Silent Nightingale - Prologue

Her last note resonated. Thunderous applause raised all around her. She smiled and took a bow. She waved and smiled, took yet another bow.
After a while, the applause faded, slowly, and she turned away, still smiling. She had been standing right here on this stage so many times, singing in front of all those people. Being somewhat famous as a singer was her dream come true. 
It was raining outside when her parents drove home with her. These long concert nights made her really exhausted, in a good way, but tired. She usually fell asleep in the car on the way home, and so she did right after they left the lights of the town behind them. 
A terrible noise woke her up, followed by an enormous impact on her chest from the seatbelt. Something hit the back of her head, knocking her into unconsciousness. 

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times before she realised that she was staring at a clean white ceiling. Her head was aching and she contorted her face as she turned to the side to see the rest of the room. Something felt odd. 
She looked around. Hospital. There was an empty bed beside hers, a pale yellow blanket neatly folded on top of it.
She looked down on herself. IV drip. Oh how she hated those. It instantly started itching when she saw it. Right foot bandaged. Oh, wait, plastered. She draped the blanket to the side to see if it was just her foot or also her leg. Something about it felt odd.
She must have broken her leg. Car accident, right.
Her chest felt weird. Breathing felt weird. She carefully laid a hand onto her chest and pressed her fingers down lightly to feel along the row of ribs. Seemed to be okay, nothing broken here. Probably just a bunch of bruises. And those nasty little stickers and cables that connected her to the ECG. Her eyes followed the cables. How strange, she had always associated those with an annoying beeping sound, but this one was completely mute. It was -- odd. No... No. No! Her breathing became heavier. Her pulse increased. This couldn't.. it just..!
In horror, she realised that she hasn't heard a thing since she awoke. She didn't hear the shifting of her head on the pillow, didn't hear the IV drip streadily, couldn't hear the annoying sound of the ECG, she didn't even hear her own breathing or heartbeat. 
Disbelieving and shocked he tapped her ear with her fingers. Nothing. She opened her mouth to say something, right as the door opened and a young woman in white stepped in, a professional smile on her face. The doctor's mouth moved, but the girl didn't hear a thing. She guessed that the woman might have greeted her with a "good morning" or something like that. She didn't know what time it was. 
She just stared at the lady. She didn't dare saying a word. She wouldn't be able to take that she can't hear herself. Her own voice. She just stared at the woman, until she turned at the girl, tilting her head slightly as to ask something. She tried to read the doctor's lips. "Is something wrong?" Or something like that, she supposed.
She stared at her and pointed at her ear. She tried to speak, but wasn't brave enough to make a sound. She only moved her lips to say "I can't hear you."
Suddenly, when the dizzy cloud faded from Ariadne's head, another thought shot into her mind and her eyes widened in fear as she gushed: "Are my parents okay?"
The words sent vibrations through her bones, but she couldn't hear the slightest tone. Ariadne stared at the doctor's lips, her eyes pleading.