Out of the Darkness - A KathNiel Story

Chapter 12

Kath smiled in victory - she knew her father would struggle to say 'no' to her when they were in public. He and her Mom never acted like their true overprotective and argumentative selves when they were in public. They all woke up as different people after the accident, only Kath was desperate to get back to the carefree and confident girl she was when she had her sight.

"You'll be good watching movies?" DJ asked and Kath smiled in his direction.

"As long as it isn't a horror movie where it's silent the entire time. I don't have an audio headset at your house."

"There's an audio description, though." DJ offered and Kath laughed.

"You'd put that on for me?"

"Well, duh. You're our friend." Pamu chimed in and Kath couldn't help but smile wider, holding onto her white cane a little tighter in her right hand, keeping her left hand hanging since as it was still sore.

"I am?"

"I don't pull glass out of the hands of just anybody." Pamu joked, smiling when it made Kath laugh and it made Marlann and DJ laugh lightly too.

"Just be careful, Kath, alright? I don't want another trip to the ER." Teddy warned, but his tone was completely serious and more threatening than him being playful and light-hearted.

"We'll look after her, sir," Marlann said, hooking her arm with Kath's left one gently so that she didn't hurt her hand. "And we're off to music class!" Marlann announced, Kath keeping the smile on her face as they started to walk together towards the main building.

"Don't be late!" Teddy called. "Text me or your Mom!" He added, but Kath didn't reply to him.

"It's like high school all over again," Kath mumbled and Marlann rubbed her arm.

"Hey, don't get down! You have a day of freedom. We're gonna fill you up with pizza until you sweat mozzarella cheese, and then dead at ten o'clock, we'll drive you home." Marlann said and Kath couldn't help but laugh.

"Steps," Pamu warned a moment before Kath's white cane touched the bottom of the step and they all couldn't help but smile in wonder and pride as Kath was able to make her way up the stone steps and into the building without much guidance from anybody.

"So, what kind of EP are you making?" DJ asked as they all walked together towards the quad.

"Oh, um... classical, I guess? The piece I'm working on now starts with just piano and I want it to build into having an orchestra - one piece leading into the next kinda thing? So you can listen to each song individually, or it'll make sense as one huge song too." Kath tried to explain.

"Shit, you're out here making everybody else's EP sound like trash, man." Marlann joking complained, making everybody laugh.

"You'll have to show us sometime before you hand it in!" Pamu encouraged and Kath couldn't help but blush.

"You'd really care enough to hear it?"

"Dude, you gotta stop. Of course, we wanna hear it." Pamu argued, pushing her gently and Kath yelped in surprise as she stumbled. "SHIT! I'm sorry! It's a reflex!" Pamu exclaimed, Kath laughing and shaking her head as Marlann and DJ helped her to steady herself again, the two of them holding back laughs too since as they knew Kath was laughing about it.

"It's okay! This is all just so new to me." Kath admitted.

"What is?" Marlann asked, helping her down the steps and into the quad, Kath feeling the warm breeze against her bare skin on her arms. She had no idea what she looked like, she couldn't remember what anybody looked like - her sight memories vanished very quickly after the accident. She constantly imagined what it would be like to have her sight back, but she knew it was a long shot.

"I've just never had friends before," Kath said. "It was just me and Pablo, my guide dog, for a really long time... he was killed last year, so I've just kinda been on my own since," Kath said and Marlann's eyes widened.

"Wait, I thought she passed away naturally?" Marlann said and Kath's eyes burned with tears.

"He was old, but he was stubborn - he loved working, he would bark whenever I went anywhere without him... but he was getting arthritis, so I couldn't take her very far anymore," Kath said quietly, hearing that they were somewhere more crowded since as she could hear other voices around them - snippets of conversations as they passed each other.

"Mom and Dad were both working, I was at another University then... I left to go to the store at the end of our block and I left Pablo in the backyard so he could stretch his legs whilst I was gone or lie in the sun if he wanted... a group of boys from my old University lived across from us, their house facing our backyard... they threw rocks at Pablo until he died and they're in prison for animal cruelty - it's why it took my parents so long to agree to let me try another University to finish my degree." Kath said, letting a few tears fall and her new friends were all left completely stunned.

They all stopped walking, Marlann is the first to pull Kath in for a tight hug but Pamu and DJ soon joined in.