Clever Reflections

EIGHT-Cinna

I was blind. I mean, I was nearly blind before but this was different. This was... whiter. I also seemed to be falling. Or floating, because who really could tell when the drop just keeps going and going and going, but I felt like air was rushing past, or maybe I was the air, and I could smell it too, the rushing. But that's not right, you don't smell rushing, you hear it, but I couldn't hear anything because of the ringing like an endless, digging, piercing bell.

I was wrong. This was all wrong. I needed to do something-I needed to wake up.

And then the ringing subsided a little and I heard it, my name, just an echo, so familiar and so distant, like a secret you just know a friend is keeping from you.

And it echoed, it echoed and echoed, an endless track, Cinna, Cinna, Cinna, Cinna, Cinna, and on and on and on.

And I began to chant with it, Cinna, Cinna, Cinna, because maybe if I could make it louder I could pinpoint its location and maybe together we could chase away the noise, all the endless noise. Until I was shouting, my own name, again and again, like a beacon, chanting, promising, proving, Cinna! Cinna! Cinna!

And between us, it's working, the bells are fading and everything was fading and it faded, it faded, it faded... There was the sensation of being lifted, swung, moved, and I wondered if I was a jump rope slapping the pavement then getting tossed into the air and again and again into infinity.

"Cinna!" I bolted upright, screaming my own name, then immediately regretted the motion as a wave of headache and nausea and static in my ears and eyes and brain crashed into me. I sat as perfectly still as I could and waited for the sensations to fade. My ears popped, and the static receded. I realized my eyes were still screwed shut.

I cracked my eyes experimentally, then shut them immediately at the blast of light and color that assaulted me. Trying again, I was met with the same result. I saw sunspots on my eyelids, but my vision refused to adjust as I blinked rapidly, always re-closing my eyes in a desperate need to block out the painful light. It burned my retinas.

Fine. Vision is overrated anyway. I felt around. I felt grass. I felt and smelled pleasantly warm, sweet air. Reaching forward, I felt something stocky and softish, and then something stocky and softish felt me. I yelped, and scooched back on my butt, startled by the something that felt quite a lot like a hand on my non-exploring arm.

I heard a chuckle that could have been just a breeze, and something hard and full of angles was pressed into my still stretched out, wildly unsure exploring hand. Actually-somethings. My glasses. With a sigh, I placed them on my face, for some reason unconditionally trusting that they would clear my overwhelmed eyeballs.

I opened my eyes. It took a second, but my vision cleared, like the brightness on a phone screen automatically adjusting. And in front of me, there squatted a boy. A rather recognizable boy. I furrowed my brow, not trusting my own eyes.

"S-Salem?" I said, hating how small I sounded.

"Nope!" the boy said cheerfully, standing and offering a hand. I stood up on my own, cautious, but mostly just focusing on not falling immediately on my face once I am upright. He made a tsking sound with his tongue, pouting as he shoved his hand in his pocket, "Would you believe," he continued, talking casually as if we were coworkers just taking coffee and making idle chatter, "that that is the second time someone's done that to me today? It's the damndest thing, like people from your world are all too caught up in wariness and suspicion to accept a friendly gesture." he shook his head as if to say some people, right?

I stared. I opened my mouth and closed it several times before sorting through all of what he'd said to the really important bits. He seemed to blather and had a very distracting accent.