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Nalira was knelt down, her pale hands covering her face. Maybe if she kept her hands there for long enough she'd wake up home, and everything would be alright. Nalira wasn't generally afraid - she was use to pain, fear and torment, but something just wasn't right. Something was different; a sence of power and blood lust.


She uttered a loud cry in alarm as something touched her shoulder. She fell backwards, scrambling away from whatever it was that had touched her. She moved her hands away from her face, only to let out a petrified scream.

- - -

Nalira awoke suddenly, startled by the snape of a twig, but refused to open her eyes. It took her a few moments to regain her confidence, and before long she had convinced herself to open her eyes. But nothing had happened; the world remained dark. Nalira sat upright, her hands groping at her face desperately. Her eyes were open - she could feel that, but she couldn't see. She let out a confused yell, standing and stumbling forward. She put her hands infront of her frame, feeling the air for something to grasp onto.

She continued to take cautious steps forward, stumbling every so often, her hands moving skillfully infront of her body. For once in her life, Nalira was generally afraid.

Everyone in the D'Arcy household was sound asleep, except for Armel now who sat upright in his bed, being a semi-light sleeper from time to time. It really depended on how worn out the boy was at the end of the day. He slipped out of bed and adjusted his black pajamas and wandered out of his room. The ram-horned boy wandered toward his Da's room only to find the man was dead to the world.

Some people can sleep through anything it seemed. He closed the door to the room and crept on down the stairs and toward the front door after sliding on his slippers and unlocking the door to get out. Though unfortunately the door automatically locked as soon as Armel shut the door behind himself .. Oops. Armel cringed but dismissed it nothing to do about it now except for look for the source of the loud scream he had heard moments ago.

Nalira heard the door close somewhere to her left. She paused, turning her head to the source of the sound. She ceased waving her arms infront of her body, letting them fall to her sides. She swallowed gently, stumbling backwards. She gathered her voice, taking in a deep breath of air.

"Who's there?" She said cautiously, biting her lip hard enough to cause her nerves to twinge but soft enough not to draw blood. She took a step forward, gently putting a hand infront of her body, her heart so fast that it didn't sound like it was beating, it sounded like it was humming.

The boy first opened his mouth to retort scathingly but the voice hit his memory banks before his words could exit his mouth and he edited himself, "Nalira! T's me, Armel." It took him a couple of moments before his natural ability to see in the dark kicked on and got him to lock in on where Nalira was and thus approached her, it seemed somewhat disturbing to see the girl so distressed because of what he remembered of her she was quite brave.

"What're ye doin' here? Y'okay," he asked as a concerned friend, the genuine concern touching the tone of his voice, "Did ye scream?" He was full of questions at this late hour. Anything that kept him from admitting to locking himself out of his own home.

Nalira let out a relieved breath as the familliar voice reached her ears. She smiled, moving forward, her hand still infront of her. Before long, her hand fall against his shoulder. She dropped her arm to her side, before nodding.

"Yeah, I'm afraid I did." She muttered, raising her left hand to her face tenderly. She felt a thick substance making a trail from her eyes which caused her heart to skip a beat. She started to tremble, raising another hand to her face. Her eyes were bleeding. She calmed herself inwardly, not wanting to worry the young Tale. So, taking a heavy breath, she continued.

" .. Armel, please, tell me what you see."

He blinked a bit after getting close enough to actually see her face, "Y..Yer eyes, they're bleedin'. Wh..What happened?!" Armel wasn't scared as much as he was a lot more worried now. Seeing your friend bleed from the eyes was kind of ... weird. The boy was used to it by now from Tyr's child Serkan, but Nalira was quite another thing. As far as the boy knew her eyes never bled before.

"C'mon and I'll try t'get us inside." He cautiously moved to take one of her free hands. The backdoor was usually and hopefully unlocked.

Nalira took his hand gratefully. She wished he hadn't told her they were bleeding. She shouldn't have asked. She knew they were, but she had been trying to convince herself otherwise. A lump formed in her throat, as the truth finally dawned on her.

"Armel. I can't see anything. I think -" She paused, searching carefully for a subtle word. She searched, and searched, but she couldn't find anything. Frowning, she continued. "- I think I'm blind." The words were so foriegn, so obscure it made her wince. She would never be able to see the sun again, never be able to see the beautiful morning snow, never be able to see her friends and family grow older.

He said nothing for a few small moments as he began to lead her around back, "Blind people see better than people with vision anyways. Y'can't jus give up even if y'are blind." Armel was trying to give his friend hope. When they got to the back door he tenatively turned the handle and it opened easily. Sliding away from his grasp and into the kitchen. Obviously their backyard had no fencing.

Nalira nodded. She had no intention of giving up, and even though she had no desire to, his words made her feel better. She let out a relieved sigh as she heard the comforting click of the door opening. She moved inside, feeling the warmth wrap around her body.

"Where do I go now, Armel? Maybe I should get cleaned up .." She said, pointing out the obvious, flicking dry blood from her fingers.

He nodded, "Mebbe I should wake m'da so he can help us." He sounded thoughtful for a moment. As he moved with her through the kitchen to turn on the light at a dimmed setting. To do so otherwise would cause a nasty shock to his eyes after being so used to dark by now. He moved her to the kitchen sink where he let go of her hand, obviously deciding to try it himself first. He went to get his stool so he could reach above the sink and turn on the water.

Nalira heard the water turn on, and she knew it was the tap, but for some reason it sounded likea waterfall. Everything seemed magnified - she could hear so much better now, so much clearer. She moved forward to the sound of the rushing water, feeling her hand fall against Armel's back. She left her hands on his back, balancing herself. Her mind wandered, trying to remember what happened last night.

She closed her eyes, wondering. Regretfully, nothing came. The only thing she could remember was hands; groping, reaching forward, scratching, clawing. She shook her head, opening her eyes, sighing softly.

He didn't seem to mind as he checked the tempeture of the water. Armel's expression was openly worried and upset. It didn't hurt that Nalira couldn't see otherwise that might have made matters worse. He got a near by dry rag and wetted it, "'Ere. I think the water is an okay tempeture now." He muttered. Armel too suffered from his own bleeding wounds, but things like this didn't make it act up.

Nalira gently took the wet rag from his hand, rubbing her hands across it vigorously. She then cautiously rose the wet rag to her face, dabbing her eyes tenderly. She winced as a strange stinging sensation was caused by the wet rag. She cleaned the rest of her face, gently putting the wet rag down - or, so she thought. In reality, it fell to the ground with a sickening splat.

She felt suddenly very heavy. She thought, perhaps, cleaning the blood from her face would allow her to see. Unfortunately, that did not happen. She smiled over to where she assumed Armel was. "Thank you, Armel."

He was about to reply, when Pales shuffled into the room squinting in the dimlighting which seemed too bright for him at the moment, "Nhhrr..What's this?" Pales wore a t-shirt and a pair of jogging pants. A few more moments of squinting at the two in the room, "Armel? Nalira? What is going on here?" Pales didn't sound angry, just more confused than usual. Armel frowned wondering how to explain the current situation.

Nalira looked to Armel and shook her head softly. "Don't worry, I'll tell him." She turned to Pales, once more placing her hands infront of her body, shuffling forward until she felt Pales. She paused, let her arms drop, and continued to explain why she was here.

"You have a little hero here." She cocked her head over to Armel, assuming he haden't moved.

"Last night, whatever happened, wasn't pretty. I can't remember much, but I woke up and everything was dark, as if I haden'te ven opened my eyes. Armel came out and saw that my eyes were bleeding and brought me inside and helped me clean myself up. I still can't see, mind you." As she explained, she swayed slowly on the spot, hoping that Pales wasn't too angry, if at all.

Armel nodded and let her talk turning off the faucet after remembering it was still on. Pales watched Nalira pretty much feel her way about, at least she remembered where everything was from her last visit -- at least reasonably so, "Indeed, do you know what or who did this to you," he asked as he bent a little over her to study how her face looked, seeming thoughtful.

Nalira shook her head. She frowned, trying hard to remember who had done this to her, or atleast what had happened. "All I can remember is a pair of hands hands. They were groping at my face, scratching, clawing and pulling. Whatever they were doing, it caused me to go, dare I say it, blind." She hesitated at the last word, still finding it hard to get her tongue around it.

She placed her hands tentively on her face, feelings her eyes gently. They seemed pretty much normal, nothing out of the ordinary - except for the fact she was now vision impaired.

Pales let out a small "Hmm" and then straightened, "You hungry?" He asked finally running a hand through his hair, "Cause I can fix you something while we try to figure this stuff out, or what have you..Got anyone I can contact so no one worries about you?"

Armel got off his stool and put it back into it's place looking thoughtful if not a little disturbed.

.. To be continued.