Eyes: The Story Of A Blind Heroine

Chapter 2

Please, Goddess! Please protect me!

This mantra was the only thing on my mind as I ran for my life. My lungs burnt and there was an incessant pain somewhere in my stomach, but I knew I couldn't stop. If I stopped to catch my breath, if only for a moment, I was doomed. My only hope was to run and pray that my pursuer wouldn't gain on me.

Please, Goddess! Please protect me! Pleasepprotect me! Please protect me!

"Where are you going, my beauty?" a man's voice rang out some distance behind me, harmonising with the roaring of the ocean on the other side of the harbour wall, "Why do you run from me? Don't you know who I am?"

I ignored him. I just kept running, grateful for my miraculous speed. Never in my life had I run like this.

"Don't you see?" the voice persisted, "I am a god! A GOD! You have some nerve running away from me!"

"Noooo! No! No! No! Someone! Please help me!" My scream for help echoed across the vastness of the ocean as I headed for the one place I was sure to be protected. My safe haven. Surely, if I reached the building, he couldn't get to me? Right?

My pursuer laughed. "Who do you think you are, girl? Who do you think you are to turn me down?"

I didn't respond to him. Almost there ... Almost there ...

"Fine," my pursuer spat, "This is your game, right? I'll show you who is the god around here!"

It felt as though wings had grown on my feet. Please, Goddess! I prayed once more, please protect me! Please!

Then, like a brilliant beacon of hope, I saw the two stone owls before the temple's double doors. Yes! I rejoiced inwardly, piking up speed, the temple! I can see it! Oh, thank the Goddess!

The moment I reached the temple, I body-slammed into the doors at full impact. Clutching my stomach, I head-butted them open, making a last-effort dash inside. I was relieved that the doors weren't latched when I got here. I slammed the doors shut behind me, my hands fumbling to secure the locking mechanisms to them.

By now, I was in tears, my heart all but battering the confines of my chest cavity. Unable to breathe properly, I coughed, clutching at my side. Never in my life, I thought, had I run so fast, or thought I had the stamina to outrun a god, even with my heavy dress weighing me down!

My safety was short-lived, however. I hardly had time to collapse before the altar, when I heard a sound that crushed my last hope of safety, escaping this situation unharmed. The temple doors crashed open. The deep, victorious laughter of that dreaded god invaded my ears, followed by a slow clap. "Wow," he said sarcastically, "you sly snake! Did you really think those flimsy doors could keep me out? Well, guess what! They might have been able to, but ..."

Instinctively I ducked and screamed as this tall, bearded fellow loomed over me. Before I knew it, he had me by the hair.

"No! Stop! You're hurting me! Please!" I was openly sobbing now, as he relentlessly, with the strength of Heracles, pushed me to the floor. My head collided with the stone so hard, that my vision blurred.

"So," the god said, pinning me down, "what did you think was going to happen? You knew, when you walked by the shoreline, that I was watching. The shore, the ocean, is my domain, after all. You knew you were beautiful enough to catch the eyes of a god. Uh-uh, don't deny it. Many mortals would have died for such natural charms! And you, my love, had the audacity to try and run and hide in the temple of the one goddess you know you've pissed off! Now, will you stop pretending that you don't want this? No-one is left to protect you now, daughter of Echidna. You are mine!"

I jolted awake. I was drenched in cold sweat, my sheets and duvet entangled with my legs. I was screaming, my heart pounding as if I had run a marathon. It took me a moment to catch my breath, to calm down. I sat up, only now noticing how matted my hair lay, clinging to my scalp.

What the hell was that all about? I wondered to myself, the laughter of the deep-voiced man still echoing through my mind. What on this planet could have brought me such a ... nightmare?

"No one is left to protect you now, daughter of echidna! You are mine!"

I needed to lay off the mythology, I decided. It was getting to my head.

Just then, my bedroom door opened and the concerned voice of my mother came from the hallway. "Brigid? Are you okay in here?"

"Mom? Uh ... Bad dream," I replied, "just a nightmare ..."

My mother came into my room. I felt the edge of my bed sag as she sat on it. "Would you like some tea? Some hot milk or something?"

"Mom, I'm not a child!" I said exasperatedly.

"I know, Bridge," my mother assured me, "but I remember how I suffered from nightmares and night terrors when I was your age. I always appreciated some sweet tea or hot chocolate for it. Your grandmother told me she had the same problem."

I sighed. So, bad dreams ran in the family, I thought, and now it was my turn! "Thanks," I said, "some chamomile tea would be nice."

After my mother left, I sat thinking. Did this nightmare have anything to do with my gift of prophecy? It was lucid enough for me to be concerned. Then agaain, what's with the mythology? This had never been incorporated in my prophetic dreams! If these were the nightmares my mother had suffered from, was this going to be every night's problem? I hoped not.