Beth looked around the cafe as she cleaned the milk frother’s nozzle. It was a normal evening, the store was full of people on their way home from the office, students settling in for a night of study or couples doing their best to carve out a few minutes of romance.

However, this meant the cafe was extremely noisy. When there were only a few people the noise was bearable, but when the place was full all of the sounds combined into a horrific atonal cacophony.

Beth had gotten good at ignoring it, but some days it was very hard to block it all out. As the noise started to echo in her head, Beth threw herself into serving customers, trying to focus her attention on them. The script of selling was oddly comforting, something that stayed the same regardless of Beth’s mood.

After serving several customers Beth spotted someone coming in through the door. While the cafe had several regulars, this girl was both the most well known and the most mysterious.

This customer was always clad in a bright suit. She must have had loads of them as Beth had never seen the same one twice. Each of these suits was made from various colors and patterns of material, making it look like she had made them herself from fabric offcuts.

But it was her face that drew the most attention. This woman always wore white face paint with bright red circles on her cheeks, giving her an almost doll-like appearance. Or at least, Beth presumed it was face paint, it never seemed to smudge or fade, but Beth didn’t think any human could be that pale and not collapse due to anemia.

As she served the other customers Beth’s eyes constantly wandered back to the weird girl. Thankfully, the girl didn’t seem to notice Beth’s staring, in fact, she seemed to be in her own little world, totally oblivious to everyone around her.

When it came time to serve the strange girl, Beth was excited, keen to see just what this girl was like. “Evening! What can I get you?” Smiled Beth. The woman didn’t respond, instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a notepad and tore off a sheet of paper before passing it to Beth.

Beth was slightly confused but quickly worked out what the girl was doing. Beth glanced down at the order and then smiled up at the girl. “Sure! If you want, you can sit down and I’ll bring it over!” Chirped Beth.

She didn’t usually do table service when the cafe was busy, but she wanted to do something nice for someone and this girl looked like she would appreciate it.

The girl smiled and nodded, quickly finding a table near the back of the room. As Beth started on the order, the noise started to assault her ears once more. She had been so focused on serving the strange girl that she had totally forgotten how noisy the cafe was.

Soon Beth had the order complete. For such a weird girl, it was a surprisingly normal order. Beth gripped the cup and started to walk towards the girl’s table.

As Beth walked the noise seemed to grow louder and even more dissonant. The grinding of the coffee machine made it feel like her eardrums were going to shatter into a million shards.

Beth did her best to hide her discomfort, something she had done so many times in the past. But today the task felt impossible. Beth felt the muscles in her face contort into a grimace as she quickly tried to center herself and force a smile back onto her lips.

By the time she regained control of herself, she was right near the odd girl’s table. “Here is your coffee,” smiled Beth, leaning forward to put the cup down in front of the girl.

The odd girl looked into Beth’s eyes for a few seconds before pointing at her own ears and making an exaggerated sad face.

“Yeah it is loud here,” nodded Beth, impressed that she had been able to work the mime out so quickly. The girl quickly pointed to her ears again before pointing at Beth.

Beth’s heart skipped a beat. Had this odd girl spotted her discomfort? Before Beth could think of anything to say the girl started to mime again. She pointed to Beth and covered her ears before patting the empty chair that sat next to her.

“Well,” mumbled Beth. “It can get very loud here, but it is a lovely place, the cup is just hot,” she rambled, trying to think of a way to brush off her expression without it getting her into trouble.

However, the girl just shook her head and tapped the chair again. Beth’s brain quickly filled with images of her getting yelled at for ruining this girl’s experience with her discomfort and her demanding to see the manager so she could complain about Beth’s terrible customer service.

But Beth didn’t see a good way out of this situation without causing more of a fuss. Beth let out a sigh and gently sat down, mentally preparing herself for an argument.

However, as she sat down it felt like she was putting her head into a bucket of water. The sound around her faded to a murmur before vanishing totally, leaving only perfect silence.

Beth blinked and gritted her teeth. She presumed she was going to turn around to find the whole store gazing at her, judging her for her terribly unprofessional behavior.

Despite her anxiety, Beth slowly turned her head, only to see that people were moving their mouths, but no words were coming out. Someone was operating the coffee grinder, and the beans were bouncing in the hopper, yet there was total silence.

Beth wondered if she was going mad, or if she had suddenly had an aneurysm. But as she looked across the table, she saw the mime girl smiling at her.

“Umm,” blinked Beth, trying to work out what was going on. The mime girl tapped her ears again before giving Beth a thumbs up. “Yes, it is very nice, thank you,” nodded Beth.

The silence allowed Beth to relax a little bit, however, the more she thought about the situation, the more confused she became. She just couldn’t work out why she couldn’t hear any sounds.

After a few moments, a piece of paper tapped against Beth’s arm, shaking her from her thoughts. Beth looked at the mime girl and then down at the paper, quickly spotting the drawing on the page.

The picture was a cute cartoon depicting the mime stood in a little bubble. Various music notes were hitting the bubble and breaking into bits. At the far end of the bubble, was a cute little caricature of Beth, climbing into the bubble.

“Oh! So you have like an anti-sound bubble?” Asked Beth. Normally she would kick herself for believing in something so silly, but right now this girl was all she had to go on. There was no other explanation for the sudden silence.

The Mime girl nodded and smiled as she relaxed back into her chair and looked around the coffee shop. Beth also started to do the same. The lack of sound allowed her to notice things she had never noticed about the cafe before.

Things like bits of wear on the floor that showed where people liked to walk, and little stains and details in the skirting board that revealed just how old parts of the building were. It was like someone had removed the blinkers from her eyes, allowing Beth to see so many beautiful new things.

Out of the corner of her eye, Beth saw her supervisor walking towards the table. Suddenly a wave of anxiety hit her, she had been sat with this customer for at least ten minutes, doing that during the rush was a firable offense. She had been so enamored with the silence she had totally lost track of where she was.

As the supervisor came closer his mouth started to move, but Beth couldn’t hear a single word. The only sound she could hear was the pounding of her heart.

However, when the supervisor came within quiet speaking range the mime girl snapped her fingers. The sound seemed to echo through the silence and caused both Beth and the supervisor to look at the weird girl.

The supervisor’s lips moved some more, however, Beth could only make out the word “sorry”. As the man continued to talk, the mime girl started to shake her head.

The man looked at the girl with confusion, continuing to silently flap his lips as the girl raised her hand and stuck out a finger like she was pointing at the man.

Beth’s supervisor stopped moving his mouth as the girl continued to point towards him. It was obvious from his expression that he was waiting for her to say something, waiting for her to complain about Beth slacking off.

However, the girl didn’t speak. Instead, she started to slowly spin her finger around and around, almost like she was drawing a spiral in the air. Beth watched the finger loop around, doing her best to work out just what the mime girl was trying to convey.

After a few seconds, Beth turned to look at her supervisor, curious to see if he had worked out what the girl was trying to say with her hands. However, the supervisor had a weird expression on his face.

His mouth had dropped open slightly and his eyes were half closed, his pupils following the girl’s finger as if it was magnetic. Beth turned back to the mime girl, looking for an explanation.

The mime continued to spin her finger around, leaning across the table to get closer to the supervisor. After a few more minutes the mime girl theatrically twisted her wrist and snapped her fingers.

The snap echoed in the silence. Despite its volume, it sounded oddly musical, as if it was being played by a wonderful orchestra. As the snap continued to echo, Beth saw her supervisor’s eyes roll up into his head.

“Wha,” gasped Beth, trying to make sense of what was going on.

The mime girl just smirked and pointed at the supervisor again. She then mimed pulling something out of her ear, screwing it up like a paper ball and throwing it away.

Beth’s supervisor shuddered a little bit as his eyes followed the mimed paper ball as it flew back behind the girl. Once this was done, the mime girl pointed towards the counter before theatrically waving at the man, even mouthing the words “Bye Bye!”

The second the mime girl did this, the supervisor turned stiffly on his heels and walked back over to the counter, his face returning to normal as he quickly got back to work.

“What?!” Gasped Beth, totally blown away by what had just happened. She turned to the mime girl, hoping she could explain what was going on. However, the mime girl was already doodling in her notepad.

After a few moments of drawing the girl passed Beth another sheet of paper. This sheet featured a drawing of the mime girl with spiraling eyes as well as a short comic that featured the mime girl shooting a spiral beam from her eyes into the supervisor’s eyes.

“I see,” nodded Beth as she turned the paper over in her hands. While she wouldn’t have usually accepted “hypnotic powers” as an answer, mind control seemed relatively benign when compared to the sound dampening she was currently experiencing.

The mime girl smiled and took a small bow as she quickly finished the cup of coffee and looked around the coffee shop. As the girl did this, Beth watched her supervisor work behind the counter.

He seemed totally oblivious to Beth and her slacking off. He seemed totally focused on serving the customers as if everything was normal. Then again, no one else seemed to be paying attention to the mime girl or her hypnotic antics.

Once the cup was drained the mime girl pulled her pad out and started to sketch again before passing the pad to Beth. This time she had drawn herself and Beth skipping happily down the road towards a large house, surrounded by several large question marks.

Beth looked at the image for several minutes before realizing what the girl was trying to say. “Oh, I would love to come with you!” Smiled Beth. She didn’t usually go places with strangers, but this girl was friendly and utterly fascinating.

The mime girl smiled and jumped up from her chair, waving for Beth to follow her. As the girl skipped off, the sounds of the cafe started to ring in Beth’s ears again.

Just as Beth got to the door, another employee shouted from behind the counter. “Beth, where are you going? You’re on till six!”

“Oh,” mumbled Beth. “Right, I,” she started, only to stop herself. She couldn’t exactly tell everyone that she was going on an adventure with the weird mime girl who hung around the store, even if it was the truth.

Before Beth could think up a better answer the mime girl walked back inside and huffed at the girl behind the counter before putting her hands on her hips and shaking her head.

“I’m sorry Ma’am,” smiled the girl behind the counter, instantly slipping into her customer service voice. “I didn’t realize she was helping you with something.”

The mime girl shook her head and produced a small kazoo from her pocket. The mime took a deep breath and blew into the kazoo, causing it to let out a loud note that grabbed the attention of everyone in the store, making them all turn to face the mime girl and Beth.

The mime girl raised her finger, almost like she was about to break her silence. But rather than speaking the girl started to make large sweeping motions with her hand, waving it back and forth.

Everyone in the store watched the girl’s hand as it swayed. Beth was unsure if this was because of the girl’s power or just because everyone was curious about what this girl was going to do.

The mime girl continued to sway her hand in bigger and bigger arcs, forcing everyone to sway to keep up with her hand as she moved it faster and faster.

She continued to increase the speed of her swaying until she was doing a graceful pirouette. Every eye in the room was fixed on the girl and her strange and flowing movements.

Suddenly the girl stopped her spinning and held her palms out in front of her and waved them in wide and spiraling circles. Beth was flabbergasted, everyone was watching this girl’s hands spin around, the whole room already looked half asleep.

After a few minutes, the girl stopped waving her hands around. She looked around the room for a few moments before turning and smiling at Beth, obviously enjoying Beth’s awe.

The mime girl then started theatrically mime a yawn, something that everyone else in the room instantly copied, their eyes starting to flutter as they performed along with the girl.

The mime put her hands together and rested her head on them, almost like she was putting a head on her pillow. As she did this, she mimed an even more theatrical yawn, making it very obvious what she wanted the people to do.

Beth held her breath as she watched everyone stare at the mime girl. She couldn’t believe what she was witnessing. Part of her was waiting for someone to get up and yell at the mime girl for being so silly, but this didn’t seem to happen, everyone seemed totally enraptured by her movements.

The mime girl then pointed at a woman sat at the far left of the room. Instantly the woman’s eyes slammed shut as she slumped forward onto the table, snoring deeply as she did.

As the girl turned around, more and more people slumped forward onto their tables, instantly falling into a deep sleep the second the girl pointed at them. It was like a domino run, person after person fell onto their table, their snores quickly growing louder as the room filled with the sounds of slumber.

“How do you do that,” whispered Beth, totally shocked by how powerful this girl was. The mime girl didn’t say a word, instead, she took a bow before offering out her hand.

Beth didn’t hesitate and took the girl’s hand, letting the mime walk her out of the building and onto the street. As they walked Beth tried to make sense of what was going on, the whole situation seemed so strange but she couldn’t deny what she had just witnessed.

Eventually, the mime girl stopped in front of an apartment building and fished some keys out of her pocket. The girl quickly let herself inside and waved for Beth to follow her.

Beth didn’t argue and walked in behind the girl, following her through the building and up the stairs until the mime stopped in front of an apartment door and unlocked it.

As the door swung open, the mime girl pointed inside like a showgirl, obviously proud of her space. Beth poked her head inside and was instantly taken aback by the room.

The place was stunning. It was full of various paintings and props, a lot of which seemed to be hand made. Beth continued to walk deeper into the apartment, spotting something cool every few seconds.

After a few minutes of silently looking, Beth realized how rude she was being. “I’m sorry!” She gasped as she turned to face her host. However, to Beth’s surprise, the mime girl was shyly looking at the floor and rubbing her arm, obviously self-comforting.

Beth instantly knew what was going on, it was like looking into a mirror. “Thank you for inviting me in,” she smiled. “This place is really cool! Do you want to show me around?”

Instantly, the mime girl looked up, her eyes filled with a mixture of excitement and joy. She nodded her head and quickly skipped to the one side of the room and pointed to a small box before pointing to herself and miming using a hammer.

“You made this?” Asked Beth, looking over the ornate box. The mime girl nodded and lifted the box lid, causing a soft tune to trickle out. “A music box!” Smiled Beth. “This is amazing! You are so talented!”

The mime girl smiled and closed the box, quickly walking Beth over to something else. Each prop the girl showed Beth was more impressive than the last, despite this girl being weird she was obviously very skilled in several mediums.

Beth couldn’t deny she enjoyed the girl’s enthusiasm, even without words she was very compelling and charismatic. Eventually, the pair reached a large dressing table that was covered in various make-up brushes and bottles.

“Is this where you do your make up?” Asked Beth as she pointed towards one of the bottles.

The mime girl nodded and started to sketch again. After a few minutes of drawing the girl ripped the paper off the notepad and folded it up before passing it to Beth, a hint of shyness coming to her face once more.

Beth opened the paper and looked at the drawing. The image was of the Mime girl putting makeup on Beth, while cute spirals spun in Beth’s eyes.

“Yes!” Smiled Beth, not even bothering to consider. “I would love to!”

The mime girl jumped up and down on the spot, clapping her hands happily as she pointed at the chair in front of the table. Beth quickly settled into the chair and looked at herself in the mirror.

Beth took a deep breath and watched as the mime girl walked over to the table and picked up a hair tie before walking behind Beth and tying her hair up.

Once Beth’s hair was in a tight bun the girl walked over to the mirror and pressed a switch. Suddenly, the lights dimmed as a shape formed inside the mirror. It took Beth a few seconds to realize that there seemed to be some sort of spinning spiral disk just behind the glass.

“Did you make this as well?” Asked Beth as the spiral became more and more obvious. The mime girl nodded and opened the pot, revealing some white face paint.

The girl dipped the brush into the paint and adjusted Beth’s head position, forcing her to stare directly into the spinning disk. Beth’s eyes started to follow the spiraling pattern down towards the center, finding it oddly fascinating.

As the mime girl pressed the soft brush to Beth’s cheek, she shuddered a little bit, but even this wasn’t enough to pull her mind away from the spinning spiral.

Beth continued to stare at the spiral as the mime girl slowly started to rub the brush over Beth’s cheeks in small circles. It felt like Beth’s body was spinning with the spiral, like the whole room was constantly rotating around on its axis.

The more the brushed spiraled on her cheek, the more Beth found herself pulled into the disk, almost as if she was diving into its infinite depths. In the reflection she could see the white paint spreading out over her face, making it hard to even recognize herself.

But Beth didn’t care. She felt so relaxed and heavy, like all of her muscles were melting into the chair. This was the calmest Beth had felt in months if not years, it was just so utterly perfect.

Eventually, the spiraling of the brush and the spinning of the disk was all that Beth could feel, she was totally disconnected from her body and her mind, she was just passively watching her face turn white as the disk continued to spin.

When Beth’s face was totally white, the mime girl took a step back and admired her work. She slowly started to massage Beth’s scalp as she silently pondered her course of action.

Not that this bothered Beth. For her, time had no meaning, she was the spiral and the spiral was her. She wasn’t really thinking of anything at all, she was just following the disk as it fell forever down.

After a few minutes of pondering, the Mime girl grabbed another few pots and brushes and quickly got to work. In the mirror, Beth could see her face changing, and as her face changed she felt her mind-altering to fit her new face.

The mime girl gently swirled red paint onto Beth’s cheeks until she had two large circles that resembled a doll’s blush. The mime girl then used a thin brush to draw black lines over Beth’s lips.

Beth was unsure what these meant until the mime girl went back and drew little crosses at the top and bottom of every line. Instantly it clicked in her head. Her mouth was sewn shut, like a rag doll. She didn’t need to speak anymore.

As this realization echoed through her brain she could feel her mind letting go of how to control her lips, the knowledge and muscle memory just floating out of her and into the spiral, sinking under the spiraling waves until it was like they never existed at all.

The mime continued to add little details to Beth’s face. Making the lines on the mouth more and more detailed until there were nearly indistinguishable from real stitches.

After a while, the mime girl stopped painting and took a bow. Beth didn’t recognize herself anymore. In the mirror, she saw a mime looking back at her. A happy and silent mime.

The mime girl stood between Beth and table. The spiral loomed behind her, forcing Beth’s eyes to focus on the other girl. With a smile, the Mime girl pointed at Beth before making a heart shape with her hands and pointing back at herself.

Instantly a switch flipped in Beth’s head. She was a mime, and thus she knew exactly what the other mime was saying. Beth loved the mime girl. To her, it was clearer than any spoken words had ever been. She was in love.

Beth slowly stood up and smiled at the mime girl, the spinning spiral still drawing her mind ever deeper into the abyss. Slowly Beth moved her hands and made a heart shape. Keen to tell the girl that she understood and agreed. Beth loved the mime girl and the mime girl loved Beth and everything was as simple as that.

There was no longer any need for thought, or for words. Beth’s actions were all that mattered, words were not something she cared about anymore. She stepped forward and embraced the other girl, pressing her pale white lips into the girl’s bright red ones.

Tingles ran through Beth’s body. Her silent and empty head made every physical action feel so good. For the first time in years, she was at one with her body and her form. Every small touch and detail of the other girl’s lips shone like bright lights in the night sky.

As the other girl gently broke the kiss Beth looked at her with wide eyes. She could still see the spiral pattern dancing behind the girl, it was almost as if it was forcing her to focus on the mime. Not that Beth minded, she was in love and would do anything for this girl, she couldn’t comprehend thinking of anything else, her love felt like a universal fact of the universe.

The mime girl took Beth by the hand and gently guided her to the bedroom. Beth was floating on air, she was joyous and euphoric, this was better than she had felt for years.

Beth fell backward onto the bed, feeling the soft sheets against her skin. Slowly the mime girl clambered onto the bed and spread her legs, before miming using a pair of scissors.

The idea instantly clicked in Beth’s head. It was a great idea, and Beth wanted it more than she had wanted anything before. Beth moved closer to the girl and intertwined their legs.

As they started to move in rhythm, Beth felt totally connected to this strange girl. It was like they were in one mind and in one body, no longer did she feel isolated or alone. All of her thoughts were shared and on display and she was loving every second of it.

Every movement made Beth’s whole body tingle with pure pleasure. She felt like a great weight had been lifted from her mind. She no longer had to worry about how to communicate what was in her head, she could let her body talk for her, let her movements convey all that needed to be conveyed. And right now her body was singing her love for this other girl.

The pleasure continued to grow and grow, reaching levels that Beth had never experienced before in her life. The lack of sound allowed her to focus just on the sensations in her body, to enjoy every small vibration and tingle.

Suddenly a wave of joy crashed over Beth, her body trembling as the mime girl hugged her tight. Beth could feel her mind opening totally to the other girl, a communication deeper than any words forming between them as she was hit by wave after wave of euphoria.

Beth smiled up at the mime girl, knowing she knew exactly what Beth was thinking. The mime girl fluttered her eyes and mimed a yawn as Beth felt tiredness crash over her like her body had been drained of all its energy.

Her vision started to blur as the mime girl reached down and started to rub Beth’s hair. Beth’s eyes started to close as she nuzzled into the mime’s chest. She felt safe, she felt content and she knew she had nothing to worry about. She could just sleep and not worry about a single thing.