Eyes of the Sea

Chapter 1

Under the river where the little body lay,

Hidden from sight, as still as clay.

Tried and tried to swim to the top,

She held her breath and felt her lungs pop.

Brown eyes ringed with gold widened in shock.

Pulled into the deep blue of the sea,

Finally found the murdered-to-be,

And was never seen again.

***

I woke up drenched in water. My eyes stung and water was in my mouth, choking me. I sat up and coughed it up. Gasping in shock, I pushed my dripping hair away from my face. I looked around, searching for a logical explanation of why my bed was soaking. Maybe Heather came in when I was sleeping and tried to prank me. Yeah that was it; just a silly prank. I got out of bed and blindly made my way to the bathroom.

My eyes were red but it wasn't because of the strange water. Ever since my mother passed away and my father became more distant as ever, I couldn't remember a time I didn't cry myself to sleep. Grief was normal in my house but my family refused to talk about my mother's death. Pushing past those thoughts, I turned on the bathroom lights.

Unconsciously, my eyes went straight to the mirror. My chocolate brown eyes were wider than usual without my glasses on. My hair was a tangled mess that smelled like salt water and my clothes clung to me, making me very uncomfortable. I was about to dry myself up when I noticed something peculiar.

Leaning closer to the mirror to get a better look, I noticed that my eyes were slightly different. They now had a golden ring around the pupils.

I gasped, backing away from the mirror. I found my glasses and shoved them on. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. Cautiously, I opened them again and examined my eyes. They were still brown with a golden ring around it. This couldn't be true; I had to be dreaming. Eyes don't just change colour overnight.

Suddenly, I remembered the dream I had along with the poem that seemed to haunt me from within. A shiver ran through me and I felt my mouth go dry.

Brown eyes ringed with gold widened in shock.

This definitely wasn't some stupid prank from Heather, my younger sister. This had to mean something. Was I sick; was I hallucinating? Or maybe it was Mom's way of sending me a message. Isn't that how dead people were supposed to communicate with the living - by sending cryptic messages through poems? But that wouldn't explain my sudden change in eye colour. Hopefully, it'll just fade away.

"Hazel, hurry up in there! You're taking forever!" Heather complained from outside the bathroom. Shoot. I forgot that I still needed to dry my hair before I missed the bus. Still confused, I decided to forget about the water for now and focus on getting ready for school.

Quickly, I grabbed a towel and frantically rubbed my hair until it was damp. Grabbing the hair blower, I plugged it in and turned it to the highest level. I was halfway done drying my hair when the power went out.

I swore under my breath and thrust open the bathroom door, but a strange shadow in the mirror caught my eye. Slowly, I turned back around. I gasped and bit back a scream. There was a girl. In my bathroom.

We stared at each other for a moment. She was crouched in the bathtub, dressed in black, holding something in her hand. I squinted at the object but I couldn't see what it was in the dim light.

Somehow, I detected a slight shift in her stance, and found my stance changing to match hers. The light reflected off the object in her hand and I finally saw what it was: a knife. My mind was racing. What was happening? I glanced at her knife once more and I could practically hear my heart pounding.

My breath became ragged and just as I was about to scream for help, she attacked. Moving quicker than light, she was beside me in no time. Her hand shot out and grabbed my throat and I aimed a punch to her jaw. She dodged it and kicked me in the legs, knocking me to the floor. I was bound to lose if I didn't do something now. I let my mind take over and grabbed her hand, bringing her down with me.

By the looks of it, she didn't expect me to do that. Taking advantage of her shock, I punched her throat and grabbed her knife. I moved so fast, I was just a blur. My head was spinning, but I didn't let that stop me. There was too much adrenaline running through my veins for me to realize that I was moving faster than should be possible.

Without thinking, I stabbed the knife in her chest. The knife went through her gracefully, and seemed to not have had an impact. I held my breath, waiting for her to react. But she didn't. She simply disappeared.

"What the-" I stopped, frantically looking around the bathroom, the tub, anywhere she could've gone. It couldn't be true, normal people don't just disappear like that.

Breathing heavily, I sat up and leaned on my knees. Looking around, I noticed that nothing was disturbed during the fight. Everything was exactly the same. My body was shaking and I took a moment to compose myself.

Puzzled, I stood up and look into the mirror. I looked exactly the same as I did a few minutes ago. Gold-ringed brown eyes, half dry - half wet hair, even my shirt wasn't crumpled in the slightest. I started to think I just hallucinated; maybe the stress was getting to me.

Just as I was about to brush this whole incident off as my imagination, I looked down at my hands and I realized I was still holding the knife.  

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-Bookworm9173