Paging calls sound through the building as I sit at a desk finishing the last batch of tests. It is a late Lab Technician shift inside the hospital, samples from patients are sent to the lab so I can process them for the nurses and doctors.

Wrapping up my work for the day, I busy myself cleaning the instruments so the lab will be ready for the next shift. From the lab window I can see into the dark night illuminated only by street lights. After this I will head home, wash up, and play some video games. I surround myself in biology, chemistry, and mathematics at work; at home I spend my free time playing Role Playing Games in fantasy worlds full of magic and monsters. Living in a digital world where I can raid dungeons, gather valuable loot, and craft great items is my escape from this world.

There is nothing wrong with this life of mine, I enjoy helping others, even if I provide indirect help. The work can be stressful and messy at times, so I enjoy my breaks. When I gather my things into a backpack I leave for the main door, I use this door since it faces the direction I walk home from. While I head for the door I see a young boy looking for something in the waiting area.

“Lost something?” I ask as I come close.

The boy turns to me, he is distressed and startled as I interrupt his deep thought, he replies, “My mom left her phone somewhere here.”

I drop onto my hands and knees to search under the chairs and benches when I see the phone, I am able to reach under the bench to grab it for the boy. It is also very dark outside by this late hour, so I ask the boy if his mother is close by. He replies that he does not live far and his mother is too tired from her rehab. He does not seem to mind being outside alone in the dark. However, I decide to stay close to the boy while we cross the parking lot. My home is in the same direction anyway. Outside, the parking lot is only lit by the lamp posts and the chilled air cools our breath into light fog. We walk onto the sidewalk, flanked by a pile of snow on one side and the road on the other.

The winter nights came earlier and the drop in temperature began to freeze the water on the roads. I take care to watch my steps and avoid slipping and falling, some salt was spread over to help melt the ice where it was building up. Just as I begin to think about the ice on the roads a car slips and loses control. Sliding sideways, the vehicle hits the curb of the sidewalk and rolls into the electric pole.

I hear the twang of a wire snapping as it wriggles and writhes towards the ground, a live wire. I grab the boy from behind and throw him onto the snow pile, it is the quickest thing that comes to mind for him to be safe from the deadly current. I glance a look as the wire falls across my face and onto the icy and wet sidewalk. The surge of pain is quick and everything becomes black.

Gasping for air I awake, coughing fluid out to let in the dry air through deep breaths, my eyes sting from the light, and I am wrapped tightly up. I can only recall faint memories of being surrounded by warmth without being able to see anything. Before that, only a faint dream remains of a world I feel familiar with. Now, with hazy eyes I see the light as if it is new to me; I feel myself held in tender arms as if I was never held; and I hear noise in my ears as if I had never heard.

I feel alive again.