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The Listener: A Short Story
She listens for a living. He speaks without words. Together, they awaken a truth neither wants to face.
Burned-out therapist Dr. Mara Lewis is known for her quiet intuition—an uncanny ability to hear what clients don’t say. But her last appointment of the day is different. He’s a silent, non-verbal man who communicates only through a series of disturbing, beautiful drawings.
What begins as a clinical exercise becomes something far more unsettling when Mara realizes that the trauma he sketches mirrors her own. Not metaphorically. Exactly. Line for line. Memory for memory.
As their sessions deepen, the boundary between therapist and patient dissolves, revealing a connection Mara cannot explain—and a past she can no longer outrun.
The Listener is a haunting, introspective psychological story about communication beyond words, unseen connections, and the long shadows cast by grief. Blending contemporary literary fiction with subtle supernatural realism, this story explores the emotional landscapes that exist beneath silence.
For readers who love emotionally rich narratives, atmospheric contemporary fiction, and quiet ghost stories without horror—this book will break your heart and gently mend it.
N.B. This is a short story told from a first-person point of view.
Burned-out therapist Dr. Mara Lewis is known for her quiet intuition—an uncanny ability to hear what clients don’t say. But her last appointment of the day is different. He’s a silent, non-verbal man who communicates only through a series of disturbing, beautiful drawings.
What begins as a clinical exercise becomes something far more unsettling when Mara realizes that the trauma he sketches mirrors her own. Not metaphorically. Exactly. Line for line. Memory for memory.
As their sessions deepen, the boundary between therapist and patient dissolves, revealing a connection Mara cannot explain—and a past she can no longer outrun.
The Listener is a haunting, introspective psychological story about communication beyond words, unseen connections, and the long shadows cast by grief. Blending contemporary literary fiction with subtle supernatural realism, this story explores the emotional landscapes that exist beneath silence.
For readers who love emotionally rich narratives, atmospheric contemporary fiction, and quiet ghost stories without horror—this book will break your heart and gently mend it.
N.B. This is a short story told from a first-person point of view.
35 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 16, 2025
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