Robbin

7. The Right-Hand-Man

Terra opened her eyes, jolted from unconsciousness. She was not at home again.

This time her dilated, wide pupils were met with nothing in waking—nothing but blackness. She panicked for a second, in her confusion. She could feel the weight of a rough but warm material draped over her figure from neck down. She could feel a clumped cushion underneath her body. She could feel her arms, she could feel her legs... but that was about all in the sensory department. She couldn't see. She couldn't see at all.

She could feel her heart beating heavily, her breathing quickening.

She scrunched her eyes closed hard a few times, feeling lightheaded, though she hadn't moved.

That was when it hit her: the unknown place she was, the unfamiliarity of the situation leering over her as if an ominous cloud of smoke. Where was she?

She began to see stars in her panic—little flecks of white light.

She went over that thought again.

She could see.

Terra brought herself excitedly into a sitting position, trying to steady her breathing, a new hope springing within. She waved her hand in front of her eyes. Yes, yes... she could see a slight shift in tones when she did this.

She still understood that she was in complete darkness, but the realization of it didn't weigh quite as heavily on her as it had before, because she realized also that she was not blind. She couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean she wasn't able to see. It just meant she had to find light.

She took a deep breath. She had to find light.

Terra shifted in what felt like a makeshift mattress, feeling her way to one side tentatively with her foot. She detected an edge, and with this, she cautiously moved that foot off and down until it met with a floor surface about three feet down. She moved the other foot down steadily, feeling the face of the platform she was on with her heel; it felt harsh and bumpy. Straw? Was the lumpy mattress resting on a bed of straw?

Her bare feet met a floor that was rough and cold.

She stood slowly and then equally slowly slid one foot out along the floor in front of her, feeling for any false footholds before taking a teetering first step from the straw-like bed. It was an odd sensation not being able to see with her eyes, her body carrying out the commands she knew her brain was sending.

In this fashion she continued to advance away from the bed until, adrenaline pumping now, she felt a wall with her fingers and toes. She flattened her hands to touch it. It was gravelly and wet, like rock.

Without much hesitation at all, Terra began feeling carefully along the wall to the right of where she was facing. After a few minutes of this without success, she came back to the left, feeling along the rocky surface until finally witnessing with her hands a different texture molded into the rock. The change came suddenly along a vertical ridge. Feeling along the smooth surface she found it to be only about four feet in width, being met up on the opposite side with the rock along a similar vertical ridge. She felt along the left ridge hoping the slab was what she thought it was. She felt what she was looking for: a round handhold.

She grasped it with clammy fingers, turning anxiously. It made a grinding sound as it circled, then clicked. As Terra pushed, a dim light began to stream in through a long narrow crack in her vision. It was a shock to her eyes, though this didn't stall her any from heaving the slab door open completely.

The light meekly lit the enclosing space but was extremely welcomed, like a lamp post on a long, dark highway. In fact, the beacon of light came from something more like a lamp post than Terra would have imagined. It came from a glowing transparent box which hung from a small hook atop nothing other than a rusty pole. Upon further inspection, Terra thought she could make out the shape of a translucent leaf which peeked shyly from the opening, providing the residual light. No, she was sure. Filled halfway with soil, the transparent glowing box contained nothing less than a messiah of a plant, one Terra had never known existed.