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The first time Eddie wakes up to total darkness he’s terrified. At least until his eyes adjust, because night vision is apparently a thing he has now on top of everything else. It doesn’t make him less terrified, being able to see his surroundings again. Because he doesn’t understand why he’s in the dark in the first place. Ever since his abduction, the cell he was thrown in has only been brightly lit, even overnight.
“Hey!” he yells through the opening in his door. “What’s going on?”
His question is met with silence, and for a moment Eddie worries that he’s been abandoned here, locked in a room he can’t escape. Then he hears the footsteps, barely audible as whoever they belong to creeps down the hallway.
He’s not alone. But that doesn’t explain why everything is dark.
It’s only once the person reaches him, moving as stealthily as they can, that Eddie considers this might be another one of the stupid tests he’s been subjected to. He sighs. “I can see you, you know.”
The person, now close enough for Eddie to make out some kind of goggles on their face, presumably to see better in the pitch black, stops and looks directly at him. “Is it normal, infrared, or something else?”
Scoffing and crossing his arms over his chest, Eddie asks, “Why should I tell you?”
“The faster you cooperate, the faster the lights will be turned back on.”
Eddie hums, low and thoughtful. “I think I like it better this way. It’s not nearly so blinding.”
“The normal lighting is an irritant for you?”
“No,” Eddie lies quickly. “It’s just stupidly bright.”
“I see. Thank you for this information.”
Footsteps echo down the hallway as the person leaves without another word and Eddie can’t help but feel like he’s failed the test somehow. He crosses back over to the little cot they’ve given him, the one barely big enough to fit him with his new wings, and sits down with his head in his hands.
The darkness doesn’t last long after that.
—
The second time Eddie wakes up to total darkness, he’s not terrified at first. Instead he just sits up and waits for his eyes to adjust like they did the first time.
Except this time they don’t. This time everything stays dark.
His hands move up to his face, feeling around in confusion until his fingertips brush the edge of some device covering his eyes. “What the fuck?” he mutters to himself as he tries to pull the blindfold off. Because that’s what it is, as far as he can tell.
It doesn’t budge and Eddie fights to desire to curl in on himself. He doesn’t want to show his fear anymore, doesn’t want them to see that they’re getting to him in some way, can’t let them win.
Instead he just breathes deep through his nose and tries to relax. It takes only a moment for him to hear the echo of footsteps again, just like the first time. He doesn’t meet them at the door this time, doesn’t want to risk stumbling around like a baby deer to find it. But he does turn his head in that direction once the steps are close enough.
“What did you do to me this time?” he asks once they stop. His nose tells him it’s the same person as before without them even saying a word. “Why can’t I get this off?”
“We need to test your senses and how they respond without sight. The night vision wasn’t accounted for, so we had to get creative.”
Eddie chuckles mirthlessly. “Consider them tested then. I heard you coming from a mile away.”
“I’m afraid we have to leave them a while longer, to get a full scope of how the rest adapt to the loss,” the person explains. They sound genuinely remorseful but not enough to help Eddie out. Never enough to help Eddie out.
“So I’m just… stuck like this for however long you see fit?” Eddie asks, voice soft this time to keep it from breaking on his words.
“A few days at most.”
Eddie wants to cry. He thinks he could this time, for the first time since his first week in the lab, since they can’t see his eyes right now. At least he doesn’t think they can. For all he knows it’s some weird device that’s monitoring how his eyes behave too. The thought is enough to squelch the sob building in his chest.
In the time he’s quiet, the footsteps recede again, leaving him as alone as he ever gets. The blindfold still doesn’t budge when he tugs on it.