Eyes

A breeze made its way through the little town of Maplesville, bringing a summer night chill to anything that graced its presence. School was finally out meaning kids all over town had nothing but time. Time to do everything they longed to do during their arduous school year. Although, unfortunately for Jordan, she found herself with nothing of substance to do for the next 80 days or so. Most of her friends were either in a different state, let alone a whole other continent enjoying their distant vacations. Jordan didn’t really find herself to be jealous, however, because she didn’t fancy the idea of sand being stuck between her toes and salt perpetually stinging her eyes for the entirety of summer. What she did envy was the fact that her friends at least had activities to occupy their vacation time while Jordan was stuck miserably lobbing her ball into the brick wall that surrounded her house. If only green wasn’t notoriously known for symbolizing jealousy, the neon green that caressed the sphere would have allowed her to forget her childish sorrows and replace it with joy for its vibrancy. 

While lost in thought Jordan realizes that her ball didn’t land in her lap like it had the previous 100 times that day. She pushed herself up from her slouching position and began to check every crevice it could have slipped into. It didn’t take Jordan long to notice that her carelessness had led her to losing her one source of entertainment for the summer. In the middle of Jordan cursing herself eternally, she felt a soft thump on her ankle. Curious, she quickly turned to discover that her neon green ball was sitting right in front of her, almost expectantly waiting for something. As Jordan crouched down to pick up the ball she made her head eye-level to the ground in an attempt to find where her ball rolled out from. For the second time she still couldn’t see anything that stood out. Dejectedly, Jordan took that as her cue to head inside and actually get some rest while she still could. 

The next morning Jordan found herself outside again after finishing a light breakfast. The weather was the perfect temperature to continue her solo game of catch, the shade of an oak tree combined with a soft breeze kept Jordan sheltered from the harsh heat summer brought about. At least this was something she could find joy in while home for everyday of the week. Seemingly to purposefully burst Jordan’s bubble, her ball goes rogue and begins to bounce down the street again. This time, she made sure to track where it went in hopes of not losing it for good. The neon green definitely helped it stand out from the black paved road although it did little to help when it inevitably rolled into a storm drain.

Jordan began bending down and peering into the drain to confirm if she truly did lose her ball for good to the damp sewers. As she peered in she didn’t find her ball looking back up at her helplessly like she had expected. Instead, she found striking pale eyes locked onto her brown ones. Jordan immediately stumbles back with a shaky breath, not breaking their impromptu staring contest. Her eyes were only dragged away the next second when she felt an overbearing presence over her shoulder.

“Hey man, are you feeling alright?” Bailey, Jordan’s good friend since middle school, nonchalantly questioned. 

“Oh my god Bailey! What are you doing here?” Jordan replied while grabbing onto Bailey’s arm, relief was present in her voice.

“I was just heading to Marcia’s…Are you alright? You seriously look like you’ve seen a ghost and you’re entirely too jumpy for a Tuesday afternoon.” Bailey questioned again with a more genuine tone.

Jordan’s eyes flicked to the storm drain she was previously intently staring into, this time, the pale yellow eyes didn't meet her gaze.

“Uh yeah, no, I’m perfectly fine,” replied Jordan after swallowing harshly. Her eyes continued to glance over Bailey’s shoulder, she was certain those eyes weren’t a figment of her imagination.

“Sure you are, whatever. You’re welcome to join Marcia and I if you’re up for it. We were just planning on exploring that cement tunnel down by the river over on the East Side.

“Oh…the drain connected to the sewer, right?” Jordan hesitantly questioned.

Bailey nodded in confirmation with a comforting smile that unfortunately didn’t work to calm Jordan’s nerves at all.

“I-It’s okay then, I’m not really interested in that stuff. I hope you guys have fun though.” Jordan stammered off with a meek smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Yeah okay, it's really no big deal don't sweat it. We should all hangout together soon though. I swear we haven't seen you in weeks, you have practically become a hermit.” 

Bailey’s attempt to lighten the mood seemed to work better this time around compared to her previous actions. With that Bailey rubbed Jordan’s arm as they exchanged farewells and parted ways.

Jordan found herself frozen in fear as she heard Bailey’s steps slowly disappear into the distance. She begrudgingly shifted her gaze to the storm drain’s opening for hopefully the last time. Luckily, no eyeballs seemed to be inhabiting it this time. Although for some reason something was nagging at Jordan to check to see if her ball was still down there. Maybe it was the reflection of the ball that led to her seeing something akin to eyes. However she was proven wrong when she didn’t even see her ball lying on the floor anymore.

Jordan’s heart dropped way past her stomach and seemingly all the way to her toes. She didn’t hesitate for even a second before breaking into a full sprint towards her house. Who knows what it was that she became briefly acquainted with down there, and she really never wanted to find out. 

Her breath heaved as her heart failed to slow, despite her begging it to calm down. One minute Joran was standing and the next she found herself on the floor with her back pressed to her front door, too in shock to even move further into the house and remove her shoes. Of course Jordan was home alone for the day so she didn’t even have anyone she could run to in hopes of rationalizing what she just saw with another person.

After a long period of time, Jordan was able to peel herself off of the floor. She wouldn’t have known how much time had passed since she entered the door if it wasn't for the stark contrast in lighting outside. Now the sun was practically fully set and the night was fresh. Jordan couldn't help but laugh at the bad timing all of her family seemed to have with being simultaneously absent from the house on the same night she decided to see things. It would be alright though, Jordan would hop in the shower to wash off the dirt and sweat accumulated on her but she was also hoping to somehow wash away the bad vibes she felt still clinging all around her body. And when she finishes her shower in about less than an hour, her family members should start showing up one by one until they are all within the house again.

The warm shower really did do wonders to calm Jordan’s nerves. She had come to the conclusion that she was definitely seeing things, it had to be heat stroke or dehydration, things like that were no joke in the south. Apparently she was still severely dehydrated because as she lowered her head to wash her hair, she found a pale, yellow eye, staring right back at her.

It was possibly the loudest shriek Jordan’s mom, Mrs. Evelyn, had ever heard. It was even more startling because it was the first thing she was greeted with after opening her front door following a long day. She ran as fast as she could upstairs to the source of the scream, her daughter. After busting down the bathroom door with a quick slam from her shoulder, Mrs. Evelyn quickly pulled back the shower curtain ready to help Jordan in any way she could. However, Mrs. Evelyn wasn't met with the presence of her daughter, instead,  she found a running faucet and a single neon green ball, bobbing in the crimson tinged water.