Author: Ajith S Nair

It was a Friday and in Saudi Arabia, Friday is a holiday for most people. I just got home after finishing the night shift. I am not supposed to be back for work until Monday night. Though I was tired sleep eluded me. I turned the TV on to see if there was something interesting on.

The TV was not working. The screen was showing a white background. I changed the channel, nothing happened.I turned the TV off unplugged everything, plugged everything back and turned the TV on.No change. The white screen mockingly stared at me.

I absentmindedly picked up my phone. Maybe I will stream something on the phone. And the phone also was showing a white screen. This sometimes happened with my phone but what are the odds of it happening to my phone and TV at the same time?

I turned the TV off and went to the kitchen. I needed some tea. While making tea I noticed that something was running down my face. I rubbed my cheeks and was astonished to see blood on my fingers. I ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I was weeping blood. But there was no pain. My eyes looked the same but this was obviously something serious. Maybe I had an internal injury or a tumour?? I was panicking.

There was something else. A part of my mind was impassively observing these things. That part of me was not alarmed but rather amused. I found a large towel and kept it pressed against my face. I needed to get to a hospital. On the way out I couldn’t help but glance at the TV. There were parallel red lines all over the screen now. For a moment I forgot my bloody eyes and I walked towards it. My fingers touched the red lines. It felt like I was touching something which had life. My vision became blurry and I lost consciousness.
.
When I came to I was in the bathroom removing my eyeballs with a screwdriver. I felt no pain but could hear inhuman screams escaping from my mouth. The impassive observer in my mind was devising things now. Even without eyes, I could see where everything was. After finishing I covered my empty eye sockets with the towel which soon turned crimson.

On the way outside I had no difficulty anywhere. Everything around me was white like the TV screen. But I could sense everything around me and navigate accordingly. There were others like me. I could sense it.

The folks whose eyes were not opened came for us. Their attacks did not affect us. They were so few in number and we are so many. Soon they were extinct.

Soon we all heard the call. Something was coming to free us.
I lied down and removed the towel covering my eyes. The sky was blood red. There were white lines in the red sky which appeared to be flowing. Slowly the whiteness engulfed the sky and we all were no more. We are the whiteness…