VOICE

Escaping into the forest, he met the isolation of night- blind in the darkness, deaf in the silence. The piercing chill of the air bit viciously against his skin. The wind was not light as a gentle embrace yet not harsh like the fury of a storm. This wind was present but selfish as it watched, almost amusingly, from afar.

(Sound of wind rustling leaves is accompanied by owl sounds.)

VOICE

He gasped for air but did not receive the relief he wanted. It scraped along his throat, clawed against his lungs, begging to get out, and choked him in its desperation.

(Sound of wind slowly grows louder.)

VOICE

All he could do was clasp his hands against his throat. He opened his mouth, wanting to scream, but all that came out was-

(Cough)

VOICE

(Clears throat) Where was I...? Oh right. He opened his mouth, wanting to scream, but all that came out was-

(Another cough, now harsher.)

VOICE

Are you okay? Drink some water. Wait, is your mic- Dammit. Your mic's on, Andy. You keep forgetting to turn it off.

ANDY

Sorry, Cal. I guess I got a sore throat after staying up practicing my voices.

CAL

No, yeah, I noticed you made that, uh, owl noise instead of our stock audio. Let's just... stick with the stock one until you get better at it.

ANDY

And I thought I was getting the hang of it... I'm aiming for a great horned owl, but I keep sounding like a great grey owl instead.

CAL

And you're getting there. At least you got the "great" part right, yeah?

NARRATOR

We begin this story not lost in the woods but in a small recording studio. This studio, rented cheaply by the hour because of its old HVAC system and older recording equipment, was occupied by two men.

NARRATOR

The voice from the beginning was Peter Callahan-Jang, or simply Callahan- his first last name. He believed the name makes the person, and he didn't want to be a Peter but a Callahan.

CALLAHAN

I realized both of our mics were on the entire time. (Clears throat) Audio note to remove conversation in the recording. We apologize for that detour there folks. Just know that we strive to bring only the best stories to the 37-

ANDY

36. We have 36 live listeners. Wait, nevermind. It's 35 now.

NARRATOR

And the second part of the pair is Andrew M. Barrett. He doesn't have any self-proclaimed nicknames, however, Andrew enjoys the nickname Callahan gave him as he has always been an Andrew until he met Callahan.

CALLAHAN

Really? Do you think it was the owls? I think it was the owls.

ANDREW

You're probably right. Some people don't like owls.

CALLAHAN

I don't blame them. They can rotate their heads almost entirely. Sure, you can avoid a stab in the back, but that shouldn't be natural.

ANDREW

Yes... although... they're from nature...

CALLAHAN

(Sighs) Great, I need to do this again. Audio note to remove this conversation- Andy, we should start writing these times down, or else you'll miss editing them out.

NARRATOR

Andrew has in fact not been editing the recordings, a responsibility he had only recently received from Callahan.

ANDREW

Yes... that would help... when I edit the recordings... like I always do...

(Pause of silence)

CALLAHAN

You haven't been editing the recordings at all, have you?

ANDREW

I always thought you did... I just upload them after you email me the file.

CALLAHAN

This explains why you always upload them fast. Well... we should get back to the story for the 35-

ANDREW

34.

CALLAHAN

-34 listeners we have left. Hopefully, we'll still be above 30 by the end of the program.

NARRATOR

This program Callahan is referring to is Between the Lines, a storytelling podcast he created three years ago. His work of writing and narrating original stories led to the 37, or well, 34 live listeners tuned to his program today.

NARRATOR

Despite this, if Callahan was anything, he was confident, borderline arrogant... maybe just arrogant. Having attended a well-known university double majoring in journalism and creative writing did nothing as he juggled between unemployment and part-time employment. But he always saw the experience as good material for his biography in the 'before the fame' section.

(Background music is accompanied by sounds of a fire blazing.)

CALLAHAN

Suddenly, he felt only fire. Every inch of skin was being scorched down to the bone. He felt he was engulfed in flames even though there was no light in the forest as even the moonlight could not pierce through its dense branches.

CALLAHAN

Collapsing to the ground, tears blazed trails down his face. He wanted to cry out against the smoke in his throat. This paint. All he could feel was paint- Wait. Paint?

(Background music stops.)

ANDREW

That's my bad, Cal. Long night. Pain. Paint. I should've drunk that cup of tea after all.

CALLAHAN

Andrew, you've done a lot for this podcast in the past 8 months-

ANDREW

11 months.

CALLAHAN

-since you've been here.

ANDREW

(Chuckling) I know it was rough in the beginning since I never worked on a podcast before, but I'm really glad-

CALLAHAN

So do me a favor and stop messing things up so you can make it to a full year, alright?

NARRATOR

Some would say that Andrew degraded himself working in this podcast, and they would be right. Andrew was not someone who just arrived at Callahan's doorstep, although that was what Callahan believed. As a theater major now working for a small but known production company, he has experience in a variety of roles from directing to stage-management. In short, he was overqualified- a fact he makes sure Callahan does not know.

CALLAHAN

You can't keep using your job as an assistant stagehand as your crutch.

ANDREW

I-I know... I'm sorry. You've put a lot of faith in me and-

CALLAHAN

Don't be sorry.

ANDREW

Thanks, Cal, I-

CALLAHAN

-be better.

NARRATOR

One would wonder why Andrew still works with Callahan. Andrew graduated from the same university that Callahan had attended but not graduated from. It's actually quite the story, making Callahan infamous on campus to this day. What happened was-

CALLAHAN

In his blurred vision, he saw a figure in the distance. But no... she should be dead. After all, he killed her. He killed her when he couldn't save her in that fire. Is that what this all was? His punishment?

CALLAHAN

For a moment, he wanted to fight it, but he realized it was only futile. He had to accept it. As a rookie firefighter, he only assisted his seniors, the real heroes. But when he recklessly entered a fire, he hesitated because of his fear of dying.

CALLAHAN

As he watched the tips of his fingers begin to turn to ash before being carried out by the wind, he suddenly felt peace among the pain and closed his eyes. He did not know exactly how he died, just that he did, and he only hoped, prayed, that he did not hesitate and that it was to exchange his life for another.

CALLAHAN

While his mind was in this trapped existence, his actual body was in the remains of a burned-down house. Suddenly, a small hand pushes itself out of the debris from underneath the body, and the wind carried both ash and the weak cry for help.

(Background music fades out.)

CALLAHAN

Thank you for listening to "The Fire in the Heart, the Smoke in the Lungs". As excited I am to do our review for our fourth season's first episode, we should first hear from our sponsor-

ANDREW

No, most of our listeners leave after the story. We need to make our announcement.

CALLAHAN

Wait, they do?

ANDREW

On our next episode, we're going to have a special guest-

CALLAHAN

A guest? I don't remember agreeing to this.

ANDREW

You did though. After our last episode, we went out for drinks and-

CALLAHAN

Andrew, you should know by now that I say yes to anything after my fourth vodka cranberry.

ANDREW

But it's already been set into our story and schedule. We're still limited because we don't have anyone to play female characters. You explained you can break your vocal cords, and while I'm still working on it, I'm still just a tenor and-

CALLAHAN

Then who is it?

ANDREW

She actually went to our university. It's... Delilah Lynch!

NARRATOR

Callahan knew about Delilah Lynch as every alumni and non-alumni from their university would. However, what struck him was not the fact she would grace their podcast with her visit, but that Andrew was inviting her. That meant they had a relationship, a very special relationship. And for some reason, Callahan did not like that one bit.

CALLAHAN

(Through gritted teeth) And now... a word from this episode's sponsor.

________________________

This was my entry for the Wattpad x Mediacorp Podcast Writers' Competition! I couldn't decide on what genre to do so I decided on using this format instead. I wanted to push my writing abilities in creating these very short stories in a range of genres (sci-fi, comedy, mystery, romance, adventure, etc) all while having a different story, a plot, at the same time.

As you have noticed, the chapter's title is actually the podcast's episode story title. Also, the soundwave on the cover is actually just me saying the word "between the lines"- pretty cool huh?

I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading it. I had to sacrifice a lot of good parts to keep it under the 1500 word limit, but I still had fun writing it!

Rubix