The Blind

It felt like the weight of the entire roof rested upon her feet as she stood at her opened door looking outward toward the great black unknown that was her large vacant home. She wondered what terrible creature could have made those noises that forced her blood to rush like she never knew it could. The police had already been called but what was downstairs wasn't going to wait for them like she would.

With her eyes pried open and hands clamped around the grip of the revolver underneath her bed she made the first step out of the sanctuary of her room and into the silent, mysterious jungle that was her hallway. She stood frozen for a minute staring at her home in the black. She felt like she was intruding into someone else's home. The darkness made it familiar and distant at the same time. She felt like she was in a doll house and the owner of it was downstairs preparing for her, waiting for her.

The stairs looked more like the beginnings of a well when the lights were off. She was reluctant to jump down but she had to know what it was that was downstairs. She had to know what she didn't know. So down the well she went; brick by brick.

She trickled down the stairs like maple syrup down the side of a stack of pancakes. She looked behind her and was surprised by what little distance she had traveled from the time she started her decent. Looking back toward the bottom of the stairs, she hesitated. The grip of the gun had become damp and warm from her hands. As her eye lids began to feel heavy again she heard it. Snap! Her eyelids tore open as her muscles tightened in fear. She stood as still as a corpse to hear the noise that would reassure her fear.

She waited for a long while, racing from fear to fear. "I have to continue" she whispered. "I have to end this." She slowly lifted her foot to be as quiet as possible. As she was about to finish taking her next step she heard it again. Snap! Louder than ever. She fell onto her suspended feet as her muscles tensed. The ancient stairs creaked so loud they seemed to be tearing in half underneath her. Anxiety flooded the pit of her being as she pondered whether that thing below her had heard the demolition of the stairs. It was now or never she thought. Kill or be killed.

Fear turned into fury as she ran down the stairs to face what had been plaguing her all night. She hit the bottom and made a swift right with the revolver in her hand leading the way. The only thing she could hear were her feet slamming against the cold wood beneath her as she ran down the hallway. Flying over the last set of stairs she had arrived to the scene of the crime. Without looking she aimed her quivering gun. She tried to see what she was aiming at but all she could see was black except for two eyes.

She peered into them for a few seconds. They were the color of bullets and seemed to be filled with wisdom. Bang! Her eyes wider than ever she stood still, seduced to stone by Medusa's gaze. Her chest began to feel numb and she could feel a growing blood puddle warming her feet. She could hear the humming of a 2-way radio behind her as she continued to stare at the eyes.

As she was loosing blood she dropped her gun. It hit the floor and fired a round into nowhere. The flash from the gun fell upon the entire kitchen, making everything that was once dark bright for just a second. She let out a quick, pathetic sigh as she discovered what she had been so afraid of the entire time. A branch had come loose from a tree and the wind was causing it to smack up against her kitchen window; and those eyes, they were attached to a cat she had never seen before. When the gun went off it jumped down from its perch and ran off into the night; just as her vitality had moments earlier.

The Satellite

As I opened the door into the cold morning air I listened intently to the reason why my friend had dressed so nicely. When I see one of my peers dressed up I feel like something is going to go very wrong because I'm wearing a pair of unwashed jeans.

Apparently it was career day. A day where booth after booth take resume after resume. "Look fresh, they won't want to hire you if you look normal." I thought to myself.

To my dismay I had to walk past all of that to turn in some pointless homework I just copied onto paper. As I walked by, the sun put its hands over my eyes as if to keep me from seeing anyone who belonged there.

Every booth had the same kind of person sweating and standing behind them. Their ties performing tracheotomies as they stood there taking and giving papers with a toothy grin on their face, each one of them concerned with the simple default pleasures in life: money, children, status. I looked at the cobble stones as I walked to avoid seeing everyone around me succeeding. My brow sweating I finally arrived to the drop box.

I arrived the same time a quiet woman did. I took my time taking my homework out to see what slot she would slide her papers into. Coincidentally she held the very homework for the very class that I had walked across campus for. We left, I behind her, and walked through the career fair like small boats passing and ignoring enormous islands.

What she looked like as she walked through the breezes resembled an object being pushed through empty space, even gravity failed to control her. Her skirt floated around her waist like a halo, each blush of wind slightly lifting each bend and curl, eluding to the subtle curvature in her tanned legs. You could almost see the perpetual growth of her hair as it flew closely behind her face. She turned her head to make sure a bike wasn't about to ruin my moment with her and her hair swam to the front of her face forcing her to flutter her eyes. While time was still stopped she began walking again. Her sandals, the birds, the suited androids; they all remained silent as she moved.

I didn't want to believe that someday, a girl like that was going to be pinned down by a black pencil skirt and the endless ordeal of earning a paycheck. I didn't want to believe that this moment or this woman was going to deteriorate and crumble into a lifeless skeleton someday. I didn't want to believe. I never wanted to believe. This got me thinking about the damned career fair.

I thought "Was I to be doomed like those robots too? Put in a cotton leash and thrown into a work camp? Did everything have to crumble to the ugly, honest, dull core inside?" She veered onto her own path and just like that I was thrown back onto my terrible and real earth, once again searching through that giant box of gray for something bright and colorful.