Enough time to make such a terrifying concept second nature.
A week ago, hell, a day, Nox wouldn’t have even questioned his perception of the Anubis. But after yesterday afternoon, he questioned everything.
Especially himself.
Especially who he was. Who hereallywas.
A man, yes. One no different from the billions occupying the planet. A different species, but still nothing more than a person.
And ordinary people were capable of the most horrific things. Atrocities. Cruelty. Selfishness. Gluttony. All at the expense of other people’s lives.
Violence.
Rage.
All the things the Anubis was.
“Close your eyes,” Luca said.
Nox did, even though he didn’t want to.
“Now listen and tell me what you hear.”
The fridge in the kitchen kicked on, a toilet flushed from upstairs, conversation exchanged. Wind rattled the trees, dead leaves scraped the windows.
Mice crawled behind the walls.
“Everything,” Nox said. “I hear everything.”
“No, you don’t.”
Nox opened his eyes to Luca smiling. Not mockingly, but in a way that said Luca knew the answer to the question Nox hadn’t even thought to ask.
“You don’t hear the silence?” Luca feathered his touch down Nox’s forehead. “Close your eyes again.”
He did.
“Now listen.”
Grass whispered in the wind. The fibers of the comforter Nox lay on scraped together with every inhale and heartbeat.
Beyond the settling house. Beyond the rocks grinding together under the weight, insects burrowed in the ground, grains of dirt shifted. Plant roots reached for water. Dust particles made contact with solid surfaces.
Noises that layered into a discord, grating Nox’s senses and raking his nerves.
Then the cacophony snapped, leaving a silence so flawless it erased sound. Like the black of the Anubis’s coat drank away the light.
A void.
Not emptiness.
The nothingness of never existing in the first place.
The Anubis.
Nox opened his eyes.
Luca raised his eyebrows. “Well?”