Blind Angel of Wrath (The Blind Sleuth Mysteries 2)

9 Here and now

When I wake up I realise straight away that something is wrong. There's a sensation of emerging from a very deep sleep, and I am feeling dizzy. Then there's the pain radiating from inside my ears, and at the same moment I perceive the tickling of blood dripping from my earlobes to the back of my neck.

Suddenly, when I move my body, my hands, I realise that I can't hear the rustling of sheets and blankets that I'm expecting... not even a rattling of chains!

"Oh no! He has gone and done it! He has pierced my eardrums!"

My first reaction is panic. I feel as if I am falling down into a deep well. I brace mentally for the moment when I am going to hit the bottom really hard. Then there is despair: for the first time in my life I feel crippled; I have the sensation of being helpless and isolated... The despair feels like a thick blanket that is smothering me. I can hardly breathe.

I make a conscious effort. "Whoa! Slow down. Keep breathing... At least you know exactly what happened, there's no mystery there... You knew it was going to happen. Now you must stay alive, keep going, keep your wits about you... As your skipper used to say: stay sharp!" But it's no good; it's just like holding your breath, you can't keep it up for long. Soon you have to suck in some air; I can't keep the despair from flooding my soul. But it no longer feels like falling into a well; it's more like slowly sinking away in quicksand, suffocating all the while...

Then suddenly someone touches my shoulder, and I jump out of my skin. In a kind of animal reflex, I lash out and hit something, hit a part of someone with a sharp blow of my clawing hand. I wonder if that could be the Master, standing there to see me wake up, gloating over what he has done... But the touching is not repeated. The Master, if it is him, is not insisting, which is strange.

I sniff at the air, but I can't smell his presence. "Maybe my sense of smell is gone as well, for some reason..." Tentatively I touch my nose, but it doesn't hurt, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. Holding my hands close to my face, it slowly dawns on me that my wrists are not manacled. For the first time I am no longer chained to the wall...

"Hey... I wonder if Loretta is still chained? Maybe it was her that just touched me? I must find out... I must wander over to her bed."

But I still feel dizzy. Probably from the chloroform. Now I'm afraid that I will faint if I get up. My ears are still dripping blood, so the first thing to do is to rip off some pieces of cloth from a corner of one of my sheets. Without getting up I proceed to do so. It is very strange to tear the fabric to pieces without hearing a sound. I stuff little fragments in my ears to staunch the bleeding. Again, strange to be fumbling inside your ear tracts with wads of cloth and not hearing a single sound. "This should stop the bleeding..."

Having taken care of that, I now wait. I will try to get up in a moment, I decide, it may take some time before the bleeding stops. "Then I will try to find out how Loretta is doing... Let us see if she is free to move and if it was her that just touched me..."

Then a horrible thought strikes me, that makes my heart stop. "I wonder if the girl has been blinded!"

A moment later I feel a hand touch my shoulder again, and again I am startled—I just can't help it—but this time I make sure to open my arms in an inviting gesture. I hug the girl as soon as she bends down, I take her in my arms and make her lie down next to me on the bed. I marvel at what is happening: "We're both free of chains: the Master has changed the rules completely!"

Now I probe the girl's eyes, anxious to know if they are unharmed, but it is hard to tell. The girl's eyelids are closed, but that is because I'm touching them; and they feel wet, soaking wet even, but it is impossible to say if it is because of the tears streaming out of them, or if it could be blood...