Speaker 1: Calaroga Shark Media. Welcome to Midnight Frequencies, a special Romance
Weekly and Ghost Scary Stories crossover event. This is episode four,
The Thread Unbroken. The streets of Manhattan have become a
river of sleepwalkers. From the rooftop where Kai and I
crouch watching the impossible scene below, I can see thousands
of people moving in perfect synchronization toward the Radio District.
Office workers still in their pajamas, construction crews abandoning half
finished jobs, mothers carrying infants, all of them walking with
that same blank expression I saw on the agents I commanded.
But this is different. This is bigger, more coordinated, more
terrifying in its scope. How many do you think are
under the compulsion? I ask, my British accent, sounding fragile
in the face of such overwhelming supernatural power. Conservative estimate
quarter of a million people in Manhattan alone, Kai says, grimly,
adjusting the scope on what looks like a very non
standard rifle. And it's spreading Brooklyn, Queen's, even parts of
New Jersey. Anywhere with decent radio reception is being affected.
I watch a group of teenagers abandon their school bus
and join the procession. Their young faces, eerily serene as
they march toward whatever fate the Council has planned for them.
This is my fault, I whisper. If I hadn't awakened,
if I'd never started broadcasting, stop. Kai's voice carries that
listener authority, cutting through my guilt spiral. This was always
going to happen. The Council has been preparing for decades,
waiting for a siren powerful enough to serve as their
anchor point. If it wasn't you, it would have been
someone else, and they might not have had the strength
to resist. Resist what exactly, We still don't know what
they're actually planning. Kai points toward the WKNT building, where
I can see figures moving on the roof, tall ethereal
shapes that seem to phase in and out of visibility.
Look at the transmission array. I follow his gaze and
feel my blood run cold. The radio towers that normally
broadcast at modest power levels are now pulsing with energy
that's visible to the naked eye. Silver light courses through
the metal structures like veins carrying luminous blood, and the
air around them shimmers with heat distortion. They're not just
planning a broadcast. I realize they're building something a resonance amplifier.
Kai confirms. If they can get you to add your
voice to their frequency, they'll be able to reach every radio, television, smartphone,
and computer in North America, maybe further, and do what
rewrite the fundamental nature of human consciousness, turn everyone who
hears the broadcast into extensions of their collective will. The
scale of it is so vast I can barely comprehend it.
Not just New York, but the entire continent, possibly the
world transformed into a hive mind, controlled by beings who've
abandoned their humanity entirely. There has to be a way
to stop them. I say, your order trained, don't you
have weapons protocols something for a situation like this? Kai's
expression is grim our. Protocols for this scenario are direct
nuclear strike on the transmission point, followed by electromagnetic pulse
to disrupt any surviving supernatural frequencies that would kill everyone
in Manhattan, hence the last resort classification. Kai shoulders his
equipment pack, But there might be another way. The Council
needs your voice to complete their amplifier. They specifically called
you to the station that means they can't do this
without you, so we just don't go. If you don't go,
they'll send those quarter million people to bring you, and
when human shields don't work, they'll start killing them to
motivate you. Kai's voice is steady, but I can s
see the weight of what he's saying in his eyes.
They have all the leverage, Lyra, the only choice is
how we play the hand we've been dealt. I stare
down at the endless stream of people, seeing families torn
apart by compulsion, children separated from parents, chaos spreading through
the city like a supernatural plague, all because I answered
my phone eight hours ago, All because I trusted my
voice to the airwaves without understanding what I was. There's
something else, I say quietly. When I use the command
voice on those agents, when I made them forget, it
didn't feel wrong. It felt natural, powerful right. I look
at Kai, needing him to understand. What if the Council
is correct? What if trying to remain human is just
limiting what I could become? Kai goes very still. Are
you considering their offer? I'm considering survival, I say, honestly,
for all of us. If I have the power to
stop this, shouldn't I use it, even if it means
changing into what someone who thinks human lives don't matter,
someone who sees other people as tools to be manipulated.
Kai's voice is urgent now, and I can hear his
listener abilities, reading the undertones in my words, hearing things
I'm not even sure I'm thinking lyra Power without conscience
isn't power, it's tyranny. But power with too much conscience
is useless. I counter The White Siren fell because she
held back, because she tried to be human when she
was something more. Maybe if she'd embraced what she was,
she would have become exactly what the Council is now.
Kai interrupts, being so far removed from humanity that they
can orchestrate something like this without feeling any guilt about
the suffering they're causing. I want to argue, but looking
down at the controlled masses below, I can't. Whatever the
Council has become, it's not something I want to be,
but it might be something I need to become to
save everyone else. What if there's a third option, I ask,
What if instead of fighting them or joining them, I
use their own amplifier? Against them. Kai raises an eyebrow, explain,
they need my voice to complete their frequency matrix. Right.
What if I give it to them, but instead of
broadcasting their message, I use the amplifier to send a
different command, something that breaks their control instead of extending it.
That's Kai pauses, and I can see him working through
the implications. That's incredibly dangerous. You'd be putting yourself at
the center of a supernatural transmission array designed to reach
millions of minds. The power flowing through you would be
unlike anything any siren has ever attempted. Could it work?
Theoretically yes, you'd have access to more raw power than
the White Siren ever dreamed of. But the risk Kai
shakes his head. That level of energy could burn out
your mind entirely. Even if you survived, you might not
be human afterward. And if I don't try, then the
Council gets what they want and humanity becomes a collective
extension of their will. I stare at the WUKNT building,
where silver energy continues to build around the transmission array.
In a few hours, when the sun sets and atmospheric
conditions become optimal for long range broadcasting, they'll activate their
plan unless I stop them. There's something you should know,
I say quietly, about this connection. We have this frequency
matching between us. What about it? I can feel you, Kai,
not just emotionally, but literally, your presence in my mind,
the way your voice harmonizes with mine, the electromagnetic signature
of your listener abilities, it's all becoming part of my
baseline frequency. Kai goes very still. That's not supposed to
be possible. Nothing about me is supposed to be possible,
I point out. But it means that if I do this,
if I try to use the Council's amplifier, I won't
be facing it alone. You'll be there with me, anchoring
me to my humanity. Or I'll be pulled into the
transmission and burned out alongside you. Maybe, but maybe we'll
create something the Council has never seen before, a siren
who doesn't have to choose between power and humanity because
she's not carrying the burden alone. Kai stares at me
for a long moment, and I can see the internal
battle written across his features. Duty warring with love, training,
fighting with intuition, fear, competing with hope. You're asking me
to help you risk everything on a theory, he says. Finally,
I'm asking you to trust me the way I'm trusting you.
And if we're wrong, if this connection between us isn't
strong enough to keep you grounded, when you're channeling enough
power to reach millions of minds, then you do what
you are trained to do. I say, simply, you stop
the threat, even if the threat is me. The words
hang between us, like a challenge and a promise. Around us,
the city continues its supernatural evacuation, and I can feel
time running out with every synchronized footstep below. Okay Kai
says quietly, let's go save the world. We make our
way across the rooftops, moving towards the WKNT building through
a city that's become a surreal landscape of order and chaos.
The controlled masses move in perfect streams, but emergency services
are in complete disarray. Police sidneys wail uselessly as officers
abandon their posts to join the procession. Fire trucks sit
empty as firefighters march toward the radio district. How do
we get into the building, I ask, as we reach
the adjacent rooftop. I assume the council has some kind
of security. They do Kai says, pointing to figures stationed
around the building's perimeter. But look closely. I study the
guards and realize what he means. They're not supernatural beings.
They're humans under compulsion, standing motionless as statues, their faces blank,
but their postures alert. Controlled humans won't respond to normal
stealth tactics, Kai explains, but they will respond to a
direct command from a stronger, supernatural voice. You want me
to practice on them. I want you to understand what
you're capable of before you face the council directly. Kay
pulls out a device that looks like a radio but
clearly isn't. This will let me monitor your voice, track
the power levels and harmonic frequencies. Think of it as
training wheels for reality manipulation. I nod, feeling that strange
mix of terror and excitement that comes with approaching the
edge of a cliff. What do I tell them? Something simple,
make them sleep. I focus on the nearest guard, a
middle aged man in a security uniform who's been standing
motionless for hours. Taking a deep breath, I reach for
that place inside me where the command voice lives, Feeling
the power coil in my chest like a living thing. Sleep.
I whisper, putting intention and authority behind the word. The
effect is immediate. The guard's eyes close and he slumps
to the ground in what looks like natural sleep. Around
the building's perimeter, I can see other guards following suit,
their supernatural compulsion overridden by my more direct command. Power
level was moderate. Chai reports, checking his device, harmonic frequency stable,
no signs of reality distortion. He looks up at me
with something that might be pride. Your learning control faster
than should be possible, Maybe because I have a good teacher,
I say, and the words create that familiar resonance between us,
making the air shimmer with silver light. We repel down
the side of the building, entering through a window on
the studio floor. The WKNT building feels different than when
I left it this morning, charged with energy, humming with
frequency that make my teeth ache. The walls themselves seem
to pulse with power, and I can hear voices whispering
just below the threshold of perception. They're in the main
broadcast studio. I say, not sure how I know, but
certain nonetheless three of them, maybe four? And there I pause,
trying to interpret the sensations flooding through me. They're not
entirely here. Part of them exists in other dimensions. Can
you face them? I don't know, but I don't think
we have a choice. We make our way through corridors
that flicker between reality and something else, sometimes showing the
familiar WKNT offices, sometimes revealing spaces that seem to exist
in eternal twilight, filled with structures that hurt to look
at directly. The main studio has been transformed. Where my
familiar equipment once sat, there's now a complex array of
crystalline structures that pulse with that same silver energy I've
seen throughout the city. The transmission equipment has been rebuilt
into something that looks more like an altar than broadcasting gear,
and standing around it are three figures that make my
eyes water when I try to focus on them directly.
They're beautiful and terrible, retaining enough human shape to be recognizable,
but changed in ways that suggest they've transcended physical limitations.
Their voices, when they speak, come from everywhere at once.
Daughter of the White Siren, They say, in perfect unison,
you came. I came to stop you, I reply, my
voice automatically shifting into that compelling frequency. Did you or
did you come because you finally understand what you are.
The Council moves as one, and I can see that
they're not quite solid. Their edges blur into the air
around them, and shadows pass through their bodies like they're
made of mist. Feel the power building around you, Taste
the potential in the air. This is what you were
born for. And they're right standing in the center of
their transmission array. I can feel energy flowing through me,
unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's intoxicating, addictive, making every
cell in my body sing with possibility. I can make
you a god, the Council continues. Add your voice to ours,
and we will reshape this world into something worthy of
our attention. No more chaos, no more suffering, No more
individuals making choices that harm the collective good. No more
free will. I counter free will is an illusion that
causes only pain. We offer unity, purpose, perfection. I can
feel Kai behind me, his presence, a steady anchor in
the growing storm of power through our connection. I sense
his fear, not of the Council, but of the temptation
I'm facing. Because part of me, the part that's always
felt different, always felt like I was meant for something
more wants what they're offering. Show me, I say, lyra
Kai warns, but I can hear in his voice that
he understands. I need to know what I'm choosing. Between
the council smiles, and suddenly the array around me activates.
Power flows through my body like liquid lightning, connecting me
to every radio wave, every electromagnetic signal, every voice crying
out in the darkness. I can feel the minds of
everyone in the city, their thoughts and fears and dreams
laid bare before me, and I realize I could change
all of it with a single word. The homeless man
shivering in an alley downtown, I could give him warmth, shelter, purpose.
The woman crying alone in her apartment after losing her job,
I could erase her pain, fill her with contentment. The
teenager contemplating suicide on the Brooklyn Bridge. I could command
him to live, to find joy, to never hurt again.
I could fix everything. I could make everyone happy, safe, perfect.
All it would cost is their choice to be otherwise.
Now you see, the council whispers. Power is not just
about control, It is about responsibility. We do not rule
because we desire dominance. We rule because we alone have
the strength to make the difficult decisions, to spare humanity
the burden of choice. But you're not human anymore, I say,
And even as I speak, I can feel the Transmission
Array pulling at my consciousness, trying to merge me with
their collective will. You can't understand what you're taking away.
Understanding is limitation. We transcended understanding when we transcended mortality.
That's when I feel it. Kai's frequency joining mine, his
listener ability is creating a harmony that cuts through the
Council's influence like a blade through silk. Suddenly I can
think clearly again, can see the Array for what it
really is, Not a tool for healing the world, but
a trap designed to seduce me into willing transformation. You're afraid,
I realize the power all this talk about transcendence. You're
afraid of being alone. The Council's perfect unity waivers for
just a moment, and in that gap, I hear something
I wasn't expecting. Loneliness so profound it makes my chest ache.
We are complete, they say, but there are cracks in
their synchronization. Now you're isolated. I continue feeling Kai's presence
strengthening my resolve. You gave up humanity to gain power,
but power without connection is just elaborate imprisonment. We have connection.
We are one. You're an echo chamber. You're the same voice,
repeated until it becomes meaningless. I step forward, and the
eraised power flows around me instead of through me, my
connection with Kai creating a buffer against its influence. I
know what true connection feels like. It's not about controlling
someone else's thoughts. It's about choosing to harmonize with them
while remaining yourself impossible. Individual consciousness creates only conflict. Individual
consciousness creates growth, change, surprise, joy. I reach out through
our link, feeling Kai's mind touch mine. Two separate people
choosing to share strength without losing themselves. It creates love.
The word hits the council like a physical blow, and
their perfect formation staggers. For the first time since I've
seen them. They look genuinely afraid. Love is weakness, they say,
but the conviction is gone from their voices. Love is
what you gave up to become this, I reply, and
it's what I'm choosing instead. I open my mouth and
let my true voice fill the transmission array not the
command voice that compels obedience, but something deeper, the voice
that speaks truth, that creates connection, that says you are
not alone, you are valued, You have choices, You matter.
The array, designed to amplify supernatural compulsion, instead becomes a
conduit for something the Council never expected, free will offered
as a gift rather than obedience demanded as tribute. Across
the city, I feel the controlled masses stop walking, blinking confusion,
remember who they are. They're frightened, displaced, but they're themselves again.
The Council screams a sound that exists in dimensions beyond hearing,
and their forms begin to fragment, their collective will torn
apart by contact with something they can no longer understand.
This is not possible, they cry as they fade. This
is what you forgot was possible. I reply, Connection without control,
power shared instead of hoarded love that makes you stronger
by making you vulnerable. As their forms dissolve completely, the
last thing I hear from them is something that might
have been gratitude. The transmission array goes dark, its crystalline
structures crumbling to dust. The WUKNT studio returns to normal, battered,
changed but recognizably mine again. KI catch as I collapse
the effort of channeling that much power, leaving me drained
but whole. When I look up at him, I see
wonder and relief and something that might be love reflected
in his dark eyes. Is it over? I whisper? This
part is, he says, But I have a feeling our
story is just beginning. Outside. The sun is setting over Manhattan,
painting the sky in shades of gold and crimson. The
city is waking up from its supernatural sleep, people helping
each other find their way home, emergency services slowly restoring order.
And in a radio studio in Soho, two people who
found each other across impossible frequencies sit together in the
growing dusk, listening to the sound of a world choosing
hope over control, love overpower, connection over transcendence. There will
be questions to answer, reports, to file a new relationship
between the supernatural and human worlds, to navigate, But tonight
we simply hold each other and listen to the city
finding its voice again, one choice at a time.