THOSE EYES

CHAPTER 1 - Save me

Darkness

Darkness is something I hate and despise since I was little.

I'm scared of the dark, because I always feel like something is observing my every move and breathe.

I'm so scared because this happens every night.

I want this to end, but I already tried everything.

Literally everything: I went to church every Sunday, I prayed, I have a cross above my bed and a Sant Mary photo on my nightstand, I have a dreamcatcher, I tried with shamans, village mages, and much more, but nobody could help me, and those eyes stayed.

At least they never approached me or touched me.

✲

I laid in bed, and the eyes appeared the moment I turned off the light. I can feel them watching my every move and breath while waiting to devour me. I moved my hand to open the light, and the eyes moved closer. I squished into my bed, scared and helpless. Then something touched my leg. I froze in place when a hand ran through my hair. When I was about to die from how scared I was, then a husky male voice whispered into my ear: "Don't be scared, chosen one. I won't eat you up yet."

I mustered all the courage and swung my blanket open. But to my surprise, nobody was there.

Chosen one?

Eat?

What am I, a meal!?

How am I supposed to sleep now?

✲

When I woke up the following morning, I said to myself: "Another beautiful morning, and I feel like a train drove over me a hundred times."

I rose from the bed and walked in front of the mirror. My reflection showed how much sleep I lose. I put on my working attire and some makeup. I tied my hair in a bun and spoke to my reflection: "I'm Ella Smith, an adult who is scared of the dark for a fucking reason now."

I walked toward the kitchen, midway my cat joined me, and I spoke: "Morning, Mr Cat, do you know where Lady is?"

Mr Cat jawed at me and jumped on the chair. I heard tiptoes behind me, and when I turned around, Lady jumped on me, I felt the hard ground underneath my body, and she looked satisfied with her accomplishment. Lady is a joyful long-haired labrador that I got around the same time as Mr Cat after I moved living overseas.

I tried to grab the cereals out of the cupboard when I saw the time and shouted: "Shit!" I quickly gave the animals to eat, picked my bag, working sheats, and sprang down the stairs.

After a 20 minutes walk, I arrived at the office. The metallic door of the elevator opened on the sixth floor. What I saw at this moment didn't surprise me one bit. Everybody in my department was running around like chickens chasing a warm.

"Ella, quickly come!!" Natalie's voice found me over the raucous that was going on.

I walked past everyone to her and spoke: "Morning, everyone. Please tell me we didn't miss another deadline:"

"No, no, something even worse. A new boss came upstairs, and you need to go up to "talk" about the future projects," she replied. I raised a brow in surprise and sarcastically spoke: "So scary, I'm trembling in fear." Casper looked at me with terror in his eyes and replied: "Megan texted me that all the department's representatives that talked with the new boss till now, he fired them all."

I sighed and asked while gesturing to the whole department: "This is why everyone is running around like this?"

Natalie looked at her watch and replied: "They are running around like this because it's almost time for you to be at the meeting and are late as always."

I shrugged my shoulders and spoke: "It's called being on time. And I still don't see why everyone is panicking so much. We are only going to talk."

When I walked into the elevator, the whole department shouted behind me before the door shut closed: "Good luck!"

The door of the elevator opened on the last floor, and I walked to Megan's desk. Before I could say anything, she spoke: "He's already waiting for you. Good luck, you'll need it."

"Morning to you to Megan. Why do I need so much luck?" I asked while looking at her.

She looked at me and waved to me to come closer. I did, and she started to whisper: "Before you, six representatives came, and they didn't make it. The fun part is that they came through the door, told him who they are. And the boss without a second glance fired the whole department."

My eyes widened, and I shouted in a whisper: "What! That's pure madness. Is he insane!"

Megan covered my mouth and quickly replied: "Don't be so loud he could hear you."

Before I could answer, I heard somebody clear their throat behind me. Megan froze in place, and I slowly turned to see my new boss, who didn't look so happy to see me talking to Megan.

He eyed us and spoke: "Mrs Stone if I fire you right now, you will have plenty of time to talk with whoever you want to."

I took a deep breath and replied: "I'm here for the-"

He turned around, completely ignoring my voice, and I just walked behind him. Even though I don't like the cold attitude of my new boss. He looks arrogant, full of himself, selfish and some more negative adjectives that I can't come up with. But I still can't deny the fact that he's actually handsome. Just by the way, his tailor suit hugged his body. I could tell with one glance that he spends a lot of time in the gym.

When he sat down on his chair, I could finally see his angelic face. His brown eyes pierced through me when he spoke: "Take a seat, Mrs Stone." He gestured toward the chair in front of him on which I sat down.

He fixed his hair, and while he was looking at the screen of the computer, he spoke: "Your department made some extraordinary progress since you took over, and that is why I want to see the report for these five years. You will bring it to me tomorrow at 6 pm and then we will talk about you, Mrs Stone. Now you are dismissed."

"Yes, sir." I generically replied and stood up.

"Mrs Stone, sit down," he said. I sat down and waited for him to fire me.

Then he sighed and spoke: "It looks that office gossip doesn't travel as fast as I thought." Then he looked from the screen into my eyes and said: "My name is Peter Salvatore, till further notice I will be your boss. So from now on, address me as Mr Salvatore. Now you may go."

"Goodbye, Mr Salvatore." were the last words I said before I walked out of his office toward Megan's desk.

She looked at me and asked: "Did you make it?"

"He only said to come back tomorrow," I replied before sighing in relief.

Megan gave me a warm smile and replied with a gentle voice: "Don't worry about it. If you made it today, then you are safe. Stop being so negative and look at the positive side. You still have your job."

"If you say so," I said before I lowered myself to her and continued in a whisper: "He's a total jerk if you ask me."

She covered my mouth and whispered back: "Don't speak about him like that. These walls have ears that hear anything and everyone."

We said each other goodbye, and I took the elevator back to my floor. When I told everybody about our immunity, they sighed in relief and decided to celebrate after work.

✲

It was already 11 pm when everyone was drunk in a bar on the other side of town. I decided it was enough and waved everyone goodbye. I stepped outside and walked down the sidewalk to catch a taxi. Suddenly something pulled me into an alley. My body hit the hard brick wall. I tried to make out the face of my attacker, but I couldn't because of the dark alley. I started fighting and screaming for help, but nobody came to my rescue.

"Don't fight, baby. We are going to have some fun." my attacker said while pinning my hands behind my back.

He started touching my body, and I screamed and fought even more.

"ShouldI save you, chosen one?" a husky male voice whispered from behind me. Irecognized it. It was the same that spoke when those eyes touched me.