Blind As A Bat

Out of the Ordinary

One:

Rome

It's dark, it's always dark. But I don't mind, in fact I barely notice it. Until I'm around people.

My whole life story seems to be some teenagers joke about what irony is, and for that I have to say I'm doing pretty well mentally. I go to a school where ten percent of the student body is made up of vampires that are accustomed to human lifestyle. And out of the thousand of the people there, I am the only bi-species besides Linden who I'm convinced is half demon.

Pretty much every person who can see will agree that being blind sucks. I mean no TV!? But honestly, if you've never had sight you just don't care. However it's different when you could see then you go blind. My hobbies include writing, listening to music, confusing people for my own enjoyment, and hanging out with friends. And as how some stories have an upside, the upside to mine is that my half vampire self has great reflexes and echo locating abilities. And by being only half a vampire, drinking blood isn't my main food source. Which practically denies everything about being a vampire in the first place. Oh, and to further mess up what being a vampire is, people born vampires are not affected by the sun but people bitten to become vampires are affected, something to do with how our venom reacts with their immune system.

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"Watch where you're going Bat."

The oh so beautiful sound of Linden's voice rings in my ears as I ram head first into him after rounding a corner. I regain balance quickly and click my tongue. As I can't see I have adapted a few quirks in order to help move myself around. First of course is my walking stick, which I use to feel for cracks and shifts in the ground. Second is clicking my tongue. The sound doesn't change how I see but it helps me identify things in the room and how close I am the walls and such, all by the different pitch that I hear echo back. And thus echo location. Third would be my sense of heat and the information told to me by other people, but given that those to things are not entirely reliable or independent I don't use them often.

"Oh! How nice it is to see you Lindick," I greet sarcastically.

"Nice one, but you know, seeing as how you are blind, you wouldn't know one if you felt one." The sound of his laughter trails off and I assume he's walking away.

"You have I good point, especially if you made me feel yours. Because I would probably guess it was a tick tack." I retort in his direction and not two seconds later I was shoved up against the wall. Everyone continued to walk past us, ignoring what would have caused a commotion if this didn't happen everyday.

"Wow, what courage you have today Halfling. Your body probably turned off your eyes because it knew how ugly you were."

"Well I guess your body kept your eyes on because it wanted to torture itself. And who knew you would be so upset of a joke, unless it's true. But don't worry, my mom always says to appreciate the little things in life."

He steps backwards, and although I couldn't see it, I felt him smiling. The sounds of a small chuckle came from him.

"Bat, I hate you, but when it comes to insults you're pretty good. But I can't let you off so prepare to get your ass beat after school." And with that he stalked off and I was left to continue down the hall to my class.

I don't know why Linden hates me, but he always has. When I first came to this town with my adoptive vampire parents I was going into third grade. That year Linden was quiet and didn't really cause trouble but in forth grade he picked a fight with me. And ever since he's been at odds with me. Now I guess you could call it bullying, and I don't think I'm masochistic, but I just always had this feeling that he didn't have any real bad intentions. It was like a right of passage. While he gets on my nerves and makes fun of things I'm sensitive about, I still can't make myself hate him.