My ears went numb.
It felt as if I had plunged deep underwater, every sound reaching me half a beat late.
I trembled and clutched my ears.
Warm liquid seeped through my fingers. Blood.
"…Shit. What the hell is this?"
Yet the world before my eyes was unchanged.
A man walking his dog along the river tugged at the leash.
An old man folded his newspaper and stretched.
A woman jogging wiped sweat from her brow, earbuds still in.
…Was it only me?
I pulled out my phone and dialed my brother.
Harsh breathing answered on the other end.
"Hey? Why do you sound out of breath? Were you running?"
"Didn't you hear it? Just now—up in the sky, that voice. You really didn't hear it?"
A pause. Then a small laugh.
"Not this again, bro. Hallucinations. Please, just see a doctor."
"…Hallucinations? You think I've lost my mind?"
"If nobody else hears it, and you're the only one—what else could it be but a delusion?"
My chest throbbed. I nearly screamed into the phone.
"You bastard! I'm a scientist too! I heard it!"
A sigh. Then the line went dead with a click.
I knelt on the ground, clutching my phone.
Breath caught in my throat.
⸻
That evening, every news broadcast carried the same story.
"Some citizens claim to have heard voices from the sky today."
"Experts explain it as auditory hallucinations triggered by mass stress."
"The government has announced strict measures against the spread of false information."
The anchor's calm voice filled the screen.
The words [HOAX], [FAKE NEWS], [PSYOPS] flashed in bold beneath.
On social media, posts flooded in from both sides.
'I heard it too. Blood poured from my ears.'
'Lies. Fabrications by lunatics.'
A few photos surfaced, but they were quickly dismissed as "doctored."
The comment sections brimmed with curses.
I shut off the computer and leaned back in my chair.
My heart was still hammering.
"…Hallucinations? No. It was real."
⸻
Night fell.
The city still glittered with neon, but unease lingered on people's faces.
At one end of the square, a crowd held candles in prayer.
At the other, protesters shouted with placards reading "Arrest the Hoax Spreaders!"
One space, two different cries.
From under a bridge came the sounds of fists and screams.
"You lying bastard! You spread that rumor, didn't you?"
"You faked those photos, you piece of shit!"
Screams and curses bled together.
People denied their fear by making a greater fear.
I looked out the window.
Ash-gray clouds pressed low.
No stars—only a faint black fissure trembling above.
And then—
From that fissure, a voice seeped down.
"You will now vanish, wailing."
I clamped my ears shut.
But the sound pierced not the eardrums, but my skull itself.
"…Stop. Please, stop!"
I slammed my head against the wall and screamed.
But the resonance grew sharper, clearer.
"Wail. That is the only answer."
My breath came ragged, on the verge of collapse.
Grinding my teeth, I whispered to myself.
"…It's not a hallucination. The real thing is coming."
⸻
The next day at noon.
Sunlight faltered.
The air twisted.
And then—
A sound that split the world itself crashed down from the sky.