Chapter 86.

When I finally heard my intersection called amidst all the background noise, I immediately reached out into the darkness to my side and pulled on where I assumed the cable was located.

Once the rocky platform below my feet no longer disintegrated behind me, I pushed out with my hand against the door concealed within the darkness. I jumped off the bus when the door opened up then struggled through the darkness and somehow made my way back to my apartment by relying on my memories of the geographic area. I counted my steps carefully and made sure each step I took was evenly spaced apart in case I had to do this again in the future.

I took the stairs to make sure I was on the correct floor and counted the doors by touching the walls by my side. When I finally returned to my unit, I collapsed onto the floor from mental exhaustion. I was mentally taxed and fatigued to an unbelievable extreme after only a single day of this hell where I could no longer see the world around me.

I made the day sound simple and easy, but it was a truly horrifying experience I didn’t want to go through again. I didn’t have the strength to make it to the bed and I passed out on the ground at the entrance.

When I eventually regained consciousness, I immediately asked Siri for the time and found I’d been out for a solid ten hours already. I was now both starving and weak. Using the little strength I had, I made my way to the kitchen and felt around inside the freezer and found a frozen TV dinner. To my dismay, I still couldn’t see a single thing, but I still somehow successfully popped it in the microwave and heated it up. When I took it out of the microwave, I got a whiff of the smell and it left my mouth watering just thinking about biting into its tendery goodness.

I didn’t hold back, I immediately grabbed a plastic fork from the cupboard and bit down into the fried chicken breast. With my other four senses heightened I expected it would taste even better than ever; however… nothing. I bit down a second time thinking I’d just been mistaken. Once again, there was not even the slightest taste.

The tiny pleasure I had derived from the thought of satiating my hunger was suddenly robbed from me. The small smile that bloomed on my face from the simple act of eating a meal slowly disappeared as a new fear crept into my mind. If I lost two senses, what would stop me from losing more? I broke out into uncontrollable trembling.

Despite now being aware of this possibility, I had no way to stop it. I wracked my brain for several hours, but it was to no avail. In no time at all, it was already time for my shift at work again. I contemplated asking for some time off, but even if I sat around at home, there wasn’t anything I could really do here.

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I’m not some sort of mad scientist who can give senses back to someone who has lost them through some random invention I cook up in a day. I didn’t have any sort of mystical ability like that. I was just a normal man who had some experience in the field of electrical engineering, that was all.

Even if I could make something, without the ability to see it, I’d be completely powerless to create anything that would be useful to the immediate crisis I faced. I may still be able to move around by memory for the time being, but creating something new that I can use requires me to see what I am doing with fine precision. If it were any of my other senses I lost first, I might have stood a better chance. As things stood, I could only play the waiting game and see what happened tomorrow.

Dejectedly, I followed the path that I painstakingly mapped out the day before in my mind and took the bus to work again. It was another day where I barely scraped through without anyone noticing anything was off. Sadly, I didn’t run into boss today, so it was another day spent completely alone in the emotionless empty void.

When I arrived home, I was exhausted once again, but this time I at least made it to my bed and collapsed on top of it. As I laid there motionless on my bed, I caught a hint of a familiar scent that somewhat put me at ease. It was the one that I smelled on my bed when I first woke up and discovered Boss using the shower in my apartment yesterday. As time slowly ticked forward, my anxiety was soothed by her lingering scent.

Before I completely passed out, I prayed deep down in my heart that my hunch was wrong and when I woke up the hallucination would come to an end. The night passed and morning arrived soon after. 

When I opened my eyes, the world was still an empty void and I still couldn’t taste the inside of my mouth.

The scent that still lingered previously which kept me calm throughout the night was also gone.

I really was being picked apart one sense at a time after all. Why though? Why me? Unable to find any sort of reason, I curled myself up into a ball on the bed and buried my head in my arms. Just like the day before, I thought, and I thought, overall the possibilities, until I was brought back to reality when my alarm went off again.

It was already time for work before I knew it. I felt a dreadful weight that bore down on my body when I stood up from the bed. Continuing through another day of this was truly unbearable to the point I once again considered skipping out on work. Despite how I felt, I forced myself to get to work regardless of my circumstances.

Only two senses remained. I knew I was in deep trouble if I lost another. I was on my last leg and I knew I had to depend on someone if I wanted to survive like this. Thus, when I arrived at work, the first thing I did was seek out the familiar figure of that boss of mine, the woman who’d recently been deeply engraved into my memory. For some reason, she was the only one I could still see in this world. I didn’t know why that was the case, but right now, she really was my only lifeline remaining.