An Audible Silence

An Audible Silence

Authors Note/Foreword/Whatever: This is my first submission here on Reedsy. Please let me know if there's anything I can improve on for the future so that I know for my next submission!

Before the storm, there is always time for calm. Before the plunge, there is always time for breaths. Before the end, there is always time for a beginning.

I live a simple life. Every day, I go to work and every night I come to the library. Friends and family come and go, but every night those same few regulars and those same few librarians take their place. People may think of it as depressing, but where is the need for unneeded worry and clutter in the form of relationships with others, when I can simply rely on myself?

My eyes slowly blink open and I lift my head gently. I’m sitting at a desk in the library, a pool of drool slowly collecting where my mouth was. “Ngh… what the hell? I know that I was reading through some papers when I got here earlier, but I don’t remember being bored enough to fall asleep, let alone tired enough to do it out of the blue…” I mutter. Slowly, I stand up. My muscles feel like they haven’t been used in centuries and it takes me a while to feel sturdy. Outside of the windows, nothing exists except for the pitch black of the night and the gentle twinkle of the stars. The only sources of light are coming from the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The books that line the walls are coated with thick layers of dust. I notice that there are two people also sleeping at some desks nearby and a fourth person sleeping at the librarian’s desk. I decide against waking them up and go to grab a book to read. It’s only when I reach for the book that I want when I realise that something’s off. On my wrist lies a bracelet with a screen that I’ve never seen before. How did it get on there, and who put it there? Suddenly, the bracelet shakes violently. The bracelet vibrates violently and the three other people here suddenly wake up. I walk over to them all. “Hello? Who are you?” someone asks. I put a finger to my lips and point at the bracelet. They each look down at their wrist and notice that they have one as well. We all sit in silence as a message slowly plays out.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Dieci.” the message says, along with a voice coming from speakers in the bracelet. “Welcome to the library you all know and love, after everybody who works and visits here has gone home to their regular, uneventful lives. Just as you normally would. Unfortunately, that shall become a luxury of the past for you all. You have been selected to partake in my little experiment, hence why you have been shut in this library after closing time. The world is full of cowardice, full of foolishness, full of betrayal. I plan to take hold of the world’s ignorance and use it to further my order. Let’s just say that you will serve as my example. In your pleasant party of four, you must decide something. Which of you will live, and which of you will die. Only two of you may live. If you have not decided by sunrise, the building, along with all of your lives, is wiped off the face of the planet. And the world will have no choice but to watch in horror as your lives are thrown away for naught. Thank you all for participating, and best of luck. May the experiment… begin.”

The bracelet shuts off. We all look at each other. Among us, there are two males and two females. A perfect 50/50 split. The other male looks like he’s in his early 60s, and one of the girls looks no older than 21. The other woman and I are both around the middle of our lives, so our mid-30s, from the looks of things. I sigh. “So. Back to your original question, madam,” I say to the young girl. “I am-” I go to say my real name, but hold myself back. If there’s any chance of them getting attached to me and vice versa, that could put us all in jeopardy. So, I decide to use a codename, just to be safe. “You may call me Jay,” I say. The older man scoffs. “I ‘may’ call you Jay? What, should I be feeling privileged to even be in your presence, Your Highness?” he says, his words dripping with sarcasm. I glare at him. “If we’re being forced into a death game, attachment between each other may cause issues, wouldn’t it? So, I’m using a fake name to avoid that issue. Who exactly are you anyway, genius?” I ask him. He smirks. “I’ll be using a fake name to avoid the issue of attachment. Call me Bianco.” I look at the two girls. “What about you two?” The young one looks at Bianco and I cautiously. “I think Ori sounds like a nice name, doesn’t it? You can call me that,” she tells us. The woman around my age turns her back to us. “My name doesn’t matter, and neither does anything about me. All you need to know is that I’m willing to sacrifice my sorry existence for your survival,” she says. Bianco frowns. “Listen, lady, at least let us have the honour of being able to match a name to a corpse when you die, won’t ya? Give us a codename or something,” he asks. The woman sighs. “Just call me Tam.” I stand up slowly. “Right. We have about 3 or 4 hours, based on my guesses, to figure out what the plan is,” I say. “Any ideas?”

“Chalk me down as the first dead. I’ll be at the librarian’s desk reading if anybody so desperately needs me.” Tam says, walking away. Bianco scowls in her direction and walks off towards some bookshelves. Ori and I look at each other. “Well, we’re totally fucked.” Ori says, pulling on her sleeve. “What do we do now?” I look around at our surroundings. “We need to figure out a way to escape.” I stand up and walk over to where the darkness of the night bears down on us from a window. I grab a chair and throw it up at the window. It simply pings off of it and falls back to the ground. I rush over to a door and frantically try turning the handle. Nothing. “Shit… this is not gonna work.” Bianco looks over at me and chuckles. “Kid, you’re a real amateur. Nothing good is going to come out of messing with the obvious solutions. You gotta dig a little deeper,” he tells me. “Look. I’ve been pulling at these books, hoping that maybe one of them is gonna have something useful in it or something hidden behind it. As of right now, though, no luck.” I come over to him. “You seem very composed. Are you not at all worried?” I ask. He laughs. “Kid, I’ve been through hell and back. I’ve seen worse in 5 years than most see in their whole lives. This bullshit about two of us being sacrificed doesn’t scare me. Tell ya what, I’ll teach you how to stay calm. Focus your mind on something. Could be the words on a book, could be the glow of the chandeliers. Whatever it is, keep that in your mind. When you’re subconsciously focusing on something arbitrary like that, it’s hard for your brain to pump out the fear.” I nod, making sure I remember. Somehow, that feels like it’s going to be very, very important.

I head over to where Tam is sitting. “So… you haven’t changed your mind?” I ask. She shakes her head. “There’s no point. Just get it over with so I can be done with this.” I frown. “You know, that’s no attitude to have. Your life is worth something. Why throw it all away? I’m sure there’s somebody out there who’s rooting for you. No matter what, you’ve got to have someone in your corner, right?” I tell Tam. She smiles weakly. “The last person who was rooting for me left a long time ago. I’ve been on my own since. Nobody would miss me, so there’s no real point in delaying it, right?” she says softly. I look into her eyes. “I’ll be in your corner. No matter what happens here tonight, I’ll be believing in you. And I don’t care how long it takes, I’ll make you realise that somebody is backing you.” I say with conviction. Slowly, tears well up in her eyes. She smiles, wiping them away. “Thank you. I needed to hear that. But I still won’t let anybody’s lives go to waste here. Sacrifice me. Not as somebody who selfishly asked for it, but as somebody who did it for the sake of others. Please.” she asks. I nod slowly. “As you wish. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.”

I head back over to where I was sitting earlier. Ori is still there, waiting. “So, any luck?” she asks. I shake my head, taking a seat. Ori sniffles and buries her head in her hands. “So, we’re stuck here and two of us have to die, or we all get the axe. I’m too young for this… I don’t wanna die!” she sobs. I put my hand on her shoulder. “You won’t die. I’ll find us a way out.” I say gently. She looks up, her eyes glistening with tears. “You will…?” she asks hopefully. I nod. I know that the only way out is to go along with Dieci’s game. How do I break it to her…? Suddenly, a thought goes through my head. I don’t want to accept it, but… it’s the best way. For all of us. I look up at Ori. “I’ll go. I’ll be killed along with Tam. It’s okay. Get out of here with Bianco.” I tell her. She looks at me in shock and shakes her head violently. “No! I can’t let you kill yourself for me!” she responds. I place my palm on her hands. She’s shaking. With fear, with stress, I don’t know. “Please, Ori. It has to be this way.” I say softly. “No!” she shouts. “I’ll find a way… some way… to let you live…” She slowly starts breaking down into tears. “I can’t lose another friend… not after so little time…” Bianco slowly walks over. “Jay. You’re not going to die. Let me go. I’ve lived my life. I have nothing left to look forward to except retirement. You have your whole life ahead of you. Please. Take my offer.” I look up at Bianco. “Are you sure? I can go, you know.” He nods. “Take the girl and get far, far away from here. I’ll watch over you.”

Suddenly, a voice crackles out of the bracelets. “Well then! It seems you’ve all decided! Now then, Miss ‘Tam’ and Mister ‘Bianco’, was it? Will you be sacrificing yourselves?” the voice asks. It’s unmistakably Dieci’s. They both say yes. “Isn’t that wonderful! The two with no hope, sacrificing themselves for the ones with their lives ahead of them! Unfortunately, there’s been a bit of a change in plans…” Dieci says guiltily. “Instead of you two being killed, I figured that there isn’t a point in separating such… close friends. So, you’ll all be coming with me.” I feel something shoot into my veins from the bracelet. “What the fuck…?” I mutter. I can feel my muscles slowly tightening. I can barely move. My eyes start to droop involuntarily. “You’re feeling very sleepy…” Dieci rambles. “Phase 1 of my plan has been completed. Phase 2 has started.

Welcome to my special hell, subjects. Welcome to my death game.”

The End