Short stories

Prompt 2

You, secretly a telepath, lose a loved one. Describe what it feels like to no longer hear their thoughts.

My mind was cold. Not a freezing, bitter, winter like cold, more like if you've left your tea or coffee on the side for too long, and the horrid taste when you drink it, instead of warmth and comfort, it's cold and horrible.

My ability was a fun one. I could always tell what she was thinking, whether she wanted me to or not. Of course, if I knew she didn't want me invading, I respected her privacy enough to not interfere, but it always put a smile on her face when she came home late from work to see exactly what she had wanted for dinner already cooked and waiting for her. The wonder at first, before remembering my talent and laughing, saying thank you before tucking in.

I was smiling for the first time in days. Since the phone call from the hospital. Whilst she was lying there, bedridden in a coma, I tried to reach her mind, to save her from the cage. But she was in a soundproof room, and despite how loud I shouted, and how hard I knocked on the glass, she couldn't hear me.

I wondered what she thought then. Being hit by that reckless driver, being in that pain, being confined to her own mind. I couldn't tell, and I felt helpless, powerless. I wondered what the driver thought, if they knew the pain they had caused both her and me. I would never know.

My mind was cold, frozen. I longed for the warmth of her mind, her thoughts lighting up mine like sparks, or fireflies in the night. I longed for the heat of the fire that glowed when she was passionate, and the calm, joyful flames when she was happy. I longed for the embers when she was sad, the roaring blaze when she was angry.

I longed for the fire inside my mind to be lit once again.