Chapter 1: PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 |

Chapter 2: PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

Stepping outside of her dwelling for the first time, Athens noticed that her own thoughts were louder than anything in nature. There was an overwhelming, even oppressive, silence that pushed for notice. No birds chirped, though Athens saw them flying in groups above her head. The bees that jumped from flower to flower in her yard made no buzzing sounds at all. As a matter of fact, Athens began to wonder if she were either dreaming, or deaf. So, to remedy the former, she pinched herself really hard on the arm.

“OUCH!!”, she exclaimed as the pain radiated outward an upward.

The unintended, but positive effect of this experiment was that it also disproved her fear of being deaf, because her voice came through loud and clear. The only remaining problem, then, was that where there should have been some kind of echo, it was as if she had shouted into a vacuum. She walked around, intentionally stepping on every crackled leaf, and every dried blade of grass, expecting even a whisper of reaction, but instead there was nothing.

No sound. Not even a hint of a sound. Nothing audibly occurred. Until seemingly on the wings of a random breeze, Athens’ ears caught the faint sound of something resembling a voice……

“Wheeeeerrreee arrrreee yoooouuu, Attthhheeens?”