Blind Photographs

“Yeah. I guess I have. You know the rest. Now, how long has that been?”

“No clue, it’s dark as night down here.”

I laughed, because I was completely unaware. No wonder they didn't look at my tattoo, they probably couldn't even tell where I was.

“Were you always so vision impaired?”

“Nah, up until my second encounter with the city I had perfect eyesight. It’s something they breed into us now. But then the slow withdrawal off the pills and everything screwed something up inside me. It was the same thing that gave me Radio Heat in my head, I think. But I kind of like being blind. Gives me a better picture of who everyone is.”

“Way to live up to your name.”

“Poison knows how to pick em, eh?”

“Can we check on them? Usually they come down here by now.” Grace whispered.

I played with her hair. She had miraculously escaped the smell of sweaty killjoys, and instead brought me back to the old City house. I don't now how, but she'd managed it. Lord only knows what fumes had soaked themselves into my clothes by this point.

The floor creaked above us and I was hopeful that they would tell us it was okay to come out, that they’d won. But it wasn’t them. There were no footsteps.. Dr. D must’ve realized this and ushered Grace and I back into a concave in the wall. How often had they been down here that they knew where to hide, even in the dark? I pushed her behind me and stood firm, ears straining to hear if anything was going to happen.

The tile squeaked. Someone barked out commands. I knew that voice… but why? I raised my hands up to my face as someone swung at my head. The smell of cologne and sweat almost made me gag.

“Say goodnight, babe.”

A fist connected with my stomach. Why wasn’t I hearing anyone coming up to me? I fell to my knees, winded.

“R-run,” I choked out to Grace.

I had no idea if she’d heard me or not because in the next instant, something damp and sweet smelling was tied over my nose. Behind the bandana, my eyes started closing.

“She looks familiar.”

“Yeah, almost like the kid.”

“Oh man, I think that is the kid.”

“All the more reason to take her back, then. We can apologize later. Grab the little one and wheel the cripple upstairs. He’s got our note, and these tunnels get cold. Too cold for an old geezer to be rolling around in, anyway. Phantom, get that tile back up.”

He sounded like he was talking from underwater…

“Boy, wish we could’ve seen that. Who knew the masks came off?”

There was wind rushing past us

“Whiter than white, like little rats with completely black eyes.”

I was in a car, moving somewhere fast.

“Didn’t even mean to do it. Singed it off accidentally. But once it’s off, it’s really a sight.”

The radio clicked on as the conversation stopped
I moved my hand slowly toward where the door latch should’ve been. A piece of duct tape had been slapped on top so it could only be opened from the outside. My head felt airy. I couldn’t hear as well as before. Someone had taken off my bandana, too.

My eyes flickered open and from the blurry shapes I could tell that there were two guys in the back with me, two up front and (something colored similarly to) Grace was sitting shotgun with one of them. They were too busy discussing other things to notice me as I carefully started peeling back the tape.

The radio got turned up louder and the two in the back leaned forward and started singing along. I ripped the rest of the tape off and started tugging at the handle. I groped for the lock, which pulled up with only a slight noise.

It still wouldn’t open.

I pulled harder.