Echoes of Deception

i. week 1

Matthew had been born with a particularly unique ability. He could hear everything. If placed right in the center of Seattle, his hearing would cut out right at about Tacoma. Despite being 20 miles away from the beach, he could still hear it. So, at 8 years old, he'd placed a number on his hearing ability. 20 miles before it started weaning off, and he wouldn't be able to hear it anymore.
Having an ability like this might seem to be great. You can hear anyone talking about you behind your back and anyone approaching. You can sit on the rooftop of a building and hear thousands of conversations beneath your feet, and the sounds of the beach waves crashing aren't just reserved for vacations, but rather an authentic background noise all day. However, sometimes it hurts more to hear what those people may be saying. You can hear a bunch of conversations, but it all turns into an overwhelming gargle of noise. Beach waves get annoying. Not only that, but the sound of birds chirping is never-ending, everyone's footsteps are loud and overwhelming, and everything- I do mean everything, makes noise. Refrigerators, lights, even speakers that aren't on- anything with a circuitboard emits hums. You get to hear the music that every single person is listening to with their headphones. God forbid those pet peeves- like people chewing, or nails on a chalk board. Even down to people's heart beat, and the sound of blood rushing throughout their body, or all of everyone's clothes rustling at once. While the brain is good at processing sound and effectively tuning out some of these nuisances, this wasn't an ability that was well-balanced.
Matthew considered himself unnecessarily unlucky. As if god, if he does even exist, was playing a cruel joke on him and found it entertaining. Despite never having been surprised before, Matthew found himself constantly surprised at the idea that something as twisted of a fate as his wasn't for some grandiose reason, or even some sort of evolutionary trait bestowed on him by scientists to test human limits. It just was- and that was the most aggravating of it all.
With all this, you may be wondering what sane parents wouldn't immediately have Matthew sent in for testing to be a government guinea pig or some sort of spy for the Government, but his parents were a bit odd themselves.
Matthew's mother, Takina, was a lawyer. After having a child that didn't cry due to it hurting their own ears, she deduced over the years her son's condition. She figured it was best kept a secret, for the sake of her own son's life. Matthew's father was a Psychiatrist. He'd divorced Takina and kept Matthew's brother Nathan. They both witnessed the "justice" that the Government had, both in the medical care system and in the judicial field. So, the two figured it was best to keep it a secret. 

Matthew entered his room with the final cardboard box of his belongings. His room was at the end of the hall on the second floor to the left. Across from the door, a window with the great view of his neighbor across the street, and a desk. To the right he had his bed, and across from that his dresser with the TV and gaming consoles. To the right of that, a door to his bathroom. 

"How're you feeling about the move?" His mother spoke, leaning against the doorframe behind Matthew. "Usually, once you've sort of got the new room laid out, you start feeling more optimistic about these sort of things.."

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"Finally.." Matthew mumbled as he collapsed down onto his bed, bringing a hand up to pinch the space in between his eyebrows. He'd finally finished unpacking everything. All of his books into his bookcase, clothes into the dresser and the closet in the bathroom, and of course his shower stuff in the shower. The worst part of this moving process has been familiarizing himself with his neighbors while he worked to get everything unpacked in his room. They were noisy. Especially one.

"You ain't get your ass home til almost 8pm, you damn whore! I know school gets off at 4! What the hell were you doin'?!" A voice roars from a few houses down. He wouldn't ordinarily be able to hear it- thanks to a specific pair of earbuds he wore consistently. They were made for heavy-duty musicians, to avoid ear damage. They were also made for Matthew, he thinks, to prevent him from wanting to die constantly. They didn't do much good in that regard, but they did make things significantly more tolerable. If this guy weren't screaming at the top of his lungs, he wouldn't be able to hear him.. as a result, though, he wasn't able to hear who was being screamed at, either. Did he want to?

As the situation a few houses down worsened, Matthew spent his time taking a quick shower to get ready for tomorrow, brushing his teeth, and getting into bed. He wasn't fond of having to try to sleep with the grating noise of this man, but he figured it was better than being the one on the receiving end of it.