Reaching for the Stars

Chapter 47: White Silence

Tom woke up to white.

This time, there was pain everywhere. Almost immediately he closed his eyes again as the light made it hurt. The wolf just took a deep breath. The pain felt familiar. His hands still hurt, as did his chest. However, it felt soft, unlike the harsh pain from before. It felt different.

Slowly, he opened his eyes again. Everything was blurry for the first few seconds before slowly, almost painfully, focusing into vision. Even then, he could still make out the blurry lines. He looked around; there was white everywhere. It felt cold, even under his blanket. Someone left the lamp on. A clock above the television showed almost 4 in the morning.

There was someone beside him. That someone was... brown. Brown-furred. A canine. The smell then caught up with him. Max?

Tom wanted to sit up but held back. He was alive, wasn't he? Well, there was pain, so he must be still alive. Instead, he stared at the ceilings. When his thoughts caught up with him, he smiled bitterly. Yeah, I went into a fight. I survived. I went to the hospital to recover. I was blind.

I was blind...?

Wasn't he blind? Why could he see? He lifted his hand and touched his face. He put his hand in the air in front of him and looked at it, flipping it over and moving his fingers.

He could see, even though his vision was rather blurry.

Oh, right. I had surgery.

...weren't his eyes supposed to be bandaged after surgery? How much time had passed anyway? Had it been long enough until the bandages were opened?

His head hurt a little and he cringed. Maybe no overthinking for now.

Tom looked at his side. Max was sleeping peacefully while sitting. The dog looked so peaceful, though the wolf knew that it would ache later. The wolf reached out and stroked the dog's ear slowly. Max grunted a bit, then moved a little and sighed.

Tom chuckled; Max looked so cute.

Thanks for waiting for me. I'm sorry.

He took another deep breath and looked back at the ceilings.

I'm sorry.

-

Red.

Tom stared at the mirror in front of him. His eyes were red, almost blood red.

He looked at his friends, then back at the mirror. Doctor told him before that his eyes were red and there was nothing to be done to return them to the colour they were before, but he had no idea it would be like this. Like his right one when it was blind, except it was now both.

He scrutinised his reflection. The iris, while red, still had the usual patterns. It was like his old eyes, but instead of having a brownish or bluish tint, they were reddish. There were some scars on the side of his muzzle, but they looked like they were on the way to recovery. His fluff was very dirty.

Putting the mirror down, he looked back at his friends. Octo was still smiling softly at him as if his eye colour didn't bother him in the slightest. Lucy and the canines looked amazed while James and Ellie looked uncomfortable.

"I..." he said. "I look like a cyborg. A badarse one at that."

Many chuckled.

Lain laughed. "I'm gonna walk around and you can't stop me!"

"Nice way to keep people away, heh?" Tom replied to the laughter inwardly, then smirked a little and made a gesture to Octo to take James' hand and bring him closer. The panther did so and with a yelp, the tiger found himself looking straight at Tom.