The Blind Spot: Hold the Ring

Proof at a price

My missing professor was alive inside a ring. My friend looked as though wearing it was killing him.

The face moved

Chick held a match beside the blue stone. The professor’s eyelids moved. This was no photograph.

Close enough to see

I asked where the professor was. Chick could show me his face. He could not bring him home.

A door without a handle

He called it the Blind Spot. The professor had gone looking for the secret of life. Something had closed behind him.

An honest warning

Now Chick asked me to wear the ring. First, he told me what it had done to him. He would not pass it on as a gift.

The choice on the table

I could refuse. Chick’s hand was shaking. In the stone, the old professor was still waiting.

I will take it

I put it on. Whatever was inside that stone, my friend would no longer carry it alone.

The next room

Later, in the house where the professor vanished, Chick carried a light into the next room. Then he called my name.

Nothing left to catch

I tore through the curtains. His outline narrowed to a thread of light. I reached him a moment too late.

The voice remained

From the empty room, his voice came back: “Hold that ring, Harry. Hold that ring.”

The promise becomes real

I wanted to pull it off. Instead, I closed my hand around it and stayed where he had been.

Until morning

There was no answer from the empty room. I sat beside the door until morning. The ring stayed on my hand.