Blind To Monstrosities I Build My Sanctuary Chapter 2 My Eyes Opened

Since the first time I encountered the Windigo, a deep trauma manifested itself within my heart that made me fearful.

It didn’t stop me from going outside but it did stop me from going too far, the range being a 150 meters within the vicinity of the church, you would think that a area of such size would be small but for someone like me who is blind such space is massive, anything beyond that made me feel uneasy or straight up panicked.

I made it a point to always leave with a long rope, that was stored in the cellar, tied to my waist whenever I left to scavenge to not get lost, since I was blind scavenging was extremely hard, using my hands and my sense of smell I slowly identify anything I found that interested me, most of the time finding junk or left behind items of the people who used to live here and were in a hurry to leave, but sometimes also finding cans of food or full water bottles.

On a side note even though I am blind, opening canned foods isn’t actually that difficult when you have a can opener, what is really difficult or inconvenient is the fact that I never know what it is that I am opening whenever I hold a can of food in my hands, since I can’t see the label I can only shake it to hear its sound and then finally open it to smell and taste.

Because of this I always feel as if I am going to open a mystery box whenever I eat canned foods, and the food itself isn’t bad per say but it’s still miles from what I used to have if you compare the can of green peas I eat now.

I also, sometimes even find firearms on the ground like handguns or rifles, I keep some of them stored nearby but I doubt I am ever going to be able to use them since I am blind which is why I always keep a knife with me instead.

Nevertheless back to the topic.

While living this lonesome life of scavenging to find food and water to live, I noticed that ever since the apocalypse happened I had never found another corpse like the one in front of the cellar door when I first came out.

This in fact was the main issue I had when scavenging since I really didn’t want to stumble to one bloody corpse after another, but as soon as I started scavenging I realized that the corpses that I would occasionally find would disappear each time I went out ultimately cleaning the entire area without even leaving a single bone, this made me think about the monster that I encountered near the cellar door when I first came out, the monster had clearly taken the corpse to feed itself which is why it came in the first place, meaning that the reason I couldn’t find any corpses was because the monsters were taking all of them when it became night.

And the reason I am assuming they become active when it gets night is because I had never heard any activity at day ever since I started scavenging, the only time I would notice them is when it started to get dark and I was already inside the cellar listening to them walk outside, making me believe the monsters, or Windigo’s, which was the official name I gave them, were nocturnal.

Of course this way of thought had been overturned when I today discovered a Windigo walking out in daylight, but this itself could also be explained by the Windigo being disturbed by something or someone, or maybe even going out to hunt in the daytime since it was still hungry and didn’t get enough food at night.

Which is also troubling since it meant that they already hunted so much meat in the area that it was starting to get scarce.

Two event’s would happen because of this if it was true.

One being that the activities of the Windigo’s would slowly start to encompass the day if the lack of food continued and two being the Windigo’s migration to another area where they could hunt for more meat…human meat to be specific.

Why human meat ? I don’t know.

The only thing I do know is the fact that the Windigo’s never eat anything other then human meat, I know this because I would on some occasions find fresh pounds of beef or pork packed and abandoned on the ground by people who must have been fleeing on the day of the apocalypse, while also noticing how they were never touched by the Windigo’s, they also don’t seem to eat fruits or vegetables as those foods are also never taken by them either.

In either case, if the Windigo’s start to migrate it would make the outside safer but at the same time because they hadn’t migrated just yet the outside had become even more dangerous since they would also be active at day from now on.

-(Sigh)…it looks like I can’t go out for a while, I don’t know long its gonna take, I hope they leave in a week if not a month should be enough too…

I scratched my scalp helplessly, sitting down on top of my makeshift bed I wondered what to do for the next week or maybe even next month, there weren’t many things a blind person like me could do in a situation like this, if it was in the past I would usually start cooking and learn new recipes, listen to a book online or go out for a walk to get a fresh breath of air.

But right now none of these things were something I could do since I didn’t have access to my kitchen or had any fresh ingredients to use neither was there any electricity to use electrinics nor could I take a walk as that would actually just risk me dying to the Windigo’s.

Thinking about it like this…I started to realize how utter boring the next few days could become if I didn’t quickly find something to do and keep my mind occupied, I knew through reading books that prolonged isolation without stimulation could make people crazy and even cause brain damage, in a sense staying here for a long time could be just as dangerous for me as being outside…

-I…I should go back to reading the scriptures…even if I already know the contents they should be able to keep my mind occupied…

I didn’t waste a moment, walking towards the books that I neatly stacked near the corner I picked a random book out of the pile and started lightly brushing my hand over it to read the pages that were inscribed with braille.

Over the past year this was one of the only things I did to pass time, while scavenging I hadn’t found anything that I could use to entertain myself with as most of the items I found weren’t either meant for a blind individuals like me such as normal books or were simply too reliant on other resource like electricity to keep going such as music players or tablets.

Scavenging was actually one of the only things that kept me stimulated, maybe even too stimulated for my own good as it always made me feel uneasy and paranoid, now that I was stopped from doing it a huge void appeared within my chest that was once occupied by those intense feelings I had over the past year…

Reading the scriptures was not enough to fill the void but it was still enough to keep me going, occasionally my head would boil from forcing myself to read but each time it happened I would use the special breathing technique I learned from the head priest to clear my head, of course each time I did so the effectiveness of the breathing technique would reduce, fortunately the effectiveness wasn’t lost immediately as it needed a few hours to really become completely ineffective.

-Huh ? Oh, I forgot that this page was here…

I muttered, having been engrossed in reading or rather in the sole act of it, I completely forgot that the book I was reading also possessed a page completely dedicated to a strange symbols like some of the other books, this symbol in particular was a circle with a hexagon inside of it which also had a triangle in it which then had a circle in it that was finally inscribe with a strange symbol that looked like a figure rising from the ground.

I touched the symbol caressing its shape and size that was etched into the page quite strongly, I wondered why these symbols were put here in the first place, remembering that the old man himself didn’t know, I thought about the history of the church and why it still existed even to this day without any followers other then the old man…but as soon as I thought so, many more questions started to pop up that lay heavily on my mind…

-Now that I think about it…why does this church exist ? Now that I am all alone with nothing to do, why is it that I am only now asking such questions when I had so much time to think in the past ? Who was the old man ? And why did he continue operating the church ? And if he operated this church all this time including the past 20 years ever since I came where did the money come from ? The church doesn’t accept donations or works with any charity organizations so what is its purpose ? Why aren’t there any other followers ? I can understand that religion isn’t very appealing to the modern man but even the lowest of cults have some followers…with the amount of lore I have in my hands even people who don’t believe in religion would want to join just for the sake of reading the scriptures.

I pondered, the more I thought the more I started to ask questions that completely boggled my mind and messed with the fundamental everyday life events I had…and in the middle of it all the old man stood in complete darkness, I didn’t truly know how he looked like but through a glance alone I knew that it was him smiling at me from the dark within my imagination and though he was smiling gently at me, I couldn’t smile back at all as the things I once knew about the old man complete started to escape as he became darker and darker until it was difficult for me to see his smile.

If I truly thought about the old man, I started realized that there was not much of anything I really knew about him other then the fact that he was a good man and that he liked to keep to himself, of course at the beginning when I was getting older I did want to know more about the old man and his past, but every time I asked he would either change the subject or tell me that he was tired and wanted to rest asking me to come to him later if I wanted to talk…

And each time this happened I would simply go along with him changing the topic or completely forget about the conversation altogether never coming back to ask him what I originally wanted to know…this… it was immensely strange to me, now that the old man isn’t present anymore, its as if the bindings on my mind slowly started to loosen…its as if the old man had been contro…

-Aghh..

I cried painfully, having come to the realization a intense pain suddenly manifested itself into my mind pounding me repeatedly like a punching bag, I fell to the ground squirming like a dying worm I could not think straight for even a single moment, the pain only worsening as time went on.

All of my memories at that moment started to come to my mind.

Because I was blind these memories weren’t images or visuals in any sense but rather sounds, tastes or feelings that came over me drawing me pictures within the dark.

Images, and events that I don’t remember feeling before came to my mind until finally it stopped, revealing only a single memory and when I focused to “see” I realized that I was looking at a smile…no…I was listening…to a snort that came before the smile.

-Todd…if you are hearing this, it means that most likely I am dead, it also means that the memory chains I put within the subconscious of your mind are slowly starting to evaporate forcing you to remember memories that I didn’t want you to remember in real-time but don’t worry its not going to hurt you other then make you feel pain which will go away..

The voice of the old man echoed within my ears, he sounded as if he was so close but yet so far, I had no idea what he was even saying but I still continued to listen believing it to be important.

-(cough)…excuse me for that, my body isn’t quite well to be honest I am quite sick and had been for a long time even though I don’t show it, at the time of this recording you are 16 years old, I make it a point to refresh the memory package every 4 yours and since it takes at least 1 year for the memory chains to loosen, only a year must have gone since I passed away, whatever you’re doing right now, I hope you’re doing well my boy, in my will you must already inherited the church but even if you aren’t in the possession of the church anymore it won’t be a problem as I have stored necessary resources for you study in a separate place which you can visit and take resources from the location of that place is also stored inside your memories…(cough)(cough)

The old man coughed once again, this time much more heavier then before, I remember that he used to cough like that even back in the day, he used to always dismiss it telling me to that it was just his old body acting up so I wouldn’t worry, but listening to him now, I realized that it was not just his body “acting up” but a full blown illness…

-(cough) in either case…Todd, I know that you right now must be confused to now limits, hearing a voice all of sudden within your mind can be distressing but I need you to focus my boy, because what I am about to tell you is surely going to rock your world..

The old man continued, the pain was already gone, but the voice inside my mind was not, the memory of the old man explaining to me was fresh and fluid, like no memory ever before all of his words sound to me as if they were directly spoken to me, it made me feel as if the old man was still alive teaching me like before, unconsciously tears started to fall down my eyes but I didn’t notice still focusing on the voice of the old man.

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