short fiction · 2026-10-10

Bell in the Bone

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

When the bell tolls far across the valley, I do not hear it first with my ears but feel its low hum rise in my sternum, a slow pulse that syncs with my own heartbeat. The sound is a pressure, a warm weight pressing inward, as if the air itself has thickened and become liquid. Each wave of tone lifts the hairs on my arms, not because they vibrate, but because the sensation travels through bone, turning audition into a subtle touch. I close my eyes and let the resonance spread, a quiet conversation between what is heard and what is felt, until the two are indistinguishable.