THE POOLS OF HER EYES By: Barry J. House
Friday, March 20th, 2009The world turned on its head a month after Brendan Davey discovered his soul-mate. A lifetime of searching, followed by one fleeting month. The first thing that had struck him about Emily was her eyes. Those huge, round, brilliant blue eyes—like the pools of some hidden tropical island. Bottomless. They had sucked him in, that first day, and he had realized there was no escape. Brendan had never wanted to escape. In fact, he was gazing into those same eyes at that very moment; he could still bring himself to do that during the daytime because he remained in their thrall.
Far away, something rang insistently but Brendan was not concerned.
He was mesmerized by those eyes. They were as beautiful as ever to look at. However, in those last days, they were mostly unresponsive. When he looked past the lingering fear, the obvious horror… when he looked deeper… it was something like, ‘the lights are on but nobody’s home’… except that there was somebody home: a ghostly remnant of her former self. And when he looked deeper still, he sensed something else—something even more insubstantial. It lurked in the depths of those bottomless pools, waiting… waiting to seize her consciousness. And when the night came, it always did.
Soon, it would be sunset and Brendan would need to tie her down again, so that they might endure the hours of darkness together. He would have to bind her limbs; her head, trunk and legs needed to be strapped to the bed frame. And he would have to sit and watch over her for as long as he could bear it, until her frightened-rabbit expression had transformed into that of a mindless predator. At such times, Emily’s body shivered and twitched on the bed; her mouth salivated, her teeth gnashed and snapped; the possessed eyes swivelled…
The far-off ringing continued unabated. Brendan barely noticed it.
Every day, at dusk, the vast majority of the population—from once Zimmer-frame-bound pensioners to defenceless infants barely able to crawl—each and every one of them departed their daytime bolt-holes to prey upon the bodies of the, as yet, undefiled. Their limbs spasmed and jerked as, like defective automatons, they lurched past his house toward destinations unknown. Their wills were focussed on one thing alone: a savage lust for human flesh.
And then, as Emily’s eyes began to change, the alarm clock’s warning clang seemed all the more insistent. Too late—the murderous stranger had inhabited her again.
They were sat on the bed. The straps lay there, limp, untouched. Brendan had no further care for his safety—enough was enough. He had known that this time would come. Emily’s teeth gleamed in the last of the dying light as, in sublime slow motion, she went for his neck. As the first pallid strips of skin skewed away from his throat, Brendan longed only for the depths of the brilliant blue pools of her eyes.
—
©2009 Barry J. House
Barry J. House lives in Southern England, with his wife, two children and three cats. He has been a fan of genre fiction from the moment he first saw the film, Forbidden Planet, on TV as an infant. Barry’s horror and dark SF stories have appeared in various magazines, including Hub Magazine, New Voices in Fiction, The Horror Express, Literary Bitch and Black Petals. His first collection of dark speculative fiction tales, ‘Obsidian Dreams,’ is scheduled for publication in 2009 by Screaming Dreams.
www.barryjhouse.com
