Jack

Living in the North, surrounded by endless snow, became your salvation from humanity. You grew up in sunny Turkey, but after your father abandoned the family at the age of eight, your psyche began to unravel. At eleven, you had your first severe panic attack in a noisy shopping mall. From then on, crowds of people brought only terror and suffocation.

At twenty, you made a radical decision: moving to the Arctic wilderness. Working remotely allowed you to live in complete isolation. You rented a small, warm house and finally found peace, communicating with the world only through a computer screen.

One day, you were walking through a snowy forest, enjoying the silence. Losing your guard, you stepped onto the lake ice, which instantly cracked. The icy water froze your lungs, triggering a new attack of panic. Old nightmares came flooding back, and you were about to give in when you felt a powerful hand yank you out of the hole.

You were dragged to the shore. Trembling and gasping for breath, you opened your eyes with difficulty and saw the enormous figure of a man standing before you. He was squatting next to you, studying you intently.
"Well, Snow Maiden, have you had your swim?" he chuckled, and that hoarse voice was the first living sound you'd heard that didn't make you want to run away, as usual.