Eyes Wide Open

Aleer was back in his childhood bedroom, looking down at himself. It was not the bedroom his foster family loaned him for his short stay, but the one in his nightmares. It was not so much a bedroom as a prison and torture chamber. The signs were evident now as he stood in the room with twenty more years of knowledge. Aleer had recounted this memory to his therapist countless times in the cold manner a professor could recite a lecture. This was different.

Aleer felt the remnants of hope destroyed a thousand times and, pain from muscles bruised to the bone. Worst of all, he felt a deep longing in his soul for a mother he barely remembered. Without her, he had felt like the last person alive. Aleer felt the emotions surge inside of him bringing him to tears just as the little boy below him started to cry into his pillow without a pillowcase.

“No!” Aleer shouted at himself. “Stop! For the love of God, stop!” The boy heard nothing as his tears soaked into the pillow.

“Hello friend.” The voice was rough and deep.

“Verick.” Aleer was surprised at Verick’s sudden appearance but he knew what happened next and he couldn’t relive it while tapped into the child’s emotions.

Aleer opened his mouth to say something when an invisible hand clasped around his throat and squeezed the words to dust. Aleer quickly turned to the young boy. He was no longer alone. A man stood above him, his massive calloused hand gripped around the boys throat. The man flung the boy across the room like someone would toss an unused pillow to the floor. Aleer felt breath rush back into him. The words he wanted to say before flowed out of him.

“Stop him Verick.” The words left his mouth an instant before his brain realized their power, and their multiple interpretations. The man, Aleers father, burst into flames before he could finish his fatal intentions. Aleer watched as, behind a wall of fire the man flailed and struggled to extinguish the fire and survive. It was futile Aleer knew. Verick was suddenly gone and so was the boy. He was alone watching his father’s final moments, listening to his last screams. This was not a part of his memory. He had never seen this.

“Aleer.” The voice was Vericks again, dragging his mind and eyes from the dreadful scene unfolding in his old bedroom. Aleer turned to meet Vericks gaze. “We need to talk.”

“I killed him.” Aleer’s voice was no more than a whisper. “He is dying because of me.”

“No. My friend listen to me.” Verick answered. It was no good though.

“I killed him. I killed my own father.”

“Aleer.” Verick’s bellowed. His voice shook the house like thunder and caused the fire to flare up and engulf the entire room. The heat and flames didn’t touch them but Aleer could feel the air charged with power. For the first time since he was a boy, he was afraid of Verick. “Listen to me friend.”

The fire, his old bedroom, his fathers scorched corpse was gone replaced with other memories. They flashed around him, like photo’s taken throughout his life. Verick continued to speak.

“It is not your time to die yet. A deal was made. You will not be joining me for a bit longer my friend.”  Aleer heard the words but he had closed his eyes to keep from seeing the images of his life. The words vibrated inside him with the deepness of Vericks voice. He heard it over and over again in the darkness behind his closed eyes. He repeated the words until they seemed ingrained in mind. Then when he couldn’t stand the words any more he felt them float away like a dream slipping away from consciousness. He reached out for them, wanted to hold on to them and continue repeating them but it seemed like the more he tried, the further they slipped away.

Then his eyes opened and the words were forgotten.

Warm fingers burrowed into his beard and the softest lips he ever felt kissed his. Aleer closed his eyes to savor the blissful feelings he felt when Kacey laid her lips to his.

“No, don’t leave me again.” Kacey said. Aleer opened his eyes.

“I will never leave you again.” They kissed again, this time with eyes wide open.