Eyes Unseen

“Who are you? What do you want?


          A normal winter Sunday morning, heading to church. Bethany stared out the window at the passing trees, studying the skeletal hands reaching in melancholy appeal for the hidden sun to return. In the background, the strains of Skillet filled the car, weaving between bodies. Her mom, driving, wore a coat still, despite the heater working overtime to warm the car. In the rear seat her siblings sat, quietly squabbling over the rules of the ‘ABC game’.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

           She couldn’t shake it, the feeling of someone watching her. Even as, an hour and a half later, she walked out of church, it was there. ‘Like a fish in a bowl’, she thought, laughing at herself. Ignoring the odd look from her mom, Bethany hopped into the car. Time to get the Christmas tree.

Fast forward.

          Two hours later, she sat in her room, math book before her. The scent of Chinese food still permeated the house from lunch, stealthily creeping under her closed door and squeezing through her keyhole. Mind wandering, she idly reflected in what it would be like to live inside a snow globe. Gaze wandering to settle upon the small glass sphere on her bedside table, she gently picked it up. Turning it over and watching the artificial snowflakes drift down to blanket a minuscule town to match the drifting crystals outside; she again felt the invisible eyes settle upon her.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

            As she wondered, a person looked out of their window and saw snow. Running out to stand under the flakes, they got the strangest sensation of being watched,

“Who are you? What do you want?