I'll Blindly Follow Your Voice ~l.s~

~ 1 ~

TW: car accident, anxiety, hints of eating disorders

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The world has been silent for a long time. He misses the sound birds chirping while he walks to school in the morning. He misses the sound of the leaves crunching underneath your shoe in the fall. He misses the faint whistle of the wind and the barking of the neighbor's annoying dog and even his alarm clock. Who thought Harry would ever miss the blaring sound of an alarm clock. He will never get used to how quiet life is now.

Eight years ago today Harry's life changed. Harry lost his hearing in a car crash. When the car crashed, 8-year-old Harry was extremely hurt and his ears were severely damaged causing him to become deaf. Looking back at that day, Harry is lucky to still be alive and have all his limbs. It is funny to Harry how he can still remember every detail about that day even this many years later. I guess trauma really does stick with you.

"Harry hurry up we're going to be late to the doctor!" His mum, Anne, yelled from the garage.

Ironic, they were going to the ear doctor, you know the one who makes sure you can hear the funny sounds through those earphones that have been on countless people's heads.

Little Harry rushedly tied his favorite pink converse shoes that were 2 sizes to big for him because his mom liked to buy all their shoes bigger than they needed. The shoelaces were too long and Harry still struggled with tying them. Give him a break he is only 8. He nearly tripped down the stairs as he ran down them, quickly grabbing a raincoat. It was another rainy day in London, but honestly most days this time of the year were rainy.

As they sat in the car on the way to the doctor's office Harry ran his finger down the windowpane, tracing the raindrops as they raced each other. On the radio was "How to Save a Life" by The Fray. It had just come out so it was all over the radio stations in England. His mum was grumbling about late fees and how now she was speeding and how she is probably going to get a ticket from those cameras at intersections. Little did she know that was not the worst of her worries.

Anne turned around to yell at Harry about how he took too long picking out his outfit and how now they were going to be late. In the split second that she took her eyes off the road she missed how the traffic light quickly changed from red to yellow to green. She missed the headlights of the oncoming truck that soon struck the car and caused it to roll. Harry still remembers the loud honk of that red truck and the screams of his mum and the car alarms blaring and the quick poof of the airbags and the shattering of the glass. Those things were the last things Harry ever heard besides the downpouring of the rain on the asphalt road.

Harry shot up out of his bed in a cold sweat, his heart still pounding and his brain still racing with the fear that he had felt that day. This was a reoccurring nightmare for Harry but what was worse about these dreams than the actual crash, was that in these dreams he couldn't hear anything. He was stuck in his body observing the scene. He watched as his younger self messily tied his shoes and ran down the stores tugging his coat over his shoulders. His eyes would tear up over how in less than an hour his childhood innocence would be gone - along with all the sounds around him. His mum would be racing down the road and Harry would sit in the passenger seat trying to calm her down, but of course, she can't hear him. As the car was hit he would scream... not out of pain, but anger at his mum, anger at the stupid driver of that stupid red truck, anger at the universe for taking away his hearing.