Seeing Perfection

"And this is all I take, right?"1

"Right."2

"Just one little pill, is all?"3

"Yes."4

*  * *5

Clara was wary. This test was supposed to perfect her vision to a 20/20 level, and she had not travelled this far for nothing. Her half-blindness had driven her feverishly here. Others had described the world, but she felt it could never come close to the real thing, to seeing it for herself. The tiny white pill felt cold in her hand. But she thought it was probably just her anxiety.6

A freezing glass of water was placed into her other already-cool palm. The doctors explained loudly that the cold water was needed to activate the enzymes in the pill. It felt like they were spitting into her ear. She was blind, not deaf; the yelling felt like they were urging her on. Must they rush her so? "Better now than never. I don't want to slow the process." she said aloud, trying to convince herself. The little white pill slid down Claire's throat as easy as chocolate to a child.7

The first thing that happened was, she could see. 8

It was at first only a couple of faint brown lines, blurred together, and then they became sharper. They came together, focused like lost lovers, forming shapes and colors she found intoxicating. Claire skipped, touching objects, truly seeing them now. The slighest contrast in shades seemes like the biggest leap, each color, each difference a new fascination. There were people in the room as well, and as they came into focus they were beautiful: noses, eyes, lips, arms, hands... she'd never seen such beasts and as she began to see them, her hands flew, fluttering over everything like skittish birds.9

Then, everything happened.
Claire's perception was amazing, because evrything was beautiful. And suddenly nothing else from her memory was. Her mother? An empty, ugly shadow. Her father? an empty, horrid, space of dust. Her sisters? Might as well be dead.
All the while her subconcious mind formed these ideas, punched them deep into her mind, nails to a hammer. And then she was flooding with them. They poured from her eyes and her nose, lips, ears, fingertips. If Claire didn't see everything again, it would all be simply atrocious to her.
Suddenly, though, her eyes began to have a shooting, stabbing pain. All the color she was once infatuated by began to... drain away. Simply drain, as if someone put a funnel to the color and all that was left was a glistening, blinding white of perfection with white corners to outline objects.
Except for the people.
Their skin, mouths, hands were white; but their eyes were the most startling and clear blue she'd ever seen. The wisp of sky she'd once imagined seemed so ordinary now, so grotesque and unlovely. Unloved.
Another color sprang up. Her skin seperated with black, clean and yet filthy lines. Her hands, feet, legs, her whole body was segmented into a live, moving grid. Small red rubies, one at a time, at the same time, popped from her perfect white skin, their circles echoing painfully as they hit the floor and piled at her feet. they came from the middle of every perfect square and dropped into a perfect pyramid. The pricking sensations that came from the grid was too much, too much pain. Her eyes ached and the grid lines stung with a fierce intensity. Suddenly white liquid spheres began to drip from her blue eyes and fall all too slowly down her cheeks, staining the rubies when they hit the floor. This upset her too much, although without her sight none of this would mean anything.10

11

Claire realized that perfection was the most hideous thing she'd ever seen.12


* * *13


It was a terrifying sight. When once peaceful Claire was all smiles, feeling the people around her for the first time, now fierce tears were trickling down her cheeks. She had a needle in her hand. The hand was flying, pricking herself everywhere, small red drops of blood pooling around her feet quickly.14

"Is she alright?"15

"No."16

The blood kept pooling.17

"Will she be alright?"18

The doctor turned, grinning ferociously, hideously. Sharp teeth gleamed a perfect white and his startlingly blue eyes glittered.19

"Fine. Perfectly, perfectly fine."20

21

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The End 23