Flashes Before My Eyes Novels & Stories

I hadn't told anyone about them before, not even Adam, half afraid that I'd just made them up. “Go on,” Dr. Smith encouraged me with interest shining in his eyes. “Sometimes, it’s innocuous. The picture of a house, the chime of a grandfather clock. A girl looking down at me disdainfully. A hospital room with a kind doctor looking at me with sad eyes. It’s just…all of them are too short to have any context, but I’m pretty sure I’d never seen them before.” “How can you be for sure?” “Because I remember everything that happened to me from the moment I opened my eyes in that hospital,” I told him. “But these flashes, they are new. I can feel it.”

I asked, my brow furrowed with concern. Fiona let out a heavy sigh, her eyes drifting away as if searching for answers. "Since the day I was discharged," she replied, her voice laced with frustration. "Sometimes it feels like...there's something pressing behind my eyes. And I see flashes — symbols, faces — but they disappear before I can make sense of them.” I frowned, my grip on her arms tightening slightly. Zack: “You should’ve told me right away. This could be connected to that witch’s attack — she might’ve left something behind, a trace of her magic.”

A great sacrifice must be paid for favor so great. With that thought in mind, I fought over the pounding in my head, succeeding to open my eyes. The first thing to come in sight was the mop of blond hair, lying beside me, her bare back exposed to me, half covered by the light sheet. I stared at the deep red lines that run down her fair skin, images of last night flashing in my mind. Anger, pain…that was all I could see.

My vision flickered for a moment, and I felt a rush of energy surging through me as my instincts took over. It started with a tingling sensation in my eyes—my vision shifted colors, changing from brown to a piercing silver. I had never experienced the transformation before, and I’d fought for it for so long. Right now, with the prospect of violence looming over me and my life at stake, it unleashed.

Cleaner. Anger. The kind that didn’t eat inward but burned outward. A faint pressure built behind my eyes. I paused in a patch of shadow, lifting a hand to my temple. As I did, the world around the edges of my vision brightened for a blink. I caught my reflection in a narrow, leaded window. My eyes flashed silver. Just once. Just a ring of light around the pupils, there and gone. A spike of pain lanced through my skull—sharp, bright, then fading to a dull throb.

“We are about to land in a few minutes…” The announcement pulled me out of my thoughts. Through the window, I could already see the sparkling blue sea below, so clear, so inviting. But along with that view came a sudden flash of memory. An island. Crystal waters. A private plane. And a man beside me. But it wasn’t Nick. It was someone else. I shook my head, closing my eyes. Ever since my memories started coming back, I’ve often been haunted by flashes, images I can’t tell if they’re dreams or real memories.

I didn’t have to wait long, because the Goddess whispered in my ear again… “Take a look back, little one. Perhaps there’s something you missed even when you had your eyes open.” I guess this is what they mean by ‘your life flashing before your eyes.’

I turned back to the coffee maker, finally getting the filter in place but not before I felt it, that flash of heat behind my eyes. And I knew without looking that my eyes had flashed gold for just a second. What am I?

The pressure sat behind my eyes like coiled wire. I shifted again. Human. Cold hit bare skin. I did not care. I leaned my back to the wall and slid down until I sat on the stone. I pressed my palms to my eyes and waited for the pulsing to stop. It did not. It deepened. The flashes returned. Not a rush. A sequence. Clear. Hard. Precise.

I could not hear anything, but I could see how everyone else in the room rushed over to me. It felt as if time had slowed as I watched them, the pain causing my vision to start to turn hazy. I knew my eyes were open because I kept them open on purpose, not wanting to pass out from the pain in my head. But as my vision turned hazy, it did not turn dark as I had expected it would. Rather, several images flashed through my sight, with each image a memory I had never had being revealed. It took me a moment to realize that they were my memories.