DENISE: EYES OF THE CURSE

For 18 years, my world was darkness. Not the peaceful darkness of sleep. NO. This was a heavy, living darkness that pressed against my skin. A darkness that breathed. My name is Denise. And I was born blind. The doctors said my eyes were perfect. But they saw nothing. Only black. For 18 years, I learned the world through sound, through touch, through smell. I knew my mother's footsteps. I knew the scent of rain before it fell. I knew the world... without ever seeing it. Until tonight. Tonight something inside me snapped. A pain like lightning split my skull. I screamed, clutching my eyes, convinced I was dying. Then... light. Not the soft light of down. This was a violent, white light that tore through the darkness. For the first time in my life, I SAW. I saw my small, cracked room. I saw the peeling paint on the walls. I saw my hands thin, shaking, covered in sweat. And then I saw THEM. They stood around my bed. Three of them. Tall. Wrong. Their bodies were made of shadows that writhed like living smoke. Where their faces should be, there only holes. Empty, screaming holes that pulled at my soul. They were watching me. One of them tilted its head. And I heard it. Not with my ears. With my mind. "HE CAN SEE US NOW" The second one stepped closer. The air turned to ice. "THE CURSE IS BROKEN." The third one raised a hand made of black mist. It pointed at my chest. "TIME TO COME HOME, DENISE." I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't scream. The 18 years of darkness had not been empty. It had been a prison. A wall. And tonight... the wall fell. Now they were here. For me. And the darkness that I thought was my enemy... had been protecting me all along End of chapter