Winter was an annoying season. Oh, it wasn't the cold, I loved it, what was annoying however was all of the muffled sounds, as if I was constantly wearing earplugs. It made walking outside really uncomfortable, my father compared this feeling to 'auditory fog', and from the description of fog I've got, that seems pretty accurate.
At least I can't get snow blindness. People like to say that snow is the opposite of what I always see, but they don't know the difference between black and nothingness. I've never been able to see, so maybe I am seeing black, but... I doubt a 'color' can make you feel such dread. I've gotten used to it, of course, but sometimes, while trying to sleep, I can feel it reaching towards me. I've been informed that it's not normal, in the meanwhile. I guess I'm special.
I wish I never found out just how special.
It was a normal grocery run, I've walked that route hundreds of times. I knew every dent in the road, rock, and sound. So, the moment I heard the skidding of tires on the wet, slippery street, I knew what was coming, and tried to jump out of the way, but the car was faster than my reflexes.
Everything after that was a blank, I must have been knocked out. The next thing in my memory is suddenly waking up, flushed with sweat on a bed, my limbs unable to move and incapable of hearing everything. Someone notices me quickly and writes something on my body.
[YOU'RE SAFE]
That was... weird. That was braille, not a lot of doctors knew it, surprisingly, and considering the crash...
'Mom?' I will myself, unable to know whether I spoke them out loud or not.
[IT'S ME]
That's... calming.
'My hands... my feet... I can't...'
I can feel the hands on top of me, my mom didn't know what she was supposed to tell me, or how to break the news to me. She'd start writing something before changing her mind. But, that was more than enough for me to figure out what had happened.
'It's ok... I know.'
My arms... my legs... my hearing, I've lost them all. How was that possible? How!? It was a car crash, for god's sake!
When I finally calmed down a doctor had made its way to the room, and thankfully informed me of what had happened. It was... even more confusing. They were unable to find the culprit or any shrapnel, although my wounds suggested an extreme amount of them. I was also in a very critical condition, I almost didn't make it due to a hemorrhagia and was in a coma for a week.
Whatever happened, it was almost as if all of the shrapnel from the crash entered my body, before being extracted carefully, leaving me in an even worse condition as nothing kept the wounds from bleeding any more.
The entire situation was... I don't even know how to call it, it doesn't feel real. How do I even know if I'm awake? Maybe this is just a dream, and I never woke up from the coma... maybe that would be better.
A few hours later, as it was getting late, I was again left alone, except for the nurses who would come maintain all of the machinery and IVs connected to me. I had lost a lot of blood. Perhaps that's a contributing factor to all of my feelings.
The worst part, it was harder to get tired. I sat all day, with barely any external stimuli, so I was left only to whatever my mind could conjure... so I tried to have some 'fun'. I remembered all kinds of stories that I'd read online, back in a phase of mine where I'd sit around for hours just finding a forum and turning the phone narrator on, listening to all of the ramblings people wrote. There was a lot of interesting stuff there, especially in the STEM field, it turns out people didn't care that much about safety when using their Ph.D. for their hobbies.
And then there's the supernatural. Some people would spend years crafting their own specific world or magic system, not even for a project, but to live through it. I've learned a lot about all of the types of magic, psychic powers, and sorcery, so... what better time to try those than now?
And so it began. For hours on end, I'd simply try and reach out with my consciousness, to see if I felt anything. When that didn't work, I tried reaching inside, trying to urge some mystic power inside of me to awaken. It was fun, especially when I found out I could make my body feel tingly, hotter, or colder, by catching onto those feelings as they randomly pop up. The placebo effect sure is strong.
Then, on the 4th day, the feeling... changed. It was a gradual, qualitative change. Inside of my body, I could feel a small but powerful energy. It was smaller than a fingernail, but ignoring it would be similar to trying to ignore the feeling of holding something. It wasn't corporeal, I could actively move that energy throughout my body, but undoubtedly, it was there.
That... gave me hope. Maybe there's magic out there. Maybe, somehow, I've unlocked psychic powers.
Maybe, I could get my revenge.