《Storm of the End》Chapter XVIII.V: Eyes
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Slowly, deliberately, the big eye that was its head turned to face me. The patterns in its deep red iris actually swirled and twisted, like the rolling of storm clouds. Its pitch black pupil was at first a small dot, but dilated to the point where it nearly blotted out its entire iris as it locked onto me.
I couldn't move.
Try as I might, all I could do was stare into the absolute abyss that was its darker than black pupil.
A loud wailing noise drifted into my hearing, and it took me a moment to realize that it was me, screaming my lungs out. The thing's pupil shrunk again, and although its entire face only consisted of an eyeball, I got the impression that it was sneering at me.
My body felt like rust was cracking off of it as I slowly regained control of my joints. The thing turned its entire body in my direction, and I managed to stumble a little backwards. Just as it started to lunge forward towards me, my fight or flight response finally won over my terror. I threw myself outside, my arms flailing as I stumbled to the car. Sarah was outside the car, looking she was ready to come running after me, and Aaron had opened the door to the car. They must have heard my scream.
"Dad?! What hap-" Aaron's voice choked mid sentence as he noticed that the thing was coming through the doorway of the house behind me. My heart sunk as I realized the car still hadn't started, "We don't have time! We need to run! Everybody run!" I screamed out as soon as I made it to the car, practically hauling Jared out from where he was trying to hot-wire it.
Sarah and Aaron were already running down the street, in the direction that still had intact houses. Jared took one terrified glance at the thing, which moved with surprising swiftness towards us, then the two of us were scrambling right behind Sarah and Aaron.
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I had expected it to move like a slug, but its movements were more like those of a snake's. The hundreds of eyes attached to its spikes glanced wildly in every direction, taking in everything around it, while its massive eye remained locked directly on me.
In no time at all, we had ran an entire block. The thing was still a good distance away from us, but if we let up for even one second it would gain ground.
Jared suddenly seemed to realize something and turned to me as we ran, "Sh- Shoot the damn thing!"
I stared down in shock at the gun in my hands. Right! I was so terrified of the thing I had completely forgotten I had a weapon! I stopped myself by spinning to face the creature and stomped down hard, aiming the gun at its big eye. The eyes attached to the spikes all instantly locked onto the barrel of the gun in surprise.
I pulled the trigger, and the gun fired. The thing's big eye widened a moment before a huge hole tore through its pupil, all the way out the other end.
"Yes!" I couldn't help myself from shouting. I was half expecting another incident like the deer or the flying thing, but the fact that it could be harmed and possibly killed by weapons was a welcome surprise.
A strange clear liquid shot out of the hole and the thing seemed to falter. The four of us stopped and stared at it in anticipation.
It slowly started to crumple down, and I was about to sigh with relief when something whizzed by my head and crashed into the ground a few feet behind me.
The four of us turned towards where it had landed: it was one of the spikes from the creature, stuck directly into the concrete.
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Had it... shot that out at me?
Three eyes were impaled on the spike, all of them glaring at me with pure rage. Was it still alive?! I dreaded turning back to face it... The hole I had made with the gunshot was sealing back up. One of the spikes on the thing's body was trembling, the eyes attached to it glaring at me with absolute hatred.
"Run over the fence! Just run!" I screamed as I grabbed Aaron's arm again and ran. I kept Aaron in front of me. If it shot out another one of those spikes... I would rather it hit me than him. In the corner of my eye, I caught that one of the eyes on the spike that almost hit me had disappeared. No... don't tell me...
Aaron and I scrambled to the fence. Going over the fence should make it hard for it to get us, right? It should at least slow it down a little.
I hoped.
Just as the thing started moving again, the four of us had made it over the fence and were running to the street on the other side of the house.
"There's a van there!" Jared shouted, "and I think those are keys on the ground next to it!"
My God, I hoped we were actually that lucky! Jared dove for the keys and grabbed them, and as he did I heard the fence cracking behind the house. It was coming. That eye had disappeared... Don't tell me... Don't tell it was like the sadist! Was one eye really enough for it to regain its main one? But... it had hundreds of eyes on it! There was no way we could kill it! Not unless we destroyed each and every one of those eyes! While they were still attached to it, while it could fire off those spikes at us! Shit... we just needed to get the hell away from it...
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