Day 17: What i really am

Said was about to enter the room.
Just then, a sound stopped him.

“…Sally’s mother…” he barely heard.

The noise came from Kam’s room. It was a halting whisper, like a conversation held back behind a poorly closed door.
Said frowned slightly, but didn’t stop.

It wasn’t the moment to intervene.
He continued on his way, avoiding any trouble.
Even so… that little detail…

Would be useful later.

Said entered quietly. He approached the bed and gently took her hand, transferring energy so he could communicate.

“I’m back,” Said said in a soft tone.

“…Are you still feeling that pain in your head?”
“Not as much anymore,” Sally replied, only in her mind.

Said gave a faint smile.
“That’s good. I’ll try not to let the energy exhaust your brain.”

“Let’s continue,” he said.
“Let’s do it,” she replied.

This time, Said released a larger amount of energy. He had to be precise: too much concentrated in her brain could cause a stroke. Worse yet, her body couldn’t fully release it.

He tried distributing it through other parts of her body, but without warning, the energy began to gather in her hair.

The pallid white gradually deepened into a dark violet, as if returning to its original color.

Inside Sally’s mind, everything began to shatter.

Fragments. Images. Voices. Feelings.
A tide of memories crashed over her like an uncontrollable current.

“Sally, can you see anything?” Said asked.

No answer.

Sally’s brain was busy processing, organizing, and storing all that information.
Said lowered the energy, reducing the intensity.

“Were you able to see more than yesterday?” he asked.

Sally took a mental breath.

“Yes…” she finally replied. “But I felt something different, like I could sense a specific spot inside my head. The memories… felt more real.”

Said remained silent. He let her continue.

“What I saw…” she began. “I was in class. No one talked to me. They bullied me for being poor.”

Every day was the same: hits, mocking… at school and at home.

Her mental voice trembled, but she kept talking.

“It felt like an endless loop. But one day, a boy came close to me. He asked if I wanted to play with him. I said yes.”

In her memory, Sally saw the small console the boy pulled from his backpack.

“He showed me the games he had… and how to play them. I asked him why he approached me, but he didn’t answer. When I saw his arms, I understood he was also being hurt… I didn’t say anything. We just played.”

A warm sensation crossed her mind.

“From that day on, my love for videogames set an irreversible path for the eight-year-old me. We used to go to the Gaming Center to play. Sometimes we didn’t go home… playing was escaping. The pain disappeared.”

“At nine, I discovered how to stream. I played and streamed every day. My accounts grew little by little. One follower helped me with monetization… I couldn’t receive payments under my name. She did it for me. She could’ve stolen everything, but she didn’t. She was a good person.”

Sally felt the weight of that memory again.

“At fifteen, when I was in high school… I ran away from home. I couldn’t take it anymore. With the money I earned, I bought a duplex. I finally felt safe. I moved away from the things that hurt me.”

She paused.

“But the damage was already done. I lost interest in many things. I only wanted to play, stream… and look at nature. I loved nature. But I also became addicted to videogames and the internet. Deep inside… I felt bored, sad… tired of life.”

Her inner voice faded into a quiet melancholy.

Said released her hand.
The energy was healing Sally.

Then, a voice whispered in her mind:
“You’re doing well.”