Fates

The eye

The accident played over and over again in my mind. I saw what happened to my parents, the car crashing, the shattering of glass and the fearful expression of Mio as I hugged her. And the strange voice I heard.

"(Inaudible voice in an unknown language)"

"MIO !!" I shouted loudly as I suddenly got up from my bed while catching my breath.

I suddenly felt nervousness and fear as I trembled while sweat continued to drip down my body.

"That accident again." I whispered while calming myself.

I felt as if something wrapped around my right eye along with my head. I touched my right eye as my head suddenly ached. I closed my eyes and touched my head in pain. I folded my legs tightly while writhing in pain at the same time remembering what had happened. All of the memories from the accident are fastly playing in my mind, things and events I saw in the accident all of that one by one I remember it all again.

"Mio .. M-mio .." I called my little sister again and again while suffering in pain.

"M-mio ... Where are you?" I called as I looked for her while I opened my left eye.

I tried to move slowly despite the pain I was feeling. I removed the things attached to my body which caused a little pain especially in the hand where the dextrose was attached but no matter what other pain I was feeling nothing could stop me from going to my little sister. I slowly got up and walked away to where I was lying.

"I need to see her." The only words I uttered.

I suddenly felt pain in my right eye, I felt fluid dripping in my right eye at the same time as it hurt.

"ARGHHHH !!! DAMN IT !!!" I shouted in pain.

"It hurts." The last thing I uttered when I slowly fell as I lay on the floor, blood was on my hand then I realized that my eye was bleeding. I stretched out my arms trying to reach the door. Suddenly the door opened and I saw feet hurrying towards me.

"Doctor !! Doctor !!" The voice of a confused woman calling the doctor who I think is a nurse.

I was about to raise my head when I suddenly fainted.

-------

I opened my eyes and saw only darkness as if I were in a room surrounded by darkness. One by one my vague memories of the accident appeared at the same time playing as if telling me not to forget what happened.

Suddenly I heard the sounds of the accident, the shouts, the sounds of the car rolling, the shattering of the glass all that keeps on playing in my mind and keeps on haunting me until it seems to push me to the very bottom of darkness. That accident seems to be eating me alive.

I closed my eyes tightly to make it go away but even when I closed my eyes the sound of screams whispered to me, it's horrible. I try to cover my ears but no matter how hard I try to cover it I can still hear it all, the loud cries and sounds of the accident.

-------

A few hours later I woke up and saw my little sister sleeping with her head laying down on the right side of my bed while holding my hand. I feel relieved to see that her condition is okay.

I touched her head and gently stroked it. I saw a drop of tears at the tip of her eye.

"I'm sorry for making you cry." I whispered, but at the same time it made me happy to see she is ok.

Because of my caress and whisper, Mio woke up, she rubbed her eyes and looked at me which caused her to suddenly cry. I immediately hugged her tightly, very tightly as if we had not seen each other for so long.

"I'm glad that you're fine." I whispered to her while some of my tears started to fall.

I wiped my tears and broke away from hugging her and then I touched her face. I lifted her face and wiped away her tears as I smiled at her. She smiled back and then we started laughing.

Mio and I talked and joked. We both laughed at all the jokes we told to each other.

"I miss this, laughing with you." I whispered.

This is the happiness that no one can replace, the happiness you will only experience when you are with your loved one. While we were in the middle of talking with each other our Doctor came in.

He just smiled and said, "I'm glad you're feeling well, I'm Koizumi Asa, the doctor assigned for the both of you." He said as he looked at me and my little sister.

"Thank you so much for taking good care of me and my little sister." I sincerely thanked them while bowing my head in respect to them.

"I'm just doing my job as your doctor and as your father's friend." He explained.

"Before I explain things to both of you. What do you want to hear first? The good news? Or the bad news?" He asked us not to get too surprised.

"Tell us the good news first." I said.

"The good news is both of you are in a stable situation now. You two didn't get any serious injuries from the accident, only minor ones." He explained.

"And the bad news?" Mio asked.

"The bad news is you two are the only ones that survived. We've done everything we can to save your parents but both of them didn't make it because of the terrible injuries that they got." He explained sincerely.

I knew in the beginning that they couldn't survive because I saw with my own eyes what had happened to them. The very impact of the accident hit them. I'm only worried about Mio because they haven't told her that yet and also because mom and dad are close to her.

I shifted my gaze to Mio. I could see the shock on her face and I couldn't believe they were gone. One by one her tears flowed due to the sudden disappearance of mom and dad.

I touched both of her cheeks to calm her down. I slowly wiped away her tears.

"I'm sorry I couldn't save them. So please stop crying." I said as I showed her a weak smile.

Suddenly she hugged me tightly, I hugged her back while I caressed her back so that she could release all the sadness she felt. When Mio calmed down a bit, Koizumi-san spoke again.

"And about you Kio, as I've said a while ago your condition is stable now with no serious injuries but still you need to be careful because the accident may have affected you in psychological terms." He explained.

"Hmm ... got it. I'll be careful." I answered.

"Also about your right eye, we run some tests about it. It seems that some shattered glass got inside your right eye. It damaged some delicate optic nerves in it." He added.

"What are you trying to say, Koizumi-san?" I asked as I cutted his explanation.

"Your right eye is already blind. We can already remove the bandage around it." He answered.

After he said that, a nurse came in holding a tray. It approached me and then touched the bandage surrounding my right eye to the head. She slowly removed it. I didn't remove my hug with Mio so that she wouldn't touch the nurse while removing my bandage.

After she removed it she then handed me a mirror so I could see the look of my right eye. I looked into my right eye, it changed color and I saw the scar in the middle of it as if it had been cut in the middle as I stared at my face. I slowly touched the small scar on my face right through my right eye and stared intently at the changed color of my right eye.

I was fascinated by my right eye not because of this blindness but because of the color that looks like gold with scars on it.

"Koizumi-san, Is it possible for my eye to change colors?" I asked out of curiosity.

"The faint heterochromia in your right eye that you already have, after the accident it decrease the melanin that comes to your right eye that's when the discoloration of your eye is now visible, but at the same time you lost your vision because of the damage in your optic nerves." He specifically explained in exact normal words that normal people will understand, but after explaining, Mio suddenly cried so hard.

I hug her tight to comfort her, it seems that this is so much harder for her to endure than for me who has this kind of injury.

"Are there any side effects and symptoms that may happen to me because of my right eye?" I curiously asked.

"In scientific and medical terms, there's no side effects and symptoms that will happen to you and more importantly it's not possible to see anything because your right eye is already totally blind." He explained.

-------

After Koizumi-san explained everything about Mio and my condition, I still couldn't get my mind off my right eye, so I first thought of hanging out in the garden at the ground floor of the hospital. I sat on the bench, I raised my head and then looked up at the stars in the sky as someone sat next to me.

"Wow !! So beautiful." The person beside me said.

My eyes turned to the little girl next to me who was about the same age as Mio who was also wearing a patient's uniform. I can see in her the excitement and amazement of what she's seeing.

"Yeah, it's so beautiful, the stars are sparkling the same as your eyes." I said.

"Wahh... really??" She said full of excitement, while looking at me.

"Hmm!" I responded as I looked at her while nodding my head.

"Umm, nii-chan why are you in the Hospital." She asked.

"Well, we got into an accident." I replied seriously without looking at her.

*Silence*

"How about you?" I asked to break the sudden silence.

"Mom said that there's something wrong with my heart that's why I needed to stay at the hospital for my treatment." She answered while smiling.

After what she said I looked at her because I kinda saw Mio in her. As I watched her, suddenly the part of his chest where the heart was located began to disappear. When I saw that I suddenly felt dizzy.

"But I think my disease is getting worse because I always see mom crying more often. I wish I could stay longer with mom but if I won't be with her anymore I wish she would still smile and I will always be by her side telling her I love her. " She continued.

Before I lost my sight and completely lost consciousness I saw that the disappearing I was seeing had spread to her body. And there I realized that at that moment my vision was fine as if my right eye was not blind.

-------

It was morning when I woke up and I was in my hospital room. Mio was worried when she felt that I was not next to her last night and I found out that I was rushed to the hospital when I lost consciousness but even though that happened to me I still couldn't get it out of my mind what I saw last night there to the girl next to me.

I got up from my bed and walked out of the room to ask the girl I was with last night. I asked the nurse assigned there to the nurses station.

"Umm, I want to ask about a girl who's with me last night in the garden. Who is she? May I know her name?" I asked.

"She's Okamoto Chiaki." The nurse answered.

"Is she fine? Did I make her startled that I suddenly lost consciousness that time?" I asked worriedly.

The nurse I was talking to suddenly stopped and seemed to be thinking. Her smiling expression earlier was replaced by sadness.

"Did something happen to her?" I worriedly asked because of the expression in her face.

"She already died yesterday during the operation." She seriously said while looking down.

"W-what d-do you mean?" I asked while stuttering.

"The day you met her is the day of her operation, but sadly she didn't make it." She explained.

I was dumbfounded about what she said because I saw and talked to her last night. She looks happy and full of dreams in life but why did she suddenly die?

"Then what did I just see back then?" The word I suddenly utter.