Lazy Lion Books Presents

First place goes to Amy Robinson of Fairmont, WV. Congrats Amy!

Fixed Stare

They say that when you are about to die, your life flashes before your eyes. I only see the obsession and the darkness hanging above my broken body. Only two days ago I was alive. If I had kept my blinds closed I would be lying in my bed dreaming and not numb with death.

Leno was on, and I had coffee brewing. The lights were all off except for the glow of the TV, and I went out to the porch for a quick smoke. A light was on in an upstairs room of the newly built townhouse below.

Then I saw it.

Him.

The silhouette was in the room with the darkened window. I could only see the outline, but I knew he was there. He stood and stared at me.

I went back inside, and closed the blinds. I checked again and he was still there. Every time I checked he was there.

I couldn’t sleep that night. I thought about the man in the window, and woke up every hour seeing him in my mind. I looked again. Still there, unmoving, watching me, and I could almost make out the whites of his eyes within the dark mass of his face.

The next day I saw nothing, just glare from the sun, but I knew he wasn’t far away.

It grew dark and he was there again, unmoving, and just gazing at my apartment. His threatening stare fixed on my existence, burning a hole into my life.

I crept out the door and down the back stairs and took the long way around so he wouldn’t see me.

I stood at the door of the townhouse and debated knocking. I tried the knob. Unlocked. I quietly opened the door. Someone was washing dishes in the kitchen. I made a run for it up the stairs. I wanted to catch him. Heart racing, and my unfit body out of breath, a fire was lit and there was no stopping it.

I ran to the room, tore open the door then slammed it shut behind me. He didn’t bother to turn. I shouted and he stood, staring. My anger swelled.

I flew at him, my arms out, and fell into him, and heard shattering glass engulf me. I started floating and it seemed as if I was in the air for ages, but when I landed on the damp grass below I felt nothing.

The light came on in the room.

I just stared up at the man. His eyes peered down, his form waving in the breeze still glued to the shards of glass that I had just destroyed. I could make out facial features, stationary and unmoving. I realized I was staring into the eyes of Bruce Lee. Cardboard and life-size, but completely lifeless.

So now I fade into the shadows around me. I can hear people coming, but all I can see in front of me is the flapping fragments of my obsession.

©Amy Robinson