Evanescent Mayfly [A Collection of Flash Stories]

The Eyes

When something stares at you in the dark; when your senses are so limited that only fright remains in the body; when only bloody death awaits you in those eyes

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Darkness; the kind of blackness, a human being gets tired of seeing in after no more than a few minutes, instead of average twelve. There were no stars, moonlight, nor light fixtures that could light his way up except of one single, weak ray two feet ahead.

Those glimmers were the only source of light that could be found on the Earth now. There was a dark shadow in front of this light, which reached out with its hand to touch it.

"Damn it!" The voice in the dark said, taking its hand away. The voice belonged to a man, but it was hard to tell how old he was for sure because of his hoarse whisper.

The silhouette took a small, careful step closer to the source of light; lines of its face started to outline, reminding a young man who had only graduated from high school.

"Ever since the light disappeared, I've been living the life of a mole – keeping my noise down, making no extra movements not to trigger some object that can shatter and fall. On top of that, my survival relies on these damned plants that illuminate this shithole," the boy mumbled under his breath, showing the first – or not – signs of delirium.

He shoved his index finger in the mouth, and started to suck on blood. The plant was covered with an armor of spikes that could cut you up in slices if you happen to fall over them.

"I must move until they come," the thought of those shining, bloody eyes that he had already seen once in the dark made him shiver unceasingly. He knew what those eyes meant: excruciating pain, and death in agony. The only reason why he knew it was because he was lucky enough to see them once.

He tried to step close to the plant from its side, but his leg stepped onto something slimy, which immediately sucked his foot in. He yelped, immediately regretting, and torn it away from that substance.

"I can't go on without light. I will stumble and kill myself even before they come with their huge canines," he put his hands in one of the pockets, and felt for something that could help him.

Am I the only human left?

The world has sunk into darkness ever since meteorites began to crash into the Earth. They still do it from time to times, but not so heavily anymore; as if those who fly them knew they had nothing to fear.

The world was theirs now. They have eaten, devoured, everyone on the planet, including his mother and younger sister. They did it right before his eyes, when the light was still around, while he hid himself in a closet like a horrified to death pig in its stall.

Has he gotten far away ever since then? He did not know, for a day or two later, the light, literally all light on Earth, disappeared for good – the Sun never rose again, and the moon was not even in its orbit.

His fingers finally felt the object they had looked for, and took it out. It was the last match he had – wet and questionable. There was a desire to pray that it would work, but the boy no longer believed in God.

He struck the match once to no use. It scribbled against the surface, but gave no light. He did it the second time with the same result.

"Come on, you have to!" he murmured under his breath again in an aggressive tone.

Chirk; Flare. A weak source of fire emerged on the tip of the match, casting the dark away.

After a long time in total darkness, he finally managed to make out a few objects that were around him.

Goosebumps covered his skin when he took a look around. It was the same room – their living room – where the monster had gobbled his dear mother and sister.

He had made no progress; a pig in its stall, after all? The closer where he had hidden in was right behind his back. His heart pounded heavily in his chest when he realized; eyes dropped, looking at the floor.

That slimy puddle where his foot had sunk in was...

He tried to cover his mouth, but it was too late – a shrill escaped his lips. It could not be still around, could it? His head ached; the legs did not want to hold his weight.

A weird growling sound rang out from behind. It had to be a breathing – low, monotonous, heavy breath of a wild beast.

Then he turned around.

A pair of huge, puffy with blood, red eyes stood out in the pitch dark. The match went out, and nothing was left to him but the enfolding around his neck fangs of the same wild beast.

I may be the only human left; it doesn't matter, though. This world no longer belongs to humans.

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Words count: 858