Bulbous Eyes

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.

Emily dumped crushed up beer cans into a garbage bag as she tidied up. Everyone else was asleep, the smell of smoke and liquor hanging in the air of the old cabin like drunken wishes and empty promises.

"Bunch of low lifes. Whose bright idea was it to come out here? I swear, these idiots are gonna get the cops called here," Emily grumbled, snatching another empty plastic cup and chucking it.

She stopped short at the sight of the candle burning in the window. There was no power to this place, so the group of miscreants had brought candles for light. How could she have missed that one?

"They're gonna burn the whole place down," she sighed, marching up to the window sill. She wet her fingers between her lips and doused the flame. But before she could return to her work, she noticed someone—or something—standing outside.

"What the hell?" She whispered to herself. "Is that Travis taking a piss?"

But it wasn't Travis. Whoever—or whatever—this was, just stood there. A dark silhouette against a star-filled sky. But what made her shiver were the eyes. Two giant, round, pale eyes stared out of the darkness, looking directly at her.

Emily suddenly found it very difficult to pull her gaze away, her body going numb as she stood there. After what felt like hours, she looked away, spying another cup and disposing of it.

"I'm too drunk for this," she muttered, the jostle of the garbage bag soothing her nerves. "It's probably a deer scared to death of me staring at it."

She knew it was silly, but she couldn't help it. She had to look back out the window to see if it was still there. So she did. And it was.

Only now it was closer.

She looked on, now a little nervous, at the odd form she could see much better now. It had moved soundlessly out into the clearing and out of the shadows. And it was strangely shaped.

It was not a deer, that much she knew for sure. It wasn't human either. It stood on two legs, but had very long arms with oddly long fingers. It's body was squished, too short for its legs, and its head was wide. She could almost make out the outline of a mouth through the gloom, wide as the head.

"What is that?" She whispered, unsure whether it could see her.

As she approached the window again to get a better look, she nearly stumbled over a human body on the floor.

"Jesus, Amy! Why are you sleeping right there?" She quietly shouted, glancing down. Her friend just smiled up at her, too out of it to acknowledge the anger in Emily's words.

"Amy, do you see that thing out there?" Emily asked, pointing towards the window.

Amy didn't even look, she just smiled and shrugged. "I haven't seen anything, you're silly."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Ugh, just go back to sleep," she sighed, glancing back toward the window. That's when she stopped moving altogether, her feet frozen in place at the sight before her.

Just inches from the window, was a pair of giant eyes staring at her through the glass like spotlights. They were attached to a disfigured head with no ears, no nose, and a wide mouth that was now stretched into a toothed smile. It's arms hung limply at its sides, and it didn't move. It didn't even breathe.

Emily could do nothing but stare back, mortal terror creeping into her from all angles. She now understood. The moment she looked away, it would move again. She had to keep looking.

As she stared, she found her words return to her. She could move her lips, she could articulate. She could try speaking to it. Plead with it.

"What are you?" She asked, her voice hardly more than a whisper. "Why are you here?"

The creature did not respond. It only smiled wider, revealing more of its teeth.

Emily gulped at the sight of its teeth, but she was mesmerized by its eyes. No pupils, no eyelids. All it could do was stare at her.

Bzz. Bzz.

The sound of her phone made her jump, the vibration making it fall off the table. She stole a glance at it, instinctively. It couldn't have been longer than a second.

But one second was all it took. When Emily turned back towards the window, the creature was gone.

Staring out the window into the abyss of night, a strong fishy odor broke her from her trance. A cloud of the thick, swampy smell filled the room, making her nostrils flare and her eyes water. She coughed quietly, wrapping her fingers around her own throat to keep any audible noise from escaping her lips. She refused to make a sound.

She blinked at the strength of the stench, and her skin crawled as she felt a draft behind her.

No, not a draft. Breathing—right against the back of her neck.

She shuddered as what she could only assume was slobber dripped onto her shoulder. A hissing sound followed, inching towards her ears.

She glanced above her, about to scream, when a giant mouth opened wide over her head. It snapped its jaws shut, down to her collar bone.

And the cabin was plunged into silence once more.