Chapter 4: Chapter 3: They Heard

10:30am.

Ajax and Shaula are in the middle of their English final exam, both of them sitting in the back of the class. Ms. Christa Rowfield, their English teacher, walks among the rows of desks, ensuring that the students can ask her questions about the exam if needed. She is a short, thin woman with glasses, wearing jeans and a lavender blouse, teaching English for her third year. The students find her to be a very dedicated teacher, far more than they’ve come to expect from English class. Her enthusiasm for the written word is palpable and her teaching style is well appreciated. There are two students in the class that stand out to her. One of them is Ajax Leonid and the other is Shaula Seikennith. Ajax is quite diligent, inquisitive, and intelligent, a top grade student that deserves to ace this exam. Shaula is straightforward, reserved, and handles her assignments with elegance and ease. Christa looks over towards the two of them. Ajax is working hard on his part of the test while Shaula has already finished, it would seem.

Ajax is finding the exam to be easier than he realized as he is almost 90% completed with it. There should be no problems with securing a decent grade that will let him remain in Lower Dietrich. The psychic burden has been graciously lifted. A slight smile forms on his face. The person sitting to his left with her right hand holding up her chin in boredom, Shaula, notices him relaxing. She can see his smile in her periphery. While the teacher has already turned away from their area, her eyes move to see the look on Ajax’s face. She works hard to hold back her laughter. He was so stupidly worried over nothing; the stress had been eating away at him the few days prior. English was always an odd subject for him, much more subjective than Calculus or Physics. Of course, Shaula feels that English is just as objective and ‘easy’ if you can figure out the little tricks to it. She has already completed the test twenty minutes ago but rather than raising attention to herself by handing it in, she’s waiting until more people start to finish.

In every single one of her classes, Shaula is the top student. But she isn’t good with being seen as a top student, the less attention on her life the better. Luckily, at Anne Bond, the Valedictorian position isn’t simply the best of the students. It is someone who is both academically gifted, places their name in the running, and accepts that responsibility. She would absolutely hate it if she were put on the spot at their high school graduation ceremony. She’s terrible at giving speeches. Her face twists into annoyance at the thought of having to give a speech in front of this school in particular. She is either merely tolerant of or openly hostile towards most of the people that go here, including the teachers. The school may be prestigious but the people here are just annoying. There are a lot of career track keeners who see this school as a pitstop on their way to eventually climbing up the ranks of tech companies. There are also a number of entitled little shits with rich parents who control who can become student board members. Then, there are the social strivers who have no problem with throwing people in out groups under the bus. The teachers are okay for the most part, except for the few creeps who have no problem making inappropriate comments to girls with her figure. There are definitely a few teachers she’s thought of stabbing repeatedly.

Hm?

Shaula hears something odd as she contemplates how she would execute three of her math and science teachers. She turns her head left and right to see if she can pinpoint a source for the sound. She can tell that nobody else has noticed it as none of the students in front of her are showing reactions. Even Ajax next to her has no reaction. Although, he is quite focused on one of the test questions right now; he’s writing as if he received inspiration from a divine muse. That initially quiet sound is becoming clearer and clearer to Shaula. It is a number of overlapping whispers made by multiple people speaking at different registers. Are there actually multiple people speaking or is it more like one voice duplicated in different octaves and spliced together? Shaula listens for words, anything recognizable but the language being spoken is unknown to her. It almost doesn’t sound like a person talking but she can recognize different syllables and inflections. Someone is definitely speaking in ‘sentences’. It’s getting louder.

As the whispers grow in intensity, Shaula continues to look around for who could be speaking or generating these voices. It doesn’t sound like someone is speaking into the school announcement speaker. It isn’t coming from the windows. It feels like it is coming from all around her. She starts to get more and more confused that nobody else hears it or acknowledges it. Nobody is touching their ears, scrunching up their face at the creepy whispering, or giving any body language cues. There is still no reaction from even Ms. Rowfield who is currently at a student’s desk three rows up answering a question. Shaula tries to cover her right ear. After a few seconds, she freezes in shock. Now, she feels truly unsettled. She places both hands over her ears in an attempt to muffle the whispers. Her eyes start trembling. No matter how she tries to cover her ears, the whispers aren’t being drowned out. Putting this fact and the fact that no one else seems to notice the whispers, she can only think that the whispers aren't a real phenomenon. It must be something happening only in her head. Shaula closes her eyes as her face twists into fear.

No… No, no, no! Wait. Wait. How can… This shouldn’t be possible! I was… I was getting help for–

Shaula thinks about the worst case scenario: a possible psychotic break from reality happening during her English class and in front of her best friend and fellow backbiting classmates. However, she notices something that makes her immediately stop this train of thought. She hears Ajax stop writing. She looks over at him and notices him start to look around as well. He turns his head to look towards the classroom announcement speaker at a corner of the classroom’s ceiling. She sees his face becoming annoyed. He hears it. She is certain that he hears it too. He’s also trying to find where the voices are coming from and just like her, he cannot seem to find the origin. He’s the only other person in the classroom that seems to acknowledge that there is a weird sound of someone speaking from seemingly no clear origin. But now, it is clear to Shaula that this is not something that is happening only in her head. This is happening in reality. Only she and Ajax can hear this. The possible ramifications of this fact make her feel even more unsettled.

Unknown to the two of them, this voice is a signal that is being transmitted directly to their waking minds, to be perceived by the parts of their brains that can process external sound into something intelligible. The reason they aren’t able to understand the language of the being transmitting the signal is because the being who is speaking cannot be understood by Ajax and Shaula while the two of them are in a wakeful state. It is the nature of the soul to be more free and attuned with its true self while in the dreamworld rather than in waking reality. The soul is chained by the physical laws governing the human brain, a purely physical construct. The chains of the soul are loosened during sleep as dreams bridge the gap between the physical and the spiritual. During wakefulness, physical reality binds the soul under ‘illusion’: the illusion that the soul is a manifestation of the purely physical machine, the brain, rather than an existence in itself. This is why Ajax and Shaula are unable to comprehend the words of their Father right now, even though they could hear and understand His words while they were dreaming. Those whispers speaking directly to the soul rather than manifesting in physical reality are setting the stage for the end of their lives in this world. The voice of the Divine Limit, the most powerful being in the universe, is capable of shaping reality through words alone. The results will become obvious soon.

Ajax groans. The words of his Father are now getting loud enough to cause him to feel a headache coming on. Christa Rowfield turns from the student she’s helping to see Ajax hold his forehead in pain. Shaula is looking at him in worry. He is also sweating buckets; to Christa he appears to be sick with the flu. She can only think that this is quite unlucky for him. Some of the other students turn briefly towards Ajax after hearing him groan. They notice that he is in pain and perspiring. They can see that Ms. Rowfield is aware of his current condition as well, so they turn back to their own test papers. Whatever is going on with Ajax, she will deal with him. Christa walks discreetly towards Ajax’s table. He is one of her brightest students, he wouldn’t make up excuses or try to weasel his way out of a difficult test. She assumes that he would want to be taken to the nurse’s station. Although it’s a shame to stop now while there’s still a little over a half hour left, he can still do a make up exam at a later date. Ajax looks up to see that Ms. Rowfield has approached him. He can see that she isn’t reacting at all to the voice that is currently drowning out everything else in the room; she is only looking towards him with concern for his well-being. He looks quickly at the other students and sees that none of them are reacting either.

Whatever he’s hearing, it isn’t something that anyone else can hear. If it were just a weird noise, he might have assumed it was something like tinnitus. But, he can clearly hear sentences and words being spoken through the voice. The voice itself feels familiar to him as well even though he doesn’t exactly know why. Unknown to Ajax, the reason he finds the voice familiar is that this is the voice he heard in his dream last night, the dream that he has already forgotten about for the most part. As the voice continues to grow louder, Ms. Rowfield starts to speak.

“Ajax, don’t worry about the test, you can leave the classroom for the nurse’s station. I’ll come and check in on you after I’m done here. Do you need Shaula to take you? You can hand in your test, Shaula, I can tell you’re already done with it anyways.”

Christa speaks to Ajax in an understanding manner and looks towards Shaula. However, she notices that Shaula also has a poor expression on her face. Christa can see beads of sweat dripping down her forehead onto the test paper she’s holding. Shaula is clearly in some sort of distress or pain. Shaula slowly hands over the test to Christa while continuing to stare directly at Ajax. Her eyes are trembling.

“Shaula–” As Christa tries to ask Shaula what’s wrong, Ajax interrupts her in a halting manner. 

“Ms. Rowfield… uh… do– do you not…” Ajax doesn’t finish his sentence however, he instead quickly closes his eyes as the headache he is feeling starts to get worse. Until now, the voice while loud and blaring in Ajax’s ear had a whisper quality to it. However, the voice isn’t whispering anymore. The fact that it is now even clearer for him to hear only increases his pain. It is loud enough to make Ajax think that his ears should be bleeding and its clarity as a true voice adds an incomprehensible psychic damage. He cannot hear anything around him anymore. 

“Ah. Ahhh… AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

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Ajax starts screaming at the immense pressure on his mind. All of the students in the class turn away from their test papers to see what’s going on. They see Ajax leaning hard against his table while desperately clutching his ears, trying in vain to muffle what he is hearing. He opens his eyes and they can see that his eyes are bloodshot. He is currently in the middle of some kind of panic attack or seizure or something, the students cannot make any guesses. Dumbfounded, Christa backs away from the two of them while Shaula reaches out her hand to see if there’s anything she can do to help Ajax. However, she’s hearing the same intense voice and feels the same amount of pain accompanying it. Shaula grits her teeth and holds in her screams as she sees Ajax in deep distress. Tears stream down her cheeks at the intensity of the voice. She continues to reach out to him but realizes that it is futile to try and force him to calm down. So instead, while unable to hear her own voice, Shaula shouts to Christa.

“M– MISS… MISS ROWFIELD, CALL… AAHHHH… CALL AN AMBULANCE! HOW… CAN YOU NOT HEA–”

Christa, finally snapping out of her daze, runs towards the landline attached to the nearby wall of the classroom but stops as she looks towards Ajax and Shaula. Something has changed in Ajax and Shaula’s area of the classroom. Christa doesn’t understand what she is seeing. As the two of them continue to feel intense pain, the air around them starts to shimmer. The sight is very similar to the shimmer of heat that can be seen around the exhaust pipe of a bus on a hot summer day. The mirage effect covers Ajax and Shaula specifically, not just the area where their desks are. An optical shroud forms that obscures their bodies. Christa reaches the phone and tries to call for an ambulance. She starts inputting numbers when all of a sudden the lights in the classroom shut off.

“Hello? Hello!?” She doesn’t even hear the dial tone, the phone is completely dead. It should be connected to an emergency power source in the event of a blackout but still it’s not working.

Some of the students watching the new phenomenon accompanying Ajax and Shaula scream at the sudden power outage. Others who are a little more prepared immediately run towards their backpacks containing their phones, placed at the front of the class during the exam. They want to either call emergency services or take video of Ajax and Shaula. Christa also runs towards her desk where she kept her own phone, but finds that her phone is turned off. She tries hard to turn it on but she cannot. It should have been at 90% when she left her home in the morning, it doesn’t make sense.

Shit!

“M-My phone won’t turn on! What the hell is happening?”

“Mine too! What about you, Kate?”

“Fuck! It should be at least 60%, how can it not turn on? I only bought it last month! Did all our phones fucking break!?”

Christa looks towards the students who are holding their phones right now. They also seem unable to turn their own phones on as well. All she can think right now is that whatever caused the sudden blackout wiped out their devices too. She looks back towards Ajax and Shaula. The two of them are the center of all this; she wonders if the blackout actually had something to do with them as well. It is unbelievable, she wouldn’t have believed it if she wasn’t in the room right now with them. The shimmering air is harder to see at this point because of the sudden darkness in the room and the curtains being closed. However, the air that was shimmering has also changed. It now starts to glow in a somewhat sickly looking rainbow pattern. It looks a bit like the refractive rainbow patterns that form in puddles of industrial runoff, manifesting on the surface of the shimmering air.

Some of the students head out the door in order to escape this unknown and potentially dangerous scene. Christa and a few of the students move to open the curtains so they can have a clearer view of what’s happening to Ajax and Shaula. The moment new light enters the classroom the rainbow pattern is dispelled and the class can see Ajax and Shaula clearly once again.

“Ms. Rowfield, what’s… what’s happening to them?”

“I don’t know, Jonathan, I seriously have no idea. I-I just thought they were sick, but all of this freaky nonsense starts happening too! We need to get them to a hos–”

“Wait, look! T-They’re…!”

Ajax and Shaula stop screaming. They slowly open their eyes and raise their heads. The voice is gone now; the intensity crescendoed until stopping suddenly. It sounded like the end of the speech to them. Both of them feel weak and their heads still ache, but they aren’t in the intense pain they were in earlier. The two of them notice that the curtains are open and that the lights have gone out for the first time. Neither of them know what to make of this situation.

They feel better. The voice is gone. It’s over; whatever this is, it’s over. The voice has indeed stopped. After all, the magic can truly start only after the incantation is concluded.

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