11:11 PM. Tokyo, Japan. An abandoned apartment.
The air was silent.
Too silent.
No cars. No birds. No breathing.
In the middle of the room: Table 2.
White. Blue rim. Cracked down the middle.
4 chairs. All empty.
On the table: 4 notebooks. Covered in dust.
And around it: The Void.
A shadow with no mouth.
Because it ate all sound.
Fritz: whispering "I can’t hear my own voice."
Miri: tried to play piano. No sound came out.
Alex: strummed guitar. Silence.
Umi: "It ate the sound. That’s how it wins."
The book on their table vibrated:
_Table 2 Authors: Gone.
Last entry: "It took our voices.
Now it’s taking us."_
The Void turned to them. No eyes. Just a hole.
It raised a hand.
The sound of their footsteps disappeared.
Umi: "Okay new plan. If it eats sound...
we don’t use sound."
She pulled out the Pen of the Writers.
The Violin String.
The Cracked Lens.
Umi wrote on the table: We see you.
The words glowed.
The Void flinched.
Fritz held up the Lens.
Through it, they saw it:
4 small shadows trapped inside The Void’s chest.
The missing Tokyo Authors.
Miri took the String and plucked it.
No sound. But vibration.
The table shook.
The 4 notebooks flipped open.
Alex grabbed a guitar pick and started drawing music on paper.
Notes. Chords. Lyrics.
Visual sound.
The 4 trapped shadows in The Void’s chest started moving.
One of them wrote in their notebook:
It can’t eat what we make together.
Umi: understood. "Together."
All 4 of The Authors put their hands on Table 2.
Umi wrote: You are not alone.
Miri drew: A song
Alex drew: A melody
Fritz drew: A photo of 4 people at a table
Table 2 glowed. Blue light.
The crack sealed.
The Void screamed. No sound came out.
It clutched its chest.
The 4 shadows flew out.
Real people. Breathing. Crying.
The Void collapsed into silence and vanished.
Silence returned. But different.
Full.
The 4 Tokyo Authors stood. Shaking.
Leader: a girl with short hair.
She wrote on a paper and held it up:
"Thank you. You gave us back our voices."
A 10th chair appeared at The Authors’ table in Salem.
Across the world.
The Book: _Table 2: Saved.
2 Tables Left: São Paulo, Lagos._
The Tokyo girl bowed.
Then smiled. For the first time in months.