Ol’ Blue Eyes
Her school day behind her, she began her walk home. On her way, she planned out the events of the rest of her day. . When she got in, she would have a light snack, then take a short nap—only sleeping long enough to recoup the loss of the day’s energy. Her alarm clock was set to wake her up before she could drift into full REM sleep. That would be enough to help her stay up late. After she woke up, she planned to study, exercise, and listen to her music all night as loud as she could. If she did all that, she wouldn’t even need the pill tonight.
She walked into her house, which resided in the posh Bayswater area of Westminster, and let her parents know she was home.
Mrs. Keyrouz: “Liandra, come in here!”She walked into the dining room and saw her parents sitting at the table together. In front of them was a neat stack of papers and she saw her mother holding onto one as well. Her parents both showed her soft tired smiles as she walked in. She stood quietly and waited for them to speak.
Mrs. Keyrouz: “Liandra honey, come sit. We have some good news!”Her mother’s smile brightened and her blue eyes glistened. Liandra walked over to the seat in front of her parents and sat hesitantly. She looked at them both.
Liandra: “Well, don’t leave me in suspense. Come on, out with it!”Her mother reached for her hand and gently cupped her own over Liandra’s.
Mrs. Keyrouz: “We’ve gotten some good results from your sleep therapist, Dr. Thomas. He says that you’re actually making progress. He’s given us a chart here that shows the various chemical fluctuations going on in your body. He told us that if we regulate the hormones in your body to normal levels that it’s possible for your mind to stop producing these horrible night terrors when you sleep.”
Liandra: “He’s lying.”She pulled her hand back as she stared at her mother.
Mrs. Keyrouz: “Dove?”
Liandra: “How is this any different than before? The last drugs didn’t do anything and neither did the drugs before that!”Liandra’s father spoke up from behind her mother.
Mr. Keyrouz: “No need to yell, Liandra. We’re just looking at all the possibilities here since you aren’t having any luck with normal therapy. We don’t want to rule out any kind of treatment that could possibly help you.”Liandra sighed and looked at her parents.
Liandra: “I know, Mum and Dad. I just hate when people try to rip you two off. It’s maddening. None of this stuff is working and they have no clue what to do, but they want you to spend more money anyway. They’re all so full of—”Her mother looked at her as gently as she could, but Liandra could tell that she was frustrated.
Mrs. Keyrouz: “Liandra, that’s enough. These people are trying to help us. They’re just dealing with something abnormal. Something that even their years of training didn’t prepare them for.”Something evil, she knew her mother wanted to say.
Mrs. Keyrouz: “We have to do all we can for you, dove. What else would you have us do?”She hated seeing her parents like this, so full of worries, but this was how she always saw them nowadays, and all because of her. Both had aged considerably these last five years. They shared countless gray hairs and frown lines between them, along with the concern they had for their only daughter.
Liandra: “I don’t want you to do any more. You’ve tried everything in these last five years. None of it worked. It’s time for me to live with this or beat it on my own.”
Mr. Keyrouz: “Habibti…”Liandra’s dad looked at her with great concern.
Liandra: “Well, I have homework…”She rose from her seat and abruptly left the table, grabbing her backpack from the floor as she fled. She made a beeline up the stairs to her room, and wiped her eyes only after she was all the way up. She needed to nap now if she was going to stay up tonight. She set the alarm on her radio for an hour and a half from now. As she lay in her bed, she pulled up the covers and breathed steadily and deeply, making sure to slow her pace a little at a time. Her eyes became heavy, and next thing she knew she was out. She then found herself “conscious” in her blank dreamscape and she knew she didn’t want to be.
The dread came quickest of all … and then came her savior, the alarm clock. It buzzed her to real consciousness from her AM/FM radio just in time before the onset of wicked REM sleep. Back in the real world, she muttered to herself:
Liandra: “Just in time.”She still felt all the fear from it in her rapidly beating heart. She wasted no time and quickly hopped out of bed. She turned her radio up and pressed play on the Loverboy mix she had in the tape deck. The song Notorious came on with a loud and energetic melody. Liandra jumped on her bed and swirled her long black hair around in crazy circles as she mouthed the lyrics.
Now fully awake, she plopped down on her bed and sauntered over to her desk. She worked on her homework and listened to Loverboy until dinnertime a few hours later.
She ate with her parents, and they all had a pleasant time not talking about her night terrors, talking instead about her father’s mustache and his sudden desire to shave it. Her father then reminded her of the CD player and headphones they had just bought her, which Liandra knew meant they wanted her to turn her music down at this time of night. They both had to work in the morning, so she wouldn’t blast her music so late anyway. She just wished she knew how to transfer her favorite mixtape to a CD, since she’d broken her Walkman last year. She promised herself that she’d learn soon. She figured it couldn’t be that hard.
Once they were all done with supper, Liandra did all the dishes and hopped to her room to finish her homework and studying. She put in the CD of some pop group her cousins had gotten her and cranked the volume all the way up while she studied. It was her only CD, so it didn’t matter that she didn’t like it. She just needed something loud and with a fast tempo on while she studied. She even found herself nodding to the songs, but had to skip the slow ones.
She took breaks from her studying to aimlessly walk around the house. It kept her blood flowing, kept her alert.
Hours passed, and she was at her desk again reading comic books. Once she noticed how late it was she couldn’t help but let a yawn escape. Her parents had been asleep for several hours and now her body was telling her to do the same. She pleaded with it silently, thinking that her earlier nap should’ve done enough to recharge her for the night.
Her body didn’t agree, and she yawned again.
Liandra: “Time for some exercise then.”She changed into burgundy gym sweats, the ones from school, and made her way to the basement where she kept her exercise equipment in a small corner. She did light cardio exercises until a little after 2am to get a nice jolt of oxygen flowing throughout her body. Once she was done she was covered in a fine sweaty glaze, so she snuck up the stairs and into the bathroom for a quick cold shower. Afterwards, she refused to wear her pajamas and instead wore jeans and a t-shirt in a not so subtle and ridiculous rebellion against the very natural act of sleeping. She only needed to stay awake for a few more hours before she would be on her way to school, walking in the crisp cool early Westminster morning air. She just needed to occupy her time with something until then.
She lasted a solid hour after her shower. Then her eyelids became impossibly heavy while she sat at her desk, so she stood up. Her CD player with her pop CD was cranked up to the max in her ear, and yet she still yawned once, and then twice, and then three times in succession. She started making handcrafted jewelry and did that for the last hour, but it began to bore her. As she was putting the jewelry up, her eyes drooped down and nearly closed all the way, until she saw a dark flash across the front of her window.
She woke up instantly and looked for whatever had invaded her room, but she found nothing. More physical activity was needed. She got on the floor for some pushups and did twelve standard reps before she noticed how comfortable her carpeted floor looked every time she dipped close to it. She stopped and pressed her face and body to the carpet. Dangerous, she thought, before she sprang to life.
She needed caffeine ASAP! On the way downstairs to get it, she swore she could see a face at the bottom of the stairs. Her heart pounded and she stopped and stared down for a while. A whole minute passed, then she surmised that it wasn’t really there. After three straight days of extremely light sleep, her mind was playing tricks on her. She quickly made her coffee from the machine in the kitchen. She put only a little sugar in it, and no cream like her father would drink. She breathed in the aroma—that earthy bitter smell—and the steam. She imagined that the smell alone gave her a second wind, but her body didn’t agree. Her eyes were still heavy as she walked up the stairs.
At the top, she could see the face again. This time more of its features were visible. It was covered in shadow, but she could clearly see its blue eyes, deep like the sky, angry, and with a regal haughtiness as they looked down at her. The face bore a grimace that was directed right at her. It hated her. She shuddered all over but didn’t stop walking up the stairs. It was only her tired mind doing all this. She tried not to look, but the eyes followed her, and she hoped it’d simply disappear.
She made it to her room, coffee in hand, and stood by her desk. Her clock showed it to be 3:48am and she wondered if she’d have to continue standing for the next few hours. She wanted to try her seat, but avoided it, since her eyes were getting heavy again. Once the coffee cooled enough, she downed half of it, but could swear it made her sleepier.
She closed her eyes … just for a blink, but then didn’t open them—it felt so good. It was okay, though, since it couldn’t be possible for her to sleep on her toes. She hoped she was right, anyway. She could feel her body swaying, but now it felt dangerous. Whenever closing her eyes felt this good, sleep was never far behind. So were the night terrors.
She felt a draft behind her, so she opened her eyes, remembering that she’d left her room door open. She turned around and paused at the blue-eyed face seething in the dark hallway on the other side of her door. The contemptuous eyes were now more spaced apart and much higher up, near the top of the doorway. It was again looking down at her. She was deathly scared, but knowing that it was only inside her mind gave her the courage to approach it so she could close her door. She stopped halfway when she heard it talk. Her illusion of safety felt violated.
“Pathetic failure!”Liandra quickly tried to discern what it meant, but came up short.
“Foolish traitor!”It reached a large, pitch black, tri-cloven hand in through her door and grabbed the inside of the frame, while burning a hole right through her with its murderous glare.
“Unworthy reject!”Its voice boomed throughout her room and she took a step back, wanting to explain herself but not finding her voice. It pulled itself past her threshold and fully into her room. Now she could see the full size of the gigantic monster and its terrible appearance. Behind its rage-fueled blue eyes it had the giant head of a bull, with black fur and huge U-shaped horns. Altogether its head reached up to her ceiling. Its body was heavily muscled, outrageously broad, and covered with the same pitch black fur as its head. It looked like an ebon statue, nearly black all over except for the pure white loincloth covering its pelvis, and the gold on its arms, wrists, and ankles.
It took a step towards her and she felt the house shake under a monumental thunderclap. It stepped again and a second thunderclap knocked her to her knees. She crawled backwards, but it continued to approach, sending shockwaves reverberating throughout her whole house.
“It’s not over. You will be punished, traitor. Death is too good for you.”When it took yet another thunderous step towards her, she found herself in the corner. She screamed then, for the help of anyone who would listen. She couldn’t help but cry at the sight of this huge monster that had invaded her world. She didn’t understand its hatred towards her. She had never done anything and yet she had to suffer all this alone—no, not alone. She heard her parents calling out for her, but she had to warn them to stay back. While the beast had her in its sights, she could only manage to yell a few words.
Liandra: “Mum, Dad, no!”They rushed into her room, and ran right through the giant beast.
“This isn’t over. You will be punished.”Her parents looked as scared as she was, but to her they felt like the best warmth when they approached…
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