Look at Me

She might as well be invisible.
Curled on the ground with chin resting on her knees, the girl shivered as she stared at the stony ground. She wasn't sure how much more she could handle. Every day, some group was sent in to her tomb, as punishment for displeasing the crown.
They came in, and refused to look at her.
Because of the shackle around her ankle, the girl could never force them to look at her.
And so the hours would pass, with her watching, pleading for any of them to just look at her.
But no one would. They'd stare at the ground, or the walls, or each other. Some would spend the hours with their eyes squeezed shut, frantically muttering empty reassurances to themselves.
Some drove themselves mad, simply trying to avoid her gaze.
All fell eventually, either to their thirst or her gaze.
She couldn't even remember what human eyes looked like anymore.
As if she'd ever known anything but stone.
The grating squeal of iron hinges cut through the ever-present hissing, and the girl tilted her head, cheek resting against one knee now as she looked toward the door.
A figure stumbled through the barely open iron door, it's long shadow shrinking as the door slammed shut with another squeal.
A tired curiosity rose as the girl realized that there was something different about the one. The boy (for by how he smelled, he had to be a boy) stumbled uneasily about, hands bound behind his back. His clothing was far richer then most of those sent to her. Blue, she was pretty sure that color was called. The same color as the sky, she thought. If there was such a thing as a sky.
"Hello?" the boy called, his voice hesitant. He jumped as it echoed against the stone walls, mingling with the constant hissing. "Is anyone there?"
"I'm here," the girl answered softly, and the boy's head jerked in her direction.
That's when she saw it.
A strip of cloth, tied to cover the boy's eyes.
Staring at the boy's face, she drank in every twitch, and how his nostrils flared as the boy's head pivoted back and forth as he listened for another sound.
"Who's there?" the boy asked.
"Who are you?" the girl said, through she knew such a question would only hurt in the end. They never lasted, so why waste time learning their names?
"I'm the nobody wearing a blindfold," the boy's lips twisted upwards, despite the note of fear that tinged his scent. "So, who are you?"
The girl slowly shook her head, careful of the weight it held. "You can't be Nobody. I'm Nobody."
His lips stretched higher up, and she wondered if they'd soon be covered by the... blindfold too.
"Alright, Nobody," the boy slowly bent his torso toward her, legs kept perfectly straight. He looked odd, doing that. "I'll be Blind."
"Why?" Nobody asked as he straightened up. Blind shrugged as he took a step in her direction.
"I thought that would be obvious, since the blindfold wasn't exactly my idea." Blind said as he almost stumbled on the uneven ground.
"I suppose that makes sense," Nobody said, frowning as she watched him take another step toward her. "What are you doing?"
"Well, I'm trying to walk toward you," Blind said, in a tone that made it seem as if that should have been obvious. "It's surprisingly difficult to find someone in a room you've never seen when you've been blindfolded. And what is that hissing? Are there snakes in here?"
"Some," the girl lifted a hand to her head, but didn't touch any of the heavy coils upon it.
The boy paused, his lips falling to a frown. "Are they poisonous? I'm not sure I want to be stumbling about with poisonous snakes."
"Their bite hasn't killed me," Nobody said, and the boy let out a sigh and took another step.
"That's a relief. What did a girl do to get put in a room with snakes?"
The girl shifted, looking away from the boy and wished she could close her eyes. "I was born."
"What?" His anger made her shiver. "How long have you been in here?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. Forever."
His footsteps slapped against the stone floor, and she jerked her head around in time to see the boy trip and hit the ground.
"You shouldn't hurry," Nobody said softly as Blind gave a groan.
"Well, pardon me for wanting to get to the damsel in distress a little faster," he grumbled. She watched as her struggled for a few moments before finally getting back to his feet. "I don't know which I want back more, my hands or my sight."
"Hands," Nobody said. Blind tilted his head, then nodded as he started forward again.
"Yes, if I had use of my hands, I could just take the blindfold off."
He was so close now. The girl shakily got to her feet, which made the chain attached to her shackle rattle.
"What was that?" Blind asked, tensing as the sound echoed around them.
"Just my chain," Nobody answered, and he surprised her by groaning.
"You're chain up? In a room full of snakes? No wonder you've been bitten by them, you have nowhere to go!"
That was more true than he knew. "If you take three more steps forward, then I'll be able to reach you."
Blind's lips twitched upward again. "Great."
He took the steps, then tilted his head to listen to the rattling of her chain as the girl moved toward him.
"Could you untie my hands?" Blind asked when Nobody came to a halt before him. Her chain was stretched as far as it would go, the shackle biting at the skin of her ankle.
"Turn around," Nobody said.
He did, and she stared at the rope for a moment before lifting her hand.
Her nails were sharp enough to cut through the fibers, and soon Blind was rubbing his wrists.
"That stings," he grumbled for a minute, then lifted his hands toward the blindfold.
"Wait!" Nobody said. Blind paused.
"What?" he asked.
But she didn't have an answer. The girl longed to look into his eyes, to see something that wasn't stone. But what if they were stone?
Stone couldn't speak.
Stone never moved.
"You can't look at me," the words hurt to say. Oh, how she wished he'd never come. A blindfolded fool, making her hope with each step closer that something would be different in his eyes.
But she was sure that if she saw them, all there would be was stone.
So she turned away, chain clinking with the movement.
But his hand gripped her shoulder. "Hold on, I want to see you."
"No," she whispered, but his grip was too tight. If she jerked out of it, then the snakes would wake.
She felt him fumbling to remove his blindfold one-handed.
His grip on her shoulder tightening was her signal that he could see.
"You're a gorgon?" he seemed so confused, but there wasn't any hatred in his voice yet.
"If that's what you humans call me."
He started to pull her around, and she ducked her head. Why did it always end in stone?
"Look at me," he said.
"I can't," she whispered.
His other hand, still holding the blindfold, fumbled to her chin.
And forced it up.
She had one brief moment of panic, and a glimpse of twin blue pools.
Then the hissing stopped.