*****
Carol-Anne rose slowly into consciousness. She was tired, her head pounded, her muscles still felt made of lead. By reflex she tried to blink and found that her eyelids would not respond, they felt held in place, however, there was something different. She could not quite pinpoint what it was, but she felt different. Before she could explore this newness, she fell back into a morphine-induced sleep.
The feeling of being different persisted when she woke again. She had no idea what time or even what day it was. She tried to feel around for her watch, but her arms did not seem willing to respond. She blamed it on the pain medicine and slipped back into sleep.
When she woke again, her throat was dry and her stomach proclaimed it’s hunger. She wondered just how many days she had been out. The tape over her eyes had been replaced by something else, although Carol-Anne still could not see anything. She only knew it had been removed because she could now open her eyes. But something was still different. Her head ached dully as she tried to pinpoint exactly what was different. Something was certainly new. Just before she fell unconscious once more she almost understood what it was.
When she came awake for the forth time, something was indeed different. Her headache still persisted, though it was mostly muted, but her thoughts were much more coherent and her mind was much less dampened by the morphine she was being given. She blinked her eyes several times, then gasped in surprise.
She could see something. She had no name for the dark void that greeted her, but it was something. It was almost organic in it’s shifting flow of varying shades. It seemed to be getting lighter and lighter, layer after layer of darkness peeling away.
“I have no idea what her reaction is going to be, but I don’t think it’s going to be good.” Dr Fredrickson sighed and ran a hand across his hair. “This is going to set us back for years.” He couldn’t help but fidget as he watched Vivian calmly unwind the bandages from Carol-Anne’s head.
Beside him watched another of the doctors who had participated in the surgery. “I’m sure everything will be fine. We’ll just explain the situation and-”
The blackness continued to fade, shifting and evolving. Lines and odd shapes flooded into Carol-Anne’s mind, forcing her to close her eyes tightly to block out the whirlwind of images, though light still shone weakly through her eyelids, illuminating shifting patterns across her protected retinas.
After several long seconds, the shifting stopped and the unrecognizable patterns seemed to freeze in place. It was time! Carol-Anne felt her heart speed up in anticipation. She hadn’t waited so long to give up now. Slowly, nervously, she opened her eyes.
“Explain the situation?! Jackson, are you mad? Has exhaustion claimed your mind, man?! Peters told me this woman’s lifelong ambition was to be able to see because she wanted to be normal.” Fredrickson hung his head. “I knew we should have waited to do the operation. Then this never would have occurred.”
Carol-Anne blinked, slowly widening her eyes from slits. She was immediately bombarded with images of things she couldn’t name. There was a lot of movement, her eyes drawn to all of it. Pink-skinned monsters surrounded her, flashing white teeth. The light flashed brightly, sending spears into her sensitive eyes. Abstract shapes wavered in and out of her notice. But the world around her was silent.
Confused, Carol-Anne tried again to raise her arms, trying not to panic as she remembered Fredrickson’s words that she would have to train herself to recognize what she saw, but once again her arms did not seem to respond. She turned her head, trying hard to hear and wondering if this was another side effect of the morphine. She fought to control the rising panic when her ears heard nothing, but it was getting more and more difficult.
“Also,” Fredrickson continued. “How do you propose we explain anything to her? Anything at all? The woman is now deaf, thanks to us. And has lost all sense of touch in her entire body! She can’t read text, can’t read lips, can’t read brail, can’t hear, and sign language is useless. Just what are you proposing we do?!”
“I…My god…” Jackson stammered. “What do we do?”
Carol-Anne tried to speak, but still she heard nothing, not even her own voice inside her head. Yet she knew she was talking, she did it the same as ever before. She tried to sit up and became dizzy when her already confusing view changed, yet her arms still did not respond to her commands. She tried wiggling her toes and those did not seem to respond either. The world no longer made sense to Carol-Anne.
She tried to stand up, but one of the pink monsters seemed to stop her. More of them came in, swarming her view. She struggled furiously, unable to hold back the panic any longer. She wanted to run, to escape, to go back to her life before. At least that world she could understand.
Finally she began to scream, although it still failed to pierce the silence surrounding her. Her throat grew raw and still she continued to scream, unable to stop herself as she felt her grip on reality loosen. As she renewed her silent screaming, she let go entirely, flinging herself into the depths of complete madness.
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