The dark has a funny way of tricking people. It’s transformative. At night, harmless objects cast horrible shadows that fool our minds into believing that monsters are real. A curtain becomes a transparent ghost, a pile of clothes becomes the silhouette of a werewolf, all because of the absence of light. Over time, people become numb to the eeriness of the dark. People realize that the monsters they create are just that; creations that exist only in their minds. Any frightening shadow can logically be explained, so the fear fades over time.

For me, the fear of the dark is still deeply imbedded within my psyche. The things I see in the dark cannot be explained. They are not cast on a wall. They aren’t created in relation to a pile of clothes or a curtain. What I see only exists when the sun goes down and the lights go out.

Many years ago, I walked to my apartment from a Halloween party. It was a rainy night. The walkways were starting to collect water and the fallen leaves were no longer crisp underneath my boots. It was late at night and my eyes were growing droopy. As I turned around the block, I noticed a peculiar sight. Two glowing red lights were in the middle of the walkway.

At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Perhaps someone had spiked the punch at the party and I was seeing double? Yes, surely I was seeing double, and I was looking at a traffic light. The further I walked though, the clearer the lights became, and the more unnatural they appeared. I was sure I wasn’t hallucinating. The lights were still, but as I got closer, I realized that they were not attached to anything; in fact they weren’t lights at all. They were eyes.

The eyes were blood red and the pupils were yellow, although nearly nonexistent. The eyes were angry although there were no eyebrows or a face to match the expression. The eyes belonged to no one, and yet they were staring me down. Before I knew it, I was directly in front of the unnatural red eyes. My thought process decided that the best thing to do would be to ignore what I saw, so I walked right past those ungodly eyes and hoped that whoever claimed them was not out to hurt me.

I passed the eyes. They were behind me; in the past. But as I continued to walk, I noticed the eyes creeping into my peripheral vision. The eyes seemed angrier, the yellow pupils were vibrant and dilated. I started to run but they stayed kept up with me.

I reached my apartment after a dead sprint. The eyes had gone away once I went inside. But once I closed my eyes to fall asleep, they appeared to me again. But they were right in front of me, clear as day. Every time my eyes were closed, they appeared. To this day I still see them lurking in the corner of my eye. I fear that one day those bodiless red eyes will form a silhouette and whoever has those angry eyes will take out their anger on me. And they’ll get me.