Chapter 7: Courage in the Notes
689 Words
The walk home from Whispering Antiques felt longer than usual. Lila’s hands were stuffed deep in her jacket pockets, one wrapped around the headphones, the other clenched into a fist. Every step seemed to echo the hum she’d heard in the shop, a constant reminder of the choice hanging over her.
When she pushed open her front door, the house was quiet. Her mom was working late, and her dad was out picking up groceries—perfect, she thought. She needed time to think. Time to figure out what she was going to do.
She went straight to her room and closed the door. The headphones were still warm in her pocket, but now they felt heavy, like a weight she couldn’t shake. She pulled them out and set them on her desk, staring at them. They looked so ordinary, so harmless. But she knew the truth now. They were a trap.
She thought of the journal, of Elias’s sister, of the words that had been scrawled there: Use them too much, and your own voice will fade away, lost to the magic forever. She’d used them every day since finding them. Had she already gone too far?
She reached out and touched the plastic casing. For a second, she almost put them on. Almost let the magic wrap around her, make her feel brave again. But then she thought of Kai’s words: We have to find a way to break the curse. And this journal… it might have the answer.
And the answer, it seemed, was her. Her voice. Her courage.
She pulled her hand away and sat down on her bed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she opened her mouth and sang.
It was just a simple tune, the same one she’d sung into the headphones a hundred times. But this time, there was no magic. No boost, no perfect pitch. Just her voice, rough and shaky, nothing like the one she’d heard through the headphones.
She stopped, her throat tight. It sounded so bad. How could she ever sing in front of people with a voice like this?
But then she thought of something else Kai had said: It only appears to people who need it most. People who’ve lost their voice, or are scared to use it. The shop had found her because she needed to learn to use her own voice. Not the magic one. Her real one.
She took another deep breath and tried again. This time, she didn’t worry about how it sounded. She just sang. Let the words flow, let the melody wrap around her. It was still rough, still shaky. But it was hers.
And for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel scared. She felt… free.
She kept singing, moving from one song to another. Some were songs she’d known since she was a kid, others were ones she’d written herself. Each one felt like a little piece of her, coming out into the world.
When she finally stopped, her throat was sore, but her heart was light. She looked at the headphones on her desk. They still looked ordinary, but now they didn’t feel like a trap. They felt like a reminder. A reminder of what she’d been scared to do, and what she could do now.
She picked them up and put them in her desk drawer, closing it tight. She didn’t need them anymore. Not if she wanted to keep her voice. Not if she wanted to be heard.
Just then, her phone buzzed. It was a text from Jake: Hey, you coming to practice tomorrow? We’re running through the set list again. Missed you today.
Lila smiled. She typed back: Yeah, I’ll be there. And Jake… I have something to tell you.
She put her phone down and looked out the window. The sun was setting, painting the sky in shades of pink and orange. She thought of the concert, of standing on stage in front of everyone. It was still scary. But it wasn’t impossible anymore.
Because she had her voice back. And that was enough.
- Writer
