Eyes Like The Ocean

Chapter Two

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Calm Eyes's POV
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IT STUNG TO BREATHE in the air that morning. The wind yanked and thrashed violently at anything at all that it could grab hold of, and it stabbed at exposed skin like a freezing knife. The sky was covered from horizon to horizon with a looming sea of dark gray, and everything surrounding me seemed to be washed over in the gray. Everything felt washed out, and, in spite of the wind, oddly still and lifeless, and yet I couldn't help but get the vague sense that something awful was rapidly stirring and building up in the background of it all.

As I walked along the road, toward the school, a cold chill ran down my spine, and somehow I knew it wasn't because of the cold air. I felt a gnawing at my shoulder blades, and a red hot feeling suddenly shoot through the back of my head and neck; it was the feeling of eyes relentlessly boring into me. I'd become all too familiar with this feeling, and yet I'd never been able to figure out just where it was coming from; who was watching me? I'd been beginning to wonder if perhaps I was simply going crazy. I never told anyone about this; I didn't know how to.

Every time I'd gathered the courage to steal a glance behind me, I'd never been able to spot anyone or anything that may have been watching me. In fact, when I got this feeling, I was usually alone; that may have been the scariest part of it. Despite that, that red hot, gnawing panic still felt unbearably real. Something inside of me just knew that this invisible danger was very much there, no matter how hidden away it might have been.

Something started rising up inside of me; it was something defiant rapidly bubbling and boiling over layers of fear and meekness. A stubborn need to know, or at the least to try to know, reached out and gripped me, and overtook me. I held my breath and through clenched fists and a pounding chest, I forced myself to turn around as quickly as I could so that my sudden courage wouldn't have the chance to falter.

A part of me fully expected to see no one at all, just as I had every other time.

That part of me was very wrong, and no part of me was prepared for what I saw.

From the distance this person was standing away from me, and from the way their hood was pulled over their head, their features seemed to blend and sink into the shadows falling on them. It made them appear to be inhuman, and I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps they were some horrible, twisted creature meant to torment me while feebly attempting to masquerade as a human being. The only thing I could clearly distinguish about them was their eyes, and that did nothing to help them seem more human to me.

Their eyes pierced through me, and for a second, all I could do was stare into them; I zeroed in on them and for a nightmarish moment nothing else seemed to exist. They were like an ocean during an apocalyptic storm, all deep blues and grays and sickly greens shifting, swirling, and thrashing about. Looking into them felt like drowning. Breaking eye contact was like cutting a noose away from my throat and letting the air rush back into my lungs.

After that I was running. There was no time for thought or hesitation. There was nothing but instinct, the sound of my feet pounding on the concrete, and one simple phrase racing and repeating in my head, driving me to keep going: Get away get away get away get away.

When the school emerged in front of me I found myself coming to a dead stop, suddenly doubling over and gasping for breath. Relief washed over me as I realized that I no longer felt those eyes piercing into me, and when I looked behind me again, they were no longer there; there were just a few unassuming, nameless students walking up to the school. I wiped the sweat from my brows, and allowed myself to stand for a moment, leaning against the school's gate while attempting to catch my breath. Adrenaline was still pumping through me, my heart pounded in my chest, and I realized that every part of me was trembling. I tried to ignore the curious glances shot my way as the students walked through the gate while I stood there trying to remind myself how to breathe.