Silver Eyes

Turned

I spent Monday at home and Jack left me around 8:00 AM. He left me with a promise that I'd be safe and said if anyone knocked on the door or tried to get in that I should call him. I half-believed him. It had been an odd amount of time and the apartment was beginning to swallow up my soul and suffocate me. I was bored to death. I had called my mom to tell her I had the flu. She sent the school an email about it and told me to get lots of sleep and drink lots of water. My headache had faded a bit and I drank about a gallon of water, but still couldn't face any food. My body seemed to reject any food I put in front of me. I went to eat chicken noodle soup, but it did nothing for me and the mushy noodles and hard chicken bits were not in the least bit appealing to my delicate stomach.

I went to change my bandages and faced the mirror finally, but when I peeled off the grubby dressings there was nothing there. The gauze was stained with blood, but the actual wound was gone. I looked deep into the mirror, searching my eyes for a sign that I had gone crazy. Maybe none of that had happened. I could be schizophrenic. I thought in frustration as I tossed the bandage and watched it sit in the trash waiting for it to disappear. It didn't. When would the hallucination end?

The house was silent when the power suddenly went out. It had been raining all day and it wasn't surprising that the power had gone out, but that didn't stop uneasy feelings from filling me up. The TV shut off and my hearing seemed to expand into the silence that it left in the room. I stopped what I was doing, dropping my pen and taking my notebook off my lap. After letting my feet take me to the window, I opened it and took a minute to wonder why. The smell of the rain flowed in gently and then I knew why. The forest that was outside my window smelled so nice, it seemed to take away my sickness. I decided that I probably just needed some fresh air, but I was still not that tempted to go walking outside after what had happened. Then my better half thought that if I didn't go outside now, what was to keep me from staying indoors for the rest of my life. Those creepy men and zombies were miles away by now. Jack had gone out. I could walk downtown where the people are. I don't know what it is, but if there are people around it makes things like zombies less scary. If I saw a ghost and I was alone in the house, I would have a heart attack and die, but if there were other people, it would be like a museum display. I guess it was some kind of human pack instinct, that people were much safer in numbers.

I crept out of my door after getting dressed, tucking my hands into my armpits and pulling my hood over my hair. I was surprised that it wasn't as cold as I thought outside. The rain had left a cool mist behind. I had had the shivers all day and I had been sweating. I knew my face was pale and I felt like my eyes had sunken into my head. Each step seemed to give me heart flutters making me light-headed like I was going to pass out, while I ghosted around the city streets towards the mall with my arms wrapped around me. I took small, quiet steps, walking slowly, not really having anywhere to go.

I was self-aware and self-centered when I noticed someone watching me. I looked up at him from under my black hood. It was the dreadlock guy that I had seen weeks ago on the way to school and I watched him with surprise, while he stared at me with a stunned stern expression, similar to Jack's. My heart nearly stopped when his eyes turned an intense blue, causing me to veer off my path down a familiar alleyway. Was he with the guy who kidnapped me? I glanced morosely at my graffiti before climbing the fence and dropping onto the other side. I felt more agile than I thought I would. I had predicted that my limbs would protest the stunt, but there hadn't been a change in the soreness of my body, merely a change in position.

I got a little nervous when I saw that it was getting dark out. The back of my neck goose-bumped as if the guy was still behind me, breathing on me. I jumped a little and peered through the woods around me, but nobody was there. Walking quickly, I wanted to kick myself for going the woods way. I felt like the world had turned its back on me, because the bright blue sky was deepening and looked a little more navy through the stone-grey trees.