A short horror story
It was just after sunset when the eyes first appeared outside of Emily’s window. It was too dark to see a person, but their eyes were clearly visible. They were red and bright and watching her with an animalistic desire.
She felt her cheeks flush. “How long have you been there? Did you see me changing into my nightgown?” The eyes didn’t answer, but she knew she was right. “Oh, you naughty thing.” She wagged her finger playfully.
She paused, waiting for a reaction that didn’t come. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just teasing. You must be lonely, out there in the dark. Are people afraid of you? Don’t worry, I’m not frightened. I’m sure we’ll be the best of friends.”
She stepped closer to the bay window, padding across the wooden floor in her special socks with the rubber grips on the bottom. “I know what it’s like to have people avoid you. People think I’m strange, too. Even my parents. They think twenty is too old to still be reading fantasy books and wishing for a handsome knight to come rescue me, but the real world is just so dull. Besides, I always thought I have fairy princess hair. Don’t you?” She gestured to her mane of blonde curls, but the eyes said nothing.
She reached out and gently stroked the glass. “But you’re not a knight, are you? You’re something… darker. I can tell. Well, since you’re the quiet type, I’ll just tell you about me.” She giggled. “I haven’t had anyone to talk to in ages.”
She talked to the eyes until it was time to take her medicine and go to bed. In the morning, she was alone. There were no fingerprints on the glass or footprints on the ground outside, no sign anyone had been there at all. But as soon as the sun set, the red, unblinking eyes returned.
Night after night, the eyes appeared outside, watching her. She would curl up in the window seat and talk to them, tell them stories, but they never spoke. She even tried wearing her most revealing nightgown, hoping that would convince the owner of the eyes to reveal themselves, but they never did.
One night, Emily’s mother knocked on her bedroom door. “Honey, did you take my phone? You know you’re not supposed to call people. Who are you talking to?”
Emily quickly pulled on her robe. It was musty from lack of washing. She had to hold it closed, as she didn’t have a belt. She forced a smile and opened the door. “I don’t have your phone. I’ve hardly spoken to anyone in months.”
Her mother furrowed her brow. “You shouldn’t talk to yourself. It’s odd.”
“I know,” she sighed. “I’m not. Good night, mother.”
Emily closed the door and returned to the window seat. “I can’t tell her about you. She wouldn’t understand.” She put her hand on the glass. “You only come out after sunset, and your eyes… You’re a vampire, aren’t you? I knew vampires were real, just like my books.”
As always, the owner of the red eyes refused to speak. She nodded. “No wonder you’re all alone. Just like me.”
She took her copy of Dracula from the shelf. “It’s okay. Let me read you a story about a lonely man just like you.” She spoke softly and sweetly, hoping her voice would be a comfort to the creature out there in the darkness.
It took a few nights of reading to finish the book. After that, she started telling the vampire stories about himself. She described what she imagined his life was like, how he spent his nights hunting evil people and drinking the blood of his victims, tortured with guilt as he struggled to survive. The vampire never said a word, but she could feel his pain. She even offered to let him drink her, but he never came into her bedroom. She tried inviting him in, in case that part of the vampire lore was true, but it didn’t seem to help. She couldn’t open the window, so perhaps he couldn’t either.
After weeks of the vampire’s nightly visits, Emily grew tired of the silence. She wanted more, but the coldhearted creature had shared nothing of himself. She didn’t even know his name. As an icy rain fell outside, the red eyes appeared at her window.
“You have to talk to me,” she said. “Let me see your face.” The empty eyes just stared. She put her hand on the cold glass, longing to touch him. “I need to be with you. Do you love me? Is that why you keep coming back? Is that why you won’t drink me? You’re afraid you’ll be overcome by your darker urges. Well, I’m not scared. I want you.”
But the vampire said nothing.
“I love you. You could make me like you. We could be together forever. Is that what you want?” She bit her knuckle. “I don’t care that it’s cold and rainy. I’m coming outside. Wait for me.”
She pulled on her robe and headed down the hall to the front door. Her mother kept the doors and windows locked, but Emily knew where she hid the key. The fake rock in the potted plant.
She rushed outside, but there was no one at her window. Searching the sky, she saw the red eyes off in the distance. She chased after them, but they always seemed to be the same distance away. She screamed. “Stop hiding from me!” The more she ran, the more the red eyes kept flying off.
Several blocks away, the eyes stopped moving near an office park surrounded by trees. She slipped through a gap in a chain-link fence and gasped. At last, there he was. The watcher in the darkness, the vampire.
He was imposing, impossibly tall, staring down at her with a dozen red eyes. “My love,” she said. “Hold me! Touch me, please!”
But he just stood silently. Shaking in the icy rain, she wrapped her arms around him. His body was cold. She pulled herself up him, climbing higher and higher, longing for his arms.
Her mother appeared far below. “Emily, what are you doing? Stop! Come back down!”
She laughed. “He loves me! We’re going to be together! He’ll take me to his castle and I’ll never have to see you again!”
Emily climbed higher, but her foot slipped on the icy ladder. She screamed and fell, landing in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the radio tower. Overhead, a red light flickered and burned out.
