Purple Eyes

Chapter 7

There was a loud knock at the door. We all jumped. 'I'll get it.' Jeremy said, getting to his feet and shuffling over to the door. There was the sound of a door opening, shutting and Jessica groaning loudly. 'Here we go.' She mumbled under her breath. A woman with brown hair and brown eyes came mincing daintily into the room. Jessica seemed suddenly very interested in her hair. 'Hi.' She said. Jeremy, standing behind her smiled at her. 'Everyone this is Vanessa.' He nodded to me and Jessica. 'That's Alice and you already know Jessica.' Vanessa swallowed hard. 'You work with Fazbear Entertainment too?' She asked, her voice almost inaudible over the sound of screaming, laser guns and spaceships. I nodded slowly. Vanessa turned her head to Jessica, expecting her to speak, but Jessica's eyes was glued to the screen. Jeremy scuttled over to me, motioned for Vanessa to sit down, and sat down himself. He offered Vanessa a liquorice all sort, which was refused. There was an small pause. 'What division are you from?' Vanessa asked me, her eyes brown eyes sparkling with curiosity. 'Oh...uh...' I stuttered. 'Was she really that interested?' I thought. I cleared my throat. 'Uh, I'm a Software Developer.' I said. Jessica and Jeremy both turned to me. Slightly embarrassed, I started to busy myself with my popcorn. Jeremy's voice was calm, but had that steely tone hidden inside it. 'Software Developer, as in making the Software for the games?' I nodded. 'Yeah...why?' It was Jessica's turn to speak. Her voice was calm too, but didn't have the firmness of Jeremy's voice. 'Did you work on   a Virtual Reality game?' I started to panic. 'N-no, we're working on a Special Delivery service - what's the problem anyway? Why's it such a big deal?' There was silence. Feeling distinctly uncomfortable I decided to leave. 'I'll just go then...' I said cautiously. 'I-It's been nice, really, but I gotta go now.' Getting up, I walked half ran to the door and almost threw myself outside. The air was bitterly cold, but preferable to the awkward silence.

The sleet crunched beneath my feet, seeping into my shoes. It felt like my feet were getting torn off, the cold was unbearable.

The door shut behind me and I switched the heating on. It would take a while to warm up.

I sat down on my bed. Dry clothes had never felt so good. 'Well,' I thought. 'Maybe leaping in to a lake when I was 7 was colder.' Closing my eyes, I flopped back onto the bed. My entire body felt like it was made of lead.

I groaned and rolled off the mattress, the sheet cushioning my fall. 'Ow.' I said softly as I hit the floor. I peeked at the digital clock and yanked my eyes open. 'Shit!' I gasped to no one in particular. The clock read 8:27 and with the bus journey taking half an hour and work starting at 9:00 I was going to be late.  I threw some clothes on, grabbed my bag and phone, then I leapt out the door and half ran, half walked to the bus stop. There were a few people already sitting on the metal benches, underneath the wooden roof. They looked up. I mopped my brow as thin trickles of water came sliding down my face. 'What a day to forget a coat.' I thought, as the bus pulled up and we hurried on into the warmth. The bus was packed full, condensation collecting on the windows. I found a familiar face and sat down next to it. 'Hey Jessica.' I said breathlessly. 'Hey.' She said quietly. 'You forgot your coat?' She asked. I nodded. 'Yeah. You don't happen to have a-'

'No.' She interrupted. 'I don't.'

'Okay.' I said sheepishly, getting the feeling she wanted to be left alone for the entirety of the trip. But after a few minutes, I began to get impatient. 'Listen, if I did anything wrong yesterday, tell me, okay? I'm sorry I walked out like that, it was just getting so uncomfortable in there. Y'know, with everyone being silent and looking at me and-'

'It's not that.' Jessica interrupted me again. She still wasn't looking at me. 'Something happened after you left. Vanessa said some things. Things she probably shouldn't have done.' She turned to me and lowered her voice. 'You remember when we had a coffee with Jeremy? He went strange - his eyes changed then he just stared at that kid?' I nodded. 'What does that have to do with-'

'It happened to her too. It wasn't as sudden or as violent, but she changed like Jeremy. Her eyes were slightly tinted and then she stared at you after you went. Like she knew where you were, but she couldn't have seen you as you were outside and she was inside. We tried to ask her to stop, but she just ignored us. It was just strange.' I thought even though the answer was staring me in the face. 'Think what's happening to Jeremy's happening to her?' Jessica lowered her eyes. 'Yeah, it's obvious, isn't it?' She leaned in close to whisper in my ear. 'The only thing is, it ruined Jeremy's career. Got him sacked didn't it? So how far will it go this time? I mean, what'll happen to her?' A thought struck me, and I got a fast jolt of adrenaline course through my veins. 'Jessica.' I said, my voice shakey. 'You said how Jeremy stared at that kid. How he did that weird smile at them. Afterwards, how angry he said he was while doing it. What if it hadn't stopped. What if he'd let the anger get the better of him. What would he have done to that kid?' The blood drained out of Jessica's face. 'I said he looked like he was going to murder.' Jessica said, her voice like a high squeak. She put her hand to her mouth. 'God, no.' I pulled her hand away from her mouth. 'No.' I said firmly. 'It's just a figure of speech, and it's not going to happen.'

'We should ask Jeremy.'

'What?'

'Ask him what he felt like he would do.'

'Okay, but I'm sure he was just a bit hot-headed, it's nothing to worry about-'

'I'll call him now.' Jessica said finally, reaching for her phone. She pulled it out. After a few seconds of tapping, swiping and tapping again, she put it to her ear. 'Uh, hello, Jeremy? Yeah, hi. You, uh, remember when you got angry at that kid in the shop? Yeah, uh, what were you going to do? Y'know, if you'd have properly got angry.' There was silence for a few seconds, apart from the muffled sound of Jeremy talking through the phone line. 'Okay.' Jessica squeaked after a few moments. 'You sure? I-I don't blame you or...' She faltered. 'Okay.' She said finally, taking the phone from her ear, hanging up, and putting it in her pocket. 'Jessica?' I asked. Jessica was looking directly forwards. I made a guess it would have led to murder. 'You don't know Vanessa could feel like that too. Jeremy could have just gotten a bit, well, y'know, how guys have hormones like testosterone and stuff - it gets to them sometimes, and you can't say the same thing for us it's-'

'You didn't hear what he said.' Jessica said quietly. 'He said he had this feeling he wanted to...to...' She stopped and lowered her head. 'He said he was being spoken to by someone, instructing him to kill them in any way possible. He said this voice went into some detail and it became unbearable after a while. That's why he changed the subject to us.' Jessica wiped her eyes, moisture coming off on the back of her hand. She raised her head and turned to me. Her eyes were brimming with tears. 'Let's just watch out for anything suspicious, eh?'