Story Starters

Unheard

Hey guys!

This starter was created by my best friend Jess (Jess4610) so yeah give credit to her and enjoy her story! Also, this is one of the stories that needs permission to copy the idea or storyline from, so if you'd like to use some aspect of this story, please ask for permission first! Thanks!

What would happen if you were never heard? Not as though no one was listening to you but as though no one could.

A lot of people say that nowadays you need to speak up and get your opinions heard.

When I hear this, I laugh. Not that anyone could hear me because well, they can't.

I can speak, laugh, cry, scream, sing, roar, babble and squeak but no one can hear me except for myself. At first I thought this was brilliant and that I could say things I wouldn't normally say, but after a while I realized the reality of the situation.

I was alone.

I became 'unheard', as I like to call it, at the age of ten. I was a huge chatterbox who definitely couldn't keep a secret until the 3rd of October. I woke up as usual and asked my mum to pack my lunch. But all she did was stare at me. All she saw was my mouth moving but heard no words coming out. My mum tried for months to figure out what was wrong with me and even took classes in lip-reading and sign language but she isn't known for committing to things. My mum was known however, for her unusually high stress levels. So five months after I became unheard, I was motherless.

No, she didn't commit suicide and she didn't put me up for adoption, she simply collapsed one night in the kitchen and never woke up.

I tried calling the ambulance but of course, they didn't hear my shouts, screams or my tearful pleas for help. I hung up, knowing it was hopeless. Three hours later the ambulance arrived.

I later found out that she died of a stress-induced heart attack thing called 'stress cardiomyopathy'.

I had no other family members so I was put up for foster care and was housed in an orphanage. I lived there for eight years with not one offer for a family. Which is understandable. It's human nature to be scared or repulsed by differences.

So of course, I lived my life in silence.

When I was fifteen I got a job at a bookstore. It was the only job that I could find where I didn't have to communicate. I'd load and unload deliveries, shelve books, doing all the background work. I had that job for three years until I finally turned eighteen and I was able to move out of the orphanage and live on my own.

That cash from the bookstore helped me buy my place. It's only a small apartment but it serves me well. My mom's money paid for my food, power, furniture and clothes but it didn't last me long. The bookstore has good pay but I needed to get a proper job, which was difficult since I had to drop out of school half way through year twelve. The orphanage was paying for my schooling but when I turned eighteen, I had to pay myself. I couldn't afford it then, so I dropped out and lived a silent life alone. I isolated myself from my friends, teachers, and really, just people in general. Yet no matter how hard I tried to hide from the world, they didn't stop looking. Everyday people would mutter about me. Whispering about the girl who lived all alone. About the girl who couldn't be heard.