Mysterious Eyes

Becca Hope lived a very quiet and isolated life. And that was just the way she liked it. Even as a little girl, she never had this need for social interaction. She never quite understood people and why they always insisted on making conversation, even when there’s nothing of importance to converse about. Becca had grown up on a farm as an only child. Her mother and father worked hard to make sure that their little family could live comfortably. Becca was homeschooled by her mother. Therefore, she didn’t grow up around many children her age. Her parents would constantly worry about her social upbringing. However, this lack of social interaction never seemed to bother Becca. It was speculated that this might have been due to her not knowing any different as this was the only life she knew. Becca was perfectly content with the animal friends she had on the farm.

***

           The light tapping of the ominous oak tree branch kept Becca from falling asleep tonight. She hated whenever insomnia reared its ugly head because it meant she would be miserable the next day, and no amount of coffee would do the trick. The digital clock on her nightstand blinked 2:00 AM. Ugh, she groaned and rolled over, hoping that sleep would finally consume her. But no such luck.

           The storm tonight was proving to be relentless. Becca laid on her back, enveloped by her plush king-size sheets, and listened to the pitter-patter of raindrops and the gentle whooshing of the wind. Occasionally a bright flash of lightning would light up the room, which was always followed by a deafening thunderous roar. The loud noise would still startle Becca even when she knew it was coming. Imagine that. A grown woman still fearing thunder. For as long as she could remember, Becca had trouble sleeping during storms. Tonight was no different.

           Eventually, she decided to end the torture of trying to fall asleep. Some chamomile tea might help lull her to sleep, she thought. So, Becca headed down the winding staircase to the kitchen. With every step she took, the floorboards creaked. Becca felt extremely lucky to have inherited this gorgeous eight-bedroom, three-bathroom house from her great aunt. In fact, to call it a house felt like a disservice. This was more of a mansion. Everything was made of silk, marble, and gold. It was gorgeous, but old. Most rooms Becca would never even enter. She had no need to. Therefore, some areas had collected their fair share of cobwebs and dust. Most other people would be consumed by loneliness residing in a place such as this all by themselves. Luckily Becca’s cats were always ready to keep her company as well as keep her sanity intact.

           As she took the last noisy step off the stairs, her two Bombay cats immediately swarmed her legs. “Oh, hello there, Luna and Midnight,” Becca bent down to give them a quick pet. “It’s not quite time to get up for the day. I’m just having trouble sleeping again,” she informed her feline friends. They both gave her a look as if they understood and this was a common occurrence.

BANG BANG BANG

           Startled by the loud knocking coming from the front door, Luna and Midnight hid for cover under the sectional in the living room. Who could be knocking in the middle of the night? Maybe their car broke down and they need help, Becca speculated. She peaked through the front window. There’s no one there. That’s weird. Could it be a prank some mischievous kids were pulling? She shrugged it off and started back to the kitchen to make her tea.

BANG BANG BANG

           This time Becca stopped in her tracks. She slowly turned around, now really confused and concerned. “Who’s there?” she asked, cautiously. No one ever visited her, let alone at this hour. Not to mention, this area she lives in, one could not run into another living soul for miles. And there was a sense of urgency in the knocking. She waited for some sort of response to her question.

BANG BANG BANG

           There it was again. Now she was growing impatient. Maybe they didn’t hear her the first time. “WHO’S THERE?” she shouted at the sturdy mahogany door. No answer. At this point Becca had become increasingly fed up and decided to see who was banging at the door like a lunatic. She turned the deadbolt. It clicked unlocked. Then she proceeded to turn the doorknob slowly. The door swung open due to a strong gust of wind. There was no one outside, at least from what she could tell through the thick fog. She decided to step outside, risking getting drenched from the rain. Whoever was at the door, they couldn’t have gotten far, Becca thought as she squinted through the rain and scanned the entirety of the front yard.

           Then something in the distance caught her eye. A pair of glowing eyes amidst the trees of the forest on the other side of the street. Could that be it? That doesn’t even look human. Those eyes look like they belong to a wild animal that has no business being this close to Becca’s home, let alone trying to break through her door. It might be best to just barricade herself inside her home and hope this animal or whatever it is loses interest and moves on, Becca thought. As she turned to head back inside, something heavy hit her on the back of the head. She immediately fell on the deck and went to sleep.

***

           When she finally regained consciousness, she could feel a throbbing pain radiating from the back of her head. She tried to raise her hand to feel the source of the pain. That’s when she noticed her hands were tied together around a table leg behind her back. The roughness of the rope burrowed further into her wrists as she struggled to get her hands free. Her vision was still quite blurry as she looked around to make sense of what was happening. What she could make out was that she was in the basement of her house, tied to a table, and her legs were bound together by the same rope used for her wrists. Hot tears began to sting her cheeks, obscuring her vision even further as the panic of her new reality set in. She was no longer free. She was someone’s prisoner. A hostage, perhaps? This was her worst nightmare come true. But who was doing this? And why her? What did they want with Becca?

           She blinked away the tears from her eyes and looked around in an attempt to find who was responsible for this. And there it was. She spotted the glowing eyes in the furthest, darkest corner of the basement. The same glowing eyes from the forest. This can’t be real. I’m imagining things, Becca thought. She blinked a few more times, hoping this thing would vanish and that her mind is just playing tricks on her due to a possible concussion she might have sustained from the blow to her head. But no such luck. The mysterious eyes did not blink. They did not waiver their gaze away from Becca, not even for a second. That stare was focused on her so intensely as if they were trying to penetrate a hole deep into her soul.

           Becca was growing quite tired of these torturous games this entity was playing. So, she mustered up any ounce of courage she had left and with a quiver in her voice, she asked, “What do you want from me?” When there was no response, she pleaded, “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll give you anything you want.” A soft whimper escaped her throat. This seemed to prompt a response from this being.

           Suddenly, the glowing eyes grew taller. The energy surrounding it became darker. The air got so cold that Becca could see her own breath as her breathing became automatically faster out of sheer fear. Whatever this thing is, it is not of this world. “Becca Hope,” the entity let out a menacing roar.

           Becca immediately froze. Her already pale skin had now turned almost translucent. There was no getting out of this, she feared. She would have to accept her fate. It would take a miracle to get her out of this horrific ordeal.

           Now the eyes began darting all over the place and all-around Becca until they were now circling her like a packing of ravenous wolves. “We want you,” the menacing roar from before had now turned into a ghastly whisper. A soft cackle could be heard in the distance.

Then just like that, it all went pitch black and eerily quiet. The silence was deafening. She was no longer bound by the excruciating ropes. She felt the comfort of her plush sheets once again. Becca was safe in her bed, upstairs in the bedroom. Was this all one giant hallucination? Then she noticed a stinging pain radiating from her wrists and ankles. She immediately looked down. There were the marks deeply embedded into her pale flesh as a result from the ropes which kept her tied down in the basement of this house.