Headlights (A Story of a Girl Called Hope)

A Story by Jean

Headlights

A Story of a Girl Called Hope

It may not have looked like an explosion to everyone else, but my eyes were burning in a sudden sea of light.

I ducked into an alley with my palms pressed into my eye sockets and collapsed to the ground. The light moved around my consciousness, filling every crease and crevice, blinding me from the inside out. My eyes were screaming. The light circled around my head, speeding and slowing without pattern, until all I could see was white and blue.

My body shook in pain, my ears rang, and my heart stumbled as it raced in my chest. I tried to keep calm, but the reminder of what was happening to me was as constant as the thumping pain in my temple. I held my hands to my face until the light died down. I wanted to cry, scream, and bawl until the tears emptied my eyes of this new feeling of power, but I had to stay quiet.

When the pain finally subsided, I removed my hands from my face, and leaned my head against the brick wall. The alley was dark, and empty, unlit by the explosion; the light had been contained within my head.

I touched my eyelids, and felt my eyes vibrating beneath them with an energy I couldn’t feel anywhere else in my body, except perhaps my heart, which was practically vibrating itself.

As I held my hand up in front of my eyes, I realized it was illuminated with a soft gleam of light. My eyes were glowing. They weren't bright enough to light the alley, but the light was there, taunting me. I closed my eyes, trying to imprison the light behind them, but fear compelled me to open them again. I peered down alley, listening for the footsteps of anyone approaching, but it was silent. I took a deep breath, letting the anxiety empty out of my heart, just long enough for it to flow back in with every little sound the night relinquished: the chatter of rats running through pipes, car engines rumbling, alarms going off, and sirens blaring in the distance. I couldn't stay here, I realized.

I crawled to the edge of the alley, and peaked around the corner. The sky was dark, and the few streetlights were broken and dim. Only one or two people were trudging along the cracked, littered sidewalks, with their hands in their pockets and their eyes on the ground. If I kept my eyes down maybe they wouldn't notice me.

I snuck out onto the side of the street, my eyelids low. I crept past a parked car, with black tinted windows, and glanced up at it. My reflection stared back at me. My heart jumped out of my chest as the sight hit me.

My eyes blazed and danced in front of me in waves of white and blue, almost unable to contain the light they emitted. The colors twisted and intertwined themselves, moving and mixing in an endless cycle. I didn't feel myself sit down, but before I could realize it, I was on the ground, not looking at myself anymore.

Having eyes like mine was not a good thing. People with blazing eyes were called Paragons; at some point in their life, a Paragon’s eyes would erupt, and vibrant colors would fill their irises. A Paragon’s eyes were radiant and animated, moving constantly in a cyclone of color, but when a person became a Paragon, it wasn't just their eyes that changed. They also gained a power.

Everyone was afraid of Paragons, because no one could ever be sure what a Paragon could do, and rejected them for their power. The risk of the power being something murderous outweighed the possibility of it being altroistic, or beneficial to society. There were theories on how the Paragon's eyes influenced what powers they had, but they were all speculations of fear. The more violently the colors moved, the more terrifying they were to everyone else, because people thought it might be an indication of savageness. Paragons were believed to be unstable and dangerous, and were killed on sight.

I leaned against the parked car, shaking, with my hands in my hair. Bedlam was notorious for Paragon sightings. They were found dead on the streets, and in alleys. Bedlam's close vicinity to the Void had triggered high alert and paranoia. The Void was a city overrun and destroyed by the presence of Paragons, they said. It used to be a beautiful utopia, before it was left in chaos.

I had even heard stories of labs where they experimented on Paragons, trying to discover the source of their powers. The thought made me gasp, and catch my breath all at once; images of scalpels filled my head. I doubled over, choking on air, and crying.

Terror rushed through me as a car drove down the street, the headlights flashing, lighting everything around me. I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my body against the parked car until the light disappeared around a corner. I would have to find another way out of Bedlam; I was too afraid to go any further into the city.

I snuck back to the opening of the alley, hoping it would be easier to travel when the sun came up, and my eyes weren't so bright. If I could only get out of the city, maybe there was a chance for me. I made my way around the corner, ready to hide out until morning, and came face to face with two pedestrians. They froze in place, staring into my blazing eyes.

I jerked my head around, but it was too late. They ran, screaming what I was and where I was, for everyone to hear. I cursed myself for being so careless, knowing they would call the police. I jumped to grab the fire escape. I just wanted a way out. I got my fist around the ladder, and pulled myself up, climbing to the roof.

I wasn’t any stronger, and my body didn't feel different other than my eyes. I didn't grow wings, and I couldn't fly or teleport. I certainly wasn't invisible. I needed something that could save me, but what power did I have? I didn't know. I got to the roof when I heard the sirens, and stopped, as my mistake became clear to me. I had no place to hide.

It wasn’t long before the police swarmed the streets around the building, and scanned the alley for me. They yelled to each other to check everywhere, and finally I heard them begin to climb the fire escape. I backed away as they reached the top, but there was nothing I could do. My eyes were glowing beacons. The first police officer saw me.

His uniform blended in with the night, his body a dark column. A bright yellow P.E.F. was printed on the front. Extermination? Experimentation? I cried as he called out to the other officers. He stalked toward me and grabbed my arm.

“You think you're a hero?” I screamed when he grabbed me, and dragged me to the edge of the roof. I looked down into the street below. We were so high. I struggled against the officer, trying to push my way back. “I haven't done anything!”

The officer didn't respond, or even hesitate. He pulled me back and flung me off the roof. My eyes did nothing for me as I fell into the street below.

The wind whipped around me, and I hit the ground. All I could hear was the smashing sound of my body on the pavement. Blood pooled from my head, and my body lay crippled. I just wanted to be normal again. A pair of headlights raced toward me, blinded me, and ran me over.

My body cracked beneath the tires of the car, and white and blue filled my head again. The incandescence robbed my entire body of darkness. The light traveled through my system; it flowed through my veins, and restarted my heart, traveled to my limbs and regenerated my wounds, slowly pulling my body back together piece by piece.

It was still dark when I woke up again. I was so exhausted I couldn‘t move. I was still lying in the middle of the street. The world was a mix of dark and light that I couldn't tell apart. Everything was quiet until I heard someone scream.

They saw me lying in the street, my eyes too bright to be anything, but a Paragon. The police responded before I could even stand.

The officer's gun fired, and the sound rang in my ears as the bullets buckled my knees, chewed through my chest, and carved holes in my face. I shrieked.

Light filled me again, and I regenerated. I woke up in the same street, opening my eyes to the sky, but the second I did, someone else found me, murdered me, and it happened again. It was unending.

They killed me.

Light rushed through me.

I revived.

They killed me again.

I kept on dying, over and over, and the pain never stopped. I never left the street, always dying before I could find the strength to stand. I couldn't feel my limbs for any longer than a second, because just when the breath hit my lungs again, someone else was shooting my chest, or strangling me, or running me over with their car, or calling someone else to do something to stop me, because I was a Paragon; I was dangerous.

The light was never fading from my head, and the pain never any less agonizing. No one ran to help me when I screamed. All I could ever see was blood and bright lights, blinding me again and again.

I knew it wouldn‘t be long until they realized that killing me wasn‘t working, and they brought me to their labs to experiment on me. My eyes stung, and burned, as the rest of my life flashed before my eyes; laying in a lab bed, having my body mutilated a thousand different ways until they found the way that finally killed me. The glare of headlights flashed in my eyes, as a car ran me over again. I revived, and my heart ached.

All I wanted was darkness.