Blind

A strange thing happened when this blind man saw for the first time. You’d expect elation, wonder, the amazement of being able to see colour, and birds, and trees, and all these wonderful things. But upon being cured, the man picked up a nearby needle, and began swinging it towards his eyes.

The doctors were able to stop him, but it seemed it was impossible to stop the cause. He asked for one thing to help him. A roll of bandages. His head turned into a mess of the white thin fabric, clearly wrapped hurriedly. He continued applying layer after layer, until his vision was obscured to his satisfaction. The blind man — once cured briefly — was blind again.

There have been theories. That he didn’t like what he saw in the world. That the light was too much for his sensitive eyes. But I thought it was deeper than that. He stayed in the hospital for a few weeks after the incident. He acted normally, unless one of the doctors brought it up. If they ever asked for any reasoning or explanation for his action he would only have one reason: Freedom.

This didn’t satisfy me. I needed more. Luckily, a man with infinite time, can become one with infinite knowledge. After a few months I managed to track him down.

A field of green, dotted with a brown blob in the distance. His home was utterly isolated. Surrounded by a sea of flowing blades of grass, bouncing sheep grazing gently as they hovered just above the surface. It seemed he was in paradise. The irony of a blind man surrounding himself in beauty. Maybe the sounds comforted him. As I walked through the grass, down a sole path in the field, I noticed something peculiar. A barbed fence, wrapping around the complex. Was it there to keep things out, or in, I thought, unable to decide which was worse.

I walked up to the front door, and I could see him sitting on his sofa in the living room. As I had been promised his head was covered in bandages. It was odd, seeing a body with no eyes. It felt like he was always watching. I knocked twice on the door, and he answered before I could place a third.

“How did you find me,” He blurted out

“Well,” I chuckled, “I can find anybody.”

“Why did you find me? I’m a dangerous man. You shouldn’t go looking for dangerous men.” He firmly stood in front of the door, blocking the entrance with his body. It was clear where he wanted me.

“If you're here about this,” He said, gesturing towards his face. “I suggest you leave so as not to waste your time.”

“I only have one question, it will only take a second.”

He began shepherding me out of the door, pushing me with his hands and body.

“It’s always just one question—”

“What did you see?”

The blind man looked at me. Or that’s what it felt like. Like his eyes were piercing through those bandages and into my mind, reading every thought. Oddly, his body began to relax. He welcomed my question.

“You're different,” he said. “They always ask why, never the what.”

He wandered back into the house. It seemed I had been welcomed in.

“Why do you care what I saw?”

“Because I know nothing ordinary can make a man react like that. Not with such ferocity, with such fear. Whatever it is you saw, is exactly the kind of thing I deal with.”

I took a step closer to him.

“I can help you.”

He looked to hesitate for a moment. Who said he needed help? But of course, there was no point arguing. The blind man sensed something in me, something that meant he knew I could help him.

“Close your eyes,” He said.

“What?”

“Close your eyes,”

My eyes were hesitantly shut.

“What do you see?”

“I see nothing.”

His hand flashed towards my face. I flinched.

“Not nothing. Not quite.”

I opened my eyes slowly and saw him walking into the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water. He lifted his bandages slightly as he drank.

“Just because I was blind, didn’t mean I couldn’t see. The light it…it does something to your head. You can’t quite see enough, and your brain tries to fill in the blanks. But my blank had a face. Eyes hollowed out, skin blackened. The face of death. I knew it was just my imagination, so it couldn’t be that bad, right? All in my head.”

He took another gentle sip of his water, his hand shaking as it dribbled down his chin.

“But when I was cured, I didn’t understand when the first thing I saw was his face, standing right beside me. I thought if I couldn’t see, then he couldn’t escape. So I blinded my eyes again. Better this time. No light, no nothing.”

He placed the water down.

I paced around the room, trying to recall where I could have seen it before. I automatically assumed that I had, for there were very few things that I hadn’t.

“Mindwalkers,” I finally conclude. “Parasites, which live exclusively in the mind. Which means it has very little to do with your blindness. It’s still there, you just can’t see it. And with Mindwalkers, seeing it is all that gets you. It’s all fear, nothing physical.”

“So I did the right thing?”

“You probably saved your life.”

The blind man smiled.

“Is there a way to get rid of it?”

I frowned.

“Not exactly. Mindwalkers can’t die, they weren’t alive in the first place. But, it can be transferred between vessels.”

“I can’t ask you to do that,” He said. “This is my burden.”

“I’ve already got hundreds in there, they can’t hurt me anymore. And this way, I can try and keep track of them all.

He looked as though he was considering my offer, his head tilted down towards the ground in thought.

“If you're certain this is what you want,” He finally said.

“All I need is for you to remove your bandages.”

“What?”

“Release it.”

His hands slowly and gingerly rise to his face. I could tell the man wasn’t ready. But he trusted me more than he trusted himself. The layers slowly began to peel back as he swung his hand around his head, unravelling his bind quicker and quicker. His sun glared through the window, startling him. But as he looked beside me, his eyes widened. The thing that I couldn’t make sense of is how I could see him too.

“You're one of mine,” I said to the creature.

A shared Mindwalker. They were evolving. They never used to be able to inhabit more than one person.

As I looked it up and down, I reached out a single hand to touch it. As my fingers barely grazed its shadow skin, It disappeared

“Where did it go?” The man asked

“It’s back in my head.” I could feel it in there. I’d gotten so used to the feeling of them inside me, but I could still tell. Especially when they occasionally decided to show themselves.

I turned to face the man, who was no longer blind, neither voluntarily or forcefully. My work here was done.

“It was a pleasure doing business with you.”