Page 68 of In Her Bed

“Try harder,” he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.“Think back to Astral Waves.To this very building.”

“Were you...”Diana’s voice hesitated.“Were you a listener?A caller to my show?”

Kevin laughed, a harsh sound.“Closer.Much closer than that.”

Time seemed to stretch as he waited for her to make the connection.

“You worked here,” she said finally.“At the station.”

A small thrill ran through him.“Yes.”

“You were...technical staff?An engineer?”

“Yes,” Kevin breathed.“I worked the boards during your midnight broadcasts.I made sure your voice reached everyone who needed to hear it.”

“I’m sorry,” Diana said.“There were so many people at the station over the years.I can’t recall your name.”

The fragile bubble of Kevin’s excitement burst, replaced by a familiar, caustic anger.

“You don’t remember.”It wasn’t a question.“My name is Kevin Barrett.I sat less than ten feet from you, night after night, for almost two years.I brought you herbal tea when your throat was sore.I adjusted your microphone levels to make your voice sound perfect.But when I asked you about the message in the static—” Kevin’s voice broke.“You told me I wasn’t ready.That I was unworthy to know what the universe was trying to say.”

“Kevin,” she whispered finally.“Yes, I...I remember now.You were always so quiet, so...intense.”

A small, bitter smile twisted Kevin’s lips.“Intense.Yes.And now I need to know, Diana.After all these years, I need you to tell me what it meant.”

“Whatwhatmeant?”

“The message.The cosmic message you said you could hear in the radio static.The one you said I wasn’t ready for.”

The radio went silent.Kevin waited, his breathing shallow.This was the moment he’d been working toward.The revelation that would make sense of everything—the voices, the visions, the towers, the bodies.All of it was for this.

The seconds stretched into a minute.Then two.The silence was maddening.

“Diana?”he prompted.

A sound came through the speaker.It took Kevin a moment to recognize it.The Midnight Voice was weeping.

“I don’t remember,” she said between sobs.“I don’t remember what I thought I heard back then.It was too long ago, Kevin.”

***

“Mind the next turn,” Jenna warned Jake, pointing ahead to where the road narrowed.She braced herself against the dashboard as he took the sharp curve, the patrol car’s tires gripping the asphalt with a faint squeal.

“What I don’t understand,” Jake said when the car straightened out, “is why Diana would go back to the Astral Waves studio.”

“Maybe looking for something … evidence from back then, or...I don’t know.”Jenna couldn’t explain her certainty, even to herself.“Maybe lured there.But if I’m wrong about this, Jake...”

“Your instincts have never steered us wrong before,” Jake countered.“I’d bet on your gut over Morgan’s evidence any day.”

***

Diana cringed in the dark.How many hours had she spent in this very place, her voice traveling through the night to reach the faithful?The irony wasn’t lost on her: the studio that had once been her sanctuary was now her prison, and the man who once facilitated her broadcasts was now her captor.

She struggled to recall something—anything—about the insights she’d claimed to receive from radio waves all those years ago.In the haze of memory, it was difficult to separate genuine mystical experiences from the theatrical persona she had cultivated as the Midnight Voice.

She had believed some of what she said—truly believed it.But how much had been performance?How much had been the heady power of knowing thousands were listening to her every word?

The nearby transceiver crackled again.

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