Love is Blind

Everything that we do, we do for love. Even if that love destroys us.

“Kate! Kate! No, no, no!” Tom screams holding onto his lifeless wife’s torso. “This wasn’t supposed to happen, bring her back!” Tom cried out. The infant had survived the delivery, but the mother did not.

Kate and Tom had a normal life when they faced their toughest problem yet. After years of trying with no luck in sight, they could not conceive a child. Kate became withdrawn and detached from her husband Tom. He was desperate for a way to get her back. Desperate enough to start believing in alternative methods. Folklore of a woman who could perform miracles for a price was Tom’s last hope.

Tom went into a state of delirium from many long restless nights of researching. He could not stop until he had a plan. His worst fear of losing Kate was becoming a reality. He would do anything to make her happy again, including lying to her. Tom drove through the night to the forest, leaving Kate a note reading ‘Be back’ with no signature.

When he had reached the woods, the setting was not familiar as it had been. Leaving Tom without the usual comfort it had given him long ago during hunting trips with his father. The cool air, the protection of the trees, the ambiance of the wildlife, it was all gone. The trees stood still as if the woods were holding its breath awaiting his arrival.

Shortly into the woods and he was already lost. Without the sky shining through the thick evergreens, Tom had no sense of direction to where he was or had come from. Insects began to chirp slowly, growing louder with every step. A scream out in the distance makes Tom sprint off in one direction. Tom falls over every branch and rock until he loses his footing, tumbling down a rough hill knocking himself unconscious against a tree.

Hours later Tom awoke to a crackling fire amid black shadows. The trees were gone and cold hard ground beneath him. He slowly up righted himself as a noise shuffled from the corner.

“Who’s there?” Tom called. There was a moment of silence followed by louder shuffling. Tom’s heartbeat was the only other sound apart from the fire. Louder it grew until Tom cried in fear, “What do you want from me?”

“Depends on what you have to offer. Although,” the voice pausing with a clicking of its tongue, “the more sentimental value the better.”

“Where am I?” Tom whimpered, crawling closer to the fire. “You don’t scare me. Show yourself!” he shouted with a faltering confidence. The voice emerged from the corner into a small woman cloaked in black shreds of satin.

“I can give you what you seek, but can you afford the price?” the woman asked.

Without hesitation Tom agreed begging the woman that he would do anything. But after the woman had named her price, Tom was uncertain if he could go through with it.

Tom walked out of the cave like room and through the forest in a trance. Next thing he knew, he was home, standing over his wife in bed sound asleep. Tom was holding the gold heart locket he had given to her 10 years ago when they first confessed their love for each other, tears drying on his face.

In the end Tom could not pay the price, breaking the deal, and leaving a curse instead. Each child born was perfectly healthy and normal besides the lack of sight. No one could pinpoint what had happened to the children, but the worst of their theories took root. The sightless children were thought to be a bad omen upon the world and needed to be eradicated. Riots, looters, and fights broke out soon after the initial allegations and debates failed to find a solution. People grew scared and went into hiding. While others took matters into their own hands. The world was thought to be lost, but a few built a new world in the cracks.

Years pass and the world becomes quiet. Most of civilization gone or in hiding. In the mountains is a long-forgotten monastery repurposed to a sanctuary for the cursed children. The Sisters created the space and their community here. They are women from many backgrounds and religions all banded together to save the children. Sanctuary normally is solace but in the Sisters house, the blind children are kept safe but avoided because many still believe the children to be cursed, although the children had not put thought to this at all since it was all that they had known.

While most of the sisters kept a distance to the children, Rachel stayed near the smallest boy, Cole. She had never been very fond of children before it all went black. Then the deadly stigma on them only made it worse. She had never approached the boy before, yet never far from him. It was Rachel that had brought Cole into their sanctuary.

She had been alone wandering the wreckage when she happened upon the baby boy. Cole had been wrapped in a bloody towel and laid under a table. The only belonging was a gold heart locket necklace griped in the infant’s fist. She only took the briefest of moments to make the most important commitment of her life. Quickly scooping the child up in her arms, Rachel went in search of a home for them. Fate led her to The Sisters where both her and the boy had made a life.

Forgetting the old world and living in this new, Rachel and a few others began to venture out past their sanctuary. The world was magical again, and in their joy, people let their guard down.

Rachel went to her favorite spot outside, a small pond with a trickling stream a few miles from home. Often, she would sing softly to the water. Today she got carried away and sang out loud, forgetting about the terrors that surrounds. A rustle in the trees spooks her.

She calls out, “Who is there?”

At first it was silent, and then Cole appears out from a tree. “I’m sorry that I scared you. I didn’t mean to.”

“How did you get out here? Did you follow me?” Rachel asked walking closer to the boy. “Why?”

“I like to listen to you sing. I hear it faintly when no one is around, and decided to follow that voice,” Cole admitted sheepishly.

“Thank you, no one has ever wanted to hear me sing,” a genuine smile growing on Rachels face is quickly gone when a cracking sound comes near. An older man blistered and ragged came into sight.

“Is that one of the cursed children? I’ve been looking for them. Mind handing it over?” asked the man walking closer to them. The woman saw the shotgun in his hand and went to move in front of Cole to shield him.

“You’re protecting them then? Fine, you can both die today,” quickly the man aimed the shot gun at Rachel.

Before anyone could take a breath, Cole pushed Rachel out of the way. Leaving the bullet to hit him in the middle of his chest. A flash of lightning and deafening cracks of thunder shake the earth. The man blasted away, knocked unconscious. Rachel struggled to right herself searching for Cole.

“Cole! Where are you?” Rachel called out unsure if she made any sound. The blast had left her ears ringing. Twenty feet away she found him. “Please wake up,” Rachel whispered kissing him sweetly on the forehead. His eyes fluttered open and he took a deep breath.

“I-I I can see you,” Cole gasped in shock. “It’s so bright, ow. Are we going to be okay now?” the boy asked. She could not believe it but there, where there should have been a gaping hole was nothing but a busted gold heart locket dropping in pieces to the ground.

“What happened?” Cole asked in bewilderment.

“I believe that love saved us. You saved me like I saved you all those years ago,” Rachel took Cole into her arms, both feeling a peace they had never known before.

The same had happened everywhere. The children’s sight returned, and the curse broken. Love is what started it all. Tom’s love blinded him, and he caused pain in that, but love is also the answer. Cole sacrificing himself for Rachel held the power to free them all.

Love is blind, it sees with the heart.