Silent Nightingale - Prologue

Her last note resonated. Thunderous applause raised all around her. She smiled and took a bow. She waved and smiled, took yet another bow.
After a while, the applause faded, slowly, and she turned away, still smiling. She had been standing right here on this stage so many times, singing in front of all those people. Being somewhat famous as a singer was her dream come true. 
It was raining outside when her parents drove home with her. These long concert nights made her really exhausted, in a good way, but tired. She usually fell asleep in the car on the way home, and so she did right after they left the lights of the town behind them. 
A terrible noise woke her up, followed by an enormous impact on her chest from the seatbelt. Something hit the back of her head, knocking her into unconsciousness. 

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times before she realised that she was staring at a clean white ceiling. Her head was aching and she contorted her face as she turned to the side to see the rest of the room. Something felt odd. 
She looked around. Hospital. There was an empty bed beside hers, a pale yellow blanket neatly folded on top of it.
She looked down on herself. IV drip. Oh how she hated those. It instantly started itching when she saw it. Right foot bandaged. Oh, wait, plastered. She draped the blanket to the side to see if it was just her foot or also her leg. Something about it felt odd.
She must have broken her leg. Car accident, right.
Her chest felt weird. Breathing felt weird. She carefully laid a hand onto her chest and pressed her fingers down lightly to feel along the row of ribs. Seemed to be okay, nothing broken here. Probably just a bunch of bruises. And those nasty little stickers and cables that connected her to the ECG. Her eyes followed the cables. How strange, she had always associated those with an annoying beeping sound, but this one was completely mute. It was -- odd. No... No. No! Her breathing became heavier. Her pulse increased. This couldn't.. it just..!
In horror, she realised that she hasn't heard a thing since she awoke. She didn't hear the shifting of her head on the pillow, didn't hear the IV drip streadily, couldn't hear the annoying sound of the ECG, she didn't even hear her own breathing or heartbeat. 
Disbelieving and shocked he tapped her ear with her fingers. Nothing. She opened her mouth to say something, right as the door opened and a young woman in white stepped in, a professional smile on her face. The doctor's mouth moved, but the girl didn't hear a thing. She guessed that the woman might have greeted her with a "good morning" or something like that. She didn't know what time it was. 
She just stared at the lady. She didn't dare saying a word. She wouldn't be able to take that she can't hear herself. Her own voice. She just stared at the woman, until she turned at the girl, tilting her head slightly as to ask something. She tried to read the doctor's lips. "Is something wrong?" Or something like that, she supposed.
She stared at her and pointed at her ear. She tried to speak, but wasn't brave enough to make a sound. She only moved her lips to say "I can't hear you."
Suddenly, when the dizzy cloud faded from Ariadne's head, another thought shot into her mind and her eyes widened in fear as she gushed: "Are my parents okay?"
The words sent vibrations through her bones, but she couldn't hear the slightest tone. Ariadne stared at the doctor's lips, her eyes pleading.

Happy New Year 2019!

Now that the new year is approaching, isn't it about time to reflect on this past year and make some new resolutions for the year yet to come?
Let me think about my resolutions for this year. 
Learning for the Abitur exams did work out very well. I passed with excellent grades, so I'd say I've completely stuck to this resolution.
I've tried to be nicer and more understanding, especially towards my parents, but it didn't quite go as well as I hoped it would. Just a few days ago I got really angry about someone's behaviour for example. I'd say there's still room for improvement here.
I haven't been able to spend much more time with my friends. I've had my first birthday party after years this year though (the last one was when I turned 10) and I've invited my friends from school. It was weird how our lives had already changed so drastically just a few months after we graduated and it was really nice talking to them all again.
I think I've spent a fair amount of time on sewing and crafting this year, although I probably should have spent a lot more time on that. I've made my first bralette this year, some interesting shopping bags (which I'm planning to make another bunch of soon), ... I bought a knitting machine, did some fun stuff with it (but I haven't really had the time and patience to continue for a while now). I think this year was somewhat crafty. My plan for 2019 is to craft a bit more during the phases at college, because I haven't really had any diversion.
I've done a lot more sports. I've done sit ups, push ups and crunches, starting with ten of each, increasing to a hundred a day over several weeks and continued to do a hundred of them until the end of June. After that, I confessed that it didn't have any positive impact on my weight or the way I felt and I stopped doing that because I hated it and it had made me feel anxious all day. I continued walking as many of my daily routes as I could though, for example to school or the grocery store. So that should be fine.
I've eaten slowly most of the time. This results in eating less and as soon as you've eaten less for a few weeks, it's okay for your body to demand less food. At least that's the theory. I lost about 7kg within the four months that I spent at college, but I gained three back immediately after returning home. I'm still having a hard time trying to eat less, it's really nasty that I'm always hungry..!

Summing it up, I think Ihve handled the resolutions for 2018 quite well. So let's see what I want to change in 2019!

I'll try to panick less because of exams. I can't go on like that for two and a half years until I'm finally done with all the exams forever.
I should try to think more positively about my future. Things will turn out to be good eventually. I've been thinking about starting a different course of studies, but that would mean that my first year at college would be wasted.
As I already said, I'll try to take my time to craft a bit more during college phases. Maybe it'll help manage my panic as well.
And of course I'll try to lose some weight, as always :D

So, that's my list of resolutions for 2019. I'm wishing you all a happy, healthy new year!