Two
It’s dark. It’s so very dark. Why… why can I breathe and not see? Am I not blinking? Aren’t my eyes open? My eyes… my eyes… “My eyes?” The feeling of coarse, gruff fingers sliding across an equally coarse, gruff face; their intent not fully realized but searching feverishly nonetheless. The mind arrives at several thoughts all at once. “Why can’t I see?” “What exactly is wrong with my face?” “My face, is this my face?” “I feel different.” “Why am I struggling to explain this… even to myself?” The only means that remains to perceive the nearby world is to grope blindly and hope for some small mercy to elucidate the mind to further, actual answers to ostensibly unanswerable questions. Defeat arrives but is disregarded as the hands that once sought answers slowly rest at the sides – his sides. Something awful washes over his mind momentarily, like a single firecracker… and then is gone. Like a dream, the information that just was there, just tangible, vanishes leaving behind only mo