Black Eyes (Part Two)

After a few days we began to settle in to the house quite nicely and were doing quite well, Mum asked me to wait in for the telephone engineer, we needed a new a phone line, weirdly my nans had been ripped out, but the guy was coming out to fix it. I heard a small tapping at the door and rushed to let the guy in, I swung the door open. Two small boys were standing on the porch, you’re not here to fix my phone line I asked, thinking to myself their probably looking for money for some charity, They Both stared at  the ground, I Raised my voice, “hello, are you ok?” The children couldn’t have been more than ten; I asked again louder “hello, are you ok?” “We need to come in” the nearest boy whispered, I looked him up and down he had pale almost transparent skin, His clothes looked like he had grown into them or weirdly I thought Grown out of them he wore a tight dirty red hoody, it was so tattered I looked away as not to embarrass him which made me notice his bare feet, they didn’t look like children’s feet they were much bigger than normal for a boy. I quickly glanced at his friend; He was identical in everything except his toes were weirdly abnormally longer.

 A feeling of fear descended slowly through my body, I struggled to speak “uh... Uh. Why?”  I managed to choke out. The smaller second boy started to step forward; I reached for the door handle. The older first boy shot him a look, and he stopped. “We need to use your phone” they said in unison, as if it was rehearsed. I wanted them off the property, I wanted to slam the door, I wanted to get out of this situation. But I was frozen by my fear, I just stood there, in my head I was thinking that this was completely irrational they were just children, needing to use the phone, they had done nothing to make me feel the way I did, every instinct I had screamed inside me that something wasn’t right, Where was Mum when I needed her? or even the Phone guy would be a welcome stranger right now. I prayed inside my head for someone to appear and get rid of them, “it doesn’t work” I barely managed to get the words out of my mouth. “Let us in” the second one said sounding a little insistent “we need to use your phone” “it doesn’t work” I said again this time with a little more authority. “LET US IN!” the first one shouted. “NO!” I screamed back, and slammed the door in their face making sure to lock it behind me. I stood against the door, my heart pounding; I breathed heavily almost gasping for breath, as if I hadn’t been able to breath for some time.

After a minute I had calmed down and had a chance to rationalize the situation, it was just some rude kids I thought, I stepped away from the door and peered through the curtain to see if they had gone. They weren’t there, I walked over to look through the peep hole in the door just to reassure myself, but all I could see was black I assumed the peep hole had some dirt on or inside the lens and wiped it and looked through it again, nothing still black. It blinked. It was an eye. A soul penetrating black eye. not just a pupil but the whole thing, iris, sclera, all black. They were still there, but how, I looked through the window barely twenty seconds ago. And there wasn’t a person in sight. I was panicking I didn’t know what to do I felt trapped was it the boys from before, or something else?

Knock. Knock. Oh god it is, it’s the kids from before they want to come in I can feel it, against all my better instincts I called out “who is it?” a young man’s voice called back, “ it’s me miss Mccallister, the  telephone engineer from Konectionz phone company, I'm here to repair your phone lines” “uh…ok I will be there in a second” I was too terrified to move let alone open that door again, “oh don’t worry miss, the door is open if you don’t mind I can let myself in”  that door was locked I would put my life on it, I know that door was locked. “uh yeah sure come on in” I hoped that he couldn’t open the door, but as he stepped in my stomach dropped and I felt dizzy and nauseas I knew somehow they had unlocked that door, I know it was crazy but I felt it had to be true, how else would that door have unlocked.

I tried to calm down and not seem crazy in front of the phone guy, “so where is the phone?” he asked as he walked in. I pointed him in the direction of the living room; he was quite tall, probably 20s early 30s. But his face looked much younger, he had an olive complexion and a buzz cut his eyes which I took particular notice of in light of recent events, were a pleasant blue green. Still feeling drained. I decided to follow him; I was too freaked out to be alone, even if I didn’t know this guy. I stood in the doorway of the living room watching him work and after a few unbelievably awkward minutes, I said “did you see any kids outside?” “Uh kids?” “Yeah kids outside my house”, “no I don’t think so, why?” “Are you sure?” “Yeah I'm sure, why?” I'm not sure if that was a good or bad thing that he didn’t see the kids, it either meant I'm crazy or that something freaky is going on. I just realized that the phone guy was still looking at me waiting for an answer. “uh well I have had some kids coming to the house asking,  actually it doesn’t matter”  “well miss Mccallister I think I have fixed the wiring problem, do you have mobile that you could use to test the line?” “n-no it’s dead I’m sorry” “ah no problem I think I left mine in my van I will go get it and test your line” “WAIT!” I almost shouted, I didn’t want him to go, but at the same time I didn’t want to go with him. And I needed a working phone. “What?” he said looking concerned “oh I though you... Uh might want a cup of tea, did you?” I didn’t want to tell him the real reason I didn’t think he should go out there. “Uh yeah that would be great thanks. I will have it just after I check your connection, won’t be a second” I followed him to the front door and watched him step out the house and walk to his van, don’t know what I expected to happen or how watching him would help, but it made me feel better, as he turned to come back I suddenly remembered my offer of tea that I was supposed to me making while he was gone I quickly turned and went to the kitchen, this way it didn’t look like I was staring at him. He went back in to the living room.


BRRRIIING, BRRRIIING. “Yep it’s working” he called “well thanks for that as you can see we just moved here and a phone is kind of a necessity for us” I was making mindless small talk as I walked in the room with his tea. We sat down and continued our small talk awkwardly until he finished his tea, his name was Kevin, I don’t remember much else of what he said, to be honest I wasn’t listening, then I kind of hurried him out of the house I just wanted to be alone and get today over with as soon as possible. I fell asleep a few hours later while waiting for my mum to come home.

 I woke up on the sofa  in the early hours of the morning clearly my mum didn’t want to disturb me but she had laid a blanket over me, I got up and folded the blanket and sleepily started walked to my room. The windows I realised still have no curtains which usually doesn’t bother me, but at night with bare windows I felt unprotected whatever was out there somehow could see my every movement, I try to overcome my feelings, maybe it’s because of over exposure to too many horror films from a young age, that’s it I am responding to unrealistic fears I tell myself in disbelief. My mind battles between Imagination and rationalisation I try not to allow it to go that far ahead, I didn’t really like to, but I had to pass the windows so I quickly ran across the room with my head hanging down I didn’t want to take the chance at glimpsing anything.

I went upstairs, I decided to take a shower and clear my head, I stepped in the bath and just stood there letting the water hit my face, I tried to reach out the shower and turn on the radio I brushed the dial and switched it on “HELLO TO OUR LISTENERS IF YOU’RE JUST TUNING IN WE HAVE JUST BEEN TALKING TO MR SHARP WHO HAS RECENTLY WRITTEN A BOOK ON – I tuned in to a different station, “ ALL THE SINGLE LADIES, ALL THE SINGLE LADIES, NOW PUT YOUR HANDS UP,UP IN THE CLUB, WE JUST BROKE UP, I'M DOING MY OWN LITTLE THING”  I reached my arm back in and started to do my best Beyoncé impression in the shower and finally started to relax and let go of all the burdens of the past few days, I guess that’s just how good Beyoncé is. “HELLO TO OUR LISTENERS IF YOU’RE JUST TUNING IN WE HAVE JUST BEEN TALKING TO MR SHARP WHO HAS RECENTLY WRITTEN A BOOK ON PARANORMAL ACTIVITY”  what the? The station changed. How? I reached out the shower again and turned the radio dial and switched it back “I GOT GLOSS ON MY LIPS, A MAN ON MY HIPS GOT ME TIGHTER IN MY DEREON JEANS” ahh much better, I start to sing along then it switches again. HELLO TO OUR LISTENERS AND MISS MCCALLISTER, IF YOU’RE JUST TUNING IN WE HAVE JUST BEEN TALKING TO MR SHARP WHO HAS RECENTLY WRITTEN A BOOK ON PARANORMAL ACTIVITY”  what! Did they just say my name? No they couldn’t have, I must be imagining it right? “MISS MCCALLISTER PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL AGAIN” ok I definitely heard it that time what the hell is going on, they can’t be talking to me; my name isn’t that common it has to be explainable somehow. The radio continued to talk and interview, but I couldn’t take any of it in I was so freaked out.  I reach out to switch it again, I touch the dial. “MISS MCCALLISTER DON’T TOUCH THE DIAL” I whipped my hand back in as quickly as I could, I was afraid to move I just stood listening. “SO MR SHARP COULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR BOOK FOR OUR LISTENER?” “YES OF COURSE WELL BASICALLY IT FOCUSES AROUND THE PHENOMENA OF BLACK EYED CHILDREN, IT EXPLAINS THE HISTORY OF THEM, THE FOLKLORE AND EVEN INCLUDES FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD AN ENCOUNTER WITH SUCH BEINGS” that’s all I could take my adrenaline was rushing through my body I jumped out the shower and grabbed the radio with both hands and threw it on the floor smashing it to pieces on the bathroom tiles.

I ran out of the room and locked the door behind me from the outside. I hate this house. I got dressed and went downstairs, my mum was in the kitchen eating breakfast, “mum have you noticed anything weird going on since we got here?” “What do you mean weird?” “Well like yesterday some strange kids came to the house, and it kind of freaked me out” “I haven’t seen any kids around, what freaked you out?” “oh never mind it was probably me just being a bit paranoid” I started to walk out of the kitchen “ oh yeah sorry I think I broke the radio” my mum shouted back “don’t worry it might just need new batteries”.