Fiction - Short Story

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    Gabriel Legend

    The thing that jerked Brian Peabody awake was the stupid ringing of his cellphone.He swam up out of sleep, the residual fog from the dream he had been ha ing dissipating

    slowly. The pop song that he had selected as his ring tone drilled into his sleepy brain and he triedreaching for his phone, which had been plugged in, charging on the nightstand. !t took him a momentto reali"e that he was groping the air blindly.

    He couldn#t see anything.!nstantly, he felt the first small surge of panic. He had been claustrophobic since he was four,

    when a babysitter had locked him in a closet for almost si$ hours when he wouldn#t stop crying, and not being able to see what was in front of him was a similar, scary feeling. %hy the hell couldn#t he see&He reached out with his other hand and shook 'an#s leg, feeling her fleshy thigh wiggle beneath his

    fingers. (Honey, wake up. ! can#t see anything.)(%hat&) Her oice was confused and thick with sleep. (%haddyameanyoocantsee&)(! can#t see anything.) Brian said again, hoping that only he could hear the small tremble in his

    oice. He continued to thrust his left arm into the air, trying to find the cellphone that wouldn#t shut up.He banged something with his hand, and heard a crash a second later. He reali"ed that he had found thenightstand, but had just knocked e erything that was on it * the cellphone, lamp and alarm clock * ontothe floor.

    (+hit.) Brian said. The cellphone continued to play from the floor, and then he heard the triple beep that signified that someone had left him a oice mail.

    %hen Brian knocked the entire contents of the nightstand onto the floor, 'an woke up most ofthe way. (%hat the hell was that&) +he asked thickly. Then, a moment later. ('esus, Brian. ! can#t see

    anything either. !s it a blackout&)(! don#t think so,) he said, shocked at how dismayed his oice sounded. He could feel his heart

    thudding in his chest, like the beating of a war drum, steady, fast and speeding up with e ery breath. Hereali"ed that a full blown panic attack wasn#t just a possibility, but was something that he was skirtingthe ery edge of, and that it could be set off as easily as a strobe light sets off an epileptic fit. (- en in a

    blackout, we should still be able to see the moonlight through the window.)(Brian, you okay&) Her oice was right in his ear, and he felt her fingers touch his arm. ( our

    oice sounds funny.)He pushed the panic down /uick and took a deep breath in. ( eah, !#m good.)+he s/uee"ed his wrist. (!#ll try to turn on my lamp.)He heard her mo ing on her side of the bed and then he heard a click from the lamp. 0othing

    changed. He still could see nothing in front of him but inky blackness. Then, he heard her take in asharp breath.

    (%hat ?) He said, jerking his head in her direction. (%hat is it, 'an&)(! can feel the heat,) she said slowly.(%hat&) He felt the panic coming back, gripping him tight, making it hard to breathe. (%hat

    heat& %hat are you talking about&)(! can feel the heat from the lamp, Brian.) +he said hollowly, her oice rising in both olume

    and pitch. (%e#re blind, Brian1 The lamp is on, but we can#t see the goddamned light1)

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    (0o...that#s * that#s not possible,) Brian said. How could that be possible? That was when he began to feel real fear, creeping up his throat, s/uee"ing his lungs in an iron ice.

    +he grabbed his shoulder, digging in with a hand that had become a talon and pulled himtowards her. (2eel it, goddammit1 %e#re blind1) Her panicked oice trailed off. (3h my God, we#re

    blind.)He reached across her, stretching out his fingers for the lamp, and reali"ed that he didn#t want to

    feel it. He had absolutely no desire to confirm what 'an was telling him, because if he did, that uneasyhold that he had on reality might disappear and he didn#t want to think about what might happen then.But he pressed against his wife and reached up underneath the lampshade and jerked his hand backwhen his fingertips touched the warm bulb. ( Jesus! )

    They both sat there, taking short, shallow breaths in the silent room. He felt as if a thread wasunra eling, somewhere in his head, as if his brain was made out of yarn, and somewhere in a darkscreening room in the cinema of his mind he saw both of them, walking down the sidewalk, wearingmatching sunglasses and using their canes in unison. He tried to think of an e$planation for them bothnot being able to see. 4ostly he was trying to find some hope that it was only temporary. 5fter all,there were cases of temporary blindness, weren#t there& 4aybe there had been a nuclear blast or somekind of chemical spill& 3nly he didn#t feel any pain from a chemical burn, and he was prettygoddamned sure that a nuclear blast would ha e awoken both of them. %hat had awoken him was thetelephone, and whoe er had been calling them in the middle of the night.

    5 sudden sound from downstairs made his heart sped up like he had been injected with asyringe full of speed. He broke out in a sweat that made him shi er and his head snapped towards thehallway and stairs, where the loud pounding on the front door had come from.

    'an grabbed his arm. (%hat the hell was that, Brian&)(+omeone at the door,) he said grimly. He swung his legs out of bed and stood, grabbing the

    wall to guide himself and then made his way around the bed, banging his shin once on the frame andcursing.

    (!#m going with you,) 'an said. +he had gotten out of bed as well and he reached out to her andtook her hand when he got to her side.

    (%e#re going out to the landing,) Brian said, keeping his oice as steady as he could. (%e#regoing to go down the stairs and straight to the front door.) Both of their hands were slick with sweat,and she was gripping his fingers more tightly than was comfortable, but he ga e her hand a reassurings/uee"e.

    (Be careful on the stairs,) 'an said.Brian started mo ing forward and found the open doorway of the bedroom which led to the

    landing, feeling his way with his outstretched arm. 'an walked behind him, holding onto his other hand.He didn#t reali"e he#d reached the edge of the landing until he felt his right thigh hit the wooden railing.His arm had been too high, and had missed it completely. There was a sharp crack as he leaned into itand for one terrifying moment all of the panic that he had been keeping at bay came rushing back like ahigh speed gust of wind. It's going to go, Brian thought, his stomach clenching. The whole damnedthing is going to break and we're going to plunge down into the living room and land on the coffeetable and die there, impaled on shards of glass like some cheap horror movie stunt.

    But the railing didn#t break. !t just creaked in protest as he leaned against it, and then crackedagain as he backed away. He let out a breath. (%e#re at the staircase railing now,) he called back behindhim. (!#m going to follow it along until we find the stairs.)

    (4aybe *) 'an stopped, and his hand nearly slipped out of hers because of the sweat that bothof them had generated. (4aybe we should crawl, Brian. %hat if you can#t see the stairs. %hat if youfall down them&)

    (!#m not gonna *) He began, automatically annoyed at the suggestion that he was clumsyenough to fall down a flight of stairs. But he thought again of the plunge * yes, that was the perfect

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    word for it, plunge * o er the banister and onto something sharp and hard and piercing in the li ingroom. 5 death tumble down the stairs wasn#t any more appealing. (5lright,) he said finally. (Let#scrawl. ou grab my ankle and hold on. %hen ! get to the stairs, !#ll go down first and you can go rightin front of me.)

    5lthough he couldn#t see it, he was sure that she nodded, relie ed. Brian dropped to his kneesand his tee shirt pulled out from the waistband of the sweatpants that he had been wearing to bed and

    drooped on the floor beneath him. He felt 'an#s warm fingers close around his ankle and he begancrawling forward, using the bottom of the railing as a guide. He mo ed slowly on the carpet, 'ancrawling behind him, occasionally making him wince from the pinched calf hairs she was pulling. Hegrasped the posts that made up the bannister, feeling the round, smooth wood beneath his fingers.- entually, he encountered only empty space when he reached for the ne$t post. (! think we#re at thestairs,) he said, stopping his crawl.

    (Be careful,) she said, her oice small and seemingly far away. behind him. He could sense heron the landing and felt her hand lea e his ankle and he heard the s/ueak of wood as she grasped therailing instead.

    (! will,) he said. (5s soon as !#m in position, you can get in front of me, and we#ll both go downtogether.)

    Brian mo ed forward, inching his way along the carpet. He found the edge of the stair and began to turn. 5s he swung his legs around, his foot slipped through the railing without warning and fora moment, the panic washed o er him like a cold shower, his stomach flopping around like a fish thathas been caught in a net. h shit, it's got me . He thought helplessly . The goddamn thing has m leg inits teeth .

    %hen nothing happened, when no bannister monster gobbled up his ankle, he reali"ed that hehad been holding his breath and he let it all out at once, hea ing in the blackness, air coming out of hismouth in ragged jerks.

    He pulled his leg out and spun around so that his feet were on the lower steps, his hands flat onthe landing. He mo ed back a few inches and then e$tended his right arm. (3kay, honey. !#m ready.

    0ow you come and get in front of me.)He heard wood s/ueak again as she let go of the railing and heard the unmistakable sound of

    fabric on carpet. Then, he felt his wife#s hair touch his hand and he reached for her, guiding her slowlyuntil she was in front of him. (%e#re going down backwards. %ait for me to go down a step and thenyou go,) he said. (!#ll make sure we don#t go too fast.)

    He held onto her ankle as he mo ed backwards, first one knee and then the other, dropping tothe ne$t step. "nee one, knee two.

    Brian tapped her ankle with his fingers. (3kay, now you.) (3kay,) she said, sounding a littleuncertain.

    +he mo ed backward uncertainly, trying to find the ne$t step. "nee one, knee two. They mo ed backwards in this fashion, one step at a time.

    5t the bottom, Brian stood up slowly, feeling his elbow brush framed pictures on the wall to hisleft. (%e#re at the bottom.)

    (Thank God,) 'an said, and he took her arm and helped her stand up.They were just thirty feet from the front door and while Brian felt relie ed at ha ing made it

    down the stairs, a thought crossed his mind that chilled him. %hat if the air outside was poisoned&%hat if the blindness that they were now e$periencing was only one minor symptom, and goingoutside was instant death& 3f course, that was stupid. 4ondo stupido, Brian. !t didn#t track logically.But then of course, neither did two ordinary people waking up completely blind.

    (Brian&) 'an was holding onto his arm now. (%hat are we waiting for&)(0othing,) Brian said. He turned towards the door, taking great care to lean away from the wall

    ne$t to the staircase as not to knock any pictures down. Both of them were barefoot, and the last thing

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    they needed was broken glass on the floor to contend with. He felt the wall on his right now and knewthat he was facing the front door of the house. (Let#s go.)

    +he took his left hand, sweaty and hot, between both of hers, and he s/uee"ed reassuringly. Hestarted forward, using his free hand once again to feel out in front of him, sure that there would besome obstacle that would stop them, something large blocking the doorway that there was no way toget around, because it wouldn#t really be this easy, would it&

    His searching fingers encountered nothing until he felt the cold steel of the upper deadbolt. Heturned it with a loud click and then dropped his hand to the doorknob, feeling the mechanism gi ewhen he turned the knob.

    The cool air rushed in as he opened the door and Brian heard a oice and was incrediblyrelie ed to find that the oice was familiar * welcome e en. (Brian& 'an&)

    (6hester&) Brian croaked. (6hester, is that you&) The oice on the step belonged to his elderlyne$t door neighbor. (%hat are you doing here in the middle of the night&)

    (! tried to call,) Brian heard their neighbor say. ( our dog got out of the yard and was runningin the road. ! almost hit him with my truck when ! got home from work. ! work gra eyards now.)

    (3ur dog got out&) Brian was trying to make this make sense with e erything else that hadhappened. (6hester, can you see&)

    (+ee&) 6hester sounded pu""led by the /uestion. (3f course ! can see.) Then, he saidsomething completely une$pected. (+ay, why are you two wearing those&)

    (%earing what&) 'an asked, and for the first time he could hear fear tinging her oice. (%earingwhat, Brian& %hat in God#s name is he talking about&)

    +uddenly, something was lifted from Brian#s eyes and he felt light rush in, nearly blinding him.+omething soft and warm snapped back and landed on his forehead. He saw his neighbor, 6hester, infront of him, wearing his co eralls and a brown jacket. His gray hair was illuminated by the porch lightthat his eyes were just now adjusting to. 5s if he was mo ing in slow motion, he turned and looked athis wife. +he was wearing something ery similar to the object that 6hester had remo ed from Brian#seyes, a o al shaped sleeping mask, with pink and purple kittens on it.

    He remo ed his own mask from his head and stared at it in shock. His was yellow, and it hadorange and green guitars instead of kittens. He turned and lifted his wife#s sleeping mask from her eyes.

    0either one of them spoke. They stared at each other for a long moment, and then slowly turnedand looked back at 6hester. His eyes were wide and confused.

    Brian looked at the mask he was holding in his hand. There was a label with writing on it on theside. He stared at the words, unbelie ing.

    #r. $'s %leeping &ask. se (s directed. )locks out all available light so ou can sleep peacefull ! %o soft and comfortable, ou'll forget ou are even wearing it!