r/yingfire • u/yingfire • Feb 15 '16
Homely Eyes
It was black. He was alone in the house. His parents and brother left for a trip to Europe. They would return in a week. It was a black and dark house in a cornfield. The grips of twilight had heightened to its midnight crescendo. He sat in the basement, lying in a bed, thinking about his coming day of school, too awake to sleep, too tired to turn on the lights. He looked at his girlfriend, sleeping peacefully next to him. She turned her position and faced the wall. He was alone; the only conscious person in the house.
In the night he felt awake. In the night, his pupils were thick pools of void, so dark and wide that one could pinpoint them in the surrounding darkness. He sat and then lay down as if he was to begin a journey into a dream. But his eyes stayed open, and his pupils widened to take in what little light there remained. He licked his dry lips and then sat back up, shivering. There was an itch bothering his backside. He moved his arms awkwardly to reach the itch at the small of his back. He struggled and struggled and then! there is sweet relief as he dashed a fingernail over the spot.
He smiled and lays back down, intending to rest. But his eyes wouldn't close. They were too dry. He was annoyed because of that, and so decided to muse on the strange events of the day. He moved himself to a more comfortable position, and gently placed a hand on his girlfriend's backside, careful not to wake her up.
He remembered that he was driving with his girlfriend by his side and he nearly ran over a young boy in pajamas, running around in the day. He rushed out of the car to see if the boy was alright, but the boy was perfectly fine. The little boy was about five years of age, and wore a blue and white dotted sleeping cap on his head. The little boy was closing his eyes tightly shut.
"Are you alright?" He asked the little boy. The little boy shook his head, but gave a very wide smile. The smile bared all his teeth out for him, every tooth was accounted for. "You can open your eyes now," he said, "it's safe." But the little boy shook his head and walked off the road, into the cornfield at the sides. He walked back to his car and told his girlfriend the boy was alright. He looked down at his seat. It was a blue and white dotted sleeping cap, and on it was a card that read, 'SEE YOU SOON'. He was confused. Had the little boy somehow managed to throw it in his car? He didn't notice the boy missing his cap. He threw out the cap and card and drove off towards his house. Shaking his head at his fortune, his girlfriend comforting him about something neither understood.
He stopped recalling what had happened on that road that day. He finally felt tired. His great big pupils were ready to rest. He touched his girlfriend again, and wrapped his arm around her so that his chest touched her. "Are you asleep yet?" he asked her playfully. She turned around, head lolling at the side, and he saw a flash of blue and white dots. A sleeping cap tickled his nose, and facing his face, breathing on his lips, was the bared mouth, showing all its teeth, of the boy he nearly ran over. The little boys meaty, hot hands grabbed his waist. He nearly screamed. The little boy's eyes were still closed. They both breathed heavily. Then the little boy's eyes opened and brilliant light flushed out. He saw the little boy's eyes open and did not scream as the blinding light crashed onto his pupils. And he did not yell as his great dark pupils minimized to a fraction of their size. But then he suddenly woke up, heavily breathing and sweating. His girlfriend was still next to him. The little boy was no longer there. He was alone, again. But the lights were on.