The Bug-Eyed Girl

If you’ve met me before, you know that for most of my life I loved being scared. How could I not? There’s nothing quite like the combination of goosebumps, eerie suspicion, and adrenaline! I don’t remember when it started, but I was addicted to the tightening in my chest and everyone around me knew it. My parents even feared me because of it. They'd look at me like I was a monster every time I returned from the brink of being afraid. They thought I was being reckless. They thought I'd get myself killed if I kept seeking the fast paced fear that became more and more difficult to find with each passing day.

Everyone who could see the way fear affected me wanted me to stop, but I was addicted to the lack of thought. I loved being so terrified I'd forget everything but momentary survival. I couldn't stop, I wouldn't, not till I met her. She’s beautiful. She is, but she’s still wrong. Her long, wavy, red hair is always styled. Her skin doesn't have a single blemish. She has a body like Aphrodite. If you saw her from the back, you'd think she was perfect in every way but then she'd turn around. Then you’d see a smile with teeth that can’t fit in the mouth she has. You’d stare into her sightless eyes. You’d see their bulbous nature and realize they’re about to slip from their sockets. They’d bounce off a well molded chest before hitting the floor with a splat, but she wouldn’t care because she’s still perfect in almost every way. 

Her back was to me the first time I saw her so I wasn't afraid, not yet. It was last year. I was out looking for something to fear. Most of my days were spent searching yet haunted houses like hers were still relatively new. It started with a tour, led by an old guide. I listened to the stories that made the other guests squirm with boredom and searched through the old house’s creaks and shadows for something scarier than the unexplained. 

From what I'd read about that horrible house, it was something scarier than any of the creepy crawlies I'd let stalk over me in the past or the clown doll stained with red paint that gave me so many nightmares as a child. Maybe the rumors were the reason that after the tour, I stayed. I hid in the forest around the house I planned to break back in once everyone had left. I was sure I wouldn't have to wait long since I was a part of the last tour. 

I didn't have to wait long. Not long at all, in fact it was so short that I was still settling in when they started to leave. They heard me and came to look for me so I ran deeper into the sharp, cracking, forest. They didn't stop chasing no matter how far I ran, even when the sun disappeared. Soon the forest was so thick that I couldn't see them, I could only hear them. 

I ran and ran and ran long till it was late at night. I kept running until the muddy ground captured my foot. Stuck I glanced around and waited for them to find me, but once I was stopped they were too. I could no longer hear them. I focused on freeing my muddy shoe, but I couldn't keep myself from taking in my surroundings. In front of me, surrounded by reeds, a steaming lake. That’s when I saw her. She was dancing. Twirling beside the pool on an old dock, she hummed. On beat her feet moved side to side, thump, thumping to her scattered song. Though the repeated beat had notes that screamed and ones that gurgled, I wasn’t yet afraid because she was pretty. Almost perfect, she danced with her hair swirling behind her. It was memorizing. I could focus on nothing but her so I didn’t see her moving closer to the water’s edge.

Closer and closer to the deep. Farther and farther from me. I didn’t notice till she was a step away from a watery death. As quickly as I realized what she was doing, I ran towards her. I don’t know what I hoped, running full force at a woman on the edge. I think I hoped to grab her and pull her back. I was a step from her, forming my plan when I blinked and suddenly the beautiful redhead wasn’t in front of me. She was beside me. I saw her face for a second, but then her hair blocked it as she pulled back and shoved me into the water.

I almost drowned that day. I almost wish I’d drowned that day because if I had she would no longer be with me. I saw it as I approached the water's surface. From the docks edge, she kneeled over the water and smiled. It wasn't a mouth that smiled, but teeth; crooked buck teeth overlay. I was almost too scared to resurface but her bug-eyes had already seen me. They were already focused on mine waiting for the right moment to finish me. I decided I’d rather die fighting than drowning so I forced myself to surface. 

I was ready for an attack when I took my first breath, but by the time my face left the pond, she was gone or at least I thought she was gone. I should have been lost in that forest for days, but after only an hour of wandering I found a road. I walked the road to a house and called a taxi to take me to my car then I drove back home. I lived alone so there should have been no one, yet I found a companion upon my arrival. 

The lights were off and the door was locked, but I could hear something clicking in the kitchen. I thought I was being robbed, yet stupidly, I still went inside. It was dark and quiet except for the opening of drawers and shuffling of clothes from the kitchen. I wasn’t afraid when I grabbed the vase by the door or when I started taking tiny steps toward the noises. When the fear froze me was the moment I looked past the kitchen's door frame and saw who was rummaging through my silverware drawer. It was her. Facing away and hunched over she stood with her elbows raised as she dug through my forks and knives. I didn’t think she’d noticed me, but I was wrong. 

I tensed. Ready to scream, speak, fight or fail, I don't know, but before I could do whatever I was preparing, she started humming. It was the same song as at the pond but this time hearing it made my blood run cold. 

I blinked and instead of hunched at the other end of the room, she was standing in front of me, her failed smile inches from my face. I failed and fell, but she didn’t care. She stood there as I struggled to say or do anything. That’s when she finally spoke. It’s the only time I’ve heard her speak and it was two words.

“New friend.”