Hollow of Silence

Chapter 1

Quinn stood in front of the bathroom mirror, trying and failing to fix her hair. The brush went through it like silk, yet she just couldn't manage to braid it like she was trying to do.

The lights flickered. Quinn sighed, then gave up on her hair. It wasn't worth it anyway. She pulled on her jacket, then went to the door.

When she opened it, Udaya was standing there with a grin on her face.

I have a present for you, she signed excitedly.

Quinn grinned. Udaya was great at making her feel better in any situation. She signed back, What is it?

Udaya held out her fist. Quinn held out her hand, and Udaya dropped two earbud-like things into Quinn's palm.

Quinn knew exactly what they were: hearing aids. She smiled brighter.

When she was younger, she had grown up in a rather well-off family. Good enough that she was mostly tended to by an in-home caretaker. She didn't know why her parents had never gotten hearing aids for her.

But now, here they were. Two small objects that would change her life. It would be like having a light switch in her brain, except for sound, that could turn her hearing on and off as she removed and put in her aids.

She was desperately excited. She felt as if she was dreaming. Slowly, she put them in and turned them on.

For a moment, there was a high-pitched ringing that made her wince. Then, her face lit up even more.

"How does it feel?" Udaya asked. Her voice was beautiful. Quinn never thought that a voice could sound so warm and welcoming.

"Amazing," Quinn whispered.

She knew how to speak, of course. It was difficult to learn and do since she couldn't hear, but now she could hear her own voice come out of her mouth.

"Good," Udaya said, also grinning. She pulled Quinn into a tight hug, which Quinn returned.

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It had been almost a year since Quinn rescued Udaya from the mugger. Udaya was studying for a master's degree in biology, which she was two years away from. Udaya had spent much of her time at Quinn's for the past year, and eventually Quinn had asked if Udaya wanted to move in, to which Udaya said yes.

"Do we need any chocolate?" Udaya asked, looking with hopeful eyes at the shelf full of Hershey's bars and Reese's cups and Crunch bars and other chocolate.

"Need?" Quinn said. "No. Want? Absolutely." Udaya grinned, grabbing a few Hershey bars while Quinn took a couple boxes of Milk Duds.

Then the lights shut off. A few startled people screamed. A horrible voice rang through the store.

"Ten people are dead. I have locked all of the doors and reinforced all of the windows. All of your devices have been disconnected, meaning you have no way to contact police. There is a single escape from this store. You have ten minutes without lights and five minutes with lights to find it before I close it off and kill all of you."

More people screamed. A few started crying. A child cried out for his mother.

Udaya grabbed Quinn's hand. This had gotten very real, very quickly. They had fifteen minutes, most of which in the dark, to find the exit and escape.

Something in Quinn's mind told her that no matter what happened, the other people were her first priority. If she died saving them, then so be it.

She would help these people if it was the last thing she did.