One-eyed Man in the Kingdom of the Blind
I rubbed my eyes in terror, almost scratching at them as much as I was rubbing them. I opened them again and was filled with sight. I started shaking as I was bombarded with the world around me.
“Oh, good, you’re awake,” a man said, running his fingers through my hair slowly. “The damage doesn’t feel too bad, but you shouldn’t do anything for the next couple of days. Can you stand up?”
The man looked directly through me with his cold, gray eyes. Around him were other spectators who watched me fall during my run in the park. They were turned in my general direction, but a lot of them looked around me rather than right on me. I never considered that people could look so different from one another. They looked disgusting. A lot of them with their mouths hanging open, and hardly wearing any clothing. I scrambled away from them and the man reached his hands around aimlessly, trying to find me again.
“Hey, are you hurt that bad? I can take you to a hospital. I’m sure there’s one around here,” he suggested, standing up and walking towards me.
“No! Stay away, I’m fine!”
His hands stopped groping the air and he nodded to himself, satisfied.
“You be careful, okay? I don’t know what happened, but you got all of our attention when you hit the ground. Try to stay in your space for a while,” he said, waving his hands ahead of him as he walked away. The others in the area did the same, moving around in their various directions.
“Wha… where am I? I can’t tell where I am,” I said to no one and everyone at the same time.
A young girl walking by looked to me with her eyes bloodshot red. They wouldn’t focus on me, instead rapidly searching for something to lock on to. Is that what young eyes did when they were normal?
“We’re in Repo Park. I’m about three steps east of you. And the entrance is north of me and south of you, do you understand?”
Is stared at her, horrified. I couldn’t get my sight to turn off and her eyes encapsulated me. Shaking in all directions, refusing to focus. They looked like they were in constant pain. I blinked a couple of times to try and make my vision go dark again, but it refused to go away. I covered my eyes with my face.
“Yes, I think I understand,” I said, standing up. I didn’t want to look at anything but at the same time my curiously clawed at my eyes. I wanted to take in everything I’d missed for years. The sights associated with the sounds. The look of the park, the people, even my space. I walked towards my home space, given the directions she gave me. I was lucky it was still bright out, or I wouldn’t be able to feel where the sun was, and subsequently not know my way home.
I fought my temptation to open my eyes until I made it to my space. I breathed deeply and uncovered my eyes. I gasped in shock. It was awful. All my belongings were scattered, which wasn’t so bad, but the entire surrounding area was covered in filth, rotting foods, and various marks of others having been here. But my space was a cave, and there was something above it.
There were three beings sleeping on top of my space. Completely pale things. People I never knew were there before. In my space. It could have been for years.
“Who are you?” I asked.
One jumped up and lunged at me, his eyes nothing but white orbs on his face. I ran from him and he ran in the direction I was previously standing like it found interest in something else. The other two were poised and ready to fight. I backed off and they backed down. My space was never my own. My heart raced. All these years I felt safe and these things were around me.
Having taken a few steps from my space, I was finally able to look at the scene around me. It was nothing but corpses and rotting skeletons in my space. Things I previously thought were rubber bags of garbage were dead humans, strewn about my area. I held back my instinct to throw up. They had chunks taken out of them like something had been eating them. Many were missing their eyes in their dead faces. The thing that had chased me earlier was crouched over an old, rotting man, and chewing at his thigh. I gagged.
I turned to flee the area but saw that the entire area was strewn with corpses. Every way I turned, I saw more of the dead.
“No,” I whispered, unable to hold back my vomit. I threw up and the three being from around my space turned towards me. They acknowledged each other as if coming to an understanding.
I understood. They were able to see. And I was not supposed to join them in sight. The three raced towards me, sharp teeth bared, and I could do nothing but run, screaming for the last moments of my life.