Chapter Two: Sight For Sore Eyes

        Uri looked around his room; an image of the night sky was still burning in his mind. He was covered in a cold sweat, and his hands were shaking. It had felt so real, like he had just been lying in the road only moments before. He could almost feel the rough asphalt beneath him. Uri looked at the clock, it was almost six, and the first light of day was beginning to creep in through the blinds.         Uri yawned, stretched his arms out, flexing his fingers and toes, listening to them crack. Disregarding the dream he just had, Uri willed himself out of bed and headed towards the bathroom. As he crossed the room he felt something pull at the back of his eyes, at first it was just a dull throb, then a sharp pain shot through them. Uri screamed, pressing his palms to his eyes and falling to the floor, it was horrible, like needles being shoved into the back of his retinas. But as soon as it had started it stopped.         Uri staggered back to his feet, legs shaking, sweat dotting his face, and ran to the bathroom. He leaned in close to the mirror, they looked fine, their usual white, for Uri didn’t have an eye color, where there should be an iris and a pupil there was nothing, and it had been that way as long as he could remember.         Uri was still breathing fast, he put a hand to his chest, his heart was racing. He shook his head and rubbed at his eyes until they watered. He undressed and got into the shower all the while wondering if his eyes would start hurting again. He got out and dried off, so far so good. Uri went back into his room and got dressed, he glanced at the clock again, 6:45, Hanson would be wondering where he was, Uri was surprised he hadn’t come up to check on him.         The sun was up now and light streamed into the drably colored room, it was then that Uri realized what a mess it was; clothes tossed haphazardly here and there, plates with the remains of meals from days before, Hanson would be furious, but Uri decided he worry about tidying up later. He walked over to his bedside stand and reached out to grab a smooth piece of cloth, but in the process knocked over a picture frame.         Uri returned it to its upright position and took notice of the picture, it was of him and his two friends, Evan and Dezarae. Uri smiled, he didn’t know that this picture had even been taken until it was given to him; it was like that with all pictures. There were a few other pictures sitting on the stand but he had always like this one the best. Evan had his arm draped over Uri’s shoulder while Dezarae had hooked her arm around Uri’s. Uri couldn’t help but grin at the confused look on his face, while his two friends posed for the picture; Evan with his big toothy grin, and Dezarae with her shy smile.         Uri took a closer look at the picture and realized how differently he and Evan looked from each other. Evan was a good head taller than Uri and of a slightly stronger stature, playing in most the sports his school had to offer. His gold-white skin stood out against Uri’s dark complexion. And his short blonde hair was complimented by Uri’s long black locks.          Dezarae was closer to Uri’s height, maybe a few inches shorter, her olive skin smooth and flawless, long brown hair draping over her shoulders, green eyes shaded by long, dark, eyelashes and thin angular eyebrows. She sure was pretty.         Uri took a few more moments to look at the picture before taking the silk fabric he had grabbed in his hands and wrapping it around his head, and over his eyes.                 Uri began to head downstairs, bypassing the hazards spread across his bedroom floor with ease, sidestepping here, hopping over there. Despite the blindfold that he was forced to wear, Uri had never had any trouble seeing. It was hard to explain, Uri didn’t quite understand it himself, but it’s like he can tell where things are without having to see them. This sixth sense of his allowed Uri to live quite comfortably for not being able to see during the day.         Hanson had tried to explain it on more than one occasion, and Uri remember one morning in specific where he had come up with an explanation that had almost made sense to Uri.        “You know,” Hanson had said while drinking his morning cup of coffee, newspaper spread out in front of him, “sometimes when a person goes blind there other senses grow stronger; they become heightened.” He took another sip from his cup and pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up his nose. “But you’re not technically blind, so I dunno if it would apply.” He set down his coffee and stared at Uri from across the table, though Uri couldn’t tell, Hanson was looking at where his eyes would have been if it weren’t for the blindfold. “Perhaps it has something to do with—“         But he had caught himself and stopped and proceeded to talk about some new tax the Counsel was proposing, Though Uri knew what he was going to say. Hanson was about to bring up Uri’s “condition” as they called it. Something which they tried to avoid talking about whenever possible, though it wasn’t a condition of any sort. Uri had been this way, his eyes, for as long as he could remember, and even longer. Hanson said he was born like this, just like his parents, and millions of other people.         But where Uri lived it wasn’t good to be different, which is why he was never allowed to leave the house, and why he has to wear the blindfold. Because if they ever found out about him, he would have to go away; to where, he didn’t know, but he knew without a doubt, that it was somewhere bad. So Uri had never argued with the strict rules Hanson had set for him, he never took his blindfold off except when in the darkroom and to sleep, and he had never left the house until recently, but Hanson didn’t know about that.                 Uri was at the bottom step and the board creaked beneath him.  He turned and walked down the hall and into the kitchen, where Uri could sense Hanson was sitting at the table, drinking coffee.        “Morning,” he said, Uri could hear the rustling of the newspaper. “I heard you scream. What happened?”        Uri pulled a chair out and sat. He hadn’t realized he had screamed so loud. “I . . . my eyes, they were hurting.”         “Again?” Hanson glanced over the paper at Uri. “That’s the fourth time this month.”        “Yeah, I know.” Uri rubbed his eyes through the cloth, “Its been happening more often lately. Not real bad like this morning, but a lot of times I can feel something there, pulling at them.”         “Yes well, I’m sure it’s nothing to be too worried about.” Hanson went back to reading the paper. “I can’t believe it; Counsel’s proposing a draft . . . ‘insufficient numbers volunteering’ . . . unbelievable . . .”         Uri got up to pour himself something to drink; he sniffed into the carton, milk. Uri felt like orange juice this morning and grabbed the other carton. He sat back down and drank up his breakfast, while Hanson finished up with the paper.         “You ready to start lessons?” Hanson asked folding up the paper and tossing it aside.         Uri sighed, “Yeah, I guess.”         “Alright, go get your books; I’ll meet you in the darkroom.”        Uri stood and started for his room, he could feel that tug at his eyes again but chose to ignore it. He grabbed his books and raced back downstairs, down the hall through the door at the end of it, into the darkroom.          It was the one room of the house where Uri could have his blindfold off besides his room. There were no windows, and the one door was the only entrance to the room. Hanson had rigged sensors and some cameras to tell when someone was coming. The room didn’t live up to its name well though; Hanson had placed several lights in the ceiling and lamps on all the stands, it was actually the brightest room in the house. The reason they called it the darkroom was that one time, many years ago during lessons, a storm had knocked out the power. There were power locks on the door so they couldn’t get out and had sat in complete darkness for three hours. Hanson had since then fixed the lock problem and had stocked the room with several flashlights.         Uri pulled down his blindfold and saw Hanson sitting on the sofa, running his hand through his graying hair.         “What do you want to start with?” He asked.        “Math I think, get it out of the way . . .” Uri hated math.        “Alright, lets see your book then.” He took a rather thick book from the stack of many and flipped through the pages. “Where were we yesterday?”         “Umm . . . the inverse of functions I think.”         “That’s right; did you get your work done?”         “Yeah it’s in the folder.”         “I’ll check this and you can start reading the next chapter.” Hanson took out a red pen and began examining the paper, making several marks across it. “Well, it looks like we’ll have to go over this again.” Hanson said looking over his glasses at Uri who pretended not to noticed, but instead to be completely absorbed in his text.         “Uri,” Uri looked up from the book, “you haven’t been doing so well in this subject. Are we going to fast?”         Uri knew for a fact that what Hanson was drilling him on was light years ahead of what Evan and Dezarae were learning, but responded with a “no” and continued reading.         “Well, I guess we’ll just have to keep trying then huh?” There was a hint of frustration in his voice, and Uri understood that he must be frustrated, having been one of the top scientists in the City. Hanson had worked in league with the Counsel themselves, but had to retire when Uri came along. And how frustrating it must be, to have all those smarts and not be able to use them. Whenever Uri asked whether or not Hanson was upset about having to leave he always responded the same:         “They were starting to get on my nerves anyway.”        Uri couldn’t tell whether or not Hanson was being serious or not. And that’s why he never complained or argued, because he knew how much Hanson had given up to take care of Uri.         And so Uri sat through another hour of boring math lecture, taking notes and answering questions as best he could. Trying his hardest to understand, not wanting to let Hanson down again.         Next they studied History. Uri didn’t mind this class; sometimes he enjoyed learning about the past. He especially liked his textbook because throughout it there were several pictures of people like him, people with white eyes. The book referred to them as Lucids, but that’s about all Uri knew about them, for where it would talk about them the words were scribbled out, and sometimes Uri found whole pages missing.         One time Uri had asked about the missing information and Hanson had just said, “Be glad you even have this book. The regular schools don’t even allow this material anymore. It was ‘too nice’ according to the Counsel. Be glad you have any of these books. The other kids only get to read things approved by the Counsel and Ashen himself. If they found out I even had these I’d be in big trouble.”         So Uri didn’t question the material, and actually considered himself very lucky to be learning the things he did. After hearing accounts from Evan and Dezarae, normal school sounded very boring and strict. With Hanson they could laugh and tell jokes and make lessons somewhat entertaining. At normal school you get punished for speaking out of line, a fact Evan knows all too well.         So for another hour Uri read up on the Great Rebellion which had started the line of Ashen leaders. From Peter Ashen III a hundred years ago, to our current leader, Jett Ashen. According to the book the world had been a very horrible place before the Ashens. A crumbling economy, poverty and famine running rampant until Peter had risen up and conquered the regime of a Jerich Strauburn who had apparently . . . Uri skipped over the scratched out words and continued on with the chapter.         Later Hanson explained that this book was flawed in many areas. “First off, the condition of the world during the Strauburn era was, if anything, very stable. Peter had simply wanted power, and took it. He wasn’t any better than Strauburn and nothing much changed minus a slight shift in the political power in that Peter had gained some. Though the Counsel was still had the say in almost all political decisions. You won’t read this in your book, or any other book for that matter, all of the revised editions say that the Ashens always had power over the Counsel. This is false, of course, until Peter’s grandson, Keith Ashen came into power. He initiated a quiet political takeover of the Counsel after which he had word over them. No one’s sure how he did it, a lot say there were scams, cover-ups, conspiracies and whatnot, but no one’s for sure, except Ashen himself and those close to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if our very own Jett Ashen knew his father’s secret. But that’s not important; all you need to know is that Keith Ashen’s rise in political power marked the steady decline in the world’s economy which, sadly, is still sliding.”        “But why did they change what the books said?” Uri asked.         “Because the Ashens wanted themselves shown in the best light possible.”         The lesson continued and Uri learned more about the supposed “greatness” of the Ashen line. About all of the supposedly wonderful things they have done for society. Hanson would snicker after ever line and tell Uri the truth, that things were worse now, especially since Jett toke over fifteen years ago.         The next hour passed and both teacher and pupil ate lunch. Afterwards they continued on with lessons, science and English passed without event. Afterwards they ate dinner, chicken pot pies.         Hanson asked, “Do you wanna watch some television?” He had just finished washing up the dishes as Uri gathered up his lesson books.         “No thanks,” he replied, “I’m kinda tired actually. I think I’m going to turn in early today.”        “Alright, if you’re sure,” Hanson walked over and wrapped his arms around Uri, “Goodnight, see you in the morning.”         “Yeah, in the morning,” Uri walked upstairs and into his room, tossing his books to the floor stripped his clothes and put on his pajamas. He made a quick bathroom trip and on the way back towards his bed something happened. Like before a terrible pain shot through his eyes, pulling, ripping at them. Uri tried to scream but nothing would come out, his knees buckled and he fell to the floor.

        A cool morning breeze tugged at his body and Uri couldn’t tell if he was still awake or not, the pain was gone and everything was black. But then, his eyes were closed; he opened them and the rising desert sun met his awakening.   

Author’s Notes: This is the second chapter of our story. Here we are introduced to some of the secondary characters. Evan and Dezarae are his two (and only) friends, and Hanson is his guardian, not his biological father in case you didn’t catch it (or in case I didn’t mention it). Also, if you were confused about Uri’s eyes, they are white…just white. Nothing else, no pupil or iris. Also remember that in Uri’s history book people with white eyes are refered to as Lucids. And keep in mind that it is Jett Ashen who is currently in charge of the city. And if the end of the chapter seemed kinda rushed it’s because it was…

Hope you enjoyed.