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Blue-Eyed Girl

By Jessica Boyes

By Jess BoyesPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 15 min read
19
Source: https://wallpaperaccess.com/eye-art#google_vignette

The early morning air is crisp as the sun rises; standing at the base of the bridge, Detectives Sallow and Martel take in the scene of their forensic team taking photos and collecting samples from the body that lays by the river.

Moving in closer, they can see the body is a young woman and it had been in the water for some time; the tissue has turned into soapy, fatty, ‘Grave Wax’; the skin is blistered and has the greenish black colour that they know all too well. Only wearing what’s left of her skirt, the word, "WHORE" is engraved deeply across her torso.

Squatting beside her, Martel looks over the body, “Early/mid-twenties, black hair, blue eyes, pale skin,” he looks up at Sallow, “this is the second one.”

Staring at her; taking in every detail of her body, Sallow nods, “Yep, could be a serial.”

Martel notes, “the word has been burned into her skin, same as the other.”

*********************************************************************

“Alrighty, everything is looking pretty good. I’m happy to keep the cleanings to every six months, but remember if you need anything, just give us a call.”

Ella sits up, hops off the dental chair and smiles, “Great, thanks, I’ll see you then.” They shake hands and the dentist escorts her out to the reception desk.

Seated at the desk, Iris looks up and casts an eye over Ella’s face; a steely look over her own, “new to town, are you?” Feeling uncomfortable, Ella puts on her best smile, “yes, arrived this past week.” Still locked on Ella’s face, Iris forces a smile then darts back to look at her computer screen.

“He’d like to see you again in six months, that right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Scrolling across the screen, “How’s Saturday the twelfth of March sound?”

“Sure.”

“’Bout the same time?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

Iris writes out the appointment on a card and hands it over, staring at Ella again. Ella looks away and fumbles through her purse to take out her credit card to pay. Iris snaps back to attention.

“My apologies, Miss?”

“Ella.”

“Miss Ella. I don’t mean to stare, it’s just that you have the most striking eyes. Such a rich blue; and your hair. Jet black with such porcelain skin. I’m sure you drive all the men crazy!”

Ella feels her face getting flushed with embarrassment, still not making eye contact, “not really, but thank you. You're very kind.”

An awkward silence between them as Iris puts through the credit card. She tears the docket and hands it all back to Ella. Making eye contact again, Ella notes Iris’ eyes, “yours are such a lovely blue, too. Like pools of water.”

Iris sits back in her chair in a huff, “like murky pools, now - but they were once as beautiful as yours - hair was black, too, now it’s white as snow.” She gently strokes her hair and stares off into the distance, “now it’s no more….no more.”

“Well, um, thank you. I best be off,” Ella shuffles her way toward the exit. Iris calls out, “welcome to town, Miss Ella! I’ll be seeing you!” Ella waves without looking back, almost leaping out on to the street. She composes herself, has a bit of a chuckle and starts walking.

*********************************************************************

Stepping out of the coffee shop, Detective Sallow notices Ella from across the street, walking over to her car. He doesn’t recognise her and becomes curious, wondering who she is; if she’s just a tourist, or if she lives here now; he watches her get into her car and drive off. Standing right by his car, he hops in, Martel scrolling through his phone, “Did you see her?”

Still scrolling, “see who?”

Sallow chuckles, “great detective work.” Martel looks up, “I was just taking a minute to…”

“I’m just messing with you, it’s all good.” Sallow smiles, “I just saw a woman that I’m sure I’ve seen around before, but I’m not sure who she is. She looks like she could be our next victim if she’s not careful.”

“Maybe we should find out who she is and talk with her?” Martel grins.

“Good thinking, ace. Seriously, you’re really on the ball today.” Sallow starts the car and drives away.

*********************************************************************

Later that evening, Iris steps out from the dentist’s office, locking it up for the night; walking along, she stops to cross the street and a young woman stands beside her. Noticing her black hair, she turns toward her and gives her a forced smile, “such a pretty girl.” The woman looks over at Iris, “pardon?” Iris raises her hand and gently strokes the woman’s cheek, “and such beautiful blue eyes. I’m sure you drive all the men crazy.” The woman nervously, but still politely responds as she gently brushes Iris’ hand aside, “thank you, ma’am. That’s very nice of you.”

Looking down at the woman's floral dress, Iris gives a smirk as she crosses, “have a lovely evening.”

“Thank you, ma’am, you too,” the woman waves awkwardly as she watches Iris walk away.

*********************************************************************

Ella is quietly humming to her favourite Jazz mix, chopping vegetables, and throwing them into a pot when her doorbell rings. Walking over, she can see the silhouette of two men through the frosted window; taking a moment before opening; wondering who they could be, she leaves the door chain on and opens the door.

“Ms. Hutton?” Sallow asks.

“Yes?”

“Detectives Sallow and Martel.” They each show their I.D. Convinced of who they are, Ella takes the chain off and opens the door further.

“What can I help you with?”

“Well, we don’t mean to alarm you, but…you may’ve heard the news about a body that we discovered out at the base of the bridge,” Martel points out from behind the bridge that can be seen a couple of miles away.

With a startled look, Ella opens the door fully and gestures to them to come in, “Oh! Um, no, I hadn’t heard. I don’t own a T.V. and I haven’t looked at any socials for a few days. Been busy moving in,” she presents them with the living room; still with moving boxes in it. She added, “I haven’t seen anything suspicious or anything like that.”

Sallow nods, “that’s fine. We just wanted to introduce ourselves and let you know that we were investigating…also, the body was a woman…about your age, and we wanted to ask that you take extra care during the night…just precautionary, of course. Say, if you were out for the evening, to perhaps make sure that you’re with someone…”

Ella cuts off his ramblings, “thank you, Detective. I appreciate your concern, going out of your way and all…but as I say, I’ve just moved in. I’ll be busy setting up my home for a while. I don’t plan on going out anywhere anytime soon.”

Martel hands over a business card, “…well, if it turns out that you remember anything that seemed out of the ordinary over the last few days, you can contact our office, here.”

Ella nods, taking the card, “thank you.” She walks them out and closes the door behind them.

Martel looks over at Sallow with a cheeky grin on his face, “smooth.”

Sallow gives him a dirty look, “say another word, I dare you.” Martel keeps chuckling as they head back to their car.

*********************************************************************

The moonlight is reflecting off the river and the sky is black; the only sound is the water, gently lapping up and down in sync with the breeze.

Suddenly, the breeze becomes stormy winds, and a whirlpool begins to form in the river, becoming larger and larger. Out of nowhere, a deep, low, hissing sound can be heard; a female voice, hissing the words, “No more…no more. Blue-eyed WHORE!” From the eye of the whirlpool, a young woman is spat out, landing at the base of the bridge face down.

Her skin is greenish black, is waxy and her floral dress is in tatters; the back has been torn away. Engraved across her back, the word, "WHORE" has been freshly burned into her skin.

*********************************************************************

“Talk about déjà vu,” Martel comments as he inspects the body, “the only real difference is the placement of the word; on her back, not torso,” he looks over at Sallow, “yeah, I think we can safely say that we’ve got a serial on our hands.” The pair start walking to their car, both silent for a moment; Sallow with a tense look over his face.

“Are there still no leads? No evidence found on the bodies that might give us something?"

Martel gives a sigh, “No, nothing yet. No trace of anything to give us anything solid; we still don’t know what could’ve been used to make the burns that deep into the skin. All we’ve got to go on is that all three victims are physically the same type. Female, roughly the same age, black hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. On the plus side, that combination of skin, hair, and eye colour isn’t as common as you might think.”

Sallow sighs, “Well I guess we check what the stats are of residents in the area that match the victim’s physical description and see if there’s another link between them.” As he opens the car to get in, he looks over off into the distance at Ella’s house. Martel notices, “we can check on her later.” Sallow nods.

*********************************************************************

The morning sun has a lovely warmth to it as Ella walks along the street, coffee in hand. She walks over to the park and finds a bench to sit for a while. Quietly scrolling through her socials and sipping on her coffee, she’s reading some of the news about the killings which makes her feel uneasy and abruptly stops; she starts playing one of her online games instead.

“Mind if I sit?” Ella looks up to see Iris standing in front of her; a forced smile over her face. The feeling of unease returns, but Ella ignores it, nodding; signalling for Iris to sit. She goes back to her phone.

Iris is staring at Ella’s face again, not saying a word. Sensing it, Ella looks up and Iris snaps to attention. She smiles, “lovely morning.” Ella returns the smile, “it is,” returning to her phone. Iris takes a magazine from her bag and starts flicking through it. The pair stay like that for a moment, until Iris sees Detective Sallow walking over, “Oh, here comes that detective,” she remarks snidely. Ella is curious by the tone of Iris’ comment, but doesn’t question it, she just looks over in the direction that Sallow is coming from. Both women stand and Iris turns to Ella, “I’ll be seeing you.”

“Sure."

Iris raises her hand and gently strokes Ella’s cheek, “such beautiful blue eyes. I’m sure you drive all the men crazy.” Gently brushing her hand away, “yes, I remember you saying the other day...that’s very nice, thank you.” Iris looks Ella up and down, smirks and starts to walk away, “have a lovely day.” Ella nods, then turns toward Sallow.

“I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?” he asks.

“No, no, she um, she was just looking for a place to sit for a while and I said she could. I don’t really know her or anything…just from the dentist. I was in the other day…” she stops herself from rambling.

“Are you okay? Anything wrong, Ms. Hutton? You seem a little out of sorts.”

Ella takes a breath and starts to relax, “no, no, I’m fine. She’s just a little…forward in her approach, that’s all…she has a thing for blue eyes.”

Sallow's ears perk up, “what do you mean?”

“She just seems a little fixated on blue eyes, that’s all. She made a comment to me the other day as well…I think she’s just…she’s just remembering her youth or something. Harmless really.”

“Iris can be a little…unorthodox. She does come on a bit strong sometimes, but she doesn’t mean anything by it.” Sallow reassures Ella, but in his mind, Ella’s comment has triggered something. He starts to remember something that he can’t quite put his finger on; something about an old case from decades ago.

“Well I just came over to say hello and to see how you’re settling in, but now I’ve got to meet Martel.”

“Oh, sure. Not a problem, I’m sure I’ll bump into you again...this town seems to be the place for that…constantly bumping into to people.” They both chuckle and go their separate ways.

As Sallow is walking, he calls Martel, “Hey, I’ve just gotta go and check something out. I may have a lead, but I’m not sure…don’t know…could be a few hours, could be all day…yeah, I’ll call you once I’m done.”

*********************************************************************

Sallow checks the time and is surprised to see just how late it’s gotten; thinking to himself that he’ll stop for dinner soon. Going through old case files and looking up old news articles about what happened to Iris all those years ago; various headlines reading, “BASEMENT OF HORROR” and “IRIS BAIN BRUTALISED: PARENTS ARRESTED.” Reading some of an article, Sallow has realised the connection:

"It was discovered that 20-year-old, Iris Bain had been imprisoned within the family home; allegedly locked away by her parents and tortured, mostly by having her head held down in water, as well as being mentally abused for several months. The young woman was found half naked and saying the words, “Blue-eyed Whore!” continuously…"

Sallow comes across another article with the headline, “BASEMENT OF HORROR VICTIM GONE MISSING. PRESUMED DEAD,” and another from years later that reads, “THE MIRACLE OF BAIN’S RETURN.”

In the files, he finds a photo of a young woman that he recognises, but he thinks to himself, “no, it couldn’t be”; her hair is jet black, her skin is porcelain, and her eyes are a rich blue. Sallow picks up his phone to call Martel, but is interrupted before he can dial, “that’s my photo,” he looks up to see Iris, “that photo belongs to me, give it to me,” she puts out her hand. Calmly, Sallow responds, “I’m sorry Iris, I can’t do that. Police files.”

“Give it to me.”

“I’m sorry, no.” Sallow puts the photo back into the file. Iris glares at Sallow and her eyes begin to glow; her body turns dark grey and scaly; transforming into a demonic creature.

She hisses, “No more…no more. You, filthy WHORE!” she swipes angrily at Sallow across his neck, burning the flesh open; blood gushing out, he dies instantly.

*********************************************************************

Martel’s watch reads 6:05pm and he still hasn’t heard from Sallow, so he decides to call. There’s no answer so he leaves a message, “Hey, it’s me. Gonna let me in on your lead yet?” he chuckles, “listen, I thought I’d head out to the bridge now and take another look while there’s still a bit of light. Give me a buzz when you can.” He hangs up.

*********************************************************************

Ella is quietly reading her book in bed when she hears the crunching of leaves and twigs underfoot coming from outside. She thought that she was mistaken at first, until she hears it again which makes her head to the front door. Switching the outside light on, she can see the darkened silhouette, “who’s there?”

“Miss Ella! It’s Iris! Can you please help?” Hesitant to open, Ella shouts, “Iris? What are you doing here? How did you know where I live?”

“I didn’t. I’ve just been out by the bridge and I’ve gone and locked my keys in my car with everything in it. I saw your house and that the lights were on and…I’m so sorry if I’ve frightened you…can you help?” Ella doesn’t know what to think and isn’t sure what to do.

“Please?”

Ella caves and decides that she’d feel guilty if she didn’t help, so she opens the door to Iris standing there with her usual forced smile, “oh, thank you so much. I owe you.”

“You can use my phone to call someone if you like.”

“No, no, that’ll take too long. I don’t want to wait around...got an old wire coat hanger or somethin’ to jimmy open the lock?” Ella nods, “wait here.” She takes a minute to grab an old hanger and returns, offering it Iris to take.

“…I’d hate to ask…but would you mind coming with me? Arthritis,” Iris rubs her wrists. Starting to wish that she hadn’t opened the door, Ella nods, “Okay, let me get my coat.”

As they reach the bridge, Ella starts looking around for a car but doesn’t see one, “where did you say your car was?” She turns around to see Iris glaring at her, her blue eyes glowing. Suddenly, stormy winds develop, and a whirlpool begins to form in the river, becoming larger and larger. A stunned Ella as she watches on shouts, “What’s happening?!”

Iris, transforming into the demonic creature hisses, “no more…no more. Blue-eyed WHORE!” Ella is lifted and thrown mid-air into the centre of the whirlpool.

Alone, thrashing in the water, Ella is beaten severely; her clothes tearing away; shrieking in agonising pain; all she can hear is the constant hissing of the words, “no more…no more. Blue-eyed WHORE!” Her torso is exposed and the lettering of the word, ‘WHORE’ is being carved into it; every letter more excruciating than the last.

Ella’s eyes are still open and she can make out the bank of the river in flashes through the eye of the whirlpool. She sees a car driving up and stop; Martel hops out. Just as she sees him, her eyes close - darkness.

Horror
19

About the Creator

Jess Boyes

From Melbourne, Australia, I love creative writing and food, particularly a good quality cheese or some sort of dairy.

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