Chapter 1 - Caterpillars

April loved caterpillars.

Every morning, before she got dressed in the morning, she would get out of bed, rush over to her terrarium, and check in on her caterpillars for the day.

This morning, she could not see them at all, but instead, could only see blurry vague images. Puzzled, April glanced around, and noticed that she could barely make out anything that morning. Slightly terrified, April fumbled for any clothes she could quickly pull on, and then yelled for help.

Her flat mate Alex came in, wondering what was wrong. Alex glanced down at April on the floor, frantically looking around. “Hey, what’s wrong, turn into a caterpillar?” Alex asked. Alex liked to tease April, just to watch her squirm, in the same way that April liked to watch her caterpillars squirm.

April blushed and yelled “help me you insensitive prick, I can’t fucking see”. Alex, glanced down and looked her over. April looked hastily dressed, her brown hair messily splayed over her unevenly arranged tank top, which revealed her meagre cleavage. And her skirt was sitting too high, revealing her pale thin upper thighs.

Alex enjoyed hanging out with April to an immense degree, she wasn’t his type, as he was into girls chunkier than April. However that didn’t stop him from occasionally daydreaming about a relationship forming. And that was exactly what he was absentmindedly doing, while April repeated herself. “Dude, what are you doing, help me up, I’m blind and you are just vegging out??”

Alex emerged from his spontaneous fantasy, and lifted April to her feet. “Ugh sorry, you know I drift off sometimes”, Alex said, and carried her to his car. Pondering the strange trajectory of his morning, Alex drove April to the hospital.

The doctor was bald, and he seemed to make it everyone else’s problem. He had little patience for a girl claiming spontaneous blindness, especially during the University exam season. “I’m going to need to take some routine measurements, a blood test, and some retina photographs” the doctor sighed. After taking her height (5’7”) and weight (50 kgs/ 110 pounds) and drawing some blood, the doctor lined an optical camera up to Aprils eyes, and without warning, took two flashing photos in quick succession.

After the doctor had reviewed all the data he had gathered, he gave April a strange look. “This blood data suggests an immune reaction, and your retinas seem to confirm your body is reacting to a foreign substance, in order to ascertain what that substance is, I will need to order some more thorough tests at the laboratory. While we wait to get the results back, I recommend plenty of rest, and a pair of prescription glasses. Though I hate to admit it, you may have an exemption from your university exams for this semester”

Though this was not what April had been expecting while getting out of bed that morning, she was both confused and delighted at the course of events that had just taken place. Not having to worry about uni exams meant she could start her holidays early, and though the eye sight issues bothered her, the large glasses she had picked up from reception seemed to adjust for her mildly inflamed eyes, and she could again see correctly. She was still unsure of what the foreign substance was that the doctor mentioned. One thing she did know, was that she was extremely hungry.