It was getting late. Gabby had been sitting up in her “cave,” as her parents and friends liked to call it, since she had gotten back from volley ball practice. People often made fun of her for keeping herself up in her room, as if she couldn’t come out if she wanted to. What people just didn’t understand is that her room wasn’t a cell, or a prison that kept her away from the world, but it was rather a sanctuary from her otherwise chaotic and hectic life. On a normal day she was up and going at five in the morning and usually didn’t get home tell roughly twelve hours later. Take away another hour for dinner and another for chores and homework, that didn’t leave much room for Gabby time. So it was only understandable that the only time Gabby did have to herself would be time that she could spend with herself. Some good solid reflective, creative outlet time just reserved for “me, myself and I,” as she sometimes told herself.*
*
It had been a warmer than usual sunny Wednesday afternoon. An extremely busy- but not bad- day in the life of an above average, over achieving high schooler. School had been good, no pop quizzes or anything, she had made some funny jokes in Ms. Kelen’s class, volley ball had been productive (she was really starting to get that serve down) and Gabby had finally gotten started on her campus clean up committee.*She had had to drive several of the lower classmen volley ball girls home, and her homework had taken much longer than was necessary, plus her parents had kept barging in asking for her to do this or that, yet she still did it all with minimal grumbling. After a quick power nap, she had just gotten started on some new paintings for her art class when she noticed the time. Wow, eight o clock already. Time really flew when you were having….what? Fun? Gabby didn’t know if that was exactly what she would call it, but either way, the time had gone by quick. She was babysitting one of her five siblings on this weekday afternoon, and she became aware of something that wasn’t there to be noticed. She couldn’t recall the last time she had heard the customary bumps, thuds and or general noise making that came from her brother. Turning down her music, which had been at a level that some might criticize was too loud but was exactly how Gabby liked it thank you very much, she paused to listen.

All she heard was silence.

Curious as she was, Gabby was still too lazy to go downstairs to take a look. Her senses had been heightened though; she was now aware of the stillness of the house and how it seemed to creep in from all sides and soak into her being. The house was covered in a blanket of hush that was slightly unnerving to Gabby, even at this time of the day. Actually, when she thought about it, there was nothing calming or relaxing about this time of day on any regular day, unnerving silence or not. Twilight: a time where things seemed to be, in between, not really there. Gabby had never cared for it.
Bothered by the perpetual silence, she went to turn her music up. But when she turned the master volume knob a small tick to the right, nothing happened. Gabby tried to move it a little more, and still, nothing happened.

A little more? She tired, and nothing.

Frustrated now, Gabby went all out turning the knob as high as it could go. And still nothing but more silence emanated from her surrounds sound speakers. Ok, it’s not like this hasn’t happened before Gabby told herself. Her computer was old; it actually had a modem, believe it or not, so the sound system was all screwy. She had made the promise a long time ago that as soon as she moved out she would get a better sound system. She clicked on the little microphone that would allow her to adjust the volume via desktop, only to find to her somewhat puzzlement, the volume was already set as high as it could go. Determined to get to the bottom of this, she clicked over on her iTunes to see if that volume was all the way down. There was a small part of her that wasn’t surprised to see that that volume, also, was at max level. But that small part of her wasn’t allowed to be recognized by the bigger part of her, and was pushed back into the deepest recesses of her mind where it so often pushed unwanted thoughts back too. She moved the volume up and down, confused. The page told her that the song was playing…the little bar that showed you what time of the song you are at moved each second just like it was supposed to, yet, no sound. Gabby crawled down underneath her desk and fiddled with some of the chords that belonged to her speakers; she unplugged and replugged each and every chord back behind her desk, but apparently to no avail. She sat and stared at the screen for a moment. Trying to figure out what the problem was. She reclicked on the microphone icon on her desktop to check that volume again. Funny, she mused how one piece of technology can have so many different ways to adjust the sound and not one of them works. She paused for a moment, and looked down at the little volume tab that had popped up when she clicked on the icon. The green bar that rose and fell to the rhythm of the music was all the way to the top and holding steady by the looks of it. Intrigued, she clicked back to iTunes and checked her music. The play list was over, and no song was playing at the moment. Even if her sound was functioning normally, the little green bar should have been non existent. She clicked on a song and it started to “play” although no sound came, and she checked the green bar. Still all the way to the top. She paused the song. Green bar was still holding on strong.

Utterly confused and a little creeped out, she decided to give up on the hopeless technology and wait until Dad got home. Hopefully he’d be able to fix it. But she just had to do something about this silence, or she thought she would kill herself.
*
She descended the stairs to the main floor of her house, but she didn’t notice the way the stairs didn’t creak how they usually did, or the way that when she slammed open the door at the bottom of the stairs it made no noise whatsoever. She wasn’t aware that her pulse had quickened, or that a single bead of sweat was beginning to form on her forehead. 
After pulling back the piano bench as far back as she could in the cramped space the piano was in behind the couch, she wriggled herself into position as she had done so many times before. She pulled her favorite Disney song book onto of the piano and started leafing through the pages, looking for the new song she had recently perfected.

The absence of the noise of rustling paper passed her notice just like the lack of creaking stairs.

Placing the book on the stand and creasing the paper to make sure it would stay on the correct page; she put her foot on the pedal and prepared herself. A small smile crept its way onto her lips; she could just imagine the enchanting sound of the old style piano filling the house with its warm melodies. She placed her fingers in the positions she had memorized so well, and so quickly, closed her eyes, and began to play.

It took her a moment of playing to realize that no sound was being made. 
Her fingers stopped. 
Eyes opened. 
Chills ran down her spine as her blood ran cold.

She looked down at her fingers, at the keys. Expectantly she formed a c major, hoping maybe actually seeing the music being made would some how bring the sounds to life.
More silence.

Franticly, she began to make chord after chord, hit note after note. Soon she was jamming the keys down as fast as she could, here, there, however many keys her hands could touch she slammed down with ferocious force. If there were someone to look in from the window they might have seen a girl who was truly passionate about her piano playing. Someone else might have seen a mad woman. 
Yet despite her furious attempts, the piano refused to make a peep. Gabby was frightened now, she shoved herself up out of her seat, scraping her knees against the piano while doing so, but she was at a point where her mind would take the time to register the pain and listen to the nerves screaming at her to stop! She was hurting herself!
Gabby ran over to the TV and turned it on, turning the volume as loud as it could go. Nothing.
She realized that maybe! Maybe it was on the wrong selector! There were several different types of sound that could come from their high definition sound system in their family living room, and frantically she pushed the button hoping, praying, one of the different variations would work, even a fuzzy static noise would do. All she needed was just some type of noise.
Each one gave way only to further silence.

Gabby jabbed for the phone near the TV, almost knocking over a lamp in the process. She dialed her boyfriend’s number, pulled the phone to her ear and waited. When she heard no dialing noise she thought maybe the call hadn’t gone through, she looked at the screen on the phone. To her great dismay the screen showed the little clock that showed, yes, indeed you are making a call, using minutes, and will be charged for this. She put the phone up back to her ear again, and nothing.

She screamed.

A noise! At last! Gabby thought she might cry of relief, she sat down on the ottoman, crying happy tears of joy. Oh thank God! A noise! A noise! She cried out over and over. She sat there just making noises, any noise she could, laughing, crying, coughing, whooping, screaming, moaning; it all came out in a giant jumble of words and confused emotions. After a few minutes she stopped. Wiping the tears from her eyes she tried to orient herself. Calming her mind she tried to figure out what happened. She remembered she was babysitting.
Babysitting her brother! Now where was he? How on earth could he have not heard that ruckus she had made? She had a problem believing they hadn’t heard it all the way at the end of the block. She called her brothers name.

Still the silence hung in the air save for the faint ghost of an echo of her scream ringing throughout the house.

From where she was sitting, she could see the open door to her brother’s room but not much else inside. The setting sun was shining through the pane of his bedroom window so brightly it made it almost impossible to see when you looked that direction. She shielded her eyes for a moment, trying to rid herself of the bright light that now was stuck in her vision everywhere she looked. After blinking several times it went away but she was warier when she looked back again.

She stood up slowly and called her brothers name again, this time sharper. It’s not funny anymore! She scolded him. Ya like it ever was funny. He was eleven years old for Pete’s sake, he should know better.

But there was this feeling Gabby couldn’t shake. Something unnamable.

The silence of it all seemed so unreal. It seemed as ungraspable as the floating specks of dust that slowly danced through the beam of bright golden yellow light that had made its way through the dirty old window.

Cautiously she made her way towards her brother’s room; she peeked in, calling his name out. She warned him that if he tried to jump out at her, boy oh boy would he be in for it. But when she looked in, nobody was there. She walked into the middle of his room and looked around. There really wasn’t anyplace he could hide. Well accept his closet. She went over, braced herself in case of a surprise “attack” and opened the door.
The closet was empty.

She whispered her brother’s name.

Now she wished with all her heart that he was hiding and waiting to jump out at her. She ran downstairs in the basement as fast as she could, not even stopping to worry about how dark it could be, and look in every nook and cranny there was down there, calling his name out over and over. He wasn’t anywhere to be found.

She ran outside, yelling his name, calling for him to come home, I want you! I miss you! She loved him!

Her heart was racing too fast, her chest was heaving up and down as she stopped her frantic search. There was no noise.

She finally noticed that she could not hear the ever constant roar of cars on the freeway ten blocks from her house.
*
She looked in the trees, saw the wind clearly blowing their leaves, yet didn’t hear the familiar rustle of leaves she knew came with that image.

She stepped on the new pile of crunchy gold leaves that had just recently fallen from the maple in their front yard, but heard no crunch.

She picked up a rock from their front garden and threw it across the yard, but didn’t hear any thump. She picked up yet another rock, this time aimed at their family car, and threw. The didn’t even think about the consequences of throwing a ten pound rock at the precious family car, just that she wanted to hear the loud satisfying CRACK! Of the window as it was smashed open.

Time seemed to move forward in slow motion as she watched the rock break through the window and send shards of glass flying through the air. They hit the pavement below in a sparkling cascade as the last rays of light of the day hit them in glorious splendor, but their beauty was lost on Gabby, for all she noticed, with ever growing terror, was as each piece hit the ground, there wasn't a hint of noise. Not even a tinkle.

With a blank stare of someone who is mentally lost, she stood. 
She looked to the left, and saw nothing. 
No people.
No squirrels.
Not even a butterfly making its lazy course through the early fall air.
She looked to the right and saw the same.
The cars were all here, yes. The trees were still here, the houses, the streets. But something was missing.

Gabby walked down the block and onto Broadway, the main street through her town. The only time she had ever seen it not busy, was at 3 o clock in the morning, and even then, there had been one other car on the road with her. There wasn’t a single car moving. Cars were parked along the sides of the large road, some cars stopped in the middle of the street. She walked up to the car closest to her and looked inside. All the signs that some one had been recently in this car were here. A half eaten Big Mac, a bag of fries, a large diet Coke, a purse, she even checked and saw the keys were in the ignition. But there wasn’t anyone in the car.

She went to car after car and found the same story time after time. She walked up another main road perpendicular to Broadway and made her way through the usual effervescent streets of her hometown. There wasn’t a person to be seen.
*
*
Gabby stopped in the middle of the street and she finally began to realize that she was utterly and completely alone.*
*