A/N: Sooo... I started writing this over on the Teen Wolf Kink Meme, but I didn't have the chance to finish it before they shut down the community. I've decided to transfer it on over and try to get it all worked out over here. ^^ I can't guarantee that the posting will be regular, but I do have plans for where this will go. So. Ya.
Erm, I've decided to go non-linear with this one, so paying attention to the number of days at the beginning of each chapter will help keep everything in perspective. All will be revealed eventually, so if you've got a burning question, odds are I'm writing it out, I just have a pretty specific order I want all these to be posted in. :)
Uh... Reviews are lovely! Please lemme know what you think.
It's been one year, three months, and sixteen days.
For the first time since the accident, when you wake up, the darkness doesn't surprise you. As you're dragged from the rolling mire of your dreams you open your eyes and there is nothing, but this time you don't rub at them, don't let out a few small tears because you'd momentarily forgotten.
Today you simply open them and think Damn. It's a Monday. You reach out for the bedside table and use it to pull your self up, counting the steps from there to reach the door and shuffle your way to the bathroom. It took several months to convince your dad that you could get in and out of the shower by yourself, even though you still occasionally misstep and bruise your knees.
The water feels so good against your body and you imagine the tension flowing out of your skin and dribbling down the drain- like ink seeping out of your pores before the water cuts through and washes it away. You're not sure if it's all in your head or something truly borne out of your condition, but everything else seems so much more... potent now.
Foods taste better, odors are sharper, sounds more distinct. And your sense of touch- everything's so much more complex than you ever knew. You've taken an interest in cataloguing all the different sensations out there- both as a way to fill the void of everything you've had to leave behind and as a way to make yourself more independent, able to handle your surroundings.
Because after a few months of wallowing in self-pity you'd visited your mother's grave, seeking solace in the way that it took and took and took as you said everything you couldn't to the people around you because they might not understand. It felt like you were bailing yourself out, so close to drowning. You'd found a kind of strength here once, and losing your sight as compared to losing her seemed to be less daunting. If you'd survived that, then you could certainly survive this.
So you made a resolution not to feel sad for yourself anymore, not to be that person everyone in town pitied, not to be weak.
Now you get up, get dressed, and walk to school all on your own. You eat, learn, play, not like before, but you appreciate the small things. At first Scott had had to take you by the arm and lead you about the town, every journey dangerous, every outing a chance to get hurt again. Your blue jeep sitting useless and forgotten on the side of the house and sometimes you climb inside just to breathe the memories back in and realize just how much it felt like your home away from home. But you try not to dwell on it, and now you've memorized every crack in the sidewalk, every dip in the asphalt, every jut of the buildings on the very specific routes you've designed to get to all the places you have to go on a regular basis.
You learned braille at an alarming rate, not wanting to rely on strangers when you were out and determined not to let your thirst for knowledge fall to the wayside. On that account the materials accessible to you have been severely limited, but the rising popularity of audio books has helped and you've found a few programs with varying success that read text to you.
Life went on, and you're determined to keep moving with it.
