Snapshot » l.t.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8



Renee's POV



With a small moan, I awoke. My head throbbed slightly and my eyes still tingled in a painful way. I was laying down, but this time in a more comfortable position and something less hard. I forced myself to crack my eyes open.

A white light shone above me, the edges of my vision tinted gray. "AAAHH!! LIGHT!!" I screamed in pain and shut my eyes tight, shoving my hands over them.

"She's awake!" a voice gasped.

"Can you hear us?" another voice asked, older, male. I nodded slowly.

"Good. Do you think you can open your eyes for us?"

I shook my head quickly. It hurt, it hurt too much....

"Once your eyes adjust to the light it won't hurt as much," the same voice assured me. I realized I must have said that out loud. My lips were numb.

"We just need you to open your eyes so we can test your vision. We need to see if you and your eyes are okay."

I moaned again, but tried to do as I was told. I carefully removed my hands from my eyes, but they were still squeezed shut. I turned my head to the side and slowly opened them. It hurt and burned, but I managed.

My vision was blurry and warped, and it took them a while to adjust. It felt like a long time, but finally I could see straight again. But something was wrong with my vision.

I sat up. "Good," a man in a white coat approved.

"Where am I?" I croaked, and swallowed.

"You're in the hospital," he told me gently. "Do you remember anything?"

I looked back on it. "I... I remember inspecting this weird... machine thing," I said in a quiet voice. "Then, all of a sudden, light appeared and burned my eyes." Just remembering that made the pain intensify and I focused back on the present.

The doctor nodded. "Let me properly introduce myself," he said. "I'm Dr. Karl. What is your name?"

"I'm Renee," I said. "Renee Wilson."

For the first time I realized that we weren't the only people in the room. Two men were sitting on chairs against the wall, watching me. The younger one looked almost afraid-like, and the older one looked concerned.

"Um, who are they?" I asked uncomfortably.

"They're the ones that brought you here," Dr. Karl said. "Don't you know them?" I shook my head.

The older one stood up, and the younger quickly followed suit. I realized that the younger was wearing suspenders, like the one man back in the studio. "I'm Paul," the older introduced himself. "This is Louis."

Louis. That name seemed very familiar. But I'd never met a Louis before.... Wait a minute. Didn't Elise mention a boy from One Direction who liked girls who ate carrots, wore stripes and suspenders, and had a pigeon named Kevin?

"Are... are you Louis Tomlinson from One Direction?" I asked curiously.

"Um, yeah?" he said uncertainly. It sounded like a question. I only nodded and turned away from him.

"What are the tests, doc?" I asked, completely brushing off the fact that Louis Tomlinson, the oldest heartthrob from One Direction, had just drove me to the hospital. I would probably reflect over it later, but right now I was concerned with my vision.

"Just the simple things," Dr. Karl replied. He gave me one of those spoon things that you cup over your eye and brought out multiple letter cards. He tested me on each one, and I got them all right. He seemed surprised that I had perfect vision, judging by what my eyes had gone through. But there was still something wrong....

He asked me to look far and to look near, then to look at certain objects across the room and describe them to him. All the while he took notes, jotting something down whenever I said something.

"That's all I have for you, Ms. Wilson," Dr. Karl said. "Do you have any questions for me?"

I nodded, and I felt stress building up in the pit of my stomach.

"What is it?" he asked.

I took a shaky breath. "I can't see any color," I whispered. He stared at me thoughtfully. "Is this normal?" I asked nervously. "Will color return to my eyes? What's wrong with me, doc?"

He was silent as he moved over to one of this drawers and took something out of the top one. "I'm sorry to have to do this, Ms. Wilson," he said. "But I have to look into your eyes."

I realized that he was going to shine a light in my eyes, and I shook my head frantically. "No!" I cried. "No, you can't do that! What if I go blind?"

"You won't go blind," Dr. Karl tried to soothe me. "You'll be fine."

But I turned away from him as he tried to look into my right eye. "No," I protested, and I felt frustrated tears prick in my eyes. "No, no, no, no."

The man named Paul stood up and walked over to me. "I'm sorry, Ms. Wilson," he said. "But it's for your vision's own good."

He took my head in his hands and faced it forward. I struggled and tried to jerk away, but he was too strong. Dr. Karl approached me and shone the light in my eye.

I shrieked at the pain and struggled harder than ever, but then he was done and moving on to the next eye. Same reaction, but he was quick with that one too. He put his light away and Paul let go of me. I took deep breaths and shot him a glare.

"In answer to your question, Ms. Wilson," Dr. Karl began solemnly. I turned back to him readily. I didn't know what was wrong with my eyes. Why couldn't I see color? Would they ever return? "I'm afraid that...." His voice faltered but he continued. "I'm afraid that you won't see color ever again. I'm sorry, but you're color-blind."

Color-blind. Me. I was color-blind.

Tears started to form again and they spilled down my cheeks. They splashed down on the gray hospital bed below me, but I couldn't see where they landed. It blended too well.

"N-no," I protested weakly. "It can't be true! Please tell me it isn't true!"

Dr. Karl sighed. "When that light shined into your eyes," he explained. "It started to burn your retinas. You're lucky you have any sight at all. You could've been blind."

Sobs racked my body and I bowed my face in my hands, weeping bitterly. That's not what I wanted to hear. Why have any vision at all when it was always dreary?

Color-blind! I was color-blind! I wouldn't be able to see color ever again!

My head shot up. What about my job? Would I still be able to take photos in black-and-white?

No, my mind hissed at me harshly. You'll mess up. You mess up everything. You messed up your perfect job, your perfect vision, your perfect life. What makes you think life will ever be the same for you again?

I wiped at the tears but only more took their place. "C-can't you do anything?" I hiccuped. "Isn't there s-some kind of c-cure?"

Dr. Karl shook his head slowly. "Not that I know of," he said. But his face suddenly brightened up. "But I have an idea."

He rushed over to his cabinet and began to fish through it. I started to frown in confusion, but everything was in black-and-white, reminding me of the horrible truth, and I resumed crying.

"Here they are," Dr. Karl said satisfactorily, holding out four boxes.

"What are those?" I asked.

"They're colored eye contacts," he explained. "Perhaps if you put them in, the colors in your eyes can restore."

I felt hope lift me up, but I tried to force it down. It might not work.

"Try these first," Dr. Karl advised, handing me two red ones. I picked one of them up carefully. "That's the left eye," he told me, and I carefully inserted it. I blinked a few times, my head feeling woozy. Half my vision was tinted red, and the other was still a gloomy gray. I took the other contact and put it in my right eye.

"How is it?" Dr. Karl asked eagerly.

"Everything's red," I whimpered. It was true, everything was a red color, just in different shades depending on the shadows. I quickly took them out.

"Hmm...." Dr. Karl hummed to himself as he took out two blue eye contacts. He cleaned them and offered them to me. I put the left one in first, became disoriented, and put the right one in.

"How's that?" Dr. Karl asked.

"Everything's blue," I replied. Same answer as before, just everything now was a different shade of blue.

I started to feel my hopes fall. This could take hours. There were multiple colors in the world, and perhaps none of them could help my colorless eyes. This was a dumb idea in the first place.

"I've got it!" Dr. Karl exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, making me jump. "Try the 3D effect," he said, and gave me a red eye contact and a blue one. I looked at him curiously. "What's the 3D effect?" I asked.

He explained patiently. "You know when you go to the movies to watch something in 3D you get these special glasses?" he asked and I nodded. "Well, the left eye is red and the right eye is blue. I don't know if you've noticed, but if you close your left eye, the vision on your right is a cooler, bluer color. And if you close your right eye, the vision on your left is a warmer, redder color."

I blinked. I thought I might have noticed that before. I would've liked to experiment, but that was impossible now.

"He's right!" a voice exclaimed, and I turned to see the Louis boy testing it out. "It really works!" He looked really silly winking in slow motion, but now was not the time for laughing.

"I'm thinking that if you put the red eye contact in your left eye and the blue eye contact in your right eye, your vision will be fixed," Dr. Karl concluded. "Well, not completely fixed. Just helped." I nodded in understanding and took them from him. I put them in.

I blinked a few times, feeling really dizzy. You know how you walk out of a movie theater still with your 3D glasses on and everything looks... well, just plain strange? That's how my vision looked. I took them out immediately.

"Did it work?" Dr. Karl asked hopefully.

"No," I sniffed, and a tear slid down my face. My hopes came crashing down. "I'm going to be color-blind forever." I bowed my head so that my hair was falling into my face. I didn't want a famous celebrity seeing me fall apart.

"I'm really sorry, Renee," Louis murmured.

"No, you're not!" I shrilled. "You don't know what I'm going through! Why would you be sorry?"

He didn't say anything for a moment. "I only wanted to apologize," he said, still talking quietly.

I looked up slightly. "Apologize? What for?" I started to ask, but my questions died in my throat.

I remembered two boys goofing around, one of them in suspenders that looked just like Louis, and someone saying, "Here, I'll prove it to you". Right after that, the light shined into my face. I gasped. He did this! Louis and his friend!

"You!" I hissed, glaring at him with such ferocity my vision almost turned red again. "You did this to me! You took away my vision!" He winced but didn't bother correcting me. So it was him!

I slid off the hospital bed and wobbled for a moment. My feet had fallen asleep and my legs still felt shaky. But once I was steady again I marched right up to him. I channeled all of my anger towards him. This was his fault! He's the reason I'm color-blind! He's the reason I'd never be able to see true beauty ever again!

More tears leaked out of my eyes as I swung my hand back and slapped him upside the head. I knew Leeann told me to be on my best behavior, but I thought this could be an exception.

I heard Paul shout something but I ignored him. I turned around and raced out of the room, tears making my weak vision blurry and even more horrible.

I sobbed loudly as I ran. My life was ruined. I wouldn't see color ever again. And it was all his fault.