Morning came and Evan lazily rolled out of his bed sheets, with absolutely no desire to work. He had no desire to bring attention and have his colleagues stare at them, until he remembered about his own sunglasses. Before leaving his home, he then picked them up; people in the office would still make comments, but still better than being noticed for suddenly having eyes of a reptile, he told himself. had no intention to bring attention to his eyes and have his colleagues staring at them.
With no surprise, just as he sat down at his cubicle and began booting up his computer, the comments started.
‘Hey Evan! Umm, what’s with the sunglasses inside? Did you have a bit much to drink during the holiday?’
Evan looked over at his colleague Rowan, a rough looking man with a bit of stubble leaned over his cubicle wall. He just nodded politely.
“Well, hem, yes actually. Still have to recover fully…”and agreed with him, eventually he removed his sunglasses and Rowan was taken back by the sight that he saw. Rowan took notice of the odd symptoms Evan displayed, but Rowan tried not to stare too much at it. He commented on the severity of the issue but Evan played it down.
Evan politely asked Rowan to keep quiet about it, to which he said ‘Sure thing’ and Evan resumed his work. Throughout the day he did catch a glimpse of another colleague staring at his eyes. Many passersby’s tried discreetly catching a glimpse at his eyes
One-thirty in the afternoon and Evan’s official lunch break was arriving. Staring at his computer for hours had made Evan’s sight blurry with onset dizziness. But that could have been because he was merely dehydrated and hadn’t drunk enough water.
Discreetly, he rushed to the bathroom to use the sink, cupping his hands full of cold water, dousing his face, until he stared at his reflection in the mirror as his focus began shifting back. But there was something in his face. He leaned in closer to the mirror, pressing his belly firmly against the marble benchtop.
The whites of his eyes were no longer a stained yellow as before. Now, they were a firm shade of yellow.
Still, the only thing that had remained constant was his pupil’s. He leaned closer to the mirror, in a state of almost silent panic, close enough that his breath fogged up the mirror...and there, he saw it
Part of his brown iris had small streaks of red in them.
It was pretty clear, at this point. He had contracted some kind of infection from China.
Now fully in panic mode, he rushed out of the bathroom and straight into his cubicle without looking up from the ground, quickly reaching for his sunglasses to cover his eyes.His breathing started calming down, but his hands kept shaking uncontrollably: he took deep breaths to calm his nerves until they got back to normality.
For the rest of the day, his eyes itched with a ferocity he had never experienced before. His sight was blurry no matter how many times he would wash them; even as he finally got out of the office, ignoring his colleagues’ questions about his nervous behavior, the discomfort only became more and more unbearable. I need to hide my eyes without wearing glasses Evan thought to himself as he entered his home and strolled through his living room, where he leaned on the kitchen bench for support, his fuzzy eyesight giving him headaches which made it difficult to stand upright.
He tenderly made his way to the bathroom mirror to further observe his changes once again his iris had become more red; his whites were now a firm shade of golden yellow. “Oh my god, what kind of sickness is this, I never heard such-”
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Black. His sight suddenly disappeared.
Cold sweat of terror invaded every part of his skin. He reached for his eyes and tried opening them further to capture any bit of light, but nothing came of it. As he was engulfed in darkness, the itching exploded...
He had to try to get to his phone and call for help; his hands touched the walls as he moved forward slowly; his knee met something he wasn’t even able to recognize, sending pain throughout his body while he cursed as he fumbled in the dark...
...until all of a sudden, shapes started to form and light worked its way through his eyes. His eyesight was returning to him. Slowly his peripherals widened and Evan saw the familiar surroundings of his bathroom.
But something was very wrong with it.
Everything around his house looked more colourful, as though he had better contrast in his eyes.Shades of green-grey danced off his once dark grey couch under the light. Even his own hands had a soft peach glow coming off them.
“Wha-what’s going on with my eyes now?!”
He turned around to face the mirror one more time; and this time, he shouted in horror.
His eyes had doubled down on the yellow-red tinge and his pupils were nothing more than a thin slit that only expanded making it wider than the side of a coin. His dark hair had glows of hazelnut underneath the light and his skin held a firm shade of light red. Evan’s heart began racing and his breathing became more laboured at what he was seeing, The new enhanced vision began hurting his head,especially from the overwhelming strain from the bathroom light.
He had to find his phone, right here and right now. But who was he to call? Who could he talk to about his mutation? And how was he to explain this at work?
As he fumbled trying to get it, the screen lit up with new colours he didn’t recognise on the background. Instead of the white dominant screen it was now shared with glares of green and red making it almost difficult to see the screen in finer detail which only worsened his headache: Evan set his phone on the table and he sat down as his head spun. He just sat there contemplating this new world he could see. The colours were so vivid and alien to him it was almost fascinating.
Evan didn’t even bother eating: he just rested on his bed, waiting for sleep to claim him and pray this all goes away in the morning. His hands trembled uncontrollably and his breathing was ragged. Only his little breathing exercise, at the end of the evening, brought him to rest once more.
The next morning, Evan called in sick. He was too nauseous and dizzy trying to adjust to his new eyesight and he chose to sit on his couch while sorting out his work on his laptop.
Evan looked out his window and saw the familiar buildings in the distance. The world around him was a colorful one with undiscovered colours gleaming off of familiar steel and grey surfaces, the sky itself was lit with a soft violet glow emanating from the sun. Evan soon discovered it to be UV. He chuckled to himself as he could now see the UV part of the spectrum. And yet his head hurted him trying to process it all. The possibility he was mutating into something unknown was atrocious, but it was impossible to deny the evidence: something was going on.
Lunch drew and Evan fixed himself something to eat out of whatever he had lying in the pantry at the time. By now his eyes had finally felt normal: the itching had gone. Still, it remained the fact that this was his new normal.
At first Evan barely paid attention to it but his chest started itching like he had a rash, he struggled to refrain from it but he scratched at his chest for minutes on end until he felt relieved that it was gone. “Hmm, weird. Please don’t tell me I’ve got more symptoms” he said aloud to himself.
Night drew on his suburb and his time to rest had come, Together with a new discovery: he could see in the dark. However, the astounding new ability was soon followed by a sudden bout of itching on his chest; however, an ointment to ease the discomfort thankfully worked quickly. The relief made it easier for Evan to go to bed and rest once more.