I was just sitting on the floor of the bathroom while gripping tightly on the sink. I shook quickly, blinking repeatedly to see if I was just hallucinating what I saw. I stood up slowly to recheck the reflection of the person who was in the mirror. My once black hair has turned to white with a bit of black. What shocked me more was the thing that happened to my eyes. The grey color of my eyes turned white. The pupil and iris part of my eye was fully covered with a thin layer of white. I could describe it similarly to the eyes of a nearly blind person. I was about to touch my face when my eyes started burning. I stumbled my way inside the room with my left hand pulling my new-found hair while I used my other hand to rub my temple trying to ease the pain.
I stopped rubbing my temples when I heard a knock on my bedroom door. I shouted, "What is it!?" with my voice croaking a bit.
"Did you just wake up? You silly man, you only have a week left to finish this semester yet you're still lazy!? Get your slothful ass down here and eat breakfast before going to school. I'll be waiting for you downstairs. Also, your dad already left to work so stop being stiff and get yourself ready. Fast, if you don't want to be late for class".
"Yes, I'm coming just give me a minute!" I answered back before falling face-first on the floor causing me to bump my forehead on the hard floor.
"What's happening in there? Are you alright?" my aunt suddenly asked, worry lacing her words.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine I just fell," I said before rummaging inside my closet to find something to wear.
I went downstairs wearing jeans, a black hoodie pulled up over my head, a mask, and a pair of sunglasses. When my aunt saw me, she shot me a weirded-out look.
"Are you a model or something? Why are you wearing that outfit? You didn't tell me you were popular!" she said before smirking at me.
"I'm not. Okay? I just think I need a new style." I gave her as an excuse so that she would stop asking me about the clothes.
When I finished my food, I made my way to our bathroom sink, locking the door. I checked myself whether some of the hair strands were visible. I need to hide it from everyone else because not once did I hear a person suddenly changing their whole appearance in a span of one day and there's also a chance, I'd get discarded by someone because of me suddenly having this eye. When I left the bathroom, I saw that my aunt was no longer in the living room, so I decided to leave before I'm late for class.
When I arrived at school, many are wondering about my appearance. There were also many who were asking if they knew me, and they also asked where I lived. Many also took photos of me and whispers of people wondering if I would be in the same class as them. When I entered my first class, my teacher had also just arrived, so I went straight to my seat. I could feel everybody just looking directly at me, trying to decipher whether they knew me. They stopped when the teacher, who had her eyes on me, had silenced them.
"Do I know you? Are you a student from this class? I think that outfit of yours is distracting and is causing others to ramble about you." she eyed at me questioningly and eyed on some of the students.
"I'm sorry about this Madam. It's because I have this unusual sickness and the doctor said I should wear this. Especially since my eyes seem infectious. Would you like me to take off my glasses for you to see?" I taunted hoping that she would take the bait.
I don't want to be exposed so early in the morning. Some of my classmates sighed when they recognized who I was while the others kept on bothering their seatmates hoping to get an answer as to who I was.
I just laid loose when my teacher spoke and said "No need, it's infectious. You could infect these brats, you may take your seat, Zaid." she said before she started the class.
Usually, we'd last about 2 hours just for one subject but now it's different because it's the last week of classes. Those who were finished with their activities were just told to make an essay and were left alone to do whatever they wanted. I did nothing but sit in my chair and watch the view outside the school. It wasn't like the past days where many could be seen sitting on the grass and the others would be sitting and playing next to the pots of plants. Now not a single person could be seen passing by the place except for me. Everyone else is afraid as if they too, would also turn to ashes should they cross that place.
Then I suddenly remembered what my father said yesterday when he was having that fight with my auntie Lei. He said it was my fault but on what basis? I don't understand why I'd be involved in the slow turn of this town to ash that because of thinking about these events of the past I couldn't bring myself to sleep.
I woke up when a student slowly shook me when I looked at who it was. I saw my seatmate with a worried look he stuttered he spoke as if nervous "Sorry, I didn't mean it. You have to go to the clinic. I was cutting a banner for our section since it's our last day and I forgot to close it so when I stood up, it grazed you. I'm really sorry." he repeatedly apologized. It was obvious that he was on the verge of pissing himself on where he stood. In his extreme state of fear, the bobbing of his adam's apple was visible. I just gave him a look before leaving the room to go to the clinic.
When I arrived there, the nurse wasn't present, so I took the materials I needed to use before going to the very last bed and I covered my wound on my right arm where my hood was also torn. I couldn't tell if he truly just grazed it because a hoodie can get slashed without the arm getting wounded. He could've done it on purpose. I wrapped it with bandages after cleaning it. I was about to stand up from the bed I was sitting on when I heard an odd noise coming from one of the beds, so I connected my headset to my phone, wore it with its volume set high.
I let out a "Tsk" first before leaving the clinic. Even now, students still can't find the right place where they can do those "things". I wandered around the school before the sound of the bell came. When I got out, I started walking home and found my father's car that was going to be parked in our garage. I waited for him to get inside the house first before I went in but when he got out, he just gave me a stern look before going straight inside to which I followed waiting for 5 minutes.
I went straight to the sofa and removed my shoes before laying down on where I was sitting. I tried looking for things to watch on the T.V. but in the end, I ended up using my phone instead. When it was two o'clock in the afternoon, I saw my father go downstairs and went straight to the kitchen. He was talking to someone on the phone which was a regular thing for me. I waited for half an hour before going upstairs to my room. I closed the door quickly and ran towards the bathroom to make sure the change of my hair and eyes weren't obvious. I gently removed my glasses, mask, and hoodie before I stared at my new face. I took a bath first before wearing a new hoodie that is now color white. I also grabbed a new mask and wore the same sunglasses I wore a while ago.
I went outside the house again because I didn't have anything to do inside anyway. Auntie is asleep and my father still has work on his mind. I know he's going to leave again to another country next month. I went to me and my mother's favorite place. I sat down on a chair like last time and looked up to the sky. I remembered all the things we'd do in this place, especially those times when she'd sing to me and teach me how to make crowns out of flowers.
Since no one was around, I removed my hoodie and mask, as well as the sunglasses. Although, that was probably a bad decision since my chest tightened like last time and I fell to my knees on the grass. My head hurt and my eyes started to heat up. Because of the immense pain, I laid on the grass and soon started screaming. It lasted for about ten minutes before I slowly stood up to make a run for it back to the house, but I was shaking because of shock when I saw the grass I was holding and stepping on was turning to ashes. I stood up and fell again due to the shock once more and I slowly moved backward. I stopped when I couldn't move back anymore so I hurriedly ran, holding my things while my other hand was pulling my clothing due to the extreme tightness of my chest. I slowly looked behind me to see if it was gone but I didn't know what to do when I saw everything I passed by and touched turned to ashes.
I couldn't do anything but run to the nearest place where not a single living being was found. I reached the other side of the town where a cliff could be seen. People were forbidden to go to this place because of what could happen. I couldn't do anything but fall to my knees. I blankly turned around to nothing while attempting to process everything that happened. After a few minutes, I yelled everything I wanted to scream. My mind also thought about crying but it was foreign to my system. I stayed looking at the view at the other side of the cliff before the memory of what my father said in the past came to mind.
"THAT IS MY POINT! He is not my son. He's a psychopath! He couldn't even cry on the day his mother died because the only thing he can ever do is stare at a wall!"
Now I understood what he meant. Is this what he calls a monster? I threw myself to the ground and due to my unluckiness, it rained hard around the area which caused me to get myself wet. I did nothing but stare into the void while I thought the things my father said that day, on repeat.
I got back home by 9:00 pm. I removed everything I wore on top except my king-sized t-shirt. Soulless, I walked towards the direction of our backyard. I don't care if everything I walk by turns to ashes and smell burnt. Before I went inside from the backdoor, I watched as the plants in our yard slowly wilted. I thought that was where my problems would've stopped getting bigger, but I was wrong. There was a kid that went by our backyard and because I wasn't wearing anything to cover my eyes or my hair at least, I caught the kid's attention which led us to make eye contact with each other. I was going to breathe a sigh of relief because I wasn't anywhere near, but I was wrong to think that it wouldn't affect them. The kid slowly turned to ash which led to his bicycle, to fall to the ground.
Emphatically, I closed my eyes before slowly going back inside then running upstairs to my room while trying to avoid looking at any plants in our household. I went upstairs with my eyes closed just in case I'd run into someone in the house. When I got into my room, I closed the door shut and slumped down at my door. I felt something slid down my cheek and to my surprise, I sobbed with tears. Throughout my whole life I've never experienced crying before but now, this day, and this situation, my eyes just burst into tears.
I slowly brought myself into the bathroom while avoiding looking at the mirror and started taking a bath while being unable to stop the continuous stream of tears on my cheek. When I got out of the bathroom, I went to lay down on my bed and threw the first thing I got my hands on. I struck the bed hard because of my confused frustration at the things that are happening now. Slowly, my eyes started to shut and the only thing that ran into my mind was hopefully all the events was just one big nightmare and that tomorrow when I open my eyes, everything will go back to the way it was; the cleanliness of my room, the bike that was left outside not existing and for the green color of my backyard to come back.
To be continued...