Emma always hated the quiet. Growing up, she’d avoid it at all costs—blasting music, leaving the TV on, anything to drown out the buzzing sound she’d hear in absolute silence. It wasn’t tinnitus. It wasn’t mechanical. It was... different. Like a faint hum just on the edge of perception.
As she got older, she dismissed it as her imagination. Everyone hears something in silence, right? White noise from the brain, doctors said. Harmless. Normal.
But recently, the buzzing had changed.
---
The New Buzzing
It started subtly, during one of her late-night study sessions. The quiet in her tiny apartment was oppressive, wrapping around her like a thick fog. As she stared at her laptop, the buzz crept into her awareness.
It wasn’t a steady hum anymore. It pulsated, like a broken rhythm. And then—just barely—it sounded like... words.
She froze, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. She tilted her head, trying to focus on the sound. It was faint, but there: fragmented phrases, like someone speaking from far away.
She shook her head. “Just tired,” she muttered, closing her laptop and going to bed.
---
The First Voice
Over the next few days, the buzzing grew louder. It wasn’t constant, only emerging in moments of silence. Emma started avoiding quiet altogether. She kept music on while she worked, podcasts playing while she cooked, and the hum of a fan while she slept.
But one evening, as she sat in her car after work, the buzz returned. This time, it was unmistakable.
“...Emma...”
Her breath caught in her throat. It was her name.
“Who’s there?” she whispered, glancing around the empty parking lot.
No answer. Just the faint hum. She turned on the radio, blasting static to drown it out.
---
The Pattern
She began hearing more words. At first, it was just fragments, scattered and nonsensical.
“Help... us...”
“They see... everything...”
“Run...”
Then came the sentences. Coherent. Direct.
“They’re watching you.”
“Don’t trust your mind.”
“It’s not real.”
The voices weren’t hers. They were male, female, and sometimes both at once. And they all spoke in the same flat, chilling tone.
Desperate, she saw a doctor, who reassured her that it was stress-induced auditory hallucinations. “When your brain is deprived of external sound, it can sometimes create its own.”
But the explanation felt hollow. These weren’t random noises. They felt real.
---
The Experiment
Determined to prove she wasn’t losing her mind, Emma decided to record the buzzing. She bought a high-end microphone and set it up in her silent apartment, pressing record and stepping back.
The room was completely quiet. She stared at the screen, watching the sound waves appear—jagged lines where there should have been none.
Her heart pounded as she played back the recording.
“Emma... stop... listening...”
She dropped the headphones, her stomach twisting. It was her voice. The same flat, emotionless tone. But she hadn’t said a word.
---
The Descent
Emma started avoiding silence entirely. She moved in with her sister, who was confused but didn’t press too hard. Even in a bustling house, though, the buzzing found her.
One night, she awoke to find her sister standing in her room, staring at her with vacant eyes.
“They’re coming,” her sister said, her voice identical to the one Emma had heard on the recordings.
Emma screamed, and her sister collapsed, waking up disoriented. She had no memory of what had happened.
---
The Revelation
The voices became clearer, more insistent.
“They are in your head.”
“You’ve always known.”
“Silence will reveal the truth.”
Exhausted and desperate, Emma decided to confront the buzzing once and for all. She locked herself in a soundproof booth at a recording studio and turned off all external noise.
The silence was absolute. The buzzing was deafening.
And then, it stopped.
“Finally,” a voice said.
Emma froze. It was her own voice, but it wasn’t coming from her.
“Who are you?” she whispered.
“We are you. And you are us. You’ve been asleep, Emma. It’s time to wake up.”
---
The Twist
The walls of the soundproof booth began to shimmer, and the air around her warped. The buzzing returned, louder than ever, drowning out her screams.
When Emma opened her eyes, she was in a white room, surrounded by shadowy figures. They stared at her with featureless faces.
“Welcome back,” one of them said, its voice the same flat tone as the buzzing.
She tried to move, but her body wouldn’t respond. Her reflection appeared in a nearby glass panel—not her own face, but a blank, shadowy visage like theirs.
---
The Confusion
Emma jolted awake in her bed, drenched in sweat. Her apartment was silent. No buzzing, no voices. Just stillness.
Had it all been a dream? She reached for her phone to call her sister, but the screen was static. From the static came a faint voice:
“You can’t escape.”
Emma dropped the phone, her pulse racing. Outside, everything seemed normal. The world buzzed with the sounds of life.
But deep in her mind, she couldn’t tell if she was awake, dreaming, or trapped in the silence forever
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