Sound.

Waking up, sonic felt pressure around his head, it was no ordinary headache. It was so pronounced and almost felt external - like cotton buds pressing against his temples. His mum’s voice which called out “you are going to be late” seemed muffled compared to the usually shrill. It has been this way for recent mornings.

Morning bath, the first activity of the day. He was extremely careful not to wash his hair and head, and he sidestepped from the rain shower to precisely catch the water with his torso. He did this to avoid it getting wet. It that was hurting his head and was causing him to hear whispers instead of noises that is. Surprisingly, like in recent showers, he managed to keep it dry. Stepping out of the shower, he dried himself and stepped out, and faced a puzzling look from his mum’s face. He nodded.

Slurping down his breakfast of cereal and milk, it seemed to intensify the noises coming from his internals - his teeth grating against the cereal bits and laboured breaths as he gulped down his food to avoid being late for regimented labor.

He stepped out of home and walked down a slope which had a travellator-isque contraption that linked him from his house door to the MRT- madly rapid transport. He checked his watch and thought - oh jolly, I have 10 minutes to travel from Bartley residential district to Kent Ridge Valley, which was just the hottest startup region in greater Asia. The dysfunctional university previously had given way for a better purpose he thought, and chuckled. The madly rapid train would get him there in just under 7minutes and a half. He might just make it in time to serve UDL - universally distributed labor.

Upon reaching the station, he surveyed his surroundings. There were many other singatopian folk. He observed them to be staring blankly ahead, and it was a familiar sight. The so called smartphones that once eventually made everyone develop severe neck deformation - claimed to be the most rampant illness of the 2030 had given way to the glasses of today, or I-visors they call it, for they block distractions of the world from people, or perhaps block people from the world. They also seemed like they were in pain. From the scrounging of their faces, maybe it was giving them the same pain as what he felt. His train of thought paused as a train arrived. It was sleek and filled with leather seats, and it was luxury that he and everyone was now used to. Stepping on board the train, he plopped into his seat and glanced around, and figured that he had not disturbed the peace in the carriage for the other passengers were looking blankly ahead. “Possibly catching the latest episode of the Brooklyn 1999 series” he thought to himself. It was a program that was streaming on the global television network NetflixBO. As routine called for it, sonic’s hand gravitated towards his visor and powered it on, and feeling nostalgic, he selected Pokémon in 4D.

Just as 4D Charlizard disobeyed poke master Ash and blew red flames at him, or sonic in this case, as most 4D series now come with AR in first person perspective, ’Maybe not today’ he thought to himself and switched off his visor. Blinking his eyes, he focused back onto the blank expressions of his fellow passengers. The monotony of the electronic drone of the train bothered him, although it was designed to be meditative to encourage spiritual self awareness of citizens. Wasn’t it supposed to cancel out noises?

The song that had been playing in his head stopped all of a sudden. And just as suddenly as it stopped, the pressure on his temples intensified. Brrr brr brrr, the electronic rumblings of the madly rapid train traveling at 200kmph added to the aching of his temples. The rumblings had to be at the damned resonant frequency of his head he thought. Sonic gripped his head harder and he felt like tearing it apart - all that pressure, all that muffled sounds, all that noiseless noise. He looked around and all were oblivious to his plight, as he clutched against his temples and curled up in agony in his seat. Stop! He screamed inside, and he was sure no one heard it, for that damned device everyone wore on their heads. Not the visors, but the other one. With all his might he ripped it off, and for once in a long while, the pressure lifted, and there was beautiful, vibrant, reverberating sound.