Prologue

The wind chimes rang, the tinkling sound they made brightening the day.

There was a little girl. Playing her keyboard, the day ironically beautiful. The sounds emitted from the keyboard were astoundingly light, carrying the sounds far away. Note by note the song went on as if it had no end, an infinite melody.

The melodious sounds was abruptly cut off, replaced by the muffled screams of the girl. She struggled in the arms of a man, lean but extremely strong. The cloth pressed against her nose slowly did it's work as her limbs went limp. Her struggling slowly ceased and all there was, was the sound of a van leaving the driveway.

~~~~~~

The cellar was dark and terrifyingly quiet. There was nothing she could do. She looked down at the bloodied red line across her palm as she listened to the steady breathing of the man in the corner. He would come with a cane every time she cried out or tried to escape.

As she hummed to herself in the absence of her instruments, a tear ran down her dirtied cheeks. The little girl was afraid. Petrified.

Not of the darkness, not of the insects.

Not even of the man in the corner.

But of the silence.

~~~~~

Years later, the little girl had grown up. Through countless trophies and countless certificates in music, she had changed in many ways. Two things were the same. Her love of the sounds of music.

And that fact that she was still afraid.

~~~~~~

The girl screamed and yelled, but she could not hear anything. She could see mouths opening and closing around her, but no sound came out of them. There was only silence.

Finally, she gave up. No sound came to her ears. Silence engulfed all. Only a void of emptiness and an abyss of infinity lay before her.

The girl's breaths became short, haggard. Dizziness overcame her as she collapsed in a heap on the bed. Bile rose up in her throat as she gagged. But there was still no sound. She knew the truth of what had happened to her. The truth was the truth and it did not matter whether she believed it or not.

But this time she believed it wasn't the end, as a pair of arms hugged her from behind.

~~~~~

People spoke of appreciating silence. But it was what the girl feared most. For it represented her darkest nightmare from a long, long time ago.

Most couldn't fathom how silence could be loud. To them, the idea was just... paradoxical. But she could. The shadowed man she couldn't recognize and the silence she couldn't stand. She feared both a long time ago.

She had forgotten and put it back into the past, though she still avoided silence whenever she could, more like, she always avoided silence. No matter what, she would make sure there was always sound around her, even if it were just the sounds of people chattering around her. 

No one can run away from her past forever; it always finds a way to catch up to her. 

Now, when her past has caught up to her, what will she choose? Flight or fight? 

The silence that comes with darkness is the one to fear.