Paralyzed (Tboah!AlbeCale)

17) Poor Hans needs a raise, especially bc of what will happen in the future.

It had been a few weeks since the bombing, and Cale was annoyed.

His arm was basically normal again, but still twitched every once in a while. It was also a little shakier than his other arm, and had a thin jagged scar around the area where it was first detached.

That was fine, he didn't really mind it. What was annoying was his eyesight.

Even with glasses, both of his eyes were almost always blurry. It was true that they had gotten better with time, but even that effect was starting to diminish.

It was also true that getting extra rest had helped them recover as well, but Cale's insomnia had started acting up again, as well as his hallucinations. The terrors were also blurred, but sometimes that made them even more frightening.

So, he got less sleep, and had to spend multiple hours a day with his eyes closed to render any sort of visible improvement.

Because of this handicap, he couldn't go anywhere. He was also unable to locate any nearby alcohol bottles, so he couldn't even drink his boredom away.

This led to him spending most of the day holled up in his bedroom, trying to fall asleep. It was more difficult than he first suspected.

His eating habits had suffered as well, as his appetite never really came back after seeing so much gore and experiencing such extreme stomach-flipping adrenaline rushes.

It was also hard to eat when you couldn't see anything, as it made the taste of the food seem less flavorful.

Overall, the eyesight was the biggest obstacle to his everyday lifestyle, but he had already persevered for three weeks anyway.

He dreaded every single moment of it. And so, another four weeks passed by.

Eventually his eyesight returned almost completely, but it was still worse than before the incident. He could focus on most large and medium sized things within a relatively far distance, but reading a small clock face from across the room was impossible.

And he had gotten used to it too. His life was finally beginning to look a lot more normal. Both physically and mentally.

Until he got a letter with the royal seal on it.

___

"... I don't really want to open it."

It had been sitting on his desk all day, untouched.

Cale had been sitting on his bed all day, unmoved.

He knew he shouldn't ignore it, since it was probably something important if the sender was royalty, but he had this nagging gut feeling that it would not be good news.

"Haaaa, seriously."

But what if it was something that he would get in bigger trouble for if he ignored it? His curiosity was also pushing him to open it, but that terrible foreboding feeling wasn't going away.

'Well, It's basically impossible to ignore, I should just rip it open all at once.'

Deciding to do it with no hesitation, Cale stood up and reached for it, then settled back on his bed.

He didn't have a letter opener because he never got any mail, let alone something from the palace, but he didn't need one anyway.

But as he opened it with his thumb, the edge of the paper caught his skin. The deep papercut stung and started bleeding, which in return caused his mood to sour even further.

"... Why does this feel like a sign from the gods? There's not an execution notice in here, right?"

But as he started to read the letter, he realized it was something much, much worse.