Familiarity

"Officer Kells, answer our questions, please?! Do you know who's the culprit in this gruesome murder?! How did the murderer get past the security system of the penitentiary?!"

"Officer Morris Kells, can you please explain in detail the murder scene?! The people wanted to know how the murdered orchestrated the death of the most wanted criminal in the city!"

"Was it an inside job, officer?!"

"How do you feel now that the government wanted to put you on trial for allowing this to happen?!"

"This case is a neglect in implementing human rights and improper management! Officer Kells, what can you say about this?!"

The entrance gate of the Women's State Penitentiary was jampacked with reporters and cameramen aiming to get a proper interview or even just a single answer from the warden.

However, the gate was tightly shut and the guard on the small window overlooking the outside was ignoring the plea of the reporters. He sported an annoyed and impatient look to them, but when his radio sounded and he received the message, he abruptly stood and pressed the button.

The gate of the institution slowly opened automatically. The reporters' faces beamed and bravely dared to enter, only their attempts were blocked by an ambulance leaving the place, followed by two police cars behind.

Beyond the untinted windows of the car, inside were seated Officer Kells with three other police officers. The reporters stopped trying to enter the prison and instead ran to the car to get a shot of the sought warden.

But they failed to do so, as the car sped as soon as the ambulance did.

Inside the ambulance, an inmate was being carried. A paramedic checked the inmate's pulse and asked the other one, "Did you get the medical history from the prison doctor?"

"Yes, it's here," the other paramedic answered.

"The request was finally approved. I pity this girl, but I feel awful pitying a criminal."

The other paramedic just shrugged his shoulders. The inmate lying on the stretcher has a gauge wrapped around her eyes. She stared at the eclipse directly and judging from the severity of the injury, she must have stared for too long, or maybe on the whole duration.

The man couldn't help but think that the poor inmate was a fool. Who would dare look at the phenomenon without knowing the consequences? Or was it intentional?

The inmate must have felt aggrieved and exhausted from serving her prison time so she thought of committing suicide or inflicting self-harm to relieve all her frustrations and agony.

The eclipse happened five days ago. The infamous murder incident that happened in the chapel was still on trial and under investigation.

As soon as the body was found, officers from the national bureau of investigation flocked to the penitentiary, while the blinded inmate was rushed to the hospital for immediate treatment.

However, the doctor declared that she completely lost her vision due to extreme retinal damage leading to irreversible blindness.

The inmate's father, Sigmund Cordova, rushed to the hospital as soon as he was contacted. With plenty enough money in his pocket, he asked the hospital to perform an eye transplant, however, no donor matched the blood type with reduced probable implications for her daughter.

That was when a pile of documents was sent to the hospital from the penitentiary. Apparently, the murder victim, Bianca Acosta, had signed a consent to donate her organs if she died. Unfortunately, most of her working organs were salvaged, and only the eyes were in good condition.

And as if the hands of fate caressed the two unrelated women, their blood types matched and the percentage of acquiring implications through organ donation was reduced to five percent.

After the recovery of the donor's eyes from the dead body, the healing of the eye tissues took four days. Until then, Brianna's eyes were treated temporarily, however, due to the strict policy of the prison as well as the claim that she was a possible suspect in the murder, she was sent back to the penitentiary.

She recovered in the prison infirmary, and after the operation was scheduled, she was once again brought out to the hospital.

All these happened without Brianna knowing, since, inexplicably, she hasn't regained consciousness since that day.

The murder scene was cleaned and the prison went back into its usual routine.

The operation began after a few hours. A team of twenty skilled surgeons performed an entire eye transplant, an unprecedented medical procedure that was only supported by research and hypotheses, not by an actual result.

This procedure might yield disappointing results, and the eyes might be ruined, but Sigmund pushed through.

In his head, he thought, what was the difference? If the operation does not succeed, nothing will be changed. Her daughter is already blind, and as a father, he did everything he could to save her vision, but if the doctors can't do anything about it, then there's nothing he can do as well.

The transplant took forty hours. The delicate tissues and thin nerves that needed to be attached to the patient were tricky and required extreme caution.

Sigmund watched for the first few hours, but he soon decided to go back home, thinking he was just wasting his time doing nothing.

Another week passed and Brianna was still under monitoring. In the second week, she finally regained her consciousness, but her eyes were still covered. She was locked up in a private ward with two police officers guarding.

She sat on her bed silently, hoping that her father would visit. But even the warm temperature turned colder signifying that the day turned dark already, not a voice visited her aside from the nurses checking on her.

Brianna felt incredibly helpless and unworthy. She felt insignificant and lowly. She kept hoping for a person that would acknowledge her existence for once, and converse with her despite all the stigmas clinging to her.

But no one came even on the third week.

She gave up hoping. Until the door creaked and footsteps came closer. From spending almost a month in that place, Brianna already memorized the sound of the footsteps of the nurses who checked on her.

But this one was different. It was lighter yet slow, as though it was dragging its body.

Brianna turned her bandaged face to the direction of the sound, and spoke faintly, "Who's there?"

There was a silence that settled for a while. The atmosphere turned cold, the wind blew, and Brianna thought that the nurse might have left the window open.

She parted her lips to speak again, however, a light chuckle interrupted her.

A familiar one. Brianna's chest swelled with nothing but inexplicable warmth. Someone came and visited her.

Soon, the sound was followed by a greeting, a teasing voice Brianna couldn't believe she missed.

"Heyya~ little devil~, how have you been?"