Gianni Rinaldi's Rune of Resilience

Gianni Rinaldi sat on the edge of his bed, staring at an invitation to a party. His phone vibrated for what seemed like the hundredth time that day, but he couldn't answer it. He didn't even want to move from where he was sitting.

The calendar on his wall showed it was still 2013, but he had no idea if that was true anymore.

Gianni's head throbbed from all the noise and commotion outside his home. The loud music, the shrieking laughter, the clinking glasses; it was everywhere. It had been going on for days now and he barely ate or slept anymore because of it.

He hated parties, always had. He'd tried to go to a few as a kid, back when his legs worked right and he could keep up with everyone else. But Gianni never fit in. People would make fun of him behind his back or straight up tell him they thought he was weird.

"Who invited the cripple?" they'd say, or "Is that kid even retarded?" or "If you're going to be that way about it, I'm not hanging out with you today." They were just jokes, but Gianni took them seriously and never went back again.

He stared at the invitation again as though it would help him make a decision about whether or not to go. It wasn't really an invitation anyway; more like a flyer someone had scrawled on and left at the front door of his building with the others from other tenants who were throwing parties themselves this evening. It showed a picture of two people making out beside a word bubble that read "wet pussy." The rest of the flyer was covered with words and drawings of various colors and styles: pyrotechnics, free food, dancing girls, live music—the works. And then there was a small note at the bottom which read: Gianni Rinaldi is INVITED!!! Let's make this one special! Everyone bring your friends—we'll have so much fun! Can't wait to see you there! Signed: Tristano Cianciolo & Vito San Gennaro & Richardo Pignatelli & Maria Aldana & Luigi Spagnoli & Giuseppe Tortelli & Luca Narducci & Paolo Candido & Beppe Derossi & Domenico Maglietta & Eleonora Costanzi & Donatella Michelini & Juan Carlos Gutierrez & Alessandra Delucchi —Proudly Sponsored by SHERLOCK GOES TO THE BEACH (SGTB) Inc.,

A smile crept onto Gianni's face and he put the flyer down next to him on his bed. Then he turned over and buried his face in his pillow as though trying to sleep again and forget about everything going on around him. There were too many people outside; too much noise; too much partying; too many sounds reminding him of better times—the times before everything changed forever after that terrible accident...

*

Before he knew what was happening, Gianni felt himself being thrown from his seat in class into somewhere dark and cold. He heard someone screaming in agony somewhere close by and then felt something heavy land on top of him as everything went suddenly silent...