Eye of the Mind
Seeing Is Believing
Norman Fietzke
A whistling can be heard through the door as the light creeps out from below it. Upon opening the door, there is a sink shimmering in the light and a mirror above the sink, reflecting the room. Above the mirror, the light source hangs with self-pity. To the right, through the ribbed glass, nestled in the gold metal frames, flickers water as it bounces of the origin of the whistle.
The whistling stops.
A man stands with his head up, facing towards the ceiling as the water rushes down his body wandering into every crevasse and venturing off his feet and collecting towards the drain, where it drops into darkness.
The man, seemingly calm, turns and faces the water spout. He lowers his head to it and lets the water run from the back of his head to the front. With his eyes closed, he enjoys the sensation of the water.
The man feels something looking at his face, as the water drops from it. His face presents complete fearfulness. He opens his eyes and through the water, obscures his view, he sees a little girl in a white vintage dress, sitting in front of him. He lunges back in fright and slips on the collecting water. He falls; bouncing his head on the back of the shower as his body slides down to the floor. Water, now falling on his face, he sees the little girl still sitting at his feet. Starring at him in anger, as if he did something wrong to her.
She reaches up for the glass door and slides it open. She fades out the door like sand being blown by wind. He looks through the glass of the door and sees her staring at him with her hands cupped around the sides of her face. She moves her face away from the glass and fades away.
The man stands up, opens the door, steps out and grabs his towel. He bends his head down to dry his head. From the curtain of towel, he spots a pair of small feet standing in front of his. Suddenly, the girls face appears from under the towel's edge. He throws the towel from his head with shock and is momentarily blinded by the light from the drooping light above the mirror. His eyes adjust, but there is no girl in the bathroom.
He leaves the bathroom and heads towards his room. He sits down and puts on his socks after he's put on his pants. He grabs his shirt, which he threw down before he sat down, lying loosely next to him. He puts his arms through it and pulls it over his head. Suddenly, the girl is standing about four feet from him, staring up at him. He pulls the shirt off his head, and the little girl is no longer there. He puts the shirt back over his head and the girl is standing closer to him; still looking at him, but with empty eyes. He looks at her for a second, then turns around and walks out the room.
He turns and after seeing her standing right behind him, he jumps in fright. Now, after his jump back, standing a couple of feet apart, he looks deep into her eyes. Suddenly, she makes a face as though she is screaming, but there is no sound. Suddenly, she runs at him with a knife that she pulls from her back. The man yells as the girl jumps at him. The girl jumps right through him.
"That never gets old," the man says in relief.
He looks at the girl sitting on the ground with her head between her knees. She looks up at him as tears roll down her face. He leaves his apartment and gets into his car. The little girl is sitting next to him as he starts the car. She looks at him with a smile upon her face. He looks at her and sarcastically smiles. He drives to work, but on the way stops at a coffee shop. The girl sits in his car looking out the window at all the people walking by, minding their own business. The man returns and sits down in his car. He looks at the girl staring at the people outside. Then he starts his car and continues towards work, driving down the streets through New York. He parks across the street from his work and steps out, glancing up at his office window. Even though he's done it daily, he has yet to figure out which window is exactly his.
He locks his car and steps out onto the street. He looks both ways and lightly jogs across. He turns around and tenses up when he watches the girl skip across the road as a car travels through her.
He turns around swiftly to avoid attention and slightly rushes for the door of the building in which he works."Hello. Hope you've having a good morning," says the doorman.
"Hello," he replies, as the doorman opens the door.
He steps into the elevator and pushes the 20 button. He steps back from the number panel and sees the girl sitting in the corner of the elevator near the door. The doors of the elevator open and the man steps out. The little girl stands up and is about to follow him out the elevator doors, when they shut right before she steps out. He slowly turns around in hope of not being startled by the girl's sudden presence, but when he does, she is not there. He, instead, sees an office employee looking at him and then smiles in a welcoming manner.
He heads to his cubical and sits down at the computer. After turning his computer on, he opens his filing cabinet and pulls out an untitled file. Suddenly, he spots a humanly figure from the corner of his eye. He quickly turns towards a young man standing at the edge of the cubical, starring at the untitled file. Suddenly, the young man looks up over the wall of the cubical and smiles towards the direction he was looking. The young man steps back and follows the direction of his gaze.
The man gets up from his seat behind his computer and looks over the edge of his cubical. He spots a young woman talking to the young man who previously was starring at the untitled file. Suddenly, the young woman looks directly at the man in slight disgust and fear. The man quickly sits down, looks at the computer, pulls up a file and grabs a nearby disk to download the untitled file. He looks up again and sees the young woman and the young man walking towards him. He grabs the untitled file and the downloaded disk and sneaks to the cubical across.
The young man and woman reach the cubical and look at the computer screen. The young man sits down at the computer and the young woman stands behind him. Both look at the computer as if they were searching for something. The woman and man leave the cubical and walk towards a closed office room, while searching the cubicles for stalking eyes.The man with the untitled file and the disk sneaks towards the elevator. He dodges people's legs and eyes by hiding in cubicles and sitting behind filing carts. He pushes the button and the elevator opens. He slips in and pushes the button for the first floor as the elevator doors shut.
He gets up from crouching and stands as still as a statue. The elevator doors open and he swiftly walks out. He opens the building's door, steps into the sunlight and immediately blends in with hectic crowds.
The man stands at the edge of the street when he suddenly spots the little girl skipping throughout the holes in the crowd surrounding him. He steps out into the street and rushes across as the open street behind him is consumed by cars. He pulls out his keys and opens the door to his car. He sits down into his car, shuts the door and locks it. He looks over and sees the girl sitting in the passenger seat."Jeez," the startled man yelps.
He starts the car and puts the car into reverse. As he looks over his shoulder to drive in reverse, he spots the young man and the young woman searching the crowd.
The man drives to his friend's house. Upon reaching it, he's anxious to enter it. He stops in the driveway and rushes to the door. He pounds on the door, until his friend opens it. He rushes in, as his friend looks at him in confusion and then looks out the door for anything harmful coming towards the door.
The crazed man quickly sits down on a near by seat and opens the file. Inside it, he reads classified information on something. What the information was about was smudged. The disk, from the pocket of his jacket, contains more information that also does not clearly state what the classified information is about. He finds that out after putting it into his friend's computer and opening its content.
His friend looks at him with questions swarming his mind; about to be spoken but is overcome by another one before words can even come out.
"I got this today, at work," the unsettled man tells his friend.
His friend got up from his kneeling next to the computer. His friend walked into the other room and shut the door.
"Look, I know this sounds crazy, but someone is after me," he states to the closed door, "some woman was spoken to by a guy who saw me at my desk getting the files. You have to help me."He walks up to the door and knocks on it. After the third knock, he opens the door and sees his friend on the phone. His friend puts the phone down, and looks up and smiles.
Suddenly, the on-edge man realizes he's been a victim of treason. He turns and runs for the computer. He pulls the disk and grabs the files. He dashes out the door, jumps into the car and pulls out of the driveway. The little girl sits next to him as he speeds down the roads. The little girl looks at him and makes a face of her screaming. She trusts her hands towards him as it holds the same knife as the moment after he got dressed earlier that day.
He tenses up and waits for the cold blade to enter his chest. She thrusts the blade towards his chest, but at the last second he flinches and hits an empty trash can on the side of the road. Each time she attempts to stab him, her hand and the knife continue to fade through his chest.He calms down as the girl realizes her fault and she cowers to the passenger side of the car. He continues down the roads and returns to his home. He enters his place and sits down, with a fury burning inside him. He sits until it is nearly as dark outside as it is inside him.
His doorbell rings and he flicks his head towards the door in fear. The little girl quickly peeks over the arm rest of the man's chair, startling the man. He gets up and slowly inches towards the door. The little girl quickly jumps up to follow him. He reaches the door, and puts his ear to it. The little girl looks up at him and does the same. The doorbell rings another time, startling the man. He unlocks the door and slowly opens it, as the little girl hides behind it.
The little girl watches as suddenly a hand grabs the man and pulls him out through the door. The man is then grabbed by four men, who bring him into the back of a small utility van. The man screams in horror and fear of being tortured for the things he knows.
He flinches as the street lights flash into the van like daggers. Suddenly, everything goes dark. He believes that he must be riding through a tunnel. The van comes to a stop under a street light. The back doors to the van open and the men, wearing all black and face masks, grab the wide-eyed, scared man and carry him up the moon lit driveway.
The group enters a large building, which imposes a sense of horror, fear and chaos. The doors open and the group are met by a sharp, painfully bright light. The man looks up as he is confronted by the silhouette of a figure.
Everything goes black.
The man wakes up in a brightly lit room. As his eyes adjust, he comes to realize that he is in a padded room. He jumps up and screams that he should not be in here. He searches the walls for a door, but is left bouncing off the walls.
Suddenly, part of the wall moves inward to reveal a padded door. On the other side stands a man in a white coat.
The man in the white coat tells his new patient of the situation.
"We got a call from your best friend, who told us you were unstable," stated the coated man.
The man, confused of his presence, just stares.
"The 'file' you took was empty and the disk had nothing but empty files on it. The young man and young woman were coming after you just to find out who you are. You haven't worked anywhere for the past year. The last type of work you did was as a journalist," the man in the white coat continued after he received a confused look from his new patient.
"What about the little girl?" the confused man said.
"What girl?" the man in the white coat asked.
The confused man, strapped in a straitjacket, peers around the man in the coat and slightly smiles at the little girl standing innocently.
The man in the white coat, without even turning around, tells the man that nothing is there, and that it is just in his head.
The man in the straitjacket looks at the man in the white coat and repeatedly tells him that he's wrong.
Suddenly, the man in the white coat gets a strange feeling in his lower body. He looks down and sees a bird's eye view of a little girl stepping through his body. The man in the coat steps back in disbelief, as the girl walks around behind the strapped in man. She kneels down and unties his straps.
The now free man rushes the man in the white coat, slams him to the ground and runs out of the room. The little girl stands up clapping and smiling, and then she rushes after the free man. The man runs through the building as his eyes catch a photo of the little girl he's seen several times throughout the day; throughout the past several years.
He reads her name below and then continues running. He reaches the front desk and runs out of the building. He runs down the driveway as he reaches a guard standing at his post and sees the fence going as far as his eyes can see until fading behind a curtain of trees. He dodges the guard and runs out into the street. He turns around and sees the girl following his foot steps. He hears the sound of a truck as an eighteen-wheeler comes out of the tunnel. He turns to run across the rest of the road to disappear from any hunting eyes. The girl stops right outside the guard's peripheral vision, with a large grin across her face, as the truck slams on its brakes and plows into the hysterical man. His body slams into the grill of the truck and body parts snap in directions which they were never meant to be twisted in. The hood ornament of blood, flesh and bone drops off the front of the vehicle as it comes to a stop. The guard stares for a few seconds at the chaos. He thinks that he must call for help on the broken victim, so he turns around and spots the girl. He looks at her in horror."I thought you were put to death after killing that nurse?" the guard hesitantly questions.
She simply smiles at him and lunges at him with a knife. The guard fires round after round, after drawing his gun. The bullets sift through her like water falling through air. He falls to the ground, pulling the trigger for the last time. The bullet ricochets off the fence and lodges itself into his brain. The girl walks up to the guard and takes her knife and slides it across his neck in hope of cutting it.
Suddenly, the doors to the building open and reveal several nurses and psychologists rushing towards the devastation. The girl looks at the flooding group and hides behind a nearby bush.
Three weeks later, an outrageous amount of deaths occur in the Mental Hospital of Pennsylvania. Reasons are still unknown and the deaths are adding up.