Sound Of Silence
by cailean, child of one
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping!
And the vision
That was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.
The sound of silence...
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp!
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
It split the night...
And touched the sound of silence.
The sound of silence...
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
Fools. said I, You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening (listening)!
System check!
Neon black!
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whispered...
In the sound of silence.
The sounds of silence...
The sounds of silence!
The sounds...
Fools. said I, You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
Chapter 1: And it begins…
An eleven-year-old girl with blood red hair and hard, jade eyes cracked her knuckles menacingly as she stared with black-lidded eyes at the group of boys who entered the plush, red compartment she occupied.
There were four boys, about twelve, possibly thirteen years of age.
The tallest had sandy-brown hair that was tousled in front of warm, gray eyes that were lit up with a grin. Despite his obvious happiness, the eleven year old, Lilia Maeryn Evans, could see sadness and exhaustion in his eyes.
The next tallest had a mop of messy dark brown hair with chocolate brown eyes that were framed with a pair of oval shaped gold rimmed glasses.
Next to him was a boy who was shorter than the mop-head by an inch or two, with tousled brown hair that fell into a widow's peak over his twinkling black eyes.
The smallest was a boy with thin blonde hair that was parted and combed precisely in the middle.
As Lily watched he wiped a long sleeved, skin and bones arm over his runny nose, blinking watery blue eyes.
"Erm… Guys… We have an ickle firstie…" the guy with black eyes exclaimed gleefully.
"Interesting." The mop-head with glasses sized her up.
"Ya got a problem?" Lily demanded in her Scottish accent.
"Well, actually, we do, coz this is our compartment, and –" the sandy-haired one started.
"That's nice." Lily chewed her gum carelessly.
"Don't you care who we are?" Mop-head raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry, it's not my day to care." Lily flashed a false grin, a splash of perfect white teeth against her pale skin, which contrasted deeply to her blood colored hair. She turned back to the window, pulling her guitar towards her.
"I think –" Mop-head glared.
"Shh!" Lily hissed, turning back to them, holding a single finger to her lips. Mop-head shut up, listening. "That's the sound of no-one caring what you think." Lily whispered. And she turned back to the window.
The black-eyed one roared with laughter. "Oi, James! The firstie beat you in the Battle of The Tongue!"
"Shuddup Sirius." James grumbled. "What's that?"
"Guitar." Lily replied shortly. She appeared to have an uncanny knack for knowing when she was being talked to and when it as someone else.
"Um… what's a guitar?" James, whom Lily was beginning to think was the leader of the group, asked Sirius behind his hand.
"Musical instrument. One of the Muggle –"
"Whoa, whoa. Are you insulting me? Saying I'm a muggle, whatever that is?" Lily stood up, anger in the way she held herself, the top of her head not even reaching the armpit of the shortest.
"Look at the little shortie!" He burst out.
Lily snarled and leapt at him. She had managed to split his lip, blacken both eyes, bruise his chest and bloody his nose before the other three could pull her off him.
"Calm down Tiger!" exclaimed James.
"What did you call me?" Lily turned to face him, slowly.
"I'm sorry, it won't happen again…" James stuttered.
Jade pools of light looked into him, left bare his soul. Those eyes saw everything and had seen most of it first hand. No, they weren't pools of light… they were pools of dark. "You called me Tiger. Didn't you? Or am I wrong?" Lily looked almost sad.
"I called you Tiger." James admitted.
"Thank you. I nearly forgot." Lily suddenly leapt at him.
"Ah!" he yelped, feeling certain she would try to hurt him. He was extremely surprised to find her wrapping her arms around his neck, hanging from his neck, eyes closed and dripping with tears.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"Th-that's ok." He smiled at the younger girl, and rubbed her back. He had a feeling they'd be good friends.