His Eyes

Katie ran across the grass and up to her mother, her ponytail flapping about like the tail of a horse swatting flies. “Mummy, did you see? Did you see how high I can swing now?” Her mother smiled tiredly down at her. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and the playground area of the family restaurant was teeming with screaming little children. “Can I go on the merry-go-round now?” the little girl asked her mother expectantly. “Not now honey. We have to get home soon.” Katie reluctantly waited as her father took out his wallet and pulled out some money to pay the bill for the lunch they had just had. She looked forlornly at the other children gleefully whooshing around on the merry-go-round and wished that she could stay on.

Katie’s mother took her hand and followed her father across the garden towards the parking lot of the restaurant. They reached the car and Katie clambered into the back seat, pouting slightly. As the car pulled out of the parking spot, she suddenly felt the urge to use the bathroom. One glance at the stern look on her father’s face as he drove out onto the main road told Katie that she was better off holding it until they were home.

As they drove down the road, Katie tried to distract herself by reciting the poem they had learnt a few weeks ago in school over and over again:

Solomon Grundy
Born on a Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married on Wednesday
Took ill on Thursday
Worse on Friday
Died on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
And that was the end of Solomon Grundy

After she had recited the poem for the fourth time, she leaned forward and tugged on her mother’s sleeve, “Mummy”, she said in a soft voice. “Are we almost home? I need to pee!” Katie’s father looked at her through the car’s rear-view mirror exasperatedly and asked, “Why didn’t you go at the restaurant?” Katie slumped back in her seat and didn’t answer. She was all too familiar with her father’s temper and was too scared to say anything else to aggravate him.

They must’ve still been a while from home, because Katie’s father pulled into a gas station that had a small restaurant. Katie’s mother got out of the car and opened Katie’s door. “Hurry up, now!” she said, as Katie scrambled to get out of the car. They walked towards the restaurant which had dark windows and the smell of roasted meat coming from it.

Katie’s mother stopped a man who was standing just inside the door of the restaurant and asked him where the bathroom was. The man looked disapprovingly at Katie and then nodded towards a corridor past a few tables. There was a man sitting at the bar with a glass of a yellow frothy liquid. A couple of tables with a few more people seated, using their hands to pick up pieces of meat and bite into them. Katie’s mother led her down the narrow corridor and then left towards the door with the silhouette of a woman on it. The door opened into a tiny single stall with a wash-basin. Katie’s mother tugged on a toilet-seat cover from behind the toilet and placed it on the seat. “I’m waiting for you outside – hurry up!” she said to Katie as she slipped out of the stall and Katie went in and shut the door.

Thankful to finally have relieved herself, Katie stood up and yanked the flush handle and then turned around to wash her hands in the wash-basin. The hand-drier was too high for her to activate so she wiped her hands on the back of her dress and opened the door of the stall.

As Katie stepped out into the corridor, about to make her way back into the restaurant, a raspy voice behind her said, “Hello, there!” Startled, Katie whirled around and found herself staring up at a man. His legs didn’t seem to be able to support him very well because he had his hand on the wall of the narrow corridor. He wore an old jacket over a t-shirt and a pair of stonewash jeans. His yellow-tinged skin was covered in stubble and his lips were dry and cracked. His curly hair looked tangled and unkempt. But his bloodshot eyes were what frightened Katie the most. His eyes were of an almost translucent quality. His pupils were like two tiny black dots in a sea of semi-transparent green with bright red veins running haphazardly towards the pupils. He stared at her hauntingly, as his lips curled eerily. Katie froze. She felt her heart thumping against her chest but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

From somewhere behind her, another man’s voice sounded, “Hey, Maurice! What’s taking you so long, man?” With his creepy eyes still boring into Katie’s, the man replied, “I’m enjoying the view from here!” He spoke with difficulty, slurring on every second word. As though it had been given permission, Katie’s body began to respond. She spun around but she felt the man grab her arm and whirl her back around as she saw those eyes fixedly staring at her again. They seemed to pierce right through her and she felt her vocal chords let out a blood-curdling scream.

Her mother must have been right at the end of the corridor because it seemed as though she had appeared in seconds. She grabbed Katie’s other arm and pulled her from the man’s grip. As she dragged Katie through the narrow passageway, she turned her head to yell obscenities at the man. Once they were outside the restaurant, Katie’s mother knelt down and stroked her daughter’s face. “I’m so sorry, honey... I’m so sorry”, she whispered, pulling Katie into an embrace. Katie shut her eyes tight but all she saw was the terrifying man’s eyes staring menacingly at her…