Haunting Purple Eyes

The sky was blackened with ash as the fires raged around her. Trees and foliage alike were blazing with flames of blue that flickered into shapes of unknown creatures. She gazed at the scene and felt as though nothing was out of the ordinary in the forest. Walking closer to one of the flames, she raised her hand and felt the warmth that emitted off it. Her mind going blank as she reached her arm towards the fire, not even caring if she was to be burnt by the heat. As her fingers were just a few centimeters away from touching the fiery blaze—

“JANE! Wake UP!” She jerked away from the fire, bright purple eyes staring at her flashed in her mind before she was back in her room. Her mother was glaring at her from the doorway with a wooden spoon held threateningly in one hand. “You need to get up now or else you’ll be late for school!”

Jane groaned as her head flopped back into the pillow. Her mind going back to the dream she just had and wondering what it meant. Sighing, she got up and dressed for another day of boring classes. Heading down stairs, she called out a good-bye to her mom and yanked open the front door, stopping at the sight of a cloudy, blackened sky. Jane closed her eyes and rubbed them for good measure before opening them to the clear blue sky of the day.

“I need to start going to sleep early.” she muttered to herself and she headed out to the bus stop, “I don’t need Freddy Kruger popping up in my classroom just because I’m sleep deprived.” Once there, she pulled out her phone and earbuds and played some of her music on shuffle, the bus usually took about five to ten minutes to reach her street and it got boring fast. As she was nodding her head to a fast-paced rock song, something shimmered in the corner of her eye.

Turning her head, she saw nothing out of the ordinary in her neighbor’s yard, but when she went back to staring ahead the shimmering object was there once more. This went on for several minutes before her school bus came and picked her up.

It wasn’t long before she was situated at her desk waiting for her teacher to stop droning on about their lesson for the day. Jane was listening to music through one of her earbuds as she drew on some scrap paper, her pencil sketching out the forest from her dream. The trees were just starting to take on details when she noticed some smoke coming up from her paper. The basic out lines of the flames she drew had black smoke rising up from them. Curious, she bent her head down towards it and saw that it was coming from the lines that she drew and not the white part of it at all. Suddenly, the page burst into blue flames, startling a yelp to escape her lips as she pushed herself out of her seat.

“Jane, are you OK?” The teacher asked in concern, the entire class was staring at her now. She looked down to the drawing to see that there were no flames; it didn’t even look burnt.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jane replied in unease, “I saw a roach on the corner of my desk and it surprised me.” Now there were several girls squealing in disgust as they jumped out of their seats, afraid that the bug might somehow be on their desk. It took the rest of the class time to get everyone settled and by then, they found a real roach on the chair leg one of the guys used.

As the bell rang out, Jane grabbed her stuff and raced off to her next class. Her mind was whirling at what had happened and tried to find a logical solution to it. The only excuse she could come up with was that her imagination was going wild in her bored state. As she sat down for her math class, Jane figured that solving mathematical equations will keep her mind occupied enough to not cause her any undue distractions.

Twenty minutes in and she was currently trying to solve a calculus worksheet that was handed out. She chewed on the end of her pencil a bit before a sudden chill shot through her body. It felt as though someone was watching her, but a glance around showed everyone looking at their own paper. Nobody even sat behind her since she always sat in the chair closest to the door in the back row. As the feeling of being watched grew in intensity, Jane turned around and looked behind her: nothing. Sighing in relief, she went to go back to her worksheet when the door caught her attention.

There, staring back at her through the little window on the door, was a pair of bright purple eyes. They almost seemed like they were glowing and she couldn’t look away. They grew and dimmed in intensity as everything but them slowly turned black, almost as though she had tunnel vision and couldn’t stop it. The eyes seemed to be begging her come forward and open the door so that she could go with them. Jane almost complied with the unspoken demand when her line of sight was blocked by a plaid vest. Blinking rapidly, she looked up to see the unamused face of the math teacher.

“I know that math isn’t all that fun, but please stop staring at the door.” He said in a low drawl. “The bell isn’t going to ring any faster.” Giggles could be heard around the room as the class laughed at her before going back to their work. Jane nodded her head and went back to her own as well. Once the teacher moved, she glanced back to the door’s window and noticed that the eyes were no longer there.

Throughout the rest of the school day, odd things kept on happening to her no matter where she went. Fires, purple eyes, and even the occasional glimpse of a creature she never saw before. It even happened during lunch when after she took a bite of her burger, the inside looked to filled with twigs, grass, and berries. She didn’t know what was happening and it was starting to freak her out.

As the bell for the end of school rung out across the building, Jane sighed in relief at the thought that she was about to go home. Running ahead of the other students, she burst through the doors that lead out to the buses and stopped. Everyone was gone and things where silent. The sky was back to being the dark ashen grey of her dream and a cold wind was blowing through the trees, making them sway in unison.

Gripping her book bag tighter, she took a deep breath and started towards her house. It was only a thirty minute walk from school and she knew that as long as she reach her home, she would be safe. As her feet trudged along the side walk, Jane tried to listen for anything, but there was no sound to be heard. No animals, cars, or people rang in her ears; even the wind blowing through the leaves made nary a sound.

Jane cut through the park to use as a shortcut and felt the feeling of being watched return with full force. The speed she was walking at increased into small jog as she made her way through the playground that was situated in the middle of the park. She knew her imagination was just getting the best of her but it didn’t help slow the beating of her heart.

“Join Us.”

The sudden whisper in her ear jolted her into a run. Whereas it was silent before, there were now dozens of whispered voiced ringing in her ears as she ran. All of them repeating the same line over again.

“Join Us.”

“Join Us.”

“Join Us.”

She was at the end of the park now and could see the opening that would lead her to a street that was close to her house. Tears of joy started to steam down her cheeks as she grew ever closer to her goal! As she was about to reach the exit, the blue flames sprung up from the ground blocking her. Quickly, she pushed off to the side and ran into the park’s wooded area to escape the blaze.

As she ran further into the woods, the light grew dimmer around her. She could no longer see the ashen sky or the trees and bushes. Only the darkness surrounded her now and it was still closing in. The whispered voices turned to taunting laughter as panic set in and her breathing was now labored pants. She dropped to her knees and cried in frustration at the hopelessness of her situation.

“Come now, there’s now need to cry.” A smooth voice rang out from the darkness around her. It calmed her down in an instant, and she didn’t like that one bit. Glaring into the inky pitch blackness, Jane tried to find where the voice came from. “Everything will be fine. Your life could be so much better then it is now.” She tried to pinpoint its location, but the voice seemed to be everywhere, yet nowhere all at once.

“I don’t know what the heck you’re trying to pull, but it won’t fool me!” Jane yelled, she started to walk in any direction to get away from it. A deep chuckle was heard right in her ear, causing her to turn around to find nothing. “Why don’t you face me like a MAN!? Or are you chicken?” Jane knew taunting something she couldn’t see wasn’t wise, but even as calm as she was, her temper was rising. She could hear it’s laughter echoing in the darkness as she felt a presence move in front of her.

“It’s not time for us to meet face to face yet, Precious. Until then, Sweet Dreams.”

Jane gasped awake and shot to her feet. Her eyes frantically searched around her, expecting the darkness to still be there closing in on her form. Instead, the clear blue sky met her eyes and sounds of animals and people struck her eardrums. She was standing by the side of her house near her bedroom window. She was confused at how she made it home without being conscious to do so.

Shaking her head, Jane grabbed her book bag that laid at her feet and headed inside to rest. After that crazy… daydream? She needed to take her mind off of what just happened.

“I need a nap.”