Echoes Of The Silence

Chapter 1: Shattered Bonds

It was a dull, usual morning.
The kind that felt like it had already happened a hundred times before. Haelin Waltz stood in the kitchen, her apron tied around her waist, stirring a pot of oatmeal as the sunlight filtered through the small kitchen window. The scent of burnt toast and overcooked eggs hung in the air, but neither of them seemed to matter anymore. The house smelled faintly of old memories—memories that Sky couldn't quite place, but she knew they were slipping away, dissolving in the tension that filled every room.

Sky sat at the dining table, phone in hand, earbuds snugly in place, trying her best to drown out the noise of the house. She scrolled through endless posts, mindlessly tapping at her screen, anything to avoid the reality of it all—the suffocating atmosphere, the harsh words flying across the house, the cold air that had settled in between her and everyone she used to love.

"Sky, can you fetch your brother for breakfast?" Haelin called out from the kitchen, her voice soft but worn out, the kind that was always tired these days.

Sky sighed without taking the earbuds out, not even bothering to look up from her phone. "Ugh, Mom, why me?" she groaned, her voice thick with frustration. "Can't you just call him? He can walk."

Her mother's response was predictable. "Sky, you know Miles can't speak and he's not like other kids—"

What the hell is he then? Other kids have a nose, so does Miles. They have ears, so does he. They have a voice, but... Miles doesn't.

"Yeah, yeah, Mom. No need for the lecture," Sky snapped, rolling her eyes so dramatically that she could practically hear them scrape the back of her skull. She could already feel the words leaving her mouth before they had fully formed, a bitterness that was becoming as familiar as the creak of the floorboards beneath her feet. "I'll get him."

She yanked the earbuds out of her ears and tossed them onto the table, the cord tangling with the edge of her phone. She was already tired of this—tired of being the one to go find Miles, tired of being the one who had to carry the weight of their broken family. It had always been like this, ever since her brother's speech disorder had started to change everything. Her dad had gotten distant, cold even. Haelin, her mom, was always wrapped up in trying to "fix" Miles, obsessed with his therapy and medications, leaving Sky to fade into the background.

She stood up, dragging her feet toward the stairs. The house felt quieter than usual today, as if the walls themselves had grown tired of the endless fights. She could still hear the echoes of last night's argument between her parents, words sharp and bitter, just like every argument had been for the past six months. The shouting had bled into the silence, leaving a permanent residue in the air—a heaviness Sky couldn't explain, a heaviness that was never meant to be.

Every time she walked past the living room, she could see her father, sitting on the couch with a scowl, staring at the TV as if it held the answers to all their problems. Haelin would be in the kitchen, her back to Sky as she busied herself with something, anything, just to avoid the confrontation. But they never seemed to avoid the silence.

Sky reached the top of the stairs and paused in front of Miles's room. She could already hear the faint rustling sound from behind the door—the soft shuffle of his feet, maybe. Or maybe it was just the wind blowing through the house. She wasn't sure anymore.

"Miles!" Sky called, knocking sharply on his door. "Breakfast's ready. Mom said you have to come down."

She waited a moment, but the usual reply never came. No okay, no quiet acknowledgment. Just silence. It was always like this now. No words. No sounds. Just the thick, unspoken distance between them.

She knocked again, harder this time, her frustration bubbling over. "Miles, don't make me come in there. I swear to God, if I have to drag you out of that room—"