I- I can’t see. It’s not dark, it’s not even dim. I’ve lost my sight. I can feel my hands in front of my face, yet they don’t appear. I know that I just woke up, I’m in bed, under the covers, and in a bedroom, but I couldn’t tell you the color of the sheets. I can hear talking coming from the room next to this one. They speak as if they don’t want to be heard.
I get up and feel for my slippers, wrap myself in the nearest blanket, and proceed to the voices. I feel my way around slowly, I know where I am. The hallway, the kitchen, and the living room. Vague images flash through my mind, but I cannot see the stove or the couch. I can walk without bumping into obstacles, but I cannot see out of the window. I can’t see…anything.
The voices got quiet, softer than they already were. I feel for the couch and sit. After a moment of rest, the voices start again. Like mice scurrying around this house. I can hear a little girl.
“I don’t feel well.” She sounds alone and afraid. Her voice sounds smaller than she is.
“Come here and give me a hug.” A man with stunning authority speaks. Like the calm wind before a storm. Like the tide shrinking before a tsunami is released.
Who are these people? Where am I? Why do they speak so quietly? Am I supposed to be here? Am I an intruder? I can’t do anything else but sit on this couch and think. My throat closes and gets dryer by the second. I reach for the coffee table in front of me with no question as to how I know its location. I wrap my hand around a room-temperature cup filled with some water. Before I can drink my other hand, as if instinct, grabs and rattles a bottle. I slowly twist the cap and tilt it. A pill falls into my hand. I don’t know what to do with it but I start to feel…happy.
While the effects kick in, the voices start again. “I want Mommy,” The girl says accompanied by a shuffle.
“Oh, Mommy isn’t around right now. You’ll have to settle for just me sweetheart.”
“I see her, she’s awake.”
“Let’s not bother her. We know how cranky she gets when she doesn’t have her morning rituals. Shouldn’t you be excited? You get playtime with Daddy.”
I can hear the little girl start to cry. I feel the need to get up, but I can’t. I can hear the voices so clearly, yet I don’t know where they come from. It feels so close yet so far away. While I think, I notice the water is empty, and the object in my hand is gone. What happened while I was listening? Did someone steal it? I recede back into the soft cushion and blanket. A moment of silence is interrupted by a shout.
“GET AWAY!” A shriek came from that room. “Hold still!” The man shouts back. I heard a struggle and then a loud crack followed by a blood-curdling scream. I hear tearing, bumping, and hollowing grunts coming from that room. The once innocent child’s voice now sounds drowned as if submerged under a great wave.
An overwhelming energy rushed over me. My once numb legs were invigorated with primal action. I must go and save this poor girl. My vision slowly comes into focus. The once bleak nothing becomes a flurry of shapes and colors. The couch is brown, the cup is clear, the kitchen window has red curtains, and the walls are painted a soft beige.
I keep following the voices, not intensifying and deafening to my ears. I pass the place I woke up. The bed is white, the floor is a grey carpet, and my slippers are pink and stained red. I start to jog, every step I hasten, until I’m at a door. I reach my hand out and look through the crack. I see her. She’s right there. She’s on the floor with the rest of her body blocked by a small bed. I can save her. “Mommy!” She screams like she’s fighting back a typhoon. I muster the strength and throw the door wide open, and take my ground.
“Why are you here?” The man says to me.
“I…came to see what’s wrong,” I say, slowly feeling the energy leave my body.
“There’s nothing wrong. Now leave.”
“I’m not leaving until I know that girl is safe.” I start to walk towards them when the man gets up. The sound of belt buckles bouncing on the hardwood floor.
“You need to leave.” He thunders back.
“No.” I see him bawl his fist.
“You have one more chance woman. Leave.”
“I will not.” I can feel tears forming around my eyes, but I do not back down.
He slowly comes around the bed and approaches me until we are face to face. He looks at me, looks at the girl, then back at me. All of a sudden I feel pain all over my face. I hit the ground and open my eyes. The colors and shapes once so clear to me are gone again. I’m back in this voided world. I know where I am, but I can not describe the man’s or the girl’s face.
I struggle to my feet and hold my face, and I feel his presence directly in front of me. “What did you see?” He asks, with the same thunder and force.
“I don’t know I…”
“WHAT DID YOU SEE!”
“I…can’t see”