Red Eyes-By Alicia (aka bella109)

Ok, so this is a story I wrote for my creative writing class.
I hope you all like it.
~~~

Roger threw his guitar down as it hit another sour chord. He was very disappointed in himself. He’d been trying to write the world’s greatest song for years. Ever since his band had broken up, he hadn’t had the urge to write, but for some reason, the impulse to write was back. The one problem was he could not think of a thing to write about.

Just then he heard the loud clang of metal hitting the street. He got up to see what the noise was, hoping a short break would get his creative juices flowing. He walked over to the window and gazed out through the rain. There was a new car parking on the street, with a moving van closely behind. Hmm, he thought, someone must have finally rented out the apartment next to me. That apartment had been vacant for years.

Soon, he heard footsteps on the stairs. He peeked out the crack in the door, failing to be inconspicuous. What he saw surprised him.

The most beautiful girl he had ever seen walked towards him. Her black hair waved down to the middle of her back, framing her pale face. Now that he thought of it, she was abnormally pale. She was tall and statuesque, holding herself as if she were a god. Behind her was an equally beautiful man, with casually disarrayed bronze hair. Though he clearly was older, he seemed to shrink under her gaze. They looked as if they couldn’t be over twenty.

Roger had almost fallen out of the doorway when the girl looked over at him, meeting his eyes.

“Hello,” she said. Her eyes were a vibrant shade of red.

Roger shut the door, embarrassed. He quickly turned around and went back into his apartment. He felt as if he had just run a five-mile race. He fell asleep almost instantly.

The next morning he awoke, afraid. He’d had dreams all night of red-eyed beasts. He knew where the fear of those red-eyed beasts came from, and it was sitting in the apartment next to his. Swallowing his unexplainable fear, he headed next door to welcome his new neighbor properly.

The conversation that followed was a pretty normal for two new neighbors, but the person Roger was having it with was definitely not normal. Her name was Belle. All through the conversation, Roger noticed strange things about his new neighbor. Every once in a while, he would see her lick her lips, as if she smelled something good. And, halfway through their conversation, it looked as if she had grown two extra clumps of hair on the top of her head. Her smile was different this time, more pointed and sharp.

Roger went back to his apartment. Lacking anything to do, he picked up his guitar. But the disturbing images of his new neighbor would not leave his head. Frustrated that he could not concentrate, he put down the guitar and got up. He paced around the room, thinking. What could she be? He couldn’t sleep for hours that night.

He decided he would try and forget about Belle. What was she to him anyways? But ignoring someone like Belle was hard to do. Ever since she’d moved next door, he was afraid to sleep. He only relaxed when she took her nightly midnight stroll, not coming back until the early hours of the morning. This wouldn’t have bothered him if it weren’t for all of the disappearances. Weekly, the news would report another missing person. Their bodies would soon turn up, always while Bella was out exploring, seemingly fine, except the frozen expression of fear on their face. There were no signs of any foreign cause of death.

His dreams were filled with red-eyed beasts again. One night, the dream was a little different. Near the very end of the dream, one of the beasts looked over at him. For some reason, its look was familiar. Just then, it struck him. The beast looked at him with the same expression that Belle always had, its red eyes glinting in just the same way. It licked its lips, started running at top speed. About a yard away from him, it leapt, jaws searching for his neck. It was within inches when Roger awoke, startled.

Something was not right about his neighbor, that one thing was for certain. That fact had bugged him the whole night, and had probably produced that creepy dream. For some unknown reason, Roger had a nagging suspicion that Belle was behind the bodies. Considering those two facts, he finally found some courage to go over and tell his neighbor that what she was doing was wrong.

“Come in,” her musical voice said as he knocked.

“Um, hi,” He said. Before she even had time to respond, he continued, “Well, I don’t quite know how to say it without sounding extremely rude. What the heck are you?”

“Ah,” she said. “So, you noticed how different I am from the rest of the world. Congratulations. You are exceptionally observant. We try to blend in.”

“Try?” Roger replied. “It isn’t working. You are very noticeable.”

“I wonder…Would it scare you if I told you what I really was?” Her eyes were gauging his reaction.

“N-no, not at all,” Roger said, trying to suppress the fear that now welled up in him.

“Hmm, we’ll just see about that. My brother and I have a virus.” A worried look crossed Rogers face. “Oh, don’t worry. We’re not contagious. The only way to get the disease is to inherit it, or have it injected into your body somehow.” As she said this, she smiled, teeth glistening.

“I get that. But what are you?”

Ignoring his comment, she continued. “Like I said, I’m from out of this world, literally. My people landed on this planet around a while a go. We ran out of food on the other planet. The people of Hinogloftin Pagencray are different for many reasons. The first you may have noticed.” Roger couldn’t help but look up into her eyes at this. They were definitely not human right now. “We also can’t eat human food. We’ll die if we do. There are also other things that set us apart.” His expression willed her to continue. She was silent.

Taking advantage of the silence, Roger asked the question that had been burning in his brain. “What do you eat if you can’t eat human food?”

“Oh, that’s an easy question. We feed off of fear. Have you ever heard of the expression ‘scared to death’? Our people are the origin of that saying. Fear is connected to a range of other emotions. Once you remove all of the fear, the other emotions follow. Once you are sucked clean of emotion, there’s no reason to live.” Roger could tell she was enjoying this conversation. She gave him a wide grin. “You’re giving me quite a meal tonight. I may not need to feed.”

Shoot! thought Roger. He could feel his body weakening as his emotions were forcefully pulled from his body. Trying to suppress his fear, he said, “So, your brother is just like you?”

“It’s hard for two of us to live so close together. We are very noticeable. Plus the body count rises. But don’t worry about my brother. He won’t be around much longer.” An evil look crossed her face.

“Well, that’s very nice. I think I’ll just go now,” Roger said as he headed toward the door.

“No, I don’t think you will leave,” said Belle, her red eyes gleaming, “You know too much.” She looked over at him during the last part, catching him in the act of eavesdropping on her private conversation with herself.

Roger backed up, terror controlling his every thought. His instinct was telling him to run far away. He looked into her face. She looked just as beautiful as ever. Well, he thought, at least I will die at the hands of someone beautiful.

Just as this thought crossed his mind, a feral grin crossed her face. She stalked forward for the kill. As she walked, her whole physical appearance seamed to change. Her eyes grew freakishly wide; her iris’s expanding until there was no white left in her eyes. Her walk was slow and deliberate, as if to prolong the moment. Her red eyes gleamed with excitement. She was inches away when, suddenly, someone burst through the door. “Belle, you can’t do this! Remember what happened last time!” said the bronze-haired man as he quickly strode across the room. He grabbed Belle’s arms, restraining her.

“I…need…him…Let me at him!”

A panicked look came into her brother’s eyes as he looked into her face. He could see the lust there. He turned his worried face toward Roger. Roger noticed something different about him. Thinking quickly, he realized his eyes were a piercing, icy blue. And suddenly, Roger felt safe. He could trust this man to save his life.“Run…” he managed to say before Belle turned on him. Roger took his advice, and ran from the room. He ran back to his apartment, locking the door behind him, and flung himself onto the bed, wondering if he would survive the night.

Roger awoke the next morning, dazed. He vaguely remembered that he should be scared, that a dangerous creature was sitting in the next room, waiting for him. He’d been surprised he escaped last night, tearing out of the room, all thanks to the bronze-haired man. He vaguely remembered hearing a bunch of shouting and doors slamming as he fell asleep. The last thing he remembered was the unmistakable sound of her footsteps on the stairs. Maybe that meant she was gone. He really wanted to thank the her brother for saving his life. Knowing that it may not be him who awaited him in the apartment next door, he headed over. The door creaked open.

Besides a folded piece of paper left on the floor, the room was bare.

Roger walked over to the folded piece of paper. His name was written across it, so he picked it up.

“Roger,” it read:
I’m sorry for what happened last night. Rest assured, nothing like that will ever happen again. I’m taking her far away, and she probably will never return.
I reckon she gave you the basic rundown of what we are. We are called “fear eaters”. I guess you could have guessed that by now. Well, what I don’t think she told you is that all of us are not corrupt, like her. Our eyes only turn that red color if we kill our prey.
I bet you’ve noticed by now that my eyes are not red. I am your ally here. She still wants you dead, and I’m doing all I can to stop her. But there is only one solution I can think of, and it probably won’t make either of you happy. But if you want to be able to sleep peacefully at night, not fear for your life every second of the day, take these pills…
Two pills were taped onto the sheet of paper. Beneath them, the letter continued:
You don’t have to take these if you don’t want to. If you take them, you can find me at the address below.
Again, I’m sorry that you were dragged into this.
I hope to see you soon,
E.

Roger took the note and went back to his room. He sat down on the couch and had an argument with himself in his head. Should he take the pills? The note had said that he may not like what they did. But if it would keep Belle from coming back to kill him, it may be worth it. This argument went through his head all day.

Finally, he made his decision. If these pills do anything weird to me, I’m sure this ‘E’ guy can find a way to fix it, he thought as he went to get a glass of water. He downed the pills in one gulp.

He felt fine for a while. Suddenly the room started to sway before his eyes. He barely had time to register that he was falling before he passed out.

He awoke hours later to the blinding sun in his face. He could tell something was different. He went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. A stranger stared at him through the mirror.

It’s amazing what a few hours and two pills can do to a person. His face was no longer a boring, human face. Every plane of his face was beautiful now. But that wasn’t the thing that caught his eye. His eyes did. They were no longer the deep, emerald green that he loved. They were red. Blood red.

He was one of them now
~~~

Well, there it is.
Lemme know if theres any grammar or spelling mistakes.
Please leave all comments in my comment thread