It Was All In The Eyes

Chapter 7: Matters

"There is no fear of God before their eyes."-Romans 3:18

Stephanie opened her eyes and saw only darkness. The overwhelming heat and smell of smoke filling her nostrils startled her awake. She glanced over at the digital clock on her dresser, it's red glow blinking 3:18am. She crawled out of her bed, her little head a mess of black tendrils and her eyes heavy from the lack of sleep she got the previous night due to her mother and father's arguing. They always did that. Stephanie hated when they did that during her cartoons.

She stood and looked around her room, her horse pajamas drooping across her tiny brown frame. Pink floral wallpaper decorated the walls and dolls were strewn about, but the red glow that came from underneath her door made the walls bleed and dolls into twisted shadows. The shadows scared her. She reached for the flashlight that Daddy gave her. He told her that whenever she felt scared of the dark, she could shine the light of the flashlight, close her eyes and count to ten to make the darkness go away. She flicked the light on and closed her eyes. Before her small voice could begin to count, she heard the floorboard creak and her breath caught in her throat. She kept her eyes closed and listened for a moment. "Don't open your eyes until you finish counting." her Father's voice echoed in her mind, but something was wrong. She realized that it was growing hotter and hotter in her room. Eyes closed, she tried to turn the lamp on that was beside her bed and realized after a few tries that it wasn't going to turn on.

She felt her way over to her window, stood on her tippy toes and, to no avail, tried to open her window to let the cool night breeze in. The room was stiflingly hot. She thought about opening her eyes again.

Walking over to her door, she stopped and listened before deciding to touch the door handle. It was cool, almost icy. She opened her eyes.

Flames bursted forth from outside the door, sending Stephanie flying back into the side of her bed. She let out a cry as her small body was thrown against the wood of the bed frame. She looked through the door to see raging flames outside her bedroom door. She cried out for her parents but heard only what sounded like clattering down the stairs and wood splintering, followed by screaming. The flames continued to blaze brilliantly outside her door. They seemed almost alive as they tried, to no avail, to enter her room. Stephanie was scared, though her fading consciousness didn't allow for that to last very long.

The smoke flowing from the fire looked akin to black water the way it poured onto the ceiling through the burning doorway. The little girl's room was filled with a frightening radiance of discordant colors from a fire that didn't burn quite like it was supposed to.
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LIVITICUS' POV

Darkness. Liviticus opened his grey eyes and peered into it. The sight, or lack of it, was a familiar thing to him. Liviticus was a fuck up. All he knew was darkness, anger, and violence for so long, that was, until he met Rebecca. Rebecca was his wife for what seemed like forever, but it had only been six years. She brought him happiness in the beginning. She even brought him peace. She used to be the second best thing that had ever happened to him, second only to the child they brought into the world together, but now....Now she drove him mad. Ever since the birth of their daughter, Stephanie,  she'd been.....changing. She used to look at him with a light in her eyes and now all that's left is the darkness. But Liviticus still loved her dearly, and believe it or not she loved him too.

But there was something very wrong that night that made Liviticus wake up.

Rebecca's warm body was nestled up against his own, her soft brown hair bunched up at the spot where her head met his arm. It was getting really itchy, and his arm was getting pins and needles, but he didn't want to disturb her so he let is mind wander off to distract himself for a while. Before he knew it he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep. The next time he woke up, he was choking on thick black smoke that had poured into his lungs like water while he slept.