Golden Eyes

She woke up abruptly and touched her sweaty face. The image of that boy was still completely clear on her retina, his golden eyes glittering and his immaculate smile against the light.

- Anna! Breakfast! - called her mother.

She didn't know the boy she'd dreamed of, but the dream had been so clear that Anna turned the memory over in her mind as she got ready for school.

She was sitting at the desk, staring at the blackboard and the teacher's words passing through her head without being understood. She absentmindedly glanced across the room where her friend Jenny was absorbed in scribbling something in her notebook.

She was so concentrated that her image disturbed Anna a bit, she had always attended the teachers and now she was like that, totally gone, in her world.

- Pst! Pst!

Only after several attempts did Jenny finally take the hint and immediately put the notebook away awkwardly. She smiled at Anna, but without conviction.

- Sir... - Anna said after a while - Can I go to the bathroom?

The teacher, who was distracted, barely made a slight gesture with his head. Anna circled the room and went behind her friend, she sneakily approached and wham! She snatched the notebook from her hands.

Jenny's expression was one of complete horror.

- What are you hiding?

But she was stunned. Petrified with her mouth open looking at the drawing her friend had made.

A handsome boy was smiling from the sheet of paper.

It was him!

Anna dragged her friend out of the classroom, she was red as a tomato.

- What in the actual f is this?!

- Hmmm ... well ... it's someone I saw ... in a dream ...

Jenny's words made her dizzy a bit, and for an instant, she felt faint.

- It can’t be…

Jenny frowned.

- Well, the drawing is not quite right, but ...

- I saw him too - Anna said, a chill went down the back of her neck.

- How… did you see him? - fear and excitement mixed in her expression, her eyes wide open without being able to believe what was happening.

They were thoughtful.

- Do you think he does really exist?

- I don't know - said Anna - he was so ... it seemed so...

- Real… right?

- Yes…

The girls held hands, Jenny suddenly smiled, but Anna still felt uneasy, a feeling similar to when you think you've forgotten something. She checked that her cell phone was in her pocket, looked then inside her bag.

- What's the matter?

- I don't know; I feel weird ...

- Mmmm…

Jenny laughed.

- Finders keepers!

Anna smiled and that calmed her down a bit.

- Let's go back ... - she said.

They spent the whole afternoon talking about the boy, what his name would be, how old, maybe he was from another country… and then Anna got an idea.

- What if someone else had seen him? Maybe someone even knows him?

They stayed correcting Jenny's drawing until it was so faithful to their dreams that it was a little scary. They even highlighted the boy's golden eyes with a colored pencil.

After that, Anna started making several copies at the school's copy machine and Jenny laid down a bit, soon she was asleep.

- Copies are done! - said Anna to the air, trying to wake Jenny up.

But Anna jumped of shock when she saw Jenny standing in the middle of the room, looking at her with lifeless eyes.

Anna felt her own heart drop right under her stomach.

- Jenny? - Anna said - Are... you ok?

Jenny walked near Anna, her eyes empty.

Then she smiled and offered her hand, kindly.

Anna was confused and terrified.

- Jenny!! - Anna shouted.

Jenny moved her head and gave a sudden breath. Finally waking up.

Her eyes returned to life and she glanced around.

- Where... Where's...?

- Where is what?! - said Anna.

Jenny finally appeared to realize she had been dreaming.

- Nothing... Never mind...

- I've got the posters...

- Oh, sure..., yes, posters...

Anna drove Jenny along with her, while they put up the posters.

"Have you seen this boy?" with the contact of both cell phones underneath.

They said goodbye when it was beginning to get dark.

Around ten o'clock at night Anna's cell phone brought her out of her lethargy. She was a little tired already.

“Jenny doesn't answer my cell phone. I guess it ran out of battery. If she dines there at your place, tell her not to get back home too late."

Anna re-read the message from Jenny's mother several times. It’d been many hours since she said goodbye to her friend. "Hadn't she returned home?" She thought. Maybe someone had contacted her, they had put her number first.

Anna told her own mother that she would be back in a little while, got out in the car and began to think about the places where she may be. Indeed, her cell phone went straight to voicemail. The downtown cafeteria, the ice cream parlor, the cinema. The square perhaps.

She scoured heaven and earth, but there was no sign of Jenny. She was already beginning to feel anxious and scared. Anna parked in front of the square for a moment and took a long sigh.

...

Someone tapped on the hood of the car. Anna shaked, completely paraliced by fear.

- Hello... - said a kind and manly voice.

Anna turned and her eyes widened at the sight of the golden-eyed boy, smiling softly at her.

Anna felt herself calm down and blush hopelessly.

- Hi... - she said and her voice cracked a bit, she cleared her throat.

- Could you bring me closer to my home? – said the boy - I just missed the last bus ... I’m staying at a house on the edge of the city, but I can pay you for the trip, I wouldn't ask you if not ... - He looked around and there was absolutely no one.

The boy did not appear to be more than seventeen years old.

- Yes, sure, of course! - Anna said trying to control herself.

"For God's sake, don't be so obvious Anna, control yourself." She thought.

They began to move away from the square and took the street that led out of the city.

- You are not from here, are you?

The boy reflected for a few moments.

- I'm in town for a few days... my parents are taking me on their trip, but I always like to visit places on my own...

- Oh, I see... - she smiled at him and the boy returned the smile.

- By chance have you met a girl named Jenny, my friend...

- Jenny! Yes… Jenny Cooper?

- Yes, yes, she… - Anna said feeling a flood of relief.

- We talked for hours on the cell phone, I saw the signs you had put up and well, I had to call ... but it seems that her battery ran out ...

- Ah... of course... did she tell you where she was? I looked for her all afternoon, but nothing...

- Hmmm, no, we didn't talk about that...

- Oh…

The street became a little more winding and dark as she followed the boy's directions.

- That one! - he said, pointing to a cabin with a dim orange light coming out of it and then he took out money to give Anna.

- Oh no, no need...

- I realize that I didn’t tell you my name... Tom... nice to meet you...

- Anna... you too ... - she said, shaking his hand.

- Thanks…

The boy got out of the car and was out of sight.

...

Anna's cell phone rang suddenly and woke her up, she protested under her breath, she couldn't believe she had fallen asleep. She squinted into the darkness, but something moved to the side, and her blood ran cold.

Where the boy had been, she saw a burly man in his forties, grinning with his sharp teeth and his wide golden eyes gleaming in the gloom.