• Let me start with where it didn't begin.

    It didn't begin with a simple "hello" or "how are you doing?" It started with me half dead, laying outside of the wall between The All Seeing Society and where I currently reside, The Dead Lands.

    It all started, when I opened my eyes for the first time.

    I was 15 years old. The second heir to a big corporate family in The Society, the first heir being my ever more successful twin brother Micheal. Aside from our personalities, we were basically the same person. We looked and sounded the same, but something about him was always more cynical. There was something evil about the way he spoke and acted, but maybe that's just what made him so likeable. I was told I was the complete opposite, which was alright for me. I didn't want to be his carbon copy. I wanted to live my own separate life.

    Micheal and I were the prophesied twins that would take over The Society and lead it to a great era of prosperity. I honestly believed that the Prophets may have been right on that one. My kind and leveled head worked well with Micheal's blunt fury. But something went very wrong.

    I always believed I could trust my brother with any secret. Despite our differences we were two peas in a pod. I told him everything about me and in return he told me things about him. We held a good relationship with each other, until that unforgiving day. The day I was betrayed by who I trusted the most.

    It started as a normal day. I woke up, but I had the strange feeling that something wonderful was going to happen. After my morning tutoring, I decided to walk around the garden. I laid down on the grass and faced the sky. I felt the grass under me as the birds chirped and the faint sound of music came from Micheal's formal dance class. I don't know why, and i don't know how, but I opened my eyes and saw the sky for the first time.

    I witnessed the phenomenon of color for the first time in my life. I saw the soft white clouds against the blue sky. I saw the green grass and the white roses that I've only felt. I had only heard about seeing in lessons given by my tutor, but I had never thought to try it for myself.

    My first instinct was to race down the halls to go see Micheal. I examined the house with every passing step. Everything was a pure white. From the curtains to every tile on the floor, everything was white. I was seeing the halls I blindly memorized for the first time. Every servant I passed had there eyes closed like I once did, and I wondered why I ever kept them closed in the first place.

    I caught Micheal right after his lesson, and immediately touched his face. Tears dripped from my eyes as I saw our face for the first time. Like the servants his eyes were closed, and he finally spoke up when he heard a light sob from me.

    "Philip, why are you crying?" He asked. He didn't sound very concerned, he sounded more annoyed if anything.

    "Let's go to our room, I'll explain everything then!" I said excitedly. I pulled him along down the halls my body remembered, but my eyes seeing them for the first time. Upon entering the room, Micheal swiped his hand away from mine.

    "What is it?" He said half annoyed by my antics.

    "You can't tell anyone Micheal."

    "I won't."

    "Swear?"

    "Yes, just tell me already!"

    "I opened my eyes?" I let the words out, and the room fell silent. The air was tense as I saw Micheal's horrified face.

    "No... I have to tell father." He turned away from me and headed for the door.

    "No Micheal you swore!" I grabbed his hand before it was out of reach. There was another tense silence. The silence was broken by Micheal's sigh as he dropped his arms.

    "Fine..." He continued out the door. I let a sigh of relief, for the secret I thought would be kept.

    Later that night I was dragged out of my bed, and thrown into the dungeon. I was tortured and threatened for god knows how long. They tried to get me to close my eyes again, but i refused. Not after I witnessed how wonderful the world looked.

    I was beaten so badly I don't remember how long I was in there. Food was a privilege that was not often received. Everything was a blur. The only thing I remembered vividly one night after my daily beating was Micheal's Voice saying "This is for your own good." The same voice that was also my own. I cried for the last time that night. From there everything passed in a blur. In the end, they gouged both of my eyes out. My eyes would remain permanently closed.

    After a while they exiled me from the society. They set me out beyond the walls. I wandered for days by myself. Unable to see or witness any of the thing beyond the wall.

    One day, after collapsing, I felt a pair of hands lift me up and drag me along. I lost consciousness at that point, and prayed that it wasn't someone from the society that found me.

    I woke up in a room that was unfamiliar to me. I sat up and felt a bandage over my forehead. I touched the center of it and winced in pain.

    "Oh you're awake!" an unfamiliar female voice said to me, "I found you half dead in The Dead Lands, so I brought you home!"

    I turned to the direction of her voice and whispered a soft thank you.

    "You don't need to thank me! My name is Sophie by the way, what's your name?" She sounded so happy for someone who lived in The Dead Lands.

    "I'm Phillip... where am I?" I asked. The uncertainty of my location made me uneasy and nervous.

    "I'll explain all of that later! For now Let me take off your bandage!" I felt her softly unwrap my bandage. I saw light, but I don't know from where it was coming.

    "Alright open your eye!" I did exactly as she said, and i could see once more. I looked around the room and saw it decorated will books, colors, and shiny ornaments dangling from the ceiling. I looked over at Sophie, and let out a light scream. She was a cyclops. She had one large eye open as she grinned wildly.

    "Oh god, you're a cyclops!" I said. I mentally punched myself for being rude to someone who just saved my life, AND gave me my sight back. She just laughed at me as hard as she could.

    "You're not so normal either you know! Take a look!" She handed me a mirror and what i saw shocked me. Both of my eyes were still closed, but I had one single eye in the middle of my forehead. I reached my hand up and touched it, and it reacted to my touch as if I've had it my whole life.

    "I know it's kind of weird, but I only had one eye laying around, and I thought just putting one back was kind of boring." I stopped marveling at myself and turned to give her a hug.

    "I cannot repay all that you have done for me." she hugged back, and patted my back.

    "I know a way you can!" I pulled away from her and looked into her eye.

    "How?"

    "Join The No Eyes Club."

    And thus, my new life began.