Two Eyes

Colored Eyes

I face palm myself. "This is your second time to drive?!"

"Hey, I don't usually get around by car." He puts his hands up defensively, palms out.

"Hands on the wheel!!"

"Right." He clutches the wheel again.

"When we go back, I'm driving." He flashes me a toothy grin. "Eyes on the road!"

Oh Lord God, please let us live tonight.

We arrive at the bottom of a hill. I look around once again. We are in the country. I haven't been in this part of the city before. My hands are in my jacket pockets. There is a slight breeze that I notice as the grass sways. It appears to be a picture perfect scene. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

"Hey, slowpoke!!" I hear Ryan yell. He is halfway up the hill already. He cups his hands and yells again. "Hurry up!"

I shake my head and walk up the hill as he runs to the top. I stare at the moon on my way up. It's a full one. I guess I forgot to look on my calendar when it was supposed to be. I meet Ryan at the top.

"So this is your place, huh?" I ask. He nods. "It's beautiful." I barely whisper it.

He sits down and pats the grass beside him. I gratefully sit. My elbows relax on my knees while my right hand holds my left wrist. Ryan's legs are stretched out and his arms hold him up from the back. We sit in silence for a while, taking in the beauty of the place.

"So why did you take me here?" I break the silence. "Why did you wake me up in the middle of the night to take me here?"

He looks over at me. "Well I figured that would've been easy enough to figure out." I blink in shock. He leans back and folds his arms behind his head. He closes his eyes. "But I guess you're just too dumb to know."

"HEY I'M A LOT SMARTER THAN I LOOK!!! JUST BECAUSE I CAN'T FIGURE SOMETHING OUT THAT YOU THINK IS OBVIOUS DOESN'T MAKE ME DUMB!!" I cross my arms. "And another thing. Sure, I may look Goth but I only do that so others won't notice me as much. I'm usually alone by myself anyway, meditating."

Ryan bursts out laughing. I couldn't help but laugh with him. I think we both know that we were joking about our last sentences. A little bit, anyway.

"But seriously." I look back at him, my face straight. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Well, we both know that you and I are alike. And I already told you that there are more of us. I figured you'd want some questions answered."

"Oh."

I sit in thought. I always thought that I was alone. That there aren't others like me and never will be. I never want to have children; so they won't ever have to suffer the way I do. I figure I will always be alone and never live a happy life. My fate determined that when I was younger. I haven't trusted many people either. I used to try it but they always betrayed me in the end. I don't want to trust for fear of being betrayed again. The only one who's ever actually been there for me is Mike and he's rarely even with me. It's hard to grow closer to someone who's far away. I still don't want to trust Ryan but I know I have to in order to get some answers.

But now someone says that there are more like me? Like us? That there are people that have lives like me, maybe? I figure that I should probably say something because my silence is probably confusing Ryan.

"So .... There really are more of us?"

"Yup. There's hundreds more at the camp. Maybe a thousand."

"Camp?"

"Yeah. That's where we all live. As one big family. That's why you and I have the same last name. We're all related. Not by blood but by who we are. We all lived in isolation before Matira founded the camp. Since then we've gathered as many of us as we can. I mean, I wasn't there when she started it but she tells the story at the camp every time we gain another member. So they'll know."

"Oh ok." I'm not sure how to respond to that. "What was that you did back there?"

"What was what?" He looks at me with a confused expression.

"That sun shining thing. Like, you'd transformed completely and then when I came back out it was like it was before it happened." Ryan starts to laugh. "What?"

He smirks. "That's a trick I use to get girls."

I punch him in the shoulder knocking the grin right off his face.

"Ow!" he says. "That hurt!"

"Good." I look the other way and cross my arms. "But really." I look back at him. "What was that?"

"A bit of magic," he explains. "Everyone in the camp knows at least a little. We've started to train people to use it. Before, only the ones in higher positions could use it but recently they've let children and teenagers use it as well.

"But that wasn't real magic. Everyone would kill me if I had done real magic. What I did to you was only an illusion." He smirks again. "Usually the girls punch me once they recognize the illusion. One girl gave me a black eye for two weeks! Anyway, you were the one exception that didn't punch me. Save the time a few seconds ago."

I punch him again.

"Hey!! What was that for?"

"The first one was for tricking me. The second was for all the girls you've used it on."

"Any more questions for me Princess Punch?"

"Actually yes." My face grows serious and I whisper. "What exactly are we?"

He answers with silence. I notice him clenching his fists that lay upon his stomach. "We are two-colored eye freaks that can use magic."

"D-Do we have a name?"

"Matira won't tell me. I wish I knew. But she keeps it to herself. Several of us have asked but she says that we don't have a name and yet her eyes tell a different story. How she can lie to all of her own kin I will never know."

I realize the seriousness of the situation. "One more question," I say.

"What's that?" I lie down and whisper so that's it's barely audible.

"Why are you here?"

He sighs and sits up.

"I was sent here to find you. It wasn't that hard considering our last name. I found out you're teachers' plans and enrolled myself in your science class and a few other 'generic' classes. I then wondered how suspicious you'd be of me for things I'd said but you didn't seem to have a clue." I made a face but said nothing. "Then I seized the opportunity to make you say that humans might have two different colored eyes. I thought, 'She'll see this for sure!' But when that didn't happen I had to change tactics once again. And here we are."

"But why are you here?"

"Oh right! Well, you see, some of us get sent out to find a certain person in a certain town that we suspect to be one of us. Matira handpicks and sends someone close in age." He puffs out his chest at "handpicks." I just shake my head. "And so she picked me and you know the rest."

"So this leader lady sends out people to find other people that she thinks might have two different eye colors?"

"Pretty much."

"Wow ..." I say sarcastically.

"What?"

"Don't you find that strange?"

"No, why?"

I shake my head. "Don't you have enough people at the dumb camp of yours?"

"It's not dumb!! And she does it to save the people from loneliness. People like you." He stands up. "And if that's not enough, I was going to ask you to come to our camp!! That's her offer. To live with others like you so you won't live such a lonely life!!"

He storms off. "Wait!!" I yell. I start after him. But right as I'm about to grab him he disappears into thin air.

I gasp. The car is still, amazingly, there. I drive home.