Photophobia

On a hot day along a road, if you look closely you'll see a shimmer over the surface. It's an effect of the warmed air and light passing through, a fun little sight to see, especially if you catch it really distorting the look of things.

For many people it's a fun sight, anyway. For me, it's only served as a reminder of what the light hides in plain sight.

Most folks will have heard of mirages, and some will have some vague understanding of hallucinations, a trick of perception, and a trick of the mind respectively...But what I saw was neither. At first, I thought it had to be one or the other, or maybe a mix, as that's what others that knew a little more about both suggested, and only after exhausting what they knew did they propose it being some strange combination.

After all, both phenomena ultimately involve the mind, albeit in subtly different ways.

Yet I couldn't accept that, the circumstances were too variable for a mirage to make sense, and while hallucinations weren't entirely out of the question, the sightings never happened in any situations of stress or other conditions associated with hallucinatory episodes. It could be a cool winter day and a dim light when I might spot it, it could be an average, overcast day and in a certain shine I'd catch it.

The source could be natural or artificial, it didn't matter all that much so far as I could tell, albeit more pronounced when in a warmer environment.

Each time I caught a glimpse, I could feel that I was looking into something no one was meant to see, nor anything with eyes, not even those better than our own. This was supposed to be a space beyond sight hidden within sight.

Eventually, I began going out in the day and using lights as little as possible. If this space wasn't meant to be seen, and I didn't want to blind myself, it was the only option available. For the times I had to be in the light, I'd wear sunglasses, even indoors, as silly and as inconvenient as it tended to make things. I simply explained it away as necessary for my, admittedly somewhat true, sensitivity to light.

Despite all of this, though, I kept seeing the strange space...And worse, I began to feel that something within had caught notice of me. Could anything from there even reach out? If I'm seeing it...Then...Maybe, since the light is bouncing back out...

But I consoled myself with the thought that perhaps it's like the water, and most of what's within couldn't survive outside it. It wasn't foolproof, but it helped.

It helped...Only so far, as I started to notice...Even in the dark, the slightest lights, those I'd keep on just to avoid tripping over things or stubbing my toes...Grew brighter. The brief forays into daylight, my sunglasses seemed to be less and less helpful, almost to the point that I may as well have been wearing glasses without any lenses.

All the while, my sightings grew more frequent, lasting longer each time, and whatever was within...Seemed to not only be peering out, but approaching. My only real refuge left was to close my eyes tight, and when I slept, hope any dreams I might have were nothing but darkness.

However...Finally, it reached me, even as I closed my eyes, even as I hoped sleep would help me flee, the thing from that space beyond reached me, and...