Hidden in Darkness (In Darkness, #1)

by Alice Winters

Do you need anything before I go to bed?” “No. Just make sure you’re around for tomorrow night.” “You’re so funny,” I say. “Good night.” “Have a good night, Felix.”

“Jesus Christ!” he shouts. “Where?” I ask as I turn the volume down. “Wait a minute…I thought you were blind. How’d you see him?” “No, I’m now deaf. What were you listening to?” “Something super cool and sexy, I’m sure,” I say as I back the car down the driveway. “Like if you heard me singing, you’d probably just jizz in your pants.” “Hm…you’re awfully confident.”

I’m the person you run into because you’re so busy staring at them.” “So…you look like a trash can? Is that what I’m hearing?”

“Are we here?” he asks. “I swear to god, if we’re at a stop sign again and you tell me we are here like when we went to the pharmacy, I will beat you within an inch of your life.”

“Please just leave, the only reason I let you stay was to fuck you.”

“Are we going to be shot to death by a police officer?” I ask as I look over at him. “It’s not real likely,” he says as he pulls his gun out and tosses it onto the floor. “Great. I love when things are just ‘not likely.’ And…just in case you forgot, we are still in our underwear.”

“Lane, you’re going to run into something, step to your right,” I say. Lane, trusting me like the good man he is, steps to the right and bumps into the counter. “Fuck,” he growls as I start laughing. “That’s what you get for being mean to me,” I say.

“Sorry, dogs have to be in a carrier bag,” the attendant says. “Alright. Do you have a Walmart bag? If you have four, I could put a foot in each,” I tell him. “Felix,” Lane says in his “teacher” tone. “He’s a service dog, I’m blind.”

“I’m not scared of being hurt…I’m scared of being alone,” I admit. I feel like I shouldn’t tell him. I feel like I’m giving him a part of myself that I can never get back. And if he doesn’t accept it, I don’t know how I will ever recover. “I’m scared you will leave me.”

You have given me sight again, Felix, I am not going to push you away. I am scared something will happen to you but…I won’t push you away,” he says. “I can handle that,” I say. Why is it that the first person to ever notice me is a man that can no longer see me?

I walk over to the safe and pull Lane down next to me. I swing the door open and look in at a really nice collection of guns. “Ooh.” “Can you tell me what they are?” Lane asks as he hovers over the safe. “There are some little pew pews and a couple of big pew pews,” I say. “You’re useless.”

“I hate this. I hate seeing people that I know,” he grumbles once we are out of earshot. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re blind then,” I say.