Hearing is a gift, and very few still enjoy it. It is strange how an aptitude can bring its own end. No organizations have reached a consensus on what triggered the incident; that disparity is not only caused by the newfound difficulty in discussion.

Some say the cacophony was a weaponized radio signal. Others debate a global conspiracy, affirming fervently that a bizarre experiment carried on by multiple governments was the cause. Most deny the supernatural, but there are very few things in this world that can explain what happened that day.

I truly believe I heard the dead in that fateful moment. The sound was factually deafening. However, I am still able to recall the cries and screams, every single one clear through the disquieting amalgamation of wails.

It was a normal day. There was nothing special about it. And there shouldn’t have been. My steps were tired through the city, careful of the crowds around me. When the cacophony struck, no one was ready for it. It came unannounced and without buildup. Like a deadly rupture, it hit the whole world.

Billions of cries and yells surged through the air all around the living. They were uncountable, but clearly human. No person near me was the source of such laments, but we all heard it anyway. We could not see them, but it was like if a myriad of souls stood right there by us, expressing all the sorrows and aches they had suffered through the ages.

We were only able to hear the cacophony for an instant. The ones who did not stand behind the frail security of a wall dropped to the ground, ears bleeding. Multiple cars crashed when their drivers were stunned. Glass shattered in every corner. Even the buildings seemed to twist and tremble. People traveling in planes were mostly unscathed, but the landings were not easy.

It lasted for a minute, but it was enough to scar the whole world for at least a century. We did not know it had ended due to our newfound disabilities… and perhaps the suffering had only started. No one could come to the rescue of the wounded, not when everyone had heard it. There were no blares from ambulances or the sound of policemen rushing to the scene. In every single corner of the world, any person that had lived howled, all at once, no matter the timeframe. There is no way for me to make justice to that sound.

The dead claimed uncountable lives that day. I wonder if it was a conscious act or merely an accidental echo. Were they mourning what had become of their former homelands? Or perhaps worse, an event that is to erase us in the upcoming future? I will never know or understand. That scares me; I will not be able to hear my own screams.