Silver Eyes

Goreboding

After I ate my meal in silence, I sat unsatisfied and stared into the light that had started to fall on the wood floors from the windows in the living room. It was bright and the sun was still setting so it gradually got richer in color, from pale pink to a deep orange. I didn't like the shows on TV and I had a sudden urge to watch Underworld. Then I remembered that my mom said I could walk to the movie place and rent a movie if I wanted.

I put on a grey Tokio Hotel hoodie and checked the clock. It was barely 7:30 and the store closed at 9:00. I grabbed my house keys that were weighed down with three key-chains, one of which stared at me with innocent little blue eyes. It was a little plastic wolf that Alex had bought me soon after we met. Its shiny white fur had turned a sooty grey and I ran my fingers over it almost subconsciously. I locked the door securely behind me, before facing the empty creepy hallway, illuminated by orange wall lights. They reminded me of bouquets with the light fanning out of metal leaves like flowers, but they were old and dusty and the lights were dimmer as if they were wilting. I looked at the row of them as I walked down the hall, watching them flicker eerily.

The sunset that had been bright orange was now being obscured by swirling grey clouds as if a bipolar painter had changed his mind drastically and threw the paint over the sky quickly and unevenly. I looked up and studied it as I walked quickly along the pale sidewalk. I swerved a little to get around some old hobo, and continued on with my eyes straight-ahead. I was getting the same ominous feeling I had earlier, but I assumed it was brought on by the sight of the hunched, dirty silhouette of the hobo. They always made me nervous, even if I knew they were probably harmless, lost souls.

The movie store parking lot was pretty empty for a Saturday night and the cars that were there looked at me with their metal lids drooping in boredom.

"Did you walk here?" the geeky guy at the desk asked me as I put the movie in front of him.

"Yeah, why?" I asked trying to remain polite. His eyes were wide like the eyes of a child insisting that there was a monster under his bed.

"No reason," he mumbled, fixing his eyes. "It looks like it's going to rain. You should be careful. There are some weird people around here." He added looking down at what he was doing. He was talking in a low, hushed voice with his bushy eyebrows pulled together, wrinkling his acne-ridden forehead in considerate uneasiness.

"I only live a block away." I brushed off the warning, trying to show him I was confident. Anyway, I could run pretty fast.

"Ok. Just saying..." He handed me my change and my movie in a plastic bag and then adjusted his red and blue hat on his greasy brown hair that was flattened to his forehead, watching me as I left the rental store.

I walked down the dark sidewalk confused and a little unnerved with only my plastic bag and my keys. The sidewalk was precariously close to the woods and it was starting to freak me out like the sidewalk was tilted and I was in danger of falling down the slope into darkness. I reviewed my potential weapons and came up with only my keys that I gripped between my thumb and index as if it could be used to stab someone. I always held it like that when I was out alone. I think I just remembered a movie where the star, a badass vampire hunter, stabbed someone in the jugular with a sweeping sucker-punch motion and I pictured seeing the corn syrup blood pour out my enemy's neck as he flopped over powerlessly. I walked faster, picturing the hobo creeping along behind me and faster until I started to run. It wasn't that I needed to run per se, but I sort of wanted to run; I would get home quicker and I'd get some exercise out of the deal. The back of my neck was chilled and my eyes were wide with alertness when I noticed how dark it had gotten and how alone I found myself in the fading light.