Haunting Eyes

Chapter seven

Noise erupted as we walked together, toward the table. The distance was little, but it took a lot of my strength to stay beside Alfie, placing each foot in front of the other. I looked down at my tattered boots, they looked red in this light, adding false beauty to my old, rain stained boots. It was the noise of chatter, polite and civilised, something which did not suit this environment.

Well, it suited this elegant room, but not the corridor, not the room where the screaming came from, not the room with her in, or rather, them. Her face shot into my mind, her blonde hair flying in the wind, her wild eyes, that I could've sworn had a hint of gold within them, the noise that I thought no human could  ever make.

Chapter 7

Focusing on my feet, one step at a time, I came to the head of the table. Alfie pulled out a seat for me, I smiled momentarily, and took a deep breath in, nothing was right. We should be sat down the pub, him with a pint of beer and me a glass of ice cold irn bru. He always pulled out my chair, I'd have to grab hold of the seat just in case he was in one of his 'hilarious' moods when he loved to see my arse hit the ground, which he very rarely wasn't. I could see that tint in his eyes, the cheeky git look.

Alfie sat in the seat opposite me, leaving me next to the little girl and her rabbit. I could feel her staring at me, they all stopped talking and first looked at the girl and then looked at me, Alfie just smiled. I sat there uncomfortable, thoughts running through my mind, screams echoing through my memory, or perhaps even through my ears, I shut my eyes pushing all thoughts from my mind. Noise took over from the screams, noise of laughter and obscenities. My eyes shot open brightness erupted throughout the room, everyone was encircling the other end of the table, while me and the little girl sat there staring at them. I could smell burning paper, it's not an unpleasant smell, it reminds me of birthday cake, when you've blown them all out and they give of that quintessential smell of birthdays.

As I sat there and watched, I noticed Alfie’s smirk of joy, watching the drama unfold. The tall man was frowning as the paper quickly vanished into ash and dust, the woman looked furious, her arms in the air, shrieking at the man before she stormed out of the room. The door she had used was not the door that I had come through, It was taller, and more elegant, with wrought iron details surrounding each delicate corner of the mahogany door. A longing to go through that door came over me, I almost rose, but fear kept me rooted to the floor.

The tall man had to bend over to fit through the door to follow the lady and once he had gone through so did the teenage boy turning round to look me in the eyes. He seemed to be searching my soul for something, there was something different about him he wasn’t like Alfie he didn’t have the humanity that I could feel flowing through my Alfie's veins. Without me realising he had slipped through the door, leaving me staring back into the space of the doors shadow. Alfie grimaced at me, held his left hand up and stretched each finger to the next meaningfully, then disappeared after the boy.

Alfie had left me once again, I was alone in this place, sat around this massive table with nowhere to go. That was when the little girl spoke to me.

“Hello Bethy,”  I half expected her to sound like one of those children from scary movies, the ones that are cute as pie and then stab you while you sleep. I didn’t know what to do, so I looked up at her face seeing her smile droop slightly into a frown.

“Hello, errm, I don’t know your name?” I asked trying to keep my tone of voice cheerful but not creepy, her smile quickly returned flashing me her missing two front teeth.

“Oh my names Lily, did Alfie not tell you? He told me all about you.”

I blushed a little when she said that, Alfie told her about me? When he had all those other girls to talk about, my heart thumped a little louder as she continued.

“My brother tells me everything you see, and I knew that I just had to meet you and Rufus wanted to meet you too.” 

“Oh, right, hello Lily, that's a beautiful name, much better than Beth,” I smiled at her as her gummy smile grew wider at the compliment. Confusion and curiosity ran through me, she was Alfie's sister? I never knew that. I never really knew much about Alfie. He never really knew much about me either.

“You’re Alfie’s sister? Who’s Rufus then? Your other brother?” I asked as memories started to bubble up, trying to play in my mind, I could here the noises muffled into my ears, her screaming for me, for help, help that I couldn’t give her.

“Of course I am, can’t you see it?” She asked while staring in my eyes, fluttering her eyelashes and tossing her hair back and forth, she was right, she looked just like him, that cocky attitude and those beautiful eyes. I nodded in recognition straight away and she carried on, giggling slightly.

“My father always used to say I was Alfie's reflection, but that was before everything.” She slowed down as though her own memories were suffocating her small head. “And no silly Rufus is my rabbit, here look.” She thrust the rabbit toward me, its big bouncing ears flopping into my hands. I stroked him and he was beautiful, brown fur with big pink ears and massive feet and a cotton white tail, with of course those golden eyes.  I turned back to hand Rufus back to lily, placing him softly in her arms. She smiled as she touched my finger tips, to say thank you, but as she touched me there was nothing there, I couldn’t feel her, I could only see her skin fade through my fingers into nothing.