GLASS CHILDREN [Completed]

TIPTOE THROUGH THE TULIPS

He hadn't seen Lily since the many children began singing, and wondered if she was 'gone' or something of that matter. Not only was Nikolas lost and afraid, but he was surely not going to get back to his parents from what he'd been told and from what he'd witnessed.

Instantly trembling on the inside with the image of that little boy with pits of black for eyes, he closed his own and tried to think of something...more comforting than that. Even so much as the tune that was stuck in his mind going around and around like a record on a record player that was broken would remind him of that little boy who'd peeled the gasmask from his sad face and revealed the awful sight.

Of course, the disturbing little boy and his singing wasn't the end of the so-called 'fun' that he was 'enjoying'; every now and then, Nikolas would hear a giggle or a tiny foot step and he would turn around with the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end and his spine shivering underneath his skin. He hated that feeling, especially now.

"What's your name?" said one of the voices that jumped around here and there asking and whispering several questions or melodies. "My name's William..." the voice said again with a tiny laugh. Nikolas hadn't noticed this much before, but the voice—of whom he'd realized belonged to the eyeless little boy—had a British accent to it. "My other friends' names are Judith and Arthur; they're really funny sometimes." William mentioned.

He didn't want to look down at the child who now walked along beside him, swaying his arms back and forth as if this were all a game. He didn't want to stare into the eye sockets of this little boy, nor did he want to communicate with him.

"Don't be shy..." William said in a low voice as he jumped around in front of Nikolas, startling him so much that he watched him jump back with a noiseless scream. "What're your name?" he asked again, beginning to pick at the skin near his right eye, violently, until it began to become red and irritated.

"Don't do that," were the only words that Nikolas could get out; he didn't offer his name or anything like the child had previously questioned.

William continued to pick and pull at the skin near his eye until it stung. Although, it didn't seem to be bothering him at all. "Why?" he asked. "It doesn't hurt." He mentioned with a grin, clawing at it with his index and middle finger once again.

Without saying much, Nikolas watched with his eyes widened in horror as William picked at a part of his skin over and over again until a thin line of crimson blood streamed from the side of his eye down to his dropping cheek, covering the first part of his fingers. "See," he said, clawing at the small wound until it bled intensely just as his eye sockets were. "It doesn't hurt anymore. Why don't you try it?" he snickered.

"JUST GO AWAY!" Nikolas shouted out without a warning as he scrunched his eyes tightly together to avoid seeing the horrific event unfold before him. "I WANT TO GO H—"

"We all want to go home," a little girl's voice said, followed by a sniffling sound. "But we can't, so we play. We play and sing to forget about it."

"That's why we were singing," William said, attempting to wipe away the blood that trickled down his face, but he actually made the blood flow worse. "But..."

"But it never helps," the little girl spoke up again, moving her head to the right and glancing out towards a clear patch of woods. With a deep, raspy breath, she looked back to William with an almost toothless grin: "We're here, now."