Era of Madness

Noises

While John was consoling the little android, without them knowing it, Erica had been listening all along, she didn't miss a single bit of their conversation.

In fact, had she tried, she would've been completely unable not to listen to him. Because she could hear everything.

All the time, she heard everything that everyone said, again and again. More than this, she heard every little noise around her.

Finally taking a break, Erica switched the spatial ship's commands to the auto-pilotage, and started walking in the relatively long corridor leading to her room. On her way, she didn't meet anyone and, at first glance, it seemed as if the corridor was plunged in complete silence, the only exception being the slight sound of her steps.

But to Erica, there was no silence, everything around her was noisy, and prevented her from having the slightest bit of peace. The sound of the mechanisms of the ship, constantly working, the comforting words of John and the cries of Penny, their breath... more than that, even the infinitesimal sound of their hair moving, their heartbeat, Erica could hear everything.

When they were talking, she couldn't always understand everything people said and yet, she could hear even the slightest aspect of the slightest sound coming out of their mouth, just as well as from the rest of their bodies, and from everything else.

These sounds... no, those noises, she hated it. She hated those noises. Those damn noises that never let her have peace... NOISES, NOISES, NOISES, NOISES AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, ALWAYS THOSE DAMN NOISES.

Keeping a straight face, Erica kept walking, maintaining the same pace, despite how much she just wanted to scream to try covering the noises. She knew that anyway, it would have been useless as even her own breathing, steps and heartbeats were unsuffurable to her.

Distracted, she tripped and fell on the floor with a loud thud. She tried getting up, but fell back on the floor right away.

'Oh. Look like I twisted my ankle' she observed after a quick inspection.

How annoying. Falling another time because she didn't realize she was hurt.

Without any emotion about it, she put her ankle back in the right position, not even flinching at the audible crack. It was just one more annoying noise anyway. Ignoring the pain, she got up and walked the remaining distance separating her from her room. She entered and closed the door behind her, before walking to her bathroom.

She positionned herself in front of the imposant mirror beside the shower, and took out a desinfectant and a compress to take care of her ankle. That done, she examinated her face in the mirror, and slight annoyance crossed her mind. It must've been when she twisted her ankle, her body likely reacted from pain without her realizing it: her usual smile had slipped off her face.

"Come on 'Erica', why don't you smile?" she told her reflexion in the mirror. "You got to experience more than just those horrible noises all day long, so you should be happy about it, right?"

Yes. She could always use her mutant ability to take off other's senses, including hearing, but it wasn't the case for her own senses. But now, at least, even if she still couldn't do anything about it, she could still use her other senses to apreciate life. Smelling the perfum of flowers, tasting delicious food, feeling the fresh air caressing her skin, seeing so much interesting paysages, all of it shoud've already made her happy, right?

"Come on Erica, smile" she told herself again, with a blank voice.

Her lips twitched and moved into a smile, but not as bright as her usual one.

"No, that's still not it... maybe I need to understand how it works better?"

She broke off a small piece of the mirror, and pierced through her hand with it. Blood flowed from the small wound, falling on the white tiled floor of the ship. Her face twitched slightly, but that was it.

Yes, she could see, smell, taste and touch. But so what? Because she was hearing those noises all the time, she could never truly appreciate it. With the finger of her other hand, she slightly touched the wound. A drop of blood sticked to her fingertip. She brung it to her mouth, and vaguely had the salty taste of blood on her tongue.

But could she... truly feel it?

Yes. Vaguely. But no matter what it was, be it bad or good, she could never fully experience it. Because all she could ever focus on completely were the noises. Always those.

"Why am I the only one who can't appreciate life, no matter how good it is?"

But eventually, it'd all come to nothing as long as the noises were there. She would never be able to enjoy patting a dog's soft fur, eating a nice lemon ice cream, breathing the steam of a freshly baken pie or looking at a magnificent sunlight from a cliff. Because no matter what, everything would keep making noises, and no matter how much she wanted to ignore it, they'd always be what her mind focused on.

"Why can the others do? Those stupids, arrogant, greedy power-hungry bastards, why do they get to appreciate everything while I can't?"

Yes, humans... out of everything, they were the worst. Always making different and new noises, always screaming, talking, breathing... just hearing their heart beat made Erica want to rip it out.

Why. Could. They. Enjoy. It. And. Not. Her? And why were they so bent on making her suffer even more than the rest of this world with their constant meaningless voices? Out of every sound, every noise that had tortured Erica her whole life, nothing was near as bad as human voices.

Humans, humans, humans, HUMANS, HUMANS, HUMANS HUMANS HUMANS, WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST ALL DIE AND DISAPPEAR ALREADY. DIE, DIE, ALL OF THEM AND TO THE LAST. SHE HATED THEM SO MUCH. WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST DIE AND LEAVE HER AT PEACE?

'I hate them. I hate them. I hate them so much' she thought while still trying to smile as she usually did.

 If a millisecond represented the hatred Tyler bare toward Melia until her death, then every millisecond she went through during her entire life additionned would still not amount to the hatred she felt toward them. Not even a tenth, not even a hundredth, not even a thousandth or a millionth of it.

Erica hated humans. She hated them. Hated them so much, so much, SO MUCH, she came to regret that death was the worse she could inflict to them.

"No, of course that's not what I think" she said to her mirror. "Tyler and John are funny. Penny is cute. Cifer is a great organization that fights against the Paradise Council for justice. There's plenty of people I truly appreciate. I don't hate them. I don't hate them. I love them!"

She liked them. She loved them. Really, really did. It was the only thing she could truly focus on despise the noises.

But at the same time, she hated them so, SO MUCH.

"Oh, I can also do this, of course!" she realized.

She first took the glass shard out of her injured hand, before bandaging it. After that, with the thumb and index of her injured hand, she graed the corner of her lips, and slowly lifted them upward, until her face once again adorned her usual smile.

"That's better" she said with her playful voice as she examinated her face. "Now, I can just take a nap, and after it I'll go help john consoling Penny"

She got in her bed, closed her eyes and let her consciousness fade, even though she knew she wouldn't be able to relaxe, even in her sleep.