Curse?

(I’m currently typing this with voice-to-text because, well, both of my arms are in casts. Oh, and my leg too. I feel like I need to get this story off my chest, so here we go.)

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a solo backpacking trip to Mexico. I’d been saving for this trip for years, determined to explore the culture and soak in the atmosphere. One day, I was wandering through a bustling street market in a small town near Oaxaca. It was colorful, vibrant, and full of all kinds of treasures—handmade crafts, jewelry, and textiles. That’s when I saw it.

There was this tiny stall tucked into a corner, run by an older woman who looked almost... ethereal. Her table was covered in beautiful jewelry, but one piece stood out to me—a silver necklace with a blood-red stone in the center. It looked ancient, like it had a story to tell. The woman told me in Spanish that it was a "protección contra el mal" (protection against evil). Her voice was low, almost warning me not to buy it, but I thought she was just trying to up-sell me. The necklace was only 200 pesos (about $10) which was a bargain! And it was so beautiful I couldn't resist.

The moment I put it on, I felt this weird chill run down my spine. I brushed it off, thinking it was just my imagination. But that night, strange things started happening. My hotel room door wouldn’t lock properly, and the lights flickered nonstop. I tried to laugh it off, but deep down, I felt uneasy.

The next day, I decided to go on a hike in the nearby mountains. It was supposed to be a beginner-friendly trail with amazing views, and I was excited to take pictures. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was stepping because I was too busy taking in the view. My foot landed on a loose rock, and before I could even react, my foot slipped, and I went flying forward. I hit the ground with a hard thud, but it wasn’t until I tried to push myself up that I realized something was really wrong. My right arm felt like it had exploded. It wasn’t just pain, it was searing, radiating from my wrist all the way up to my shoulder. It was like someone had driven a nail through my entire arm. I couldn’t move it without waves of agony shooting through me. I just sat there for a minute, clutching my arm, trying not to throw up from the pain as my wrist slowly balloons up.

I knew I had to get back down the trail somehow. My heart was racing, and I kept telling myself, Stay calm, stay calm. I cradled my arm against my body and started limping back down the path. That’s when disaster struck again.

The trail was steep and uneven, and as I stepped onto a patch of loose gravel, my feet slipped out from under me. I let out this guttural scream as I went down, tumbling uncontrollably down the side of the hill. it was brutal. My body kept hitting rocks and tree roots on the way down. The worst part was when my left arm got caught on something—it twisted backward at an unnatural angle, and I heard this sickening snap. I’ve never felt pain like that in my life. It was sharp, raw, and unrelenting.  That only slowed me down a bit and I continued to tumble.

Then came the leg. My left foot was jammed into a hole with my body weight going in the wrong direction, it twisted in a weird angle.  I felt something snap inside my leg as I continued to tumble down. The pain was so overwhelming that it felt like my brain couldn’t process it all at once. My entire body was screaming at me. I finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, lying there like a rag doll.

I tried to move, but I couldn’t. Both of my arms were useless—my right arm is a swollen mess what felt like it was on fire, and my left arm was unresponsive to any of my command... dead. My leg was throbbing with this deep, bone-deep ache, and every small shift sent new waves of pain radiating through me. My breathing was shallow, and tears were streaming down my face. I felt completely helpless, lying there in the dirt, covered in scratches and bruises.

What really freaked me out, though, was the necklace. It felt like it was burning into my skin. I could feel it pulsing against my chest, almost like it was alive. And then there was the laughter. I know it sounds crazy, but I SWEAR I heard this low, mocking laughter echoing around me. It wasn’t coming from the trees or the wind, it was coming from inside my head. Something was seriously wrong.

I lay there for what felt like hours, crying and completely immobilized with my face down in the dirt. I couldn’t call for help because my phone was in my backpack, and I couldn’t reach it with both of my arms broken. The pain was so bad that I started to feel lightheaded, like I was going to pass out. 

Thankfully, a couple of hikers found me before it got dark. One of them stayed with me while the other ran to get help. The rescue team eventually showed up and had to carry me out on a stretcher. Every bump and jolt on the way down was pure agony. By the time I got to the hospital, I was almost relieved to be unconscious.

At the hospital, the doctors started cutting off my hiking clothes and running scans. They were speaking rapid Spanish, and I only caught bits and pieces. All I knew was that something was very, VERY wrong.

A doctor came in to explain everything after they reviewed my X-rays, and let me just say, I’ve never wanted to throw up more in my life. He spoke slowly and clearly, probably because I looked like I was about to pass out. 

He said that I had broken multiple carpal bones in my right hand from the first fall. He said the bones were “shattered,” like someone had dropped a glass plate. No wonder my hand felt like it had been crushed under a boulder.

He then moved on to talk about my left arm where my left radius and ulna were snapped clean in half, midshaft. He showed me the X-ray, and I almost cried when I saw how the bones were sticking out of alignment. It looked like two broken sticks shoved into my arm. That’s why I can’t move my left arm at all when I was up in the mountains.

The doctor concluded with my left leg.  My tibia, the bigger bone in my lower leg was broken completely through. To make things worse, my fibula, the smaller leg bone, had a spiral fracture, which the doctor explained happens when your leg twists violently. I guess that explains the sharp, stabbing pain every time I moved even slightly.

Then came the part I was dreading: he had to manually reduce (realign) all of my fractures before putting me in casts. As surgery is not possible in this small hospital and that I am not stable enough to be transported. Just hearing the words “manual reduction” made my stomach drop. The doctor tried to reassure me that I will not feel a thing, saying they’d give me ‘powerful’ local anesthesia, but I was still fully aware of everything happening. 

They started with my right hand. The doctor explained that my carpal bones were misaligned and that he’d need to manipulate them back into place. He injected a numbing agent into my wrist, but it only dulled the pain a little, it didn’t erase it. He grabbed my hand and started pulling and twisting it in ways that felt like he was ripping it apart. I could feel the bones grinding against each other as he worked to realign them. It was this awful, deep, bone-on-bone sensation that made me want to scream. My fingers twitched involuntarily, and I was drenched in sweat by the time he finished.

Once the bones were set, they molded my arm into a red fiberglass cast that went from my armpit all the way down to my knuckles. The cast encased my thumb too, so I couldn’t move it at all. My entire hand felt heavy, hot, and claustrophobic, like it was trapped in a shell.

Next was my left arm. This was the worst part. The doctor explained that because both the radius and ulna were snapped, he had to pull on my arm to realign the bones. I almost passed out just hearing that.

He injected more anesthetic into my arm, but again, it only took the edge off. When he started pulling, I felt this sickening pop as the bones shifted. It wasn’t just pain, it was this primal, gut-wrenching sensation that made me feel like my body was betraying me. The grinding was worse than with my hand because the bones were bigger, and I could feel every single movement. I started crying uncontrollably, and the nurse had to hold me still while the doctor worked.

Once the bones were aligned, they wrapped my left arm in another red fiberglass cast, identical to the one on my right arm. It went all the way from my armpit to my knuckles, locking my thumb in place. My arms were completely immobilized, and I felt like I was stuck in some kind of medieval torture device.

Finally, it was time to fix my leg. The doctor explained that the spiral fracture in my fibula meant they had to be extra careful during the reduction. He numbed my leg as much as possible, but I still felt EVERYTHING. He grabbed my foot and started pulling, and I swear to God, it felt like my entire leg was being ripped apart. The pain radiated from my shin all the way up to my hip, and I could feel the broken pieces of my tibia grinding together as he moved them. I screamed through clenched teeth.

Once the bones were set, they wrapped my leg in a red fiberglass cast that went from my upper thigh all the way down to the base of my toes. My foot was angled slightly downward to keep everything in the correct position. The cast felt so tight, like a vise squeezing my leg, but at least the bones were finally stable.

When it was all over, I was utterly drained. My entire body was shaking, and I couldn’t stop crying. The casts felt heavy and suffocating, and the pain was still there, throbbing beneath the fiberglass. The doctors gave me painkillers, but it took hours for them to kick in.

They finally wheeled me into the hospital room where I’d be spending the next few days. I was completely out of it—physically wrecked, emotionally drained, and running on the little bit of pain relief they’d given me.

The necklace, though? It was gone.  I asked the nurse about it but the said they didn’t see me wearing any necklace.  I wonder if all of my accident has to do with the necklace.  Tell me what you think.