stories
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the hum<br />
The city has a tune all it’s own. The hustle<br />
and bustle interspersed with raging sirens<br />
and couples shouting at 2 am. Anyone<br />
who has lived in this city long enough can<br />
tell you it’s this kind of background noise<br />
that eventually becomes integral to your<br />
definition of silence. You don’t notice the<br />
train passing by your bedroom window or<br />
the sound of construction thundering on a<br />
Saturday morning. You don’t notice, until<br />
they vanish. Then suddenly your ears are<br />
screaming for an escape from the quietude.<br />
You never imagined that the sound of<br />
nothingness could make you want to hide<br />
in a corner and cover your ears. Because<br />
you’re not accustomed to the earth’s hum.<br />
So thought Nicky as he recounted the<br />
moments that had left him standing at the<br />
top of the Empire State Building.<br />
Having lived all his life between the avenues<br />
of the city that never sleeps, Nicky had<br />
never heard the hum. But on one particular<br />
Tuesday afternoon, Nicky woke up with a<br />
faint sense that something was wrong. As<br />
he stumbled out of his bedroom, letting the<br />
stench of old Chinese food waft into living<br />
room, he felt a tragic sense of loneliness.<br />
Stammering onto the street he realized<br />
everyone was gone. His roommate, his girl,<br />
the dude he exchanged nods with at the<br />
coffee shop. Probably even that annoying<br />
guy Todd at work. They were all gone.<br />
After the initial panic subsided, Nicky took<br />
to roaming the deserted streets of a once<br />
thriving metropolis looking for someone.<br />
Literally anyone. Now, even that annoying<br />
guy Todd would have been a welcome<br />
companion. Life all alone was a hard pill to<br />
swallow. Eventually though, he had gotten<br />
used to it.<br />
But it wasn’t a life of solitude that had<br />
bothered Nicky most. It was the hum. Each<br />
day that passed, it grew louder. A distant<br />
ringing that was a drill in his eardrums trying