Years of Silence

Prologue

My name is Klarissa Jamison. I live in a world of silence. Trust me, you have no idea what silence is. You automatically think peace and quiet, because that's what you've always been told. You think it's peaceful. But it isn't. Growing up, you get used to the birds singing, or the sound of you dropping something, or listening to music. I can't do any of these things any more. I'm silent.

You see, there's a day in our year. The day there's no work, no school, no anything. May 26. Anyone born before May 26, 2012, has been since called a Perseverant, and anyone after a Fathomed. I'm a Perseverant, one of many, but also one of what could have been so many more. Too many people were lost on that day. Some went crazy from the silence, and some were taken by the Hazmats for breaking the rules that were built for an empire. You'll learn more about them later. They've become as much a part of our society as the silence did.

I was ten years old. Sitting in my room with my twin brother, playing cards, I didn't have a care in the world. My brother always wins in cards because he's profoundly smarter than me. We were playing spoons, which was the one game I could beat him at because I read his emotions a lot better than he could read mine.

I looked up slightly to see Bastien sitting on the end of my bed, staring at his cards. He wasn't making a move to pick up a single card, but I could still see him moving his hand. I reached out, grabbed to spoon, and held it up. "Bastien, show me your cards." He set down his hand, revealing four kings. I smiled, waving the spoon around. "I win again. How many is that now, Bast? Isn't it fourteen?" He smirked at me with an overly brotherly 'you know I win at everything else' type of look. Suddenly he frowned and leaned towards me. "Klare, your eyes look really weird. What's up?" I frowned, and set my cards down on the bed, getting up to go to the bathroom.

I looked in the bathroom mirror, frowning. There was a violet ring around my normally green irises. "Bast, come in here." He walked into the bathroom next to me to look into the mirror next to me. I turned to look at his eyes. His eyes were their normal grass green colour, but mine were rimmed in a startling violet.

Bastien grabbed my arm, pulling me out of the bathroom, and into the living room, where our parents, siblings, and our aunt were sitting, watching the news. There was a strange thing happening, all over the planet. News shows were going up in static, their programs lost. Suddenly, the TV went dark. Immediately after it did, I felt an acute ringing in my head, ripping my brain apart. I screamed, as loud as I could, so I couldn't hear anything else, except for the ringing and Bastien. Ever since we were kids, Bastien felt the same pain as me. I couldn't help thinking of him as the pain tore me to shreds. The next thing I knew, the pain lessened, but the screaming didn't. I felt myself stop screaming, but I could feel Bastien next to me, screaming. I looked around. My mother and father covered each other's ears, but even they realized it was inside all our heads. My aunt was the only one not screaming. She sat in her chair, with tears streaming down her face, muttering things I didn't understand. I crawled over to Bastien, and right as I got to him, he collapsed, breathing hard, onto the floor. I could tell the ringing stopped for him as well.

As soon as the ringing stopped, Hazmats started invading our house. They have monitored us carefully, since then, although we didn't know who they were at that point. When they walked through our door, they grabbed my aunt, dragging her away. My aunt finally opened her mouth as they tried to take her away. Her scream was the last thing I heard the ringing because seconds later, my world went silent.