After the Surgery Succeeded, Everyone Wanted Me Dead

I peeled the bandages off my bionic eyes and could see again.

My husband, Ivan Henson, cradled my face in his hands, thrilled. The instant our eyes met, he jerked back as if he'd been shocked.

His face went white. He dropped to his knees and knocked his head against the floor, over and over, begging me to divorce him on the spot. He'd walk away with nothing, he said. He just wanted out.

That same night I rushed to my best friend for help. The video call had barely connected when she screamed, smashed her phone, and blocked me for good.

Even my greedy, bloodsucking parents, after they saw my eyes, slipped poison into my water glass before the night was over.

Reborn, I woke on the day the bandages came off.

This time, I clamped my hands over my eyes and lied that the surgery had failed.

Ivan held me, aching for me.

But a second later, a gust of wind knocked my dark glasses off.

Ivan met my eyes.

His whole body shook violently, and he shouted it again: "Alison Fox, please, let me go. Let's get a divorce!"

......

The smell of disinfectant kept crawling into my nose.

The surgeon held a pair of medical scissors, the cold metal touching the bandage against my cheek.

"Miss Fox, relax. We're taking the stitches out now."

The scissors snipped. Layer by layer, the bandage came away.

Light stabbed in through the seam of my eyelids.

A shudder ripped through me. Every hair on my body stood on end.

I had been reborn.

I knew it for certain. I was back on the day I got my sight again.

My husband, Ivan, stood beside the bed, both hands gripping my shoulders.

His palms were warm, slick with excited sweat.

"Ali, don't be scared. Whatever the result is, I'm right here with you."

His voice was full of tenderness, but my heart twisted into a knot, and even breathing came with a sharp sting.

I could not understand it, no matter how I tried. A man who loved me down to the bone.

We'd been together seven years, married for three.

After the car accident that left me blind, he cared for me day and night without rest. He even sold off his shares in the company, all to scrape together the fortune it cost for the blindsight bionic-eye surgery.

In my last life, I'd opened my eyes full of hope and looked at him first.

But the instant our eyes met, his face went bloodless.

He screamed in terror, his knees slamming onto the tile, and he beat his head against the floor for me, again and again.

He scrambled out of the room on all fours, and that same night had a lawyer deliver divorce papers. He was willing to leave with nothing, as long as he could get away from me completely.

In despair I went home to my parents for help, and they dropped poison into my water glass.

Dying, I coughed up mouthfuls of black blood and stared at them.

Their faces were full of terror. They cowered in the corner, trembling, calling me a monster.

Why?

If the surgery had worked, why did everyone who saw my eyes end up terrified out of their minds?

Until I understood the truth, I could not repeat the same mistake.

I had to keep it from Ivan.

"Doctor, stop!"

I shoved the surgeon's hand away and clamped my hands over my eyes.

"It hurts! My head, it hurts so much!"

I let myself fall back onto the bed, curling up in pain.

Ivan panicked and lunged to hold me.

"Ali! What's wrong? Doctor, check her, quickly!"

The surgeon frowned and scanned the readings on the monitors.

"There's an abnormal fluctuation in the brainwave activity. The optic nerve may be rejecting the newly implanted chip."

I kept my eyes shut, tears sliding from the corners.

"Ivan, I can't see anything. Just a wash of blood red. It hurts."

His eyes went red with the pain of it. He pressed my head against his chest.

"No more looking. We're done looking! Doctor, wrap the bandages back on and give her something for the pain!"

Once the bandages were back in place, I put on a wide pair of black glasses.

Ivan handled the discharge paperwork and led me out of the hospital, careful with every step.

The early-autumn wind carried a thread of chill.

As long as Ivan never saw my eyes, everything could stay the way it was.

I quietly clenched my fists.

Back home, Ivan settled me on the couch and turned to go make me some porridge in the kitchen.

Listening to the sound of chopping from the kitchen, my strung-tight nerves eased just a little.

I felt my way into the bathroom and locked the door behind me.

The bathroom light was off. Pure darkness.

I took a deep breath, took off the glasses, and slowly unwound the bandage from my eyes.

I opened them.

The me in the mirror had clear, bright eyes, and deep in the pupils there was a faint flicker of a ghostly blue light.

I could see.

My vision was even sharper than before I went blind. I could make out every vein in the marble of the vanity.

These were, plainly, a beautiful pair of eyes.

No deformity. Nothing frightening about them at all.

I leaned in close to the mirror, studying my own pupils this way and that.

Nothing happened.

Just then the anti-slip mat under my feet slid.

My ankle twisted and I crashed to the floor, my knee striking the edge of the tub.

A loud bang.

Ivan heard it from outside and slammed the bathroom door open.

"Ali!"

He reached out and flicked on the ceiling light.

White light flooded the whole room in an instant.

There was no time to get the glasses back on. On instinct I lifted my head and looked at Ivan in the doorway.

Our eyes met.

Ivan's steps stopped dead.

Every trace of color drained out of his face.

He stared into my eyes, his throat working hard, a strange gurgling sound coming out of him.

His legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees with a thud.

The nightmare of my last life was playing out again, exactly the same.

Cold all through, I reached out in despair. "Ivan..."

"Don't come near me! Don't kill me!"

Ivan clutched his head in both hands and backed away in terror, his spine pressed hard against the door frame.

His teeth chattered, tears and snot smeared across his face.

"Alison, I'm begging you, let's get a divorce!"

"The money's all yours, the house, the car, everything. I'll get out right now, just please, let me go!"

My hands hung limp at my sides, and I clenched them into fists.

My nails cut into my palms, and blood welled up.

"Why? Ivan, what did you see?"

I demanded, my voice cracking on the edge of tears.

Ivan wasn't listening to anything I said. He scrambled and stumbled out of the bathroom.

He didn't even change his shoes, just yanked the front door open and bolted.

The security door slammed shut with a deafening crash.

In the empty living room, the only sound left was my own ragged breathing.

I went to the floor-to-ceiling window and watched Ivan sprinting away below.

He ran in a stagger, tripped and fell flat even on level ground, then crawled up and scrambled into the car and floored it out of the complex.

I sank onto the couch, my heart aching like it was about to split open.

I walked to the entryway, picked up the dark glasses that had fallen to the floor, and put them back on.

I took out my phone and started a video call with my best friend, Tania Pruitt.

Tania was my closest friend. We'd grown up together, told each other everything.

The call rang three times before she picked up.

Tania's face appeared on the screen, a sheet mask on.

"Ali? Weren't you getting the bandages off today? Why are you wearing sunglasses? Did the surgery not go well?"

Her voice was full of concern.

I swallowed the tremor in my voice and took a deep breath.

"Tania, Ivan ran off. He wants a divorce."

Tania ripped the mask off her face, her brows shooting up.

"What?! Has that bastard Ivan lost his mind? You just had surgery and he's picking a fight about divorce? Where is he, I'll go carve him up right now!"

Seeing her burning with outrage on my behalf, a little warmth crept back into me.

I seized the chance to ask her.

"Tania, help me think this through. Why would someone see a pair of perfectly normal eyes and be so scared they drop to their knees begging?"

Tania blinked, her face full of confusion.

"What nonsense are you talking? Unless there's a ghost in those eyes, or the person did something they feel guilty about. What's actually going on with Ivan?"

I bit my lip, unable to explain a single word.

Because even I didn't know the answer.

"Tania, the truth is, my surgery worked."

I raised my hand and rested it on the arm of my glasses.

"I want you to take a look for me and tell me what's wrong with my eyes."

Tania leaned in close to the screen, her eyes wide.

"Okay, take them off and let me see. Is there a scar? Cosmetic medicine is really advanced now, don't be scared."

I took a deep breath, pulled the glasses off in one motion, and looked straight into the phone's camera.

One second.

Two seconds.

On the other end, Tania suddenly froze.

Her eyes went wider and wider, until they were nearly bulging out of their sockets.

The color drained from her face in an instant, replaced by pure terror.

"Aaah!!!"

Tania let out a scream, shrill beyond anything.

"Get away! Don't touch me! Don't eat me!"

On the other side of the screen she flailed her arms wildly, as if fending off some invisible, monstrous horror.

She grabbed her phone and hurled it at the wall across from her.

With a bang, the screen went black.

The call cut off.

I called back at once.

The system message said: "The person you are calling is busy."

I'd been blocked.

Just like in my last life, she'd blocked me on everything.

The hand holding my phone shook violently.

Why? Why any of it?

Ivan had looked straight into my eyes.

But Tania had looked at my eyes through a phone screen.

Could this terror really spread down a network signal?

This was absolutely not some trick of the mind, and it was no coincidence.

Right then, a burst of frantic pounding came from the front door.

"Bang, bang, Bang! "

The security door shook with the blows.

"Alison! Open the door, you little brat! I know you're in there!"

It was my mother's voice.

My whole body went rigid, and a chill shot up from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

I never expected my parents to come knocking this soon.

In my last life, they only turned on me after I'd hit rock bottom and crawled back home.

I settled the sunglasses on my face, walked to the entryway, and looked through the peephole.

My father and mother stood outside. My father was holding a wooden club as thick as a wrist.

"Open up! That good-for-nothing Ivan says your eyes are blind for good, that there's no fixing them and he's divorcing you! Get the deed to this place out here right now and sign it over to your brother!"

My mother's shrill voice cut through the steel door.

Something went cold in me.

My brother Brian Fox was a hopeless gambler, buried in loan-shark debt.

They weren't here today because they cared whether I lived or died. They were here to strip me of the last thing I owned.

I pulled the door open and stared at them, cold.

"Get out."

My father's face twisted. He raised the club and pointed it at my nose.

"You ungrateful girl! Watch your tone! What good is this place to a blind woman? Hand it over so your brother can pay off his debts, or I'll beat you to death right here!"

My hands clenched into fists.

"I'll say it one more time. Get out of my home, or I'm calling the police."

Seeing that force wasn't working, my mother switched faces in an instant and reached out to grab my arm.

"Oh, come on, Ali, we're family, why bring the police into this? You can't see, let Mom help you inside and we'll talk it through slowly."

As she spoke, she tugged hard at my clothes, while her other hand slid quietly toward the handbag I'd left on the entryway cabinet.

That bag held my ID and all my bank cards.

I knocked her hand away.

"Don't touch my things!"

The blow stung her, and she flew into a rage.

"You blind little thing, you dare hit your own mother!"

She lunged at me, hands clawing wildly at my face.

In the middle of the struggle, her fingers hooked the edge of my sunglasses.

She yanked.

The sunglasses came off, hit the floor, and split in two.

I had no time to shut my eyes.

My mother's gaze drove straight into my pupils.

The air seemed to freeze in that instant.

My mother stayed frozen mid-claw, her whole body rigid as carved stone.

Her eyelids twitched violently, and she shook all over like she'd been hit with a chill.

"A ghost... a ghost!!!"

My mother let out a horrible shriek.

Her legs gave out and she dropped straight to the floor, a stream of yellow spreading from between her legs.

My father saw it and cursed.

"What the hell's wrong with you!"

He turned his head and glared at me, vicious.

The moment our eyes met.

The club in my father's hand clattered to the floor.

His eyes rolled white, a rasping, choked sound climbing out of his throat, and he pitched straight over backward.

"Run... run... she's going to kill us..."

My father scrabbled backward across the floor on all fours, then dragged my mother up in a frantic, stumbling heap.

The old couple didn't even bother with the bag they'd dropped. They went screaming and wailing down the stairs.

I stood in the doorway, looking down at their backs as they scrambled away, and a bone-deep chill spread through me.

I touched my own eyes.

What kind of monster was hiding in them?

I couldn't just sit here and wait to die.

I turned back into the bedroom, dug out a ball cap, and pulled on a heavy pair of medical goggles and a mask, wrapping myself up tight.

I had to make a trip to the brain-computer interface research hospital where they'd operated on me.

I was going to get every scrap of the raw surgical data.

I was going to find out exactly what they'd planted inside my head.

The lobby of the research hospital was packed.

I pulled my cap low, kept clear of everyone's eyes, and headed straight for the VIP elevator.

Up to the brain-computer interface core lab on the top floor.

Dr. Dickerson, the lead surgeon, was in his office going over files.

I pushed the door open and locked it behind me.

He looked up and adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses.

"Miss Fox? Weren't you just discharged? Why are you wrapped up like that?"

I walked to the desk, planted both hands on it, and stared him down.

"Dr. Dickerson, run a deep scan of my brain-chip right now. I want to see the raw code at the lowest level."

His brow furrowed, and his tone turned serious.

"Miss Fox, the underlying code is the hospital's trade secret. You don't have the clearance to view it. And your surgery was a complete success. There's no need to"

"Cut the excuses!"

I slammed my palm on the desk.

"If there's nothing wrong with my surgery, then why does everyone who sees my eyes fall to pieces? What exactly did you put in my eyes?"

He blinked, then his face twisted into something like disbelief.

"Miss Fox, are you sure the stress after the operation isn't getting to you? The bionic eyes are just a micro-transistor that receives light signals and converts them to electrical ones. There's no way they could cause what you're describing."

"You don't believe me?"

I let out a cold laugh and reached up to pull off my goggles.

That startled him. He waved his hands quickly.

"Wait! I'll run the scan! Just calm down!"

He led me into the sterile scan room in back.

I lay on the scan bed, my head locked inside a huge ring-shaped machine.

"The machine will read all the data from your optic nerve interface and project it onto the big screen outside."

Dr. Dickerson worked the console beyond the glass wall.

The scan began.

The machine let out a low hum.

I felt a faint prickling deep in my eyeballs.

Just then a nurse pushed the door open and came into the control room carrying a medicine tray.

"Dr. Dickerson, here's the"

Before she could finish, she glanced up out of habit, at the huge screen on the wall showing the raw data from my eyes.

One glance.

The stainless steel tray in her hands hit the floor with a clang.

Both hands clamped around her own throat, her eyes bulging, her face going a dark purplish red.

"Fire... so much fire... I'm going to burn to death... help me!"

The nurse shrieked and thrashed across the floor, clawing at her own face with her nails, tearing several bloody streaks into her skin.

Dr. Dickerson went white and rushed over to pin her down.

"Kate! What's wrong with you?"

The commotion in the control room brought the security guards outside.

Four burly guards rushed in.

They saw the horror on the floor, then saw me lying on the scan bed.

"She released a nerve agent! Restrain her!"

The security captain roared, yanked out his baton, and lunged at me.

Panicked, I tried to explain.

"I didn't! Don't look at the screen!"

But it was already too late.

The guard dragged me off the bed, and the baton came down hard on the back of my head.

The pain hit, my vision went black, and I lost consciousness completely.