Snowy Hallucinations

"I'll be back soon!" I shouted out to the empty house, which replied to me in silence.

I closed the old, wooden door behind me and was welcomed by the flat white platform of snow. Small flurries calmly floated onto the ground while others swirled around and lightly stung at my face like insects.

Merely looking at the sight brought back a childhood memory of when I was at in this exact position of watching the snow fall and letting it melt in my hands within seconds. My face was red with astonishment, and in that moment, it felt like I was on the North Pole with the advantage to see the origin of the winter wonderland behind my delighted eyes.

The constant sound of the snow crunched beneath me as I trudged along the softly coated pavement. I assumed that my neighbors and friends took advantage of the storm to stay in and watch it from a distance.

They knew that I've always loved the winter. Even more, I loved the moments where I was able to personally connect with the flawless temperature and experience the rare sensation of the cold season. People didn't realize how much the beauty needed to be recognized, almost as if it was a prayer that desperately needed to be heard.

My feet walked endlessly down the snowy sidewalk until I stopped to admire the view of the memorial that made our small, semi-transparent town stand out. The snow perfectly blanketed the tall statue that overlooked us, and gave an ultimate design to the landscape that surrounded it.

I was still staring at the memorial in a daze when the slight tingling of my hands brought me back to where I was. I glanced down to examine the rosy red tips of my fingers and turned to get home when abruptly, I paused.

There wasn't any footprints coming from the direction I came. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I tried to process just what was going on. I was only standing at the memorial for the past five minutes, but even then the amount of snow falling wasn't enough to make my prints disappear. There was no other way for me to wrap my mind around it.

Was I seeing things, or is this actually real?

What threw me off the most was the lack of surprise that I thought I would have. I trudged around the snow in awe as my big, clunky boots heavily collided against the snow below me, but made no sort of impact no matter how much I tried.

What exactly was going on?

My head eventually ached from overthinking, and I stopped to process my thoughts. As unnatural as this situation is, I should keep myself composed. At least no one was around to see this.

Just to make sure, my eyes alertly darted side to side, and was only met with the fresh sheet of white around me. Of course. No one else would carelessly walk during the middle of a storm like I did.

"I must've been overly excited, huh? Just like ten years ago.." I had let out a scoff-like laugh and kicked the snow once more out of temptation. Remarkably, it looked as though I hadn't touched it all.

I sighed lightly in defeat due to how complicated the situation had gotten and smiled when I raised my head and felt the snow peacefully rest on my flushed cheeks.

"..Oh well. It must've been just a snowy hallucination."