Blinded

1. A Morning

A morning

I know I'm dreaming. I hope I am, at least, because I'm running from something that won't slow down.

It- whatever it may be- freezes me in place. The forest around me is painted with a horrifying palette of red leaves and white-barked trees under an ink-black sky. No stars. No moon. I try to convince myself- This is just a dream. You know this. It can't hurt you.

The wind shoves me to the ground, knocking all the air out of me. Then, for a moment, it's calm. I wonder if that's it. Shakily, I get to my hands and knees, trying to get myself back on my feet again. Then, a gust of wind brushes past my face like the touch of a hand, almost peaceful, until it tightens, wrapping around my face with the feel of fabric sliding across skin. More of those small gusts come, and it seems they're getting faster, stronger. Angrier. Then, they tighten further until I begin to suffocate. I try to scream but nothing comes out, lost in the gusts trapping me in. My sight begins to fade and I feel weak. Stuck. Paralyzed. This might be real.

    My eyes flew open, and I grabbed blindly at my sheets until I calmed down. That was terrible, I thought. And somehow worse than the one last week, and the week before. It took me a moment to hear a faint creaking outside my door, but as soon as I began to get up, it stopped. I looked over to my clock- an old, red, analog model, one I got from a garage sale a couple of years ago. It read 2 :35 AM.

    The dream faded from my memory as I climbed out of bed, knowing full well I wouldn't be able to fall back asleep. I put on some clothes and tied my hair back to wash my face, walking to the bathroom. I rubbed my eyes and looked into the mirror- straight black hair with bangs and a green streak behind each ear. Green eyes and tan skin. Leftover mascara ringed below my eyes. Wrinkled smiley-face pajamas and an expression of pure out-of-it tiredness. I felt a bit of a headache, but I suppose I should've expected that. I've had them as long as I could remember, and when I used my powers they only got worse, boring into my head like an ice pick. 

I looked back down at the sink of the bathroom I shared with my sister- her stuff on the left, mine on the right. I really couldn't see much more than staticky blobs, though, because my glasses were missing. That surprised me. They weren't anything like the fake ones my sister had, so I thought I must have just left them in my room. I walked back and, after changing into some normal clothes, and I found them sitting on my nightstand.

As I put them on, the headache I already felt growing behind my eyes dulled and my vision un-doubled. Stronger lenses should probably be on the docket, I thought, thinking about the little blur I still saw around everything, like a misty halo. I should stop using my abilities, since I know that's what causes this- the headaches and the blur. If I keep using it, I have a feeling there won't be a prescription lens strong enough to fix what I've done. 

And yet, I keep doing it. Over and over and over and over and-

For as long as I can remember I took pride in just how neat my room was. This wasn't much of an accomplishment, really,  since I had the room to myself. Luckily. My sister's room across the hall from mine was an absolute mess. I wouldn't be able to stand living in the same room as her. She's seven, so I guess I can give her a pass on that one.

I had woken up early in the morning, too early to go downstairs or to really make too much noise for fear of waking up everyone around me, so I decided to get to work on a project of mine. Sitting down, just about to start drawing, I opened my window- wait.

A police car sat parked on the street in front of my house, its lights flashing red and blue. It was completely empty.

What on Earth? I asked myself, squinting against the darkness outside, trying to make out anyone around the car. Then, I tried the thing I just told myself I wouldn't do.

I concentrated as pain blossomed behind my eyes. If it was an illusion, why would it be here? Who set it? I haven't got a clue. Color leached out of the world. I looked in the mirror, the reflection of my room monochrome as well. I was still in full color- I was the one checking for the illusion, after all. Had there been an illusion present it would have stayed in full color, but nope. Nothing in the police car- or the car itself- retained its color, a sign that would point to it being magic.  Well, why is it here, then? Is it one of the neighbors? That can't be right. If it were them, why would it be in front of our house?

I heard scuffling outside my room- my parent's voices, my mom's concerned one and my father's tired one. A third, too, that I had never heard before.

I opened my door to the brightly lit hallway. I saw three figures in Laurie's bedroom, so I walked in there. Her open window blew frigid winter air into her -painted room. She wasn't there. The talking stopped. A man in a blue uniform and hat turned to me. He frowned, turning back to my mother to give a questioning look. My mom looked over at me with tears in her eyes. She had shining streaks down her face- I had never seen her cry before.

"Bella, your sister's missing."

None of my family had powers like mine that I know of, but I didn't know I had mine until I was just a bit older than Laurie. Does this have something to do with that? I thought.

"Miss, we're going to have to take you in for questioning," One of the two policemen told me, his mustache shifting as he spoke like a caterpillar trying to escape his face

"Questioning? Like an interrogation? What did we do wrong?" I demanded.

"Nothing, miss." Stop calling me that. This isn't a Jane Austen novel. "We just need your parents to fill out some paperwork and for you to answer some questions. Are we good?"

    "Sure."

"And maybe pack a bag, too, miss." Again with the 'miss'?!? "You might be there for a while. My grandmother went missing a couple of years ago and she died before I finished filling out the papers to say she kicked the bucket."

What the- that's what he has to say about this situation? Yikes.

Walking back to my room, I packed a small tote with some snacks and a notebook. This whole time, I worried about my sister. Will she be okay? Who took her? Why? And why didn't her kidnapper take me too?

I walked out to the police car and the officer instructed me to sit in the back with my parents. We packed into the back like sardines- there wasn't sufficient room. The three of us could barely fit. The officer played some music, Led Zeppelin or something, but my mind wandered. I looked out the window at the still-darkened sky. The stars were dim.

I hope you're okay, Laurie. I hoped that somehow, someway, my thoughts could reach her and tell her everything would be okay.

Maybe I just needed to believe it.