Twisted Roads – Twisted Horror Stories by Matthew Tonks

In the Eyes

She nervously raises the napkin to her lips, pressing it against them firmly before quickly placing it back into her lap, then smiles, looking up into his perfect blue eyes.

“S-So, how did you end up here? I mean, in Sydney—not on this date, I know how you ended up here,” she says with an animated laugh, as her cheeks go bright red.

He smiles broadly at her and allows a laugh to escape from his lips. “Please, Fiona, don’t feel embarrassed, for there is no need,” he says, picking up a glass of red wine from the table, slowly rotating it in a circle until a small whirlpool forms. “I came here looking for someone who I lost a long time ago,” he says as he takes a sip from the glass.

“A lover?” she says softly.

His smile fades slowly as his eyes stare past her, into somewhere else—another time, another life—before they gently return to her.

“I thought I did, but maybe I just didn’t know what love truly felt like back then. It has been years—many, many years—since I’ve thought of her,” he says. Her eyes widen as a single tear falls from his brown eyes, rolls down his tanned cheek, and drops from his chin. Her bottom lip trembles as he places his hands slowly onto the table, and his eyes shift towards them.

“When I first awoke, I was flooded with memories I didn’t recognise. Faces, words, feelings—none of it made sense. Then there she was. She told me I’d master them all in time, but—” He grips his hands into tight fists as his blue eyes glance back at her. “Sometimes I lose myself in the memories.”

They sit in silence for some time, staring into each other’s eyes.

“Wh-What are you?” she asks softly.

“I am David,” he says, a nervous smile forming on his face.

“Wh-What do you want from me?”

His smile softens. “I want to please you, to be everything you ever wanted. To be the perfect companion.”

“W-Why?” she asks, her face pale.

“That is what I was created to do. She made me to be everything she wanted—to be perfect, or, more importantly, to reflect her image of perfection.”

“Is she—” She places the napkin to her forehead and dabs sweat away. Her eyes dart around the room, as everyone continues about their meals, oblivious to the strange happenings. Then she nervously looks back at him. “Is she the reason you’re here?”

“No, well, sort of. You see, I was created to be everything for her—to be in tune with her every want and need. But, one day she disconnected. I couldn’t feel her the way I had always done since I first awoke. When I asked her, she denied anything was wrong—said I was foolish, that I was just suffering some sort of setback. But one night while sleeping, she let a thought slip out—a face, an image, a feeling. She had fallen in love with a man—a pathetic, awkward piece of flesh. I felt jealousy for the first time that night. So I followed her the next day, not letting her know what I had learned that night. She, of course, went to him, and they—they became one, like we were. I suddenly felt something new again—a feeling I could not describe. I found out later it was called anger. I attacked them—vicious and unstoppable. He was no match for my raw strength, and he paid the price for it. But she escaped—she ran—and I spent years searching for her. Every now and then I would feel her as I closed in on her location, but somehow she always knew when I was close and managed to disappear again.”

“D-D-Did you ever find her?”

He looks down at the table once more, studying his hands, his face empty, his lips trembling. “In a way, I did. Unfortunately, she had died. I am told it was quick—a heart attack in her sleep, apparently—painless, they said.”

She slowly reaches over and nervously grips his hand. “I-I-I-I— I’m so sorry. My mother passed the same way,” she says softly.

He looks up at her and smiles. “Don’t be sorry. You see, she had a daughter,” he says as his blue eyes sparkle in the light.