The TVs blared… The city buzzed with sounds… Noise everywhere… A man in a blue coat stood on the screens, excitedly advertising the brand-new ‘Eavesdropper Ultra 350. Of course. It has been the talk of the city for days and weeks now. All the homes have it. The city is flooded with the thunderous sounds emitted by the loudspeakers.
Perrolina covers her ears as she enters the overcrowded shop. She hands cash to the cashier, holding her newly bought loudspeakers close to her chest. But something doesn’t sit quite right with her. Her heart feels heavy.
Muffled heartbeats. Silent footsteps. Pots clanging. All sorts of sounds and whispers dance their way to the speaker’s ears.
He listens. He knows. Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. He seeks out the unaware and clings to their minds. Hissing his rhythm, a rhythm that seeps into the civilian’s brains. Entangling their thoughts. Their views. Their opinions. Their lives. All tangled. Identical and precisely made tangles. Perfectly planned and executed by the government.
Something is wrong. She can sense it. Perrolina might be losing her mind, but everyone is… the same. Same words. Same expressions. Same lives. And as if she wasn’t feeling nauseous enough, there was this constant pounding in her head. A rhythm. A soft thunderous sound. Her mind is lost in the mist. She feels… different. Like she’s submerged in water. Water clogged her ears and thoughts.
She hits the deep end of the pool, her feet touching the floor, her landing as soft as a feather. Then, she springs back up. Gasping for air. Drenched. She knows what she must do.
The morning light pierced through the curtains of Perrolina’s room. Same thing, but different days. A new day, a fresh beginning. Today was the day. She could feel it in her bones.
Perrolina steps out into the living room, casting a searching glance across the room. Her eyes linger on the speaker. The culprit! The eavesdropper!
She takes a daring step. Nearing the threat, she slashes the cord. Copper fragments spill onto the floor like blood. She wipes away the fog from the window to her mind.
The result is instant, and she feels calm. Peace… Silence… Finally, silence after all the chaos. The peace after the rainstorm.
But what about the others? —Her friends? Her family? They deserved their freedom. She has to spread this newly discovered medicine. She must stop this pandemic.
The morning breeze kisses her cheek, but the sight that awaits her isn’t nearly as soothing. Hundreds of people walk through the streets.
Marching in synchronisation. An odd mumbling fills the air. The people seem to be chanting something under their breath…
Perrolina inches closer. The people are humming. Humming the rhythm that once corrupted her brain. Sweat trickled down her neck as she continued to move closer towards the mass, only to realize that the humming was actually a chant.
A subtle slogan. Listen with your heart.
The slogan from the ads. The eavesdropper Ultra 350 ads.
Perrolina runs up to people trying to tell them the truth, but they don’t even spare a second to look at her. They all keep on moving further, all chanting in unison.
She tries again and again but to no avail. Defeated, she covers her ears with her hands, like a child. Trembling. Begging for it to stop. For them to listen. Her cries and screams are lost beneath the chants. And so is her kneeling figure as the crowd continues forward. Engulfing her.
The silence is deafening, yet the rhythm is deadly.
By: Aisha-Binti-Khurshid, Grade 8th, Diamond (Batch 2025)