Week 41 - The Eyes Have It

The Eyes Have It

Matthew Ryan Fischer

The darkness grew, and in perfect symmetry so too did the hole inside Eddie’s soul. The shadows fell and something, somewhere deep inside the hollow black stirred.

Eddie had always wanted something more. He had a craving deep inside. And a belief in the supernatural to match that craving. He believed in the dark and in the potential of secret knowledge and secret claims. It was his faith, unwavering. A blind trust, driven by the desire for something more, to be something more. Something special. Something powerful.

The shadows came, creeping, cutting down, unnatural. Squirming and swirling in all ways impossible.

The lights had burnt out. The moon was gone and the sky grew dark. It was an unholy thing.

Eddie lit a candle, but with a slip and a swish of wind, the shadows blew it out.

Alone in the dark. The sinister things all around. Creeping and crawling. Growing. Pulsing forth. Closer and ever closer.

Eddie cried out. He prayed. He swore. He wanted to see. All he wanted was to see. That was all he ever wanted – to see the truth. He went looking for answers, but ended up blind. Now all he wished for was a little bit of light.

The whispers came, but Eddie didn’t know how to answer them.

A dark force stirred and in the shadows, something crept forth.

As it turned out, getting a superpower wasn’t all that hard. At least that’s what Tommy would claim. He claimed he could see through walls. He claimed that some voodoo hoodoo was involved and a mystical magical lady who was willing to cast a spell. That seemed like clear bullshit to Eddie. No voodoo hoodoo lady was going to give out super powers. That was what Eddie thought when he first heard Tommy tell the tale. That was what he thought even when Tommy set out to prove his powers worked.

Tommy could see through walls. He would tell everybody what was on the other side. It had to be a trick. Eddie knew it had to be a trick. He just didn’t know how the trick was done.

Whatever it was, it sure looked a lot like it was Tommy seeing though walls. There was no other explanation. He didn’t think or struggle or concentrate or fuss. He just looked and something inside his brain sorted it all out, layer for layer, and told him what the proper order was.

Tommy called it magic. If Eddie hadn’t seen him perform the trick with his own two eyes, he’d have called it total bullshit. But Tommy did have the knack of being right about what was on the other side of walls. Eddie just wasn’t ready to concede and call it a superpower.

“What else can you do?” Eddie would ask him.

As it turned out, it was a pretty simple power. Not that seeing through walls was dull or boring or anything. But it was just that simple and straightforward. It was what it was. Just the one thing. Tommy wasn’t in control of it or what he could do. He didn’t get to decide what powers he got. He didn’t get to practice extra hard and develop new powers. He laid it all at the feet of the lady herself. She made the spell, she made the call. Tommy wasn’t going to complain.

“I would have asked for something better,” Eddie insisted.

“I’m sure you would have been very persuasive.”

As it turned out, Eddie was very persuasive. He just looked for better answers from a better source. Magic ladies and voodoo hoodoo seemed like too much bullshit. Eddie was interested in something darker, something more powerful.

The truth. The deep and dark secrets. The hidden things that people don’t admit. Those little truths that everyone was afraid of. That was what Eddie wanted to see. He wanted answers. He wanted eyes in the back of his head.

Tommy was a petty criminal with petty interests. He could play a trick and amuse an audience. He could get the jump on someone and rob them blind before they knew what was happening. None of that interested Eddie. He wanted something more. He wanted to look someone in the eyes and see what their soul had to say.

Eddie looked into the abyss and the abyss looked back. One eye on the future. One eye on the past. What was it? A gateway into the soul. A key that could unlock it all. What was that worth? To him, it might be worth everything.

“Show me your shame and your secrets. Show me what you’re afraid of when the night turns black.”

Eddie looked into their souls without ever stopping to think if something was looking back.

The nights turned black. Eddie lost the light around him. Just as he was losing himself. Deep down inside he was corrupted by something sinister. Deep down inside he was empty and alone and hurt and hardly human anymore. Deep down inside that void was pain – pain that could feed, pain that could attract the wrong things.

Eddie didn’t notice as the world grew dark. He didn’t dream and he hardly slept. He consumed. He ate. Not the flesh but the soul. He stared into their broken hearts and their broken dreams and he saw their infinite potential and their complete and utter failure. He drank it and only wanted more.

The shadows surrounded him. The shadows watched and the shadows listened. The shadows saw all that he did.

Eddie felt comfortable in the dark. He felt alive and at home. He had no idea what was really watching him. He had no idea what he had become a part of.

He fed on the darkness of others, but the darkness needed feeding itself. He filled himself up and in doing so became a tasty treat.

The darkness came. Eddie never noticed the gazing eyes, hidden in the dark, hidden in the shadows. He never noticed as the shadows grew. Not until it was too late. Not until there was nothing to be done and there was no escape.

Trapped, huddled, alone. Eddie cried. And the shadows feasted.