we came back, her mood seemed to change. Her back was hunched, her lips were in a constant pout, she moved around in an aggressive manner, and she was whi...
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HEARING DAMAGE: Part VIII
The unborn foetus died. That little mass of conception, that tiny being of future possibilities and hardships and life itself had been snuffed out, like a candle blown out by the breath of Fate. But I couldn’t blame Fate for what had happened. It...
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All the Colors In This Dark Room
There’s a clatter on the far end of the room, maybe from the kitchen. Laughter to my left, a woman coughs by the bar. The clock hits twelve. Midnight, that is. The magic hour. The rules dissolve, the music kicks up, and the pulse flows through ev...
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Sometimes I can't think
The dance beats don’t make any sense outside of my body. But they still make me shake, groan, twist my head and arms, to and fro. I wish I could record what’s going on in my head. My bed. It’s a clang. Some drum beats. Banshees scream...