Hushed

Flash Fiction February (Day 6)

Feb 07, 2025

Today’s Flash Fiction February story is a prequel to my first series here on Substack, “Her Voice.” If you enjoy this piece, check out Her Voice: Chapter One to find out what happens next!

Summer sat on the couch in her pajamas, eating a bag of crinkle-cut potato chips as she flipped through the channels on the TV. She was happy to be off work, but entirely bored.

She stopped her channel-surfing on Channel Nine. She liked the anchor on the local news. Sarah Richards was her name. She was interviewing a doctor from the looks of it. The headline at the bottom of the screen read REPORTS OF NEW LINGUA DISEASE ON THE RISE.

“It’s clear based on early reports that the Lingua disease affects a person’s ability to communicate. In fact, it almost seems to overwrite their native language with something new. Is that correct?” Sarah asked.

The doctor sitting across from her nodded.

“Yes, although it would be a stretch to call the sounds they produce language. It’s more of a vector. We believe it could be a combination of frequency and pronunciation. Our early research indicates that Lingua mutates a part of the brain, specifically Broca’s area in the left hemisphere.”

Summer turned the TV off. She liked Sarah Richards, but all the fearmongering about some new disease that spreads through language sent her anxiety into overdrive. She curled the bag of chips shut and stood up, walking across the living room to the kitchen.

As she set down the half-eaten bag on the counter, her eyes wandered to the package her father had dropped off a few hours ago. A copy of Walter Prusner’s new book, Ascension: Humanity’s Future.

“Check it out, your favorite author,” her father had said when he delivered the package.

“Yeah, right,” Summer said, picking up the book. Underneath was an audio version of the book on CD.

Who the hell listens to CDs anymore?

Her dad was so old fashioned. Summer had tried to read the beginning of the book in the hopes that she could deflect any questions from her father about it, but she started getting a headache within the first few pages.

In her opinion, Walter Prusner was nothing more than a lunatic spouting nonsense about the next stage of human evolution, but her dad ate it up.

It beats being an evangelist, I suppose.

The two were far too similar for Summer’s liking. She picked up the book again as she considered giving it another try. Her eyes wandered over to the CD. She did prefer audiobooks, but had no idea where she would find a CD player.

Daniel has one in his car.

She rolled her eyes. She decided to deal with it later. She picked up her headphones off the counter and went to the bedroom to change and workout. Once she switched from PJs to sweatpants and a tank top, she jumped on the treadmill beside the bedroom window.

Summer fell into the rhythm of her afternoon run. She balanced her smartphone in her left hand, scrolling through her workout playlist. She picked an EDM track. Something with a good beat. Music like that helped the time pass easier.

A few minutes into her run, Summer caught movement in the corner of her vision. Daniel must have been home from work.

Great. Wonder what we’ll fight about this time.

He stepped into the bedroom, loosening the blue tie around his neck. His cold eyes regarded Summer with a mixture of exasperation and disgust.

What exactly do you see in him again?

He pantomimed taking headphones off and rolled his eyes. Summer obliged, removing her headphones as she felt her patience already waning.

“What?” she asked.

Daniel shrugged. “I don’t get a ‘hello’ or anything?”

“I’m in the middle of my work out!”

Daniel rubbed his face with his hand. “Whatever. What’s for dinner?”

Summer shrugged. “Hell, if I know, man, I’m just trying to enjoy my day off.”

Summer went to put her headphones back on.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Daniel asked.

“I’m going back to my workout. It’s a hell of a lot more productive than this conversation.”

Daniel took a deep breath and sighed. “Look, babe, I’m sorry.”

I’ve heard that one before.

“I’m just stressed out, okay? Work has been a lot. I don’t want to fight,” he said.

Really? You could have fooled me.

“Can I just finish my work out? We can talk after.”

Daniel nodded. “Yeah. Sure.”

Summer tried to focus on her music instead of letting him get under her skin. She was working up the courage to end things. The chemistry was gone. The flame had been snuffed out months ago. Worse, Summer was pretty sure he was already seeing one of his coworkers.

You owe yourself better than this. She kept telling herself that once the lease was up, she would end things. Clean break. She just had to hang on a few more weeks.

The timer went off as the treadmill came to a stop. Summer climbed off, still listening to her music as she walked out into the living room.

Daniel was standing over by the counter. The copy of Walter Prusner’s new book and CD were in each of his hands respectively.

Summer pulled off the headphones, her music bleeding out into the silence.

“My dad dropped those off,” she said.

“Oh wow, I wanted to check this out!” Daniel said.

Of course you would.

“It’s all yours. I’d appreciate the cliff notes. I tried reading it earlier, but the way he writes gives me a headache,” Summer said.

“Pretty ironic that a neuroscientist’s writing gives you a headache, huh?”

Summer shook her head. “Yeah, I guess.”

Daniel set the book down, still holding the CD as he plucked his phone from his pocket. Summer saw his eyes go wide.

“Oh, uh, I need to run out real quick,” he said.

Uh huh…

“Where to?” Summer asked. She enjoyed watching his brain short circuit trying to come up with an answer.

“It’s uh…a work thing. You know how it is,” he said.

You think I don’t, but I really do, bud.

“Alright, I’ll be here.”

Daniel waved the CD through the air. “Mind if I take this with me? I’ve got a CD player in the car.”

Bingo.

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Awesome, thanks babe.”

Daniel went in for a kiss, but Summer turned her cheek. She knew where those lips had been, and where they would be. Daniel looked hurt, but she didn’t care. She watched him head back out through the door into the garage and put her headphones back on.

She switched her playlist to something angry. Metal sounded good. She headed to the bathroom for a shower, only to realize she didn’t have a clean towel. She spun around and headed into the garage to grab one out of the dryer.

Daniel’s car was still there. It was running, but the garage door was shut. Summer walked up to the passenger window.

He was sitting in the driver’s seat, facing forward with a blank expression on his face. His lips were moving fast, like he was speaking, but she couldn’t hear him.

She pulled open the door and waved to him, but he didn’t respond. Her eyes wandered down to the radio. The screen was lit up with the words CD - TRACK 1.

“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked, her voice muffled by the music blasting through her headphones.

Daniel still didn’t respond. She reached up to take the headphones off when he finally turned to face her. His eyes were cloudy, his irises masked by a smoky swirl. He bared his teeth like a rabid animal and lunged at her.

She stumbled backward, catching herself on the dryer against the wall as Daniel fell face first onto the garage floor. He scrambled to his feet as Summer backpedaled towards the door leading into the house.

She reached up and checked the headphones on her head. Guttural vocals and thick guitar tracks rattled through her skull, but as soon as she saw Daniel’s lips moving inhumanly fast, it all made sense.

Lingua…

The disease she had heard about on the news. Her headphones were the only thing protecting her from being infected. She ripped open the door to the house and slammed it behind her.

She leaned against it, turning the lock on the handle as Daniel’s fists rattled the door behind her.

Summer ran to the front door, her hands shaking as she rummaged through the bowl of keys and other randomly things that had made their way into it. Her car was parked out front, she could go somewhere, anywhere.

If you need me, I’ll be at the radio station.

Her father’s words from earlier echoed in her mind. She opened the door and ran outside.

“Low battery,” a synthetic voice said, interrupting her heavy metal playlist.

Well, that’s just great.