Midnight Tales: A Collection Of Short Stories

The Night Walk

6:45 pm.

It's only 6:45 pm and the horizon is already dark. Stars dotted the night sky like millions of tiny specks of light. Streetlights lit up, illuminating the streets. The lights inside the tall buildings I passed are on as well. There were a lot of people in the pavement with me, some are walking to their jobs and some are walking home from wherever they came from. I continued to walk, after getting arrested for illegal parking and DUI last month my overprotective mother took my license and forced me to walk home from school.

Everything in the city looked alive. However, something felt off.

There's absolutely no sound anywhere around me.

I took my earphones off, thinking the music is just too loud before realising I don't have them on.

I stopped in my tracks and looked around.

There are people, and cars, and street performers doing their tricks. There are stray animals too. But where's the sound?

I looked at a couple who appeared to be arguing. From my observation I think the two would've been screaming loudly based on their body language. I turned to watch a dog barking up a tree, it's owner desperately pulling on its leash. They too, aren't making any noise. I turned to the street where a long line of cars halted because the light flashed red. One of the drivers gestured angrily at the car in front of her and slammed her hand on the horn, but again, no sound.

“Have I gone deaf?”

No, it cannot be. I shook my head.

I walked up to a random person, still in denial that my hearing has disappeared. I tapped the stranger's shoulder and she turned around.

‘Hi, uh, do you know where the park is?’ I asked.

My eyes widened. My voice! I can still hear it! I haven't gone deaf after all!

I laughed in amusement.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see the stranger looking at me with bewilderment. She opened her mouth and spoke. Her lips formed shapes, and her facial expression changed. She must've took about five minutes talking and gesturing to the road.

However she didn't make any sound at all.

Confused and terrified, I just nodded and took off to the direction she pointed at. I ran as fast as I can and when I looked back I saw her waving frantically at me. She appeared to be yelling but I couldn't hear. I can hear the rapid beating of my heart though. The continuous thump-thump-thump filled my ears. My breathing too, inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale, like this is the last time I'll ever breathe.

I stopped beside a small trinket shop. The store looked like one of those you'll find in medieval fair conventions. I peered in the shop but couldn't see anything. Either the glass really is coloured brown or the owner hadn't cleaned in since the beginning of time. I leaned on the wall of the shop, trying to catch my breath.

The door of the shop opened and out stepped a big, burly man. His beard is braided and wrapped around his neck while his mustache curled and looped at the ends. He wore simple clothing and no shoes. In his hands he carried a small flask of blue liquid which appeared to have trapped the stars in it with the way it glistened under the streetlight.

‘You're not supposed to be awake just yet,’ he spoke in a voice which sounded both deep and airy.

I sprang up to my feet. I pointed at him excitedly.

‘You-you! I can hear you! I thought I was going insane! What-what on earth happened here? Why can't I hear anything?’ I asked rapidly without even stopping to catch my breath.

The man huffed and handed me the flask. ‘Drink,’ he said, pushing the flask to my chest.

My mind hesitated but my hands reached for the flask and brought it up to my lips. I drank everything in it.

‘You should go to sleep soon,’ he said and walked back inside the shop.

‘What! Sleep, what do mean . . . by - by sleep,’ my voice trailed off and so did the rest of the world around me.

* * *

‘Eri, Eri wake up man!’

I slowly opened my eyes.

“What?”

My eyes fully opened to see two familiar faces.

‘Jon? Mike?’ I asked, sitting up.

My hands touched . . . grass?

“Was I outside? What happened?”

‘What happened?’ I rubbed my face.

‘Dude, Jon brought this weird concoction made by his uncle and we had a contest that whoever got to the park last will have to drink everything in it,’ explained Mike.

I looked at him weirdly and as if he read my mind, Mike began to explain more of what happened.

Slowly, it all returned. I proposed the contest since I was the fastest runner but on the way I accidentally tripped and fell, banging my head on the concrete. Both of the boys stopped to check on me and helped carry me to the park. Since I had to be carried I declared myself the loser and drank the contents of the flask.

‘That's when you suddenly slumped over and fell asleep,’ said Jon.

‘We thought we lost you, man.’ Mike wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

‘Uhm, Jon? Can I see the flask?’

‘Here but uh, Mike threw it on the ground after what happened to you so there's nothing in it now.’ He handed me a small glass flask.

I held it up to the light of the streetlight. What I saw made all the air in my lungs to escape my body.

Blue liquid that appeared to glisten under the light, as if it had trapped stars in it.

I dropped the piece of glass on the ground. I heard Mike exclaim in panic and Jon asking if I'm alright.

‘Yeah, I'm fine,’ I assured them both. ‘I uh, I want to go home.’ I got up, slinging my bag on my shoulder. ‘I have to walk home though, Mum took my license, remember?’

‘Mum?’ asked Jon.

‘License?’ asked Mike.

I nodded and walked off, leaving them confused.

I walked out of the park, only then did I notice the sky had darkened. As I walked around the corner to enter the city did I realise something. Mum doesn't live with me and I for sure don't have a license yet.

I checked my watch.

6:45 pm.

As I walked past a group of cats hissing at each other, I noticed it.

I looked around, at the cars, at the sky, at the people, at the buildings.

No one, not one of them made any sound.