“I think it moved,” said Wayne, leaning over his lunch to get a better look at Matt’s eye.
The black speck had mysteriously appeared that morning. “Really?” Matt could see just fine, and it didn’t hurt, but the fact that it had moved unsettled him.
Frowning, Wayne nodded.
By nightfall, the speck had passed through Matt’s iris and disappeared into his pupil. Suddenly, he could see only black and white from that eye.
“Babe, the weirdest thi—” His heart lurched. Leaning over his husband was a shadowy figure.
“Hm?”
“What the hell is that?” The figure lifted its head. It had empty white eyes.
“What’s what?”
Jaw clenched, Matt closed his left eye. The world was in colour again, the creature gone. Opening his left brought it back. It wasn’t the only shadow creature either—there were three more out in the hallway. They slowly turned to face him.
Wayne’s smile dropped. “You’re shaking. What’s wrong?”
The doctor had no answers for them. She wanted to do more tests, but that meant removing the eyepatch again, and Matt couldn’t. The last time, he’d revealed a creature an inch from his nose, malevolent and silent—Matt had pissed himself in fear.
His skin crawled, knowing they were out there, but at least he couldn’t see them. Terrified and exhausted, he clung to Wayne like a life raft. Was that a breeze, or was something touching his cheek? He prayed for the nightmare to end.
“Oh no.”
Startled, Matt turned to his husband.
“I don’t know how to say this… Matt, honey, there’s another one.”
Fear made Matt’s voice hoarse. “What do you mean?”
“In your eye. I thought I was imagining it earlier, but it’s really there.” Wayne’s face was pale. “Another speck.”
No no no no…
“And… it’s moving.”
