Unveiled

"I knew it!" I growled, shoving him on my bed. A little aggressive, but it's not what you think, obviously, or not obviously?

"You're not blind!" I hissed, my not blind right eye scrutinizing his not blind left eye. All this time Zero's stupid hair was in his eyes and it looked as if he were blind. It never crossed my mind until now. But I tricked him, making him follow me up the stairs, knowing how the hell would he know where everything is when he's supposedly blind! God, I am so slow! "You've been lying to me ever since we met!"

I was spitting—not literally—words at him in accusation. That our first ambiguous encounter had left me stunned that he could see what I saw; the things other couldn't.

"I haven't been lying!" He gasped followed quickly by a groan as I accidentally kneed him in the gut. "Aggressive much?"

"You haven't been lying? Explain why you haven't told me you were half blind!" I balled the neck of his shirt in my fists and made him look straight at me. "All this time, you've been looking past me, for what? To create the illusion that you were fully blind?!"

"Okay, okay, I have been doing that, but it's not as bad as it seems! When we first met I told you I was blind, and then I assumed you concluded that I was fully blind so I just went along with it! But then you never even realized how I was getting in and out of your house if I was blind, so I forgot about it...and I was in denial, though, you don't know half of it—"

"—so tell me!" I practically begged. All this begging has to stop, I say.

"I...can't," he whispered, then tugged on my hand, sitting up and making me sit off of him—I hadn't realized I was straddling him. "Now's not the right time."

"It's not the right time... it's not the right time to tell me you're half blind, it's not the right time to tell me about yourself and why you disappear and appear on me all the time. When's the right time to tell the truth, Zero?! If that's you're real name!" My eyes narrowed in anger at him. "When...will you trust me?"

I could hear it in my voice. The crack, the pitch change; I was about to cry.

"Val, don't cry," he hushed and enveloped me into his embrace.

"Just so you know, I'm not crying because I'm sad, it's because I'm so darn pissed that I can't—"

"Shh... listen," he whispered into my ear, and I did listen. But he didn't say anything until after five minutes, which was when I stopped sobbing.

"I've been away, trying to protect you. I know what the...possessed me told you that first night. It told you to...stay away..." he trailed off and I stiffened in his arms. Retracting my own and sitting back from him. "How the...hell did you know that?"

He shut his eyes for a moment in contemplation.

"I can't explain it all right now—"

"—yeah yeah when the time is right," I jutted in, curious as he lips twitched into a smile.

"Well... you see, it's hard to find logic and understanding, but when I, er, kissed you, I stole—well I saw into—your memory. That first day I attacked you, and then last week," he informed, rather slowly and carefully, making sure I processed his words right.

"You...stole...my....memory," I repeated slowly.

"No, well, yes, actually, no, I said I saw into your memory," he told me, grabbing my hand as I stared off, more or less spacing out in sheer disbelief.

"That's...impossible," I gulped, looking into his not blind left eye—which if this moment wasn't so uncanny I would've admired and stared into, as his orbs reflected the colour of blue-grey; very pretty.

"We see ghosts. It's not as impossible as you think," he shook his head, almost chuckling.

"Oh my gosh, this is too much, too much," I sighed extra heavily, sprawling onto the bed beside Zero. "I can't believe I thought you were fully blind! I'm...sorry, I guess."

"Oh and about the appearing disappearing thing, what are you talking about?" He actually laughed like he didn't know what I meant.

"Are you kidding?! One moment you're in my house, in my room, on my bed. Buddy, you're like a ninja!" I lightly punched his arm. This time he really doubled over, laughing.

"You've got a nice sense of humour Val," he grinned. "I'm not a ninja, and to be clear, I don't vanish or disappear by the way. As I said, I just walk out and in through the back door, you've just never realized it... Are you seriously saying you've never seen me or heard me come in?"

He was smiling so big it was contagious.

"Oh my..." my eyes widened in realization. "You sneaky bastard! You've been doing everything on my left side where I'm all blind and oblivious!"

"Hey it's not my fault you don't use your right eye's peripheral when you turn you head left. And you can't blame me for being light on my feet," he snickered, holding his stomach; it was probably aching from when I kneed him. I couldn't believe it had just been my left eye's blindness that never saw him come or go.

"Sorry about that," I said pointing to his stomach where he just looked—really, with his right eye—straight at me and smiled.

"Well sorry about...all of that," Zero murmured, tentatively touching his fingers against my neck, my cheek and around my eye.

"Sorry I thought you were fully blind, again. That must've been..insulting?" I offered smiling weakly.

"It's okay, but what will you do about it?" His eyes brows shot up in question and he smirked. Seeing this and his attitude right now made me realize; Zero wasn't a strange boy—apart from seeing into my memory—but he was just so, well normal to me and I never realized it.

"I won't go with Gordon tomorrow?" I suggested and the smile in his one eye brightened. "What's with you anyway? Why can't I go? He's just a classmate, basically."

He looked behind him as if he thought someone may hear and then turned back to me, swatting his fringe out of his left eye, and moving it over his blind right eye, as he looked into mine.

"Well, I'd rather you not pry into that as of yet," he spoke and I just had to groan in annoyance.

"You're such a—argh! And by the way, what are you or were you in denial of?" I huffed at him and he tensed.

"Huh?" He mumbled cleverly.

"You said you were in denial of something, when we first met?" I questioned, eyebrows creasing as he gave me a strange look.

"What you can't tell me? It's not the right time?" I said and rolled my eyes while his sparked with another grin.

"You said it, not me."



"Valery, you're almost home," a sweet voice said from the driver seat.

"Thanks for bringing me. My mum just couldn't make the time," I shrugged, looking outside the window admiring the streetlights and the glow in the dark of the night.

"Well you know—"

That sentence was never finished, nor were her last words as the breath in my lungs was suddenly knocked out of me as I felt the car jerk forward abruptly, a sickening crack resounding in my ears as a gooey substance trickled down my face. I was left half blind in the moment as glass flew and plunged into my skin. The cry of a boy, merely an arms length away from me added to the throbbing in my brain as I closed my eyes and rested my bloodied face against the cold black floor of the road hoping the pain would go away.