The Silenced

It was around 9:00 p.m. and I was walking home after work when all the animals in the neighbourhood started making noises at the same time. It was strange. When I arrived home, my dog, Lucifer, and my cat, Lilith, were also doing the same. They were running up and down while barking and meowing. I tried to get them to stop, but Lucifer growled and Lilith hissed at me. I backed off, confused. They never behaved like that before. I wondered what was going on.

An hour passed before the two of them finally stopped making noises. Oddly enough, the entire neighbourhood went silent at the exact same time. I wondered whether it was something only animals heard. By midnight, I was in bed and quickly drifted off, but I was awakened again at 3:00 a.m. by the animals in the neighbourhood going wild once more. I put on my noise-cancelling headphones and got back in bed.

This strange phenomenon happened three days in a row. People in the town thought it was either witchcraft or a demonic presence. I never stuck around to get dragged into those conversations. A lot of older folk took those conversations too far and accused people they already had issues with. But in the coming days, things became stranger. Suddenly, all the animals in the town wouldn’t make a noise. Not a hum. Lucifer and Lilith were the same.

A week later, people in the neighbourhood started to lose their voices. Within days, the whole town was dumb. Everyone except me. What was happening? Why was it that only I could speak? I pretended to be dumb just like the others to avoid suspicion, but I decided to call my grandmother and ask for help. Grandma believed in the supernatural, so I thought it was best she examined the situation. I wasn’t a believer myself, but with what had unfolded before me, I was questioning reality itself.

When she arrived, Grandma checked Lucifer and Lilith. “They are both bewitched. I fear it’s the same for all the animals here.”

“Bewitched?”

“Yes, he seems to be under a spell. A witch is acting remotely, probably because she doesn’t know who the witch in this town is and cannot gauge whether her powers are superior to hers or not. She already knows I’m here, but alone, I’m hardly a threat at this age.”

I was confused. “What are you talking about?”

“We’re from a long line of witches. Your mom didn’t inherit our family’s witch powers, but you did. However, she asked me to seal them since it would have only drawn unwanted attention and she wouldn’t have been able to protect you.”

“But how does this witch know of my presence?”

“Your powers have grown stronger than I expected. That seal might hold only for another year or so.”

Grandma said she wanted to unseal my powers when I turned 18, but Mom had told her to wait until I was done with college. I wished Mom was here now to see me use them for the first time. Grandma pulled up a spell from her grimoire and said we should act fast since the witch would be alerted of my presence as soon as she removed the seal.

The second she did, Lilith started growling. Grandma and I turned around to find a shadow seeping through her body; it began to swirl upwards in a whirlwind of dark magic, quickly taking humanoid form with flaming amber eyes. Grandma and I began our spell, repelling the witch’s spiritual presence. The air around us grew cold. Everything was soon covered in frost as the witch resisted, but she could not hold her enshadowed form for long. Grandma and I forced her up against the wall and switched to a second spell—one to seal her powers permanently.

The battle waged for another minute and a half before the storm that raged in the living room finally ceased. The witch was defeated. Lucifer and Lilith were immediately back to normal and barking and meowing like they usually did. All the other animals in the neighbourhood also returned to normal, and everyone in town soon regained their speech as well. Grandma stayed over for another two weeks and helped me learn several spells. We made plans to meet every weekend to continue my training.