Snarky soft sci-fi coming in 2027!
Cereza Steele has always known music is captivating; otherwise, she wouldn’t even be trying to launch a career as a teenage musician. She just had no idea to what extent it could control people.
Thinking she’s getting a good deal, Cereza accidentally buys a pair of headphones custom-ordered by someone else. This only becomes apparent when music starts controlling her. Now every time she hears a rhythm of notes, she comes closer to being overtaken by its sound. Her heartbeat changes, she dances, she sings — all against her will. If this continues, she will lose her free will, able only to move along with music.
By a doctor’s order Cereza gets her best friend, Hazel, to transport her out of the country and hunt down the headphones’ inventor. . .and figure out why anyone would invent such a device. This journey will require more than a few sticky notes. If Cereza cannot get the remedy she feels justified in seeking, she will be taken forever as a captive of that which she loves: music.
Headphones should never be placed on such a high shelf. Are the clerks trying to prevent people from buying them? Sighing, I pull my nose back from the window and open the door, a metallic scent swirling around me. An expanse of guitars on racks stretches ahead through the building. Their fretboards glimmer in the late-afternoon sunlight. Don’t get distracted. . . Clutching the strap on my shoulder, I set my gaze on the shelves along the back wall.
“Welcome to Notarize! May I help you?”
I turn. The man behind the counter probably has a ladder. Might as well give him something to do since I’m the only customer here. I jog toward the counter, my coat flapping against my guitar case. “Yeah, I need some headphones.”
The man stares at my hair. That’s the usual reaction to black locks streaked with indigo, I’ve noticed. After a moment, he grins. “Oh yes, follow me!” He pushes open the countertop gate and waves for me to come through.
I tilt my head. “Aren’t the headphones on this side of the counter?”
“Those aren’t the ones you want.”
— Captive of Cacophony opening lines
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