To Be An Exorcist (Edited)

To See

As humans, we tend to not appreciate things. That is, we don't appreciate the things we have until it is far too late. It is often when things that we take for granted are taken from us when we...

    We finally begin to appreciate them.

    It has been twelve years. I know that. If I can't see the light of day, the least I can do is feel the warmth of day, warmed concrete on my bare feet. I suppose when it is cold, this is a little harder to determine. Still! If that is not what kind people are for, to tell the blind when day slips into night and night transcends into day, then what could they be kind for?

    It has been twelve years. I often forget the simple things now. I used to know the constellations. I once knew the back of my hand.

    Ah. As I'm sure you've guessed I'm a little hard for sight. I am blind. It wasn't always this way. Still-

    That story is set for another day. Not this one. If I spend too long with my mind on what I have lost, I will never progress. Michael – Mich told me that. Anyway, I am human. We overcome and adapt. My other senses, losing one of their own, chose to compensate. They picked up the slack that my eyes lost.

I know I smell better than anyone else. I know poison in a cup before it's near my lips. I can smell a wildfire from miles, so many miles away. ... I don't know how many miles. I can't see how many miles away. I just know that it is much farther a scent perception than most humans can smell. It probably is.

... That is another fault of mine I must confess. I don't ... It is really hard to talk to people when you're blind. Usually, you just don't. I mean, I don't really – can't really understand social cues. Not the verbal ones. I know those. But, the physical ones like where to look, how to hold oneself in front of another, has more or less evaded me. At this point, I'm more or less ... out of practice. The last time I was able to see well enough to use those kinds of social cues, I was still pretty small. I was a little kid. And – well, I've learned from my fair share of curious kids, they're just not very good with social cues, verbal or nonverbal.

Thus it was that without words I was walking through this passing town. If I could see I have no doubt this town would be little more than a tiny speck on a map, labeled "Arboron." I think it was named Arboron, anyway. Something along that line had come as a welcoming as I entered those bustling streets. But as always, any and all advertising by the town's vendors were met with the steely wall of my blindness. It usually wasn't until after I jabbed a foot or two with my staff, by accident of course, that crowds tended to part the way for my passing. It wasn't like I was well-known, but for all that I lost in the world as a blind girl, I regained in inconveniences subsidized by the common public. People didn't respect me; they pitied me.

I am not sure if that is good.

I don't know how long I was walking. I couldn't have been in Arboron for too terribly long. Most passing towns were small. Then again, most towns were paved by little more than dirt roads. This town, grand as she was, had roads of concrete. They were cut in square patterns, stone patterns to be easily set. That much I could feel with my feet.

I should've known. When the sound of crowds had died down, I didn't think much of it. I was probably on the edge of town, away from the bustling square. When I heard a child's cry, I thought perhaps he had gotten in trouble with his mother, or had hurt himself by tripping. I even humored it with a chuckle.

But the air chilled. It was stiff in the atmosphere, thick with static. In my mouth, I could taste it, like tinfoil burning. I probably made a face. But for as stiff as that air was, I went still, too.

I felt him before he was within arm's reach. But I didn't move. I needed him in my arm's reach. So, patient, I let him come.

"Miss," That voice was sickly sweet. Yet, that voice was familiar. His deep undertones... well, I don't really know where I remember it from. Maybe it reminded me of Mich. "You seem a little lost. Do you need help getting around?"