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Chapter 1
My hobbies include putting on my pajamas as soon as I get home.
-Henley’s secret thoughts
Henley
I put the finishing touches on my turkey sandwich and was about to take the first delicious bite when the music started next door.
I stared in utter horror at the wall that separated my duplex from the one next door. It vibrated and I started running.
This could not be happening. This could not be happening. This could not be happening.
I kept chanting to myself as I ran, staring wide-eyed at the door, and then the sidewalk, followed shortly by the grass, as I rounded the small dividing fence that separated my yard from my neighbor.
I hadn’t actually met this neighbor. In fact, I hadn’t really met any of my neighbors. I worked nights, and normally when people were out during the day, I was sleeping. I didn’t bother to switch to days when I wasn’t working—what would be the point?
I was a mail sorter at the post office, and worked every night of the week, and was off on weekends.
Every night but this night.
I lived with my sister. My sister was the woman that paid the bills—at least for the duplex, seeing as it was hers.
Although I made a pretty penny at fifteen dollars an hour, I wasn’t making big money like my big sister, Alana. Alana was a nurse at the hospital and worked the night shift. When she was working, which was only three days a week, my mother watched her child.
Only, this week, my mother had the flu. Incidentally, Alana’s daughter, Autumn, gave it to her.
We had two of the four females, as well as my big brother, down for the count, and nobody else could watch Autumn but me and my sister. Since my sister had already called in three times this week, I’d told her that I would call in seeing as her shift supervisor was an asshole and liked to make everything about him.
Though, now would be the time to mention that her shift supervisor was her ex-husband. Her baby daddy. Oh, and the reason that she had the job in the first place.
Regardless, her ex should’ve understood. In fact, he should’ve fucking helped.
Did he? No. Why? Because he was a titty baby and refused to be around her when she was sick.
Which was honestly quite comical seeing as he worked at the goddamn hospital with sick patients.
The noise from the party had me almost covering my ears due to the pitch. It was so loud that I could feel it in my bones.
I was different than the majority of human population. I processed things in an uncommon way compared to everyone else.
Absentmindedly, I reached up and started to fiddle with the speech processor that was being partially hidden by my hair.
Yes, people. I was deaf without it. I was not handicapped in any way. I lived a normal life. I talked a little oddly due to my first year and a half being hearing impaired, but if I wasn’t flustered, I was able to compensate.
Now, though? I was fucking flustered.
Why? Because my niece hadn’t slept in a full fourteen hours because she’d been up with the flu. She had to sleep propped up on pillows, and she had a continuous nasal drip that really rubbed me the wrong way if I focused on it too long.
I pounded on the door, wondering if anybody would hear me at all.
Nothing happened.
I pounded again.
It was less than ten seconds later that the door was yanked open and bodies started to shuffle out.
In the scuffle of those bodies leaving, they didn’t see me standing there, and dislodged me from my spot at the front door.
Not able to think with the mass of bodies, I fell backward onto my backside, hitting hard because for some reason I was trying to protect the sandwich in my hand rather than my ass.
But whatever.
When I hit the ground, I went back onto my back and rolled partially to my side. Yes, still protecting my sandwich. This time from the bush at my back.
The moment that I rolled, my entire world went silent.
There wasn’t a single sound in the world. Not one single one.
I guess I should be thankful that by those men coming out of the house, they’d turned on the security light as they went, because now I could clearly see everything.
What kind of fucking light was that? I sure as hell didn’t have that on my part of the duplex!
I rolled up to my knees and turned around, searching for my speech processor that had somehow gotten yanked off during my fall.
Absently I took a bite of my sandwich almost out of habit seeing as it was in my hand and hummed when I found my transmitter clinging to a twig.
Snatching it up, I stood up and turned, coming face to sternum with the biggest man I’d ever seen.
