I Must Close My Eyes

"I must close my eyes again," he yelled out loud, in his mind.

He was falling from the sky. Nothing unusual there, unless you wonder how he got there.

He had no wings and no ability to fly. He had no superpower to control gravity and he wasn’t lighter than air. But whenever he was shutting his eyes, the physical reality disappeared.

But how did he get there? How did he get all the way up in the sky?

He was living on Volhelmor, a planet with no human population. The only species there was his own, the Volhelmornians. And they all looked different.

At birth, each Volhelmornian had to choose something that would represent them for the rest of their lives. It was the challenge that would define the entire road ahead. Most Valhelmornians would choose to have wings so they could explore the entire planet. Some would choose to have great strength so they could lift heavy objects.

But not Holpyntr. He was so afraid of choosing anything that whenever he had to make the decision, he would close his eyes. Eventually, that defined Holpyntr’s life and he had to live a very different life on Volhelmorn. He had no wings to fly, no super-strength to lift heavy objects, no alpha-speed to move faster than light. None of that. He was considered to be the outsider by the Volhelmornians. He was living a difficult life.

Whenever he was bullied by others for being different, Holpyntr was closing his eyes to reach safety. It was his way of making sure there was nothing to harm him. Whenever his eyes were closed, everything was gone. This odd superpower was also his curse.

Most times, whenever Holpyntr was closing his eyes, to make sure he was safe for as long as possible, he kept his eyes shut even for days. And the longer he was doing it, the further away he was coming back on Volhelmor. It was a weird way of teleporting, without having any control over the destination.

One time, Holpyntr kept his eyes closed for almost a month and, when he opened them, he was at the bottom of a lake. Another time, he was in a tree and almost fell as soon as his eyes were opened.

The best part of this superpower was that it could keep Holpyntr safe very easily. He could close his eyes in an instant and be safe from everything.

But once every three hundred years, something was blocking everyone’s superpowers. It was because the energy of the planet was slowly depleting and the planet had to recharge. That year was the worst year for Holpyntr because nobody, including our friend, had superpowers anymore.

Yes, others could not fly or lift heavy objects but they still could bully Holpyntr just because he was different. They were making fun of him, beating him, throwing small objects at him, just so they could catch up with all these years in which Holpyntr was safe.

Because Holpyntr was so attached to the idea of closing his eyes to reach safety, he couldn’t find any other way of dealing with his bullies. And closing his eyes was not helping because he had to find a solution to avoid them. The physical reality was not disappearing anymore. All his problems were there, no matter how open or closed his eyes were.

After a few months, Holpyntr was so tired that he kept his eyes closed all the time. He didn’t care anymore. He wanted everything to stop. But more than that, he wanted his bullies to go through what he was going.

“I wish you all had my superpower and I had yours,” he yelled, while having his eyes closed.

The sky turned purple and the ground started to shake.

Holpyntr was so scared that he closed his eyes once again. All of a sudden, there was no sound, no light, no smell. It was all gone. It was like his superpower came back to him.

“What happened?” he asked himself.

He wanted to open his eyes but he was afraid. So, he stayed like that for days, afraid of what could happen if he did.

He started thinking about the purple sky and wondered... Holpyntr opened his eyes.

He woke up in the sky, with wings on his back.

His wish was granted.

But soon enough he realized that he had never had wings before and didn’t know how to use them.

"I must close my eyes again," he yelled out loud, in his mind.

He tried to make reality disappear again, but he couldn’t. While his eyes were closed, he was feeling the air and the wind against his face, arms, and legs. He was falling.

He opened his eyes again. He was afraid and there was nothing left for him to do.

A few seconds later, he was on the ground, with his wings broken, and his face full of bruises. When he looked around, he realized nobody had wings anymore. There was no one with a strong body to lift heavy objects. Everyone else seemed to have changed.

Checking closer, he saw everyone with their eyes closed.

“What is going on?”

“Now I have wings. No, now I am the only one with wings!”

“WHAT is going on?”

The sky turns purple again for a few moments and there’s a voice coming from the depths of the planet.

“Your wish was granted,” said the voice.

Everything else went back to normal, except for superpowers.

Little by little, others started to open their eyes and saw that Holpyntr had wings and they didn’t. They started bullying Holpyntr again. Even though he had wings, he was still different, as he was the only one with wings.

Through his wish, Holpyntr changed the lives of everyone on Volhelmor. Soon enough, he learned how to use his wings and fly to places where others couldn’t reach or find him. He was, finally, at peace.

From time to time, Holpyntr still closes his eyes and imagines that everything around him disappears.