i’ve always been told i like to speed through life, never stopping to take in my surroundings. this is so funny to me because from my perspective, i do take my time. it’s not my fault everyone else can’t seem to move any faster. even as far back as early childhood, i won every sports day race, was always the quickest to answer questions in class, and read books at what everyone else seemed to think was a quite unreasonable pace, so much so that they would start to test me on them to check if i was really reading and not just flipping through the pages. i’ve had people stare at me for minutes on end, eventually questioning after abnormal lengths of time why they hadn’t seen me blink. one thing i’ve never understood was sound, how everyone else could be around such large speakers all day and not start to feel nauseated at the constant low pitches erupting from them. i love making my own sounds, although everyone else can barely hear me sometimes, comparing my high notes to the squeak of a bat, short and high pitched enough to bounce off objects at ease.

it wasn’t until the day when i was walking through the rain however, that i realised something was off. i was minding my own business, dodging through the rain drops to stay dry, wondering why everyone else wasn’t doing the same, when i noticed that everyone in my vicinity had begun to blink in unison, the slow, methodic plodding of their eyelids began to startle me and i glanced around to check if anyone else had noticed this strange phenomenon. the people themselves seemed none the wiser. it wasn’t until the dark flashes started however that i began to worry, light would come, and as they all closed their eyes, darkness. the blinks became slower and slower until finally, they came to a stop. it was like watching a roulette wheel make its final rotation, praying for a good outcome, or like the seconds before a coin flip becomes conclusive, knowing that either result could make or break you.

flash…

flash………

flash…………….

and finally,

fla-……………………………….

darkness.

the wheel came to a stop.

the coin landed.

our fate was sealed.

their eyes never opened again, and i was destined to live out the rest of my painfully long life in darkness.