Carbon Eyes

"Clarissa, you said her name was?"

"Yes, yes," the man nodded furiously, his eyes blazing into those of the woman who sat across from him. She simply nodded at the man, her gray eyes remarkably clear. Her auburn hair had been brushed until it shined, and she wore it back neatly in a headband, a few strands escaping to frame her smooth, diamond face. Neat, casual, relaxed. As if the man's story was all to be expected.

The man who sat across from her was in no such state. His eyes were red-rimmed and his brown hair was slightly messy, as if he had made only a half-hearted attempt to appear presentable. He fidgeted in his seat often and quite often broke eye contact with the woman sitting across from him, looking into his coffee instead. He was quite young, no older than twenty-seven, but lines of worry creased his face. It would certainly be easy to mistake such a man for a drunk, the woman thought, although she knew that he was sober.

The woman didn't speak for a moment, although the man clearly expected her too. He took a short sip of his coffee, and he closed is eyes for a moment and swallowed slowly as the hot, bitter liquid burnt at his throat.

"I see..." The woman murmered. "Yes. I'll listen. But you must tell me more, elaborate."

"But what more is there to tell?" The man blurted out.

"How it began..."

"Yes, of course, yes," the man mumbled. "Where I met her - is that a proper place to start off?" he asked, his eyes darting away from the woman's.

"Yes, that will do."

"She was standing on the sidewalk, you see. No umbrella. But it was raining buckets. And of course I thought it a bit odd, but assumed she had simply been caught off guard by the storm. I didn't think much of her, just that I hoped that she made it home before she caught pnemonia. She was a pretty thing, very delicate looking. I felt tempted to go up to her, offer her my umbrella. But of course I couldn't, I was just a strange man, and she was but a young girl, a few years younger than me, perhaps. I would have simply kept on walking, but I suddenly felt... compelled." the man laughed bitterly. "I didn't want to walk away just yet.

"I watched as she stepped carefully over puddles on the sidewalk, and then suddenly stepped into the street, and kept on walking until she was right in the middle of it. By now I was a bit worried, because she was just standing there in the middle of the road, as if she were just waiting to be hit by a car. I walked up the sidewalk just a little, so that I was across from her, and I waited a moment to see if she would move out of the street. She didn't.

After a brief hesitation, I finally called out to her. 'Exscuse me, Miss!' I said loudly. She didn't acknowledge me.

'Are you alright?' I called out, a bit alarmed. She still didn't respond. And then I heard the unmistakeable sound of a car approaching.

'Miss, Miss!" I called out frantically, and finally she turned and looked at me. 'Get out of the road, dammit!' I called out to her, frightened. But she just stared, a blank expression on her face, as if she were apathetic to the approaching danger.

I could see it coming now, the car, and without thinking I ran out into the street as quickly as I could, and I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the center of the street, towards the sidewalk. I heard screeching as the car breaked to a halt, a meter or so away from where she had been standing. The driver's window rolled down, and he was pale and shaking.

'What the hell were you doing?' he asked, his wide eyes slowly contorting themselved into a glare."

"And then what?" The woman asked softly.

"Then... then she just stared at him blankly, as though she couldn't hear him screaming at her, couldn't see the annoyance on his face. Didn't say a word, just looked at him, expressionless as a statue. And I think that's why I noticed her eyes just then..." the man trailed off, clearly feeling uneasy, and the woman nodded for him to go on, almost impatiently.

"Well, they were... they were black. Which sounds normal enough as I say it, but it wasn't an ordinary black, not a deep shade of brown, and her irises weren't flecked with other colors. They were just..."

"Black?" the woman supplied, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes! Black as carbon, without a single other color in them! Unnatural, it looked.

It was almost unnerving, something about that gaze, but I tore my eyes away from those eyes and looked at the driver, and I apologized for what this lady had done, that she would be more careful in the future. She didn’t speak this whole time. The driver shook his head and mumbled something as he got back into his car and drove off down the near empty street.

“ ‘Are you alright?’ I asked the woman, but she still didn’t say anything, instead just diverted that empty gaze to me, and I tried to put aside how uneasy this made me. ‘Miss?…’

“She appeared unharmed, but she just wouldn’t answer me, and I began to worry that she had somehow gotten hurt. And then there was a possibility of shock, I supposed, although I wasn’t very well informed on that topic.

“ ‘Are you hurt?’ I tried, and for a few seconds I thought I wasn’t going to get any sort of response, but then she slowly shook her head ‘no’. Her movement was eerie, having the same effect on me as those eyes did. Her head had moved side to side slowly, but loosely, as though she were a marionette being controlled by some invisible cord, and once she was done she just kept on staring at me.

“ ‘Do you need any help?’ I asked her, and after a moment she nodded.

“ ‘What is it? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?’ She shook her head ‘no’ again and made a gesture towards my car, her arm rising like a feather, only to then drop limply at her side.

“ ‘You need me to take you somewhere? Yes, yes, I’ll do what I can to help you Miss, but I really must know where it is that you need me to take you.’ “

“And throughout this whole experience, you felt nothing but… unnerved? This woman, she had no other effect on you” The woman sitting across from him asked.

“I… I don’t understand what you mean to ask me,” he said, giving her a rather strange look.

A sigh from the woman. “Did you find her pretty?”

“Oh,” the man said, his face reddening slightly. “Oh… Well, yes, she was a pretty girl, as I said. Long, dark hair, very fair skinned, petite…But,” he cleared his throat, “As I was saying, she wanted me to take her somewhere, but I had no clue as to where, and she wasn’t telling me anything. But I lead her to my car and opened the passenger side door for her, and she got right in. I sat down in front of the wheel, and I tried to ask her where she needed to go again. I wasn’t expecting much of an answer, if any, so when she pointed to down the street to the left, I felt that maybe we were making some progress.

“ ‘I started off in the direction that she had indicated, and she sat very still and silent in the passenger seat. ‘Going home?’ I inquired, but she shook her head again. ‘Can I get a street address?’ No again.

‘You’re sure you’re alright, that you don’t need a doctor?’ A nod.

“I slowed down as I reached another intersection, accepting by now that she wasn’t going to speak to me, and as I had expected, she pointed me down another street. I glanced at her as I took the turn, and her body was moving with the turn, and as I hit a small bump in the road, she was pushed up against her seat, as if she were weightless and sensitive to the smallest movements. But she didn’t seem to be disturbed by this, didn’t seem to even take any notice. She just sat there and stared out the window.

“I got my eyes back on the road as I realized how distracted I was becoming. The downpour hadn't relented, and rain was blurring the windshield even with the wipers turned on. But whenever we reached a fork in the road or an intersection, she would point me in another direction, and I’d be off.

“This went on for fifteen minutes or so, and then finally she had her hand on the door handle, trying to open the side door even as my car was moving

“ ‘Wait!” I said, breaking the car. ‘You have to wait until it stops, you can’t just try to open the door like that while the car is moving!” She turned her head to me and stopped trying to get the door open. ‘Is this where you get off?’ I asked, and she nodded slowly, her head rising then dropping limply as her arm had when she had gestured to my car.

“I looked out the rain-spattered window to get a better look at where we even were. And, well, we were here. Just oustside this coffee shop.

“ ‘This is it?” I asked. Somehow, it hadn’t been what I was expecting. But she gave a little nod and started yanking at the door handle again.

“ ‘Alright then,’ I said, opening unlocking the doors. ’You take care now.’ She opened the passenger door and stood outside in the rain, but made no further attempt to distance herself from my car. She was staring at me again, and the situation was growing more uncomfortable. I could… I could feel her eyes staring at me, not burning though, no, I almost felt colder when she was looking at me.

“ ‘What is it?’ I asked finally, and she looked to the coffee shop, then back at me. I hesitated for a moment before opening the driver’s side door and getting out of the car, realizing what she wanted. She just wants you to walk her to the door, maybe go in with her for a moment, I told myself. Not something I would expected from a stranger I had just given a lift, but she wasn’t exactly… ordinary. Besides, it was a coffee shop. There were people inside, I could see their silhouettes against the windows. What harm could be done?”

“She seemed pleased with this and continued on towards the coffee shop doors, but suddenly she made a turn and instead stood beside the shop, at the entrance to a narrow alley. I made my way over to her, puzzled, and I was about to ask if this was the right place when she suddenly… well, she just...

“What did she do?” The woman asked, pushing a strand of loose auburn hair out of her face as she leaned forward slightly.

“She… She kissed me. I was caught off guard and simply stood there as she grew more… intense, and I was about to put a stop to it when I suddenly felt sick, weakened. She put her hands on my shoulders, digging her nails in so hard that I could feel the sharp pain even through my jacket, and soon, I could feel something warm trickling down from my shoulders. And I just had to stand there as she did so, until finally she stopped for a moment and locked her eyes onto mine.

“ ‘What the hell are you doing?“ I hissed. “Who are you?’

“Her eyes widened in what could only be rage, the first emotion I had seen on her previously
blank face since I had met her… twenty minutes, I’d say, twenty minutes ago.

“I felt as if I were engulfed in a blizzard as her black eyes bored into mine. Then she whispered, ’Clarissa,” and released her grip on my shoulders. I realized just how strong she was as I suddenly slid down the alley wall, and when I looked up, she was gone.”

The man laughed bitterly. “Crazy, I know, that’s what you must think of me. I can’t say I blame you. But you said you wanted to hear it all, and that’s what I saw. I don’t know, maybe she got away real fast, but it was just like one second she was there, and the next she had disappeared. And that’s it. Is that what you wanted, a monologue fr om a raving loon?”

“Oh no, sir,” The auburn woman said, her eyes wide. “Oh my… you’re lucky, very lucky, It is what I feared,,,” she said, all of the color drained from her face.

“What do you mean?” the man asked, taken aback.

“Oh, thank god you asked her name… If you hadn’t, why…”

“What? What is it?” He asked, looking confused and slightly alarmed.

“Soul stealers…” The woman breathed.

“Soul stealers?”

“It all fits… The movements, her muteness, they eyes, how she tested you to see if you were righteous, what she did to you…” The woman spoke quickly, and it was unclear whether she was talking to the man or just mumbling to herself. "The eyes... You described them perfectly, yes, black as carbon!"

“What she did to me? She tried to shove her tongue down my throat, dug her fingernails into me, that’s all she did. She was a strange young woman, I’ll give you that, but a soul stealer? And here I was worried that I would be the one sounding like a lunatic!” The man blurted out, more fidgety than ever, and he was shaking ever so slightly.

“Sir, I know it sounds strange, but you must be ready! You sent her away by asking who she was, they cannot deny anyone that question! And once they’ve said it, they’re powerless for a little while. If the speak, they lose their power, that's why she wouldn't answer you. But they must tell their name if they are asked But she’ll be coming back, she’s not finished with you! No doubt she’s deemed you a righteous soul, fit for her to take, for you helped her!”

“Enough!” the man said, standing up. “I’m trying not to lose my temper… Please, just stop, I think that this talk is over.”

“I can help you, I can tell you how to protect yourself for the next time! I thought that was what you wanted, why you chose to tell me all of this,” The woman said quietly.

“You’ve helped enough,” The man said, his hands on the table as he leaned over towards her. He took a deep breath, as though trying to calm himself. “That’s enough, just let me go…”

And he started towards the door.

“You’re in danger, Sir!” The woman said one last time, dropping her hands into her face as he promptly ignored her. And with that, he walked out of the warm glow of the coffee shop and into the rain, and she knew that he was gone, his eyes soon to be as dark as those of Clarissa.