Eyes


I cannot wait any longer. My desires, my needs have to be fulfilled and they have to be done now. For weeks, I held these villainous thoughts deep inside me. They were buried so deep that I even managed to live for a while without feeling the evil take a hold of my soul. But these thoughts were too strong. They were the thoughts of Satan himself and would not die in the grave deep inside of me. Hence, they rose and clawed back from the depths of the grave. As these thoughts slowly resurfaced into the mind of mine, the rigid grasp, I had created around my soul, started to loosen. I could not think or act on my own accordance. My desire for my uncle’s wealth controlled everything. Which is why I decided, the deed has to be finished today.

Somewhere behind the woods surrounding the aged house was an old clock tower and it rang twelve times indicating the beginning of the darkest and evilest hour. With each strike of the bell, my decision to murder my uncle was hammered in undoubtedly. That could not have been a coincidence. No, no it most definitely cannot be. It was not. My decision to kill and the clock tower ringing at the same time is surely a manifestation indicating that the time is right. We, humans, cannot control time. Time is an entity in itself and it cannot be controlled. Yes, yes the time is right.

I paced to and fro between two large windowpanes frantically seeking the weapon, the instrument that would assist me in fulfilling my desire. I spent a whole twenty valuable minutes of the dark hour in a room full of bright light spilling through the windows. In those twenty minutes though, I felt something. I felt an eye. Yes, only one eye. As I approached the window at the front of the house, I felt the eye piercing into my soul. Then as I neared the window at the back end, I felt the same eye. It produced an eerie and peculiar feeling as if someone was reading my thoughts and me. I did not like the feeling of being watched, especially today, and today being the brightest of all nights did not help my cause. Wanting to put an end to this insecurity, I scoured the woods around the house from the two windows seeking the one-eyed demon. The trees surrounding the old house were still as the night itself. There was not a single soul in the midst of these trees. Although the absence of living things was supposed to ease my pressure, I could still feel the eye. I drew the curtains in hope of getting rid of the piercing feeling. As I drew them shut, I caught a hold of the starry sky. The stars reminded me of scintillating diamonds, exactly like the thirteen I was after. As I stood there admiring the sky, I noticed that there were only thirteen stars in the sky as well. It had to be a sign. Yes, it is. First, the clock and now the stars, everything was in my favor tonight.

There was still the feeling of the eye though. It only got worse as I looked at the sky, and became unbearable when I looked at the moon. The sight of the moon ruined an otherwise beautiful night sky. But could the moon be the eye? No, it cannot. No one looks at us from above and even if they did, they would not watch me. Also, the moon cannot blink. If it could, I would have seen it.

After I finally convinced myself of the moon not being the eye, I went back searching for the weapon. I searched everywhere but that illusive weapon never caught my sight. Getting impatient with the unplanned interruptions, I began walking to the kitchen with the intent of getting the job done without any interruptions. Although the curtains were closed, the light from the moon still brightened much of the insides of the house. I could not block it from entering the house no matter how many precautions I took. It was inevitable. The light from the moon was everywhere and it caused me to be very conscious of myself and of the things around me. Noises that I have never heard before were all of a sudden very noticeable. For instance, the old house’s floor groaned as I walked over to the kitchen. I never heard that before but today I did and it unsettled me. In the midst of these thoughts and noises, I made it to the kitchen and laid hands on the knife. I grasped the knife with my sweaty palms and braced myself for the last part of the plan. I held the knife up to my face and it was there again. The moon’s reflection was mirrored onto the face of the knife and the feeling of the eye piercing at me became stronger. I turned around trying to find the opening where the moon’s reflection was coming in from but there was none. All the curtains were closed and were exactly as I left them. I looked back at the knife and sure enough the reflection was still there. I could not bear the pressure anymore and I was afraid that another encounter with the devious eye would put me completely off track. I scurried over to my uncle’s room with the knife still clutched firmly in my hand. As I made my way over, I tried very hard to look at the windows for the fear of abandoning my goal.

I took a deep breath, twisted the handle of the door and stepped into my uncle’s room. There was no need to turn on the tube-lights inside because the moon’s light was enough to brighten the whole room. The light, though, was not entering through windows; it was entering through the ceiling. The entire ceiling was made of glass and the whole night sky could be seen. The thirteen diamonds along with the moon all shone brightly in the night sky. I looked at my uncle sleeping peacefully under the night sky without a worry in the world while I am being tortured by the same night sky. I very stealthily made my way over to the edge of my uncle’s bed so that I would not wake him and jeopardize the plan. His visage was the only part of his body that was showing. It was glowing as bright as the diamonds as the moonlight fell gracefully onto his face. I stood over him like a giant and stared into his closed eyes. On the back of my head, I felt the one eye piercing into me. The strength of my desire took over me at that second and I raised the knife above my head ready to deliver the final blow. I could feel the eye staring through me stronger than ever now but it did not matter as my hands were already on the way down. The sharp end of the knife cut straight through the part of the body where the throat and the collarbone meet. The moment the knife pierced the skin of my uncle, his eyes opened wide and they too had the same effect as the eye from above. They too pierced into my soul and my whole body writhed in pain. I shuddered at the sight of the open eyes and fell back with a thud onto the floor with the knife still stuck in the throat of my uncle’s knife. The face of the knife, once again, had the reflection of the eye and just next to the knife were the still open, dead eyes of my uncle.



I woke suddenly with a shudder and shivered uncontrollably. That memory has been haunting my dreams every single day since the murder, twenty-eight days ago. Every night I would go to sleep hoping that the petrifying memory would not replay itself but it happened every single day. One action has made my life horrifyingly torturous.

Outside, the rain, which had been falling continuously since the day of the murder, stopped mysteriously. I only realized this because the water droplets stopped hitting against the windowpanes. As I sat on the bed and looked out the window, I could not see anything. It was pitch black. There were no stars in the sky and the moon disappeared as well. As each day went by, the feeling that the eye is watching me slowly waned. Today was the first day, after twenty-eight torturous days, that I could not feel the eye piercing into me. The absence of the eye gave me time to think like me once again without the added pressure. So, I thought. I thought long and hard and came to a conclusion that what I had done was wrong.

You have to understand though, that it was like something took over me that night. Those thoughts running through my mind about the diamonds and killing my uncle were satanic but nevertheless, it was I who had committed the mistake. So, it is I that has to bear the price.

There was death lurking around in the empty corners of the house. I could sense it more than ever today and I did not have the courage to walk around the house for the fear of facing death. Prior to today, the eye outside gave me the unexpected sense of security that someone from above was watching over me. But with its absence, my belief was depleted as well.

The corpse of my uncle was still rotting in the other room and it released a nauseating smell. The smell, like the eye, constantly reminded me of my guilt. It made me think of how I can make amends. I had to make amends. I could not live with the guilt of the cold-blooded murder I committed. Just the thought of it sucked the breath out of my body. It became mightily hard to breathe. It felt as if Death himself put his hand into my stomach and squeezed the lungs, depriving it of the air. These moments, of which I have had plenty in the past twenty-eight days, made death seem peaceful and I longed for peace. So, to attain that peace of mind, I decided to end it. Yes, end my life. My life, which was once so peaceful, has turned into a living nightmare. By ending it I could, once and for all, escape the torture. Along with the torture, I would shed the guilt that has been enclosed within me. I hoped that as my body and soul separated, I would leave the guilt behind in my body.

As I finalized my decision, I felt death slowly creeping upon me. It would only be correct if I went the same way as my uncle. That same pain with the same knife would be a fitting way to end my life. The knife though was still in the throat of my uncle. I mustered enough courage to enter the room with the corpse still on the bed. It was awfully cold in the room and my toes immediately went numb because of the cold wooden floor. The knife was still lodged strongly in the throat and I could see the bloodstains that covered the steel. The eyes too were exactly as they were. It felt as if they were eyes of a portrait, following each and every one of my actions.

I stood over the corpse, like I had done twenty-eight days ago but over the living body. I grasped the knife and pulled it out to above my head. I kept the knife above my head and looked around for one last time. The whole room, which was lit up till the brim on the day of the murder, was deprived of any light. Nothing could be seen anywhere. I longed for the eye to come back so that I could show my efforts to make amends but it was nowhere to be seen. The eye decided to blink today of all days.

I brought down the knife with precise aim and struck myself right where I stabbed my uncle. It was like a thousand needles pricking me at the same. The pain was unreal but I knew that it would relieve me of all the other pain. As the pain increased, the life was slowly sucked out of me. Death was only an arm’s length away. It was a horrifying sight that my uncle must have seen as well when he opened his eyes for the last time. I fell back onto the cold floor and looked up at the sky. The thirteen diamonds were mysteriously back where they belong but the sky was still devoid of any light due to the absence of the moon. I lost all consciousness and laid there with darkness and death engulfing me.