Lightning Blue Eyes

Leanna didn't care where she went―she just didn't want to be here. She couldn't deal with the pitying looks coming her way and the insincere apologies. She might have been overreacting when she ran out of the huge church, crying―but she couldn't help herself.

Her brother had just died after all.

She found herself wandering around into a park. With the swings and seesaws and monkey bars, she was supposed to feel better that there were no more people surrounding her―maybe even peaceful―but she didn't. The park gave her an eerie feeling―and it didn't help that it was dark now.

Leanna decided to brave it and went to sit on the swings. The silence was deafening, and she squirmed in her seat.

Quit it, Leanna, she thought. No one’s here.

The branch that cracked in the distance seemed to think otherwise.

She whipped her head around to try to identify where the sound came from. With her eyes squinted, she investigated the small forest behind her. The trees were tall, black silhouettes in the night. But no one was there.

That’s it. She was officially going crazy.

Right when she was about to turn back around, she caught something move out of the corner of her eye. But when she looked into the area, there was still no one there.

And it wasn’t like she would be going back to the church anyways. She didn’t want to relive the nightmare anymore. It hurt her too much to face the reality of the situation―like a knife in her heart. She felt as if a piece of her was missing when her brother died―her twin brother.

She tried to clear her mind, but it didn’t seem possible. That’s when she saw it. Saw someone. A face hiding in the shadows. Leanna’s heart thumped in her chest as she shot up out of her swing seat and suppressed a startled scream.

And just like that, the face was gone.

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand―hoping that she was and wasn’t seeing things at the same time―but the face was long gone.

But she couldn’t have imagined it. The face had a pair of lightning blue eyes that shone in the dark―that she could vividly remember. Those shocking blue eyes had borne into her, like it pierced through her body.

Leanna sank back into her swing. She was too tired to care if someone was even out there. She could feel her eyelids drooping . . . down . . . and down . . . and down . . . and . . . crunch! She jolted, straightening up. Her blood froze at the footstep. She didn’t move an inch, hoping that she was still being delusional.

She wasn’t.

The footsteps were getting closer―only a few feet away from her. Leanna tensed her shoulders, preparing for the worst. The footsteps stopped right behind her.

“Dude, are you scared?” a familiar voice asked.

Leanna relaxed as Xander stepped around the swing set and into view. He was her age and had brown curly hair and green, playful eyes with dark circles under them―almost as dark as Leanna’s.

She snorted. “No.”

He quirked an eyebrow.

“You know you’re not supposed to sneak up on girls like that, right?”

He smirked and replied, “Yeah, but you make it too easy.”

Leanna rolled her eyes. Xander sat down on the swing next to her. The silence came back for a few minutes before he asked, “How’s it going?”

She considered lying, which is what she had been doing all night, but went against the idea.

“Not so good.”

He nodded. “That’s alright. It’ll eventually get better.”

That’s what everyone had been telling her this past week, but she couldn’t bring herself to believe it.

“I miss him,” she whispered.

Xander looked away, his face turning grim. “Me too.”

Xander was Luke’s best friend. Unlike all the fake people at Luke’s funeral, Xander actually understood what she was going through.

And because of that, she asked him, “Are you okay?”

He shrugged. “It’s been rough, but I’ll be fine.” He paused for a moment then turned back to her. “Do you want to go back or . . .?”

Leanna shook her head. “I’m going to stay out here for a bit.”

She expected him to leave after she said that, but he didn’t move. In fact, he started to swing back and forth.

She opened her mouth to tell him that he didn’t have to stay with her when she saw the pair of blue eyes again. She gasped and Xander stopped swinging.

“What is it?” His eyebrows knitted together and his face twisted in concern. When she didn’t answer, he followed her gaze and found the face. This time, the whole person’s body was out of the shadows and in their range of sight. The outlines of the figure weren’t defined though and all they could clearly see was the eyes.

The figure’s eyes went from left to right―as if he was shaking his head.

Then he disappeared.

“W-who was that?” Leanna sputtered out.

“I don’t know,” Xander told her. His expression was blank with no trace of emotions. “We better leave though―just in case.”

He rose up and pulled Leanna out of her swing when she wouldn’t get up herself.

“Come on. We have to go.”

She slowly recovered from her shock. “Right. Let’s go.”

They left the park at a quick pace, glancing behind their shoulders regularly to make sure that they weren’t being followed.

When they made it back to the church, they had to lean against the walls to catch their breath before going inside.

Once Leanna could breathe normally again, she asked Xander, “Should we tell anybody?”

His head snapped up and there was a cold look in his eyes. Leanna felt a chill run down her spine.

“No,” he said.

“What? Wh―”

“I said no!” he snapped.

“Why, though?” she protested. “Why can’t I tell them?”

A moment passed before he told her, “No one will believe you.” And with that, Xander entered the church―leaving her outside all alone.

Leanna woke with a pounding headache the next morning. She groaned and rolled over to her side.

Big mistake.

There was a picture set on her nightstand table of her and her brother. It was taken not too long ago, just a few months before he died in the car accident. They both had the same too-dark-almost-black eyes and thick, black, wavy hair. They looked so alike―but that made sense because they were twins.

The picture brought back her grief. She cried for half an hour before getting out of bed. When she left her room, she found a note from her parents, saying that they wouldn’t be back till noon.

Leanna chose to go out―not being able to deal with her brother’s already empty room. Every time she looked at it, more tears shed. It was like rubbing salt on a fresh wound.

She went to a coffee shop a couple blocks away from her house. There was a long line inside the shop, but she didn’t really care. She wasn’t in a rush. All she had was time.

Soon, it was her turn to order and she walked up to the front counter. “Can I have a cup of coffee, please?”

“Make that two.”

Startled, Leanna jumped around and came face to face with Xander. He flashed a perfect smile. “It’s on me.”

 Before she could say anything, Xander paid for their order. While they were waiting for the drinks, she said to him, “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to.” He winked.

“Why are you here?”

“Coincidence.”

“No such thing.”

Their drinks were ready by then and they exited the shop. Half a minute later, Xander groaned in frustration. “I left my phone back there.”

“Go get it,” Leanna urged. He nodded and turned to run back.

“I’ll be right back!” he yelled.

She watched him until he was out of view. Sighing, she took a sip out of her coffee. For the hundredth time since last night, she found herself thinking about the man with the blue eyes. And Xander’s strange behavior. He was like a whole different person after seeing the man. He’s fun-loving character was replaced with cold, distant person.

Maybe she could finally ask him when he got back.

Leanna observed her surroundings. She had been in this neighborhood many times before―but something felt off that day. Something was . . . missing.

Then it came to her. No one was here. Usually there were people always walking in and out of stores, talking loudly. But there wasn’t anyone there―except for one guy, but he was across the street and his hood was up so she couldn’t see his face.

She noticed something weird about the guy too though. He hadn’t made even the slightest movement since she got there. He was so still that it was surreal.

Then he looked up.

Leanna’s coffee slipped out of her hand―and this time, she screamed.

His familiar eyes glowed under his hood and the rest of his face was swallowed by a black void.

This can’t be good, she thought. She backed up against the wall of a building, which she now realized was closed. How had she not seen this before?

She pried herself off the wall and hurried down the street―and to her horror, the man was chasing her in full pursuit.

Leanna tried to quicken her pace, but the man just ran after her now, not seeming to care if she knew he was following her.

She sprinted, feet hitting the concrete ground hard. She reached the coffee shop she was just at five minutes ago and opened the door―but it wouldn’t budge. She pounded on the doors and screamed again.

“Help! Someone, please help me!”

She peered through the glass and into the shop. Everyone was gone.

“How . . .?”

She didn’t have time to process any of this. The man was gaining speed and only a few yards away from her now. Leanna tried to run again, but the man caught her arm.

“No! Let go of me!”

The man’s hold tightened. She squirmed in his firm grip, a weak attempt of escape. The man used his other hand to grab her face and slam the back of her head on the brick wall. Then she collapsed on the floor.

Leanna felt a trickle of blood run down her neck. Her head felt like it had busted open. Everything swam in her vision. She couldn’t think straight.

The man approached her slumped body and she struggled to scoot away from him. He kicked her stomach so hard that she dry heaved. She coughed up blood and turned her white shirt red.

The man crouched down and leaned into her face. “You’ve been causing a lot of trouble for us lately,” he said in a raspy voice, like he’d been smoking for years.

Leanna wrapped her arms around her stomach and curled up into a tight ball. The man laughed, a dark and cruel laugh.

 Her body went limp and her breathing shortened into sharp gasps. She could feel her consciousness start to slip away and her mind fogged up.

Then everything faded to black.

Leanna woke up feeling groggy. It took her a minute before her senses came back to her―which also triggered her agony. She sucked her teeth when her head gave her the echoes of pain.

She opened her eyes and immediately regretted it. The room wasn’t even that bright―there was only a dim light illuminating the darkness―but to her, it felt like glaring at the sun. She realized she was lying on the floor, so she slowly dragged herself up.

“Ah, the lazy girl awakes,” a voice said. “Finally.”

Leanna’s panic came back when looked up and saw the man across the room. She gulped. She quickly tried to think of a way to get out of this mess.

But all she could come up with was a single word in the form of a hoarse croak.

“Xander.”

The man laughed. “He’s not going to help you. He’s the reason you’re here.”

“What?”

He just laughed again and turned his back on her. She pressed her hands against the floor to support her weight. Leanna glared at his back.

“What do you mean?”

“You haven’t figured it out yet?” he sneered. “I guess that boy is better at keeping secrets than I thought.”

“Tell me, how do you think your brother died?” he asked

Leanna’s bottom lip quivered. “What do you know about that?”

She could hear the man’s smile in his voice when he told her, “More than you know.”

“Liar!” she spit out. She used all of her remaining strength to stand up. Her legs wobbled, threatening to give out and knock her over, but she stubbornly stayed up. There was a wall behind her, so she sluggishly walked back and leaned on it. Gritting her teeth, she added, “You don’t know anything about him.”

The man whipped around at a speed that had to be impossible for humans and stalked towards her. Why did she just have to talk?

“Why do I look like this then?” The man took off his hood and revealed a scarred face. He couldn’t be more than a few years older than her, but the jagged, white scar running down the corner of an eye and to his jaw made him look so much older. There were tinier marks scattered on his face―some looked new and not fully healed yet. He had a deep gash on his forehead that clearly hadn’t been treated and a broken nose that hadn’t been set back into place. Out of all the disturbing things, his eyes were the most troubling. What should have been white outside of his crazy, shining blue eyes was replaced by a black color.

Leanna looked away. The eyes creeped her out.

The man didn’t like that.

“Look at me!”

She flinched and gazed up at him―trying to keep her own eyes from contacting his. The man was furious and his face was turning into deep shades of red.

“Your brother did this to me,” he said. “He gave me these scars.”

Leanna shook her head. “He wouldn’t do that.”

He snorted. “Then that means you didn’t know him as well as you thought you did.”

“Who are you?”

“Someone you don’t know personally.”

“That’s not an answer,” she protested.

The man snarled. “I don’t have to answer to you.”

Leanna bit her lip―maybe a little too hard, because it started to bleed. She reached up and wiped the blood off with her sleeve.

“What are you going to do to me?”

The man shook his head. “Sadly, I’m under orders to not hurt you.”

“Under orders?” she asked. “From whom?”

“I’m also under orders to not tell you that too.”

The man hadn’t killed her yet―like she thought he would―so she decided to try and ask one last question that she knew she would regret.

“Why am I here?”

The man smiled. A smile that looked insane. She slinked back as he towered over her.

“Finally, a question I can answer,” he said.

Leanna felt a deep pit of dread that was growing. The world was spinning again, but she willed herself to stay strong. She braced herself for a horrible answer―but she could have never prepared herself enough for what the man told her next.

“We’re going to make an example of you. Make anyone think twice before they try to do anything like your brother did.”

He paused and his smile grew wider before he added, “We’re going to kill you slowly.”