Chapter 22

The Eyes at the Window

That night, I was very afraid of every sound in the house. Every noise made me think an animal was walking in the dark halls. I knew this could not be true because all the doors were closed, but I still felt afraid. The strange sounds made me so worried that I decided to check the rooms below the ground one more time. I wanted to prove to myself that I was not afraid. I knew I could not sleep with all these things around the house. I took the light from the kitchen and went down to the low rooms. I looked in every room, the food room, and every small space. I wanted to make sure nothing was hiding there. After checking everything, I walked toward the steps to go back up.

As I started to go up the steps, I heard a noise from the food room near the bottom. I had already checked this room, but I was sure I heard something inside. I felt strong at that moment, so I went back to the door with my light held high. The room was empty except for some flat stones. I was about to leave when I noticed two bright spots outside the window. They looked like eyes that changed color from green to red. I could now see the shape of one of the animals. It seemed to be holding onto the window. I was not worried at first because the window had strong bars.

But then a strange feeling of fear came over me, just like what I had felt a week ago. The eyes of the animal were looking directly into mine. I could not look away. Everything around me began to look unclear. Then I saw more eyes appear, and more, all looking at me. My head started to hurt and I felt not well. Suddenly, I felt a bad pain in my left hand. The pain was so bad that I had to look down at my hand. When I did this, the strange feeling seemed to break. I saw that I had, without meaning to, taken the hot part of the light and burned myself.

I looked back at the window. The unclear feeling was gone. Now I could clearly see many bad faces against the glass. I felt very bad instead of afraid. I took the light and threw it hard at the window. The light broke the glass and went through the bars into the garden. The oil caught fire and the fire moved through the ground. I heard the animals make high sounds. When my eyes got used to the dark, I saw that the animals had run away from the window.