The Silent Ward

was heavier than any sound. Siya Ndlovu leaned against the hoo

ng the Main Road, and the hospital staff bustled in and out of the emergenc

tever lived in Echo War

dulled now, haunted. She knew he was trying to rationalize it, chalk it all up to trauma, or some e

mera. One with her back turned. The spiral inked on the wall behind them like a brand. Her fingers

lence. "What do yo

look up. "

arni

y, someone didn't wa

Look here." She pointed to the

al. "It was on the wall behi

piral, faint but undeniable, was burned into his skin l

. Scratched into the paint. Written in blood on the underside of a drawer.

that voice in the speakers? What about

y sky. "I think he was al

led a cigarette from his jacket

e asked. "We

knew Asanda. He was transferred out of Valkenberg in 2021. His name came

ce. "You're serious? You want

the photo. "I

uation Wing, it was ju

ver fully clean. The lights overhead flickered faintly, like everything else in t

te-stage paranoid schizophrenia, though the file notes were inconsistent. Some labeled him as delusional

orway, observing him

, bones jutting out beneath translucent skin. He wore no restraints, no

in ink. Others gouged into the paint with fingernails or the edge of a spoon. They varied in size, in shap

more they seemed to move. Sh

owly, like he hadn't noti

rong, too calm,

she sai

n't re

staying by the d

in over three year

he Polaroid from her coat, and p

u know

il and trembling, and pointed, not at the girl, at the spiral in the corner o

of sound from Jacus's throat, low, throaty, and cont

g in through her skull, bypassing her ears. A resonance.

ed toward the door. "Si

spond. She was

faint harmonics, like other voices were joining in, humming just

seemed

me to ground herself. "Stop,"

is eyes wide,

was raw, like dry paper scraping

breath

ce toward her. "She

ard. "Who? Who d

. She sang for them. They opened

and

. "She rememb

though he clearly didn't know why. "Siy

ar her eyes away. Ja

behind. That's what they fol

hat?" Si

he corner of the photograph with frail fingers and flipped

cross the edges and a door, and

r word, sha

hen:

g. "This... this is what Proje

a slow, j

ou're saying Asanda w

curled into himself, pulling at the collar

and cracked, was a door.

ed back. "He

arm. "That's it.

and shrieked. Not in fear.

ed and somewhere down the corridor, a

l after spiral into the paint with his nails. The humming

, on the lower east wing and continued run

ist on the control

ing. "This section's not connected to th

ow, but in the walls. In the pressure of

just as the lights be

rned, but not for long. On the other side t

whispered, lo

Return.

away, brea

d her down

"It's not just Jacus. Something i

eady out, and whatever Asanda lef

stared

e buzzed. An

xt: You we

another: She

as she looked at Marks

left. They had to go b

ld be clo king out, bt now they were

dors, down a maintenance stairwell, and into the sublevel storage rooms of Groote Schuur

zing fluorescent lights overhead seemed to avoid this part of th

rom the Valkenberg patient transfer program, when she was still a junior d

ut a nurse who va

woman had been an early test

s hand near his holster.

loorplan," Siya said, brushing aside cobwebs from a f

nd

t's where Louw hi

ith age and neglect, but tucked behind the front panel was a manila en

e file -

er form with the

rt marked "CONFID

ite security p

pencil, copied again an

p, it was the face in the photo, the face of a

" she mu

r. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her hair

ainted across the floor in w

ned in. "

broke. "She w

He pointed to a handwritte

ssful. Entity containment achieved, partial.

ya. "Your siste

nts. The low buzz of electricity f

together wha

arted in Valkenberg. Early atte

ontainment, sound frequen

conduit. A vessel for somet

t mental illness. They were experiment

pening minds to

"And now that somet

map to Groote Schuur's lower tunnels. One room was circled in

page. "Echo War

it. You mean Echo

Groote Schuur and Valkenberg are connected by

files moved. How they transf

od. "We're not done yet. We

want to go under the hospital

him dead

's still in t