The girl with the pale blue eyes

A Story by Mahan

1
“Images”
The boy in the bright blue jeans crawls into a corner of his empty room. With no energy left in his body, he sits and leans against the wall. Sitting is his only option, for he’s way too weak to walk or stand on his feet. He would fall in a matter of seconds, like a tree sapling breaking in half with the slightest breeze. He feels a cold wind gently whipping his pale skin. His fragile body begins to shiver and his rotten teeth begin to chatter. The boy looks around to see where the wind is coming from, but there are no windows, no small holes, or no chinks in the wall through which wind or sun rays could enter the room.
Looking around the room makes him question the vacancy of this wretched cell; it makes him wonder if his room has always been empty of love and laughter. To the boy, love is an unknown concept and the land of comedy is nothing but an uncharted territory. There are no clowns in his dark, cubical cell to goof around and make him giggle; there are no stand-up comedians to make him laugh with their crude humor; there are no femme fatales to seduce or caress or spoil him. In his empty dungeon, there’s no space for comedy or romance, but there’s plenty of room for darkness. Yet the boy isn't scared of darkness; he welcomes his only friend with open arms, and he lets himself be engulfed in his companion’s cold embrace.
Once he is lost in the embrace of darkness, he begins to think of the walls surrounding him, walls that resemble his dark past and twisted memories. The memories come to him in fragments, and he can never recall the full picture. Even when he tries to remember, only vague images come to mind: the image of himself lying in bed beside a fat naked boy; the image of a corpse hanging from the ceiling, dangling from left to right; the image of a middle-aged man with grey hair punching him in the ear; the image of a woman, curled up in a ball, sobbing heavily in a corner; the image of a brunette girl with pale blue eyes, talking to him, telling him all her secrets. The boy in the bright blue jeans wants to forget the unpleasant pictures, but they are embedded deep within his mind. Thus, he simply lets out a deep sigh and dozes off.
2
“A Dream”
The boy is standing in the middle of some vast desert, and a few steps away from him, he sees a naked girl with long, brown hair. With her head tilted forward, she takes a step towards the boy. The boy’s hands begin to shake and he feels cold sweat forming upon his brow. He tries to take a step in her direction, but he is unable to move his feet; they feel heavy, as if they’re bound by an invisible ball and chain. After struggling for a few seconds, he takes his eyes off of the girl and looks down. To his surprise, he sees that his feet are a few inches above the ground. He is levitating, yet he feels like a tethered animal attached to some imperceptible pole. After that futile attempt, he looks up and lays his eyes upon the girl again. Her dark brown hair is swaying in the wind, and as she takes another step, she lifts up her head and looks into the boy’s eyes. Her pale blue eyes and her soothing gaze calm the boy down. She smiles and takes the final step.
She is now one step away from the boy. She puts the palm of her right hand on the boy’s chest. Suddenly, the boy realizes that he’s barechested, but he could care less. He wants to take the girl’s arm, pull her even closer, and stare into her eyes. The boy is scared to do so at first, but eventually, desire defeats fear in a fast yet fierce battle, and the boy gains the courage to take the girl’s hand. With a sudden jerk of his right arm -no time for being gentle- he pulls the girl closer. Startled by this sudden motion, she stands still and refuses to look him in the eye. But the boy gently caresses her soft skin, and she feels at ease. Then, she gently kisses the boy’s neck, and slowly presses her breasts against his chest. Finally, she looks up, smiles, and stares into his eyes for the second time.
The boy is now somewhere else; somewhere where human beings cannot reach him, somewhere where time stops and possibilities are endless, a senseless world where planets stop turning and words have no meaning, a world where the melody of silence is the only sound you can hear and you never have to concern yourself with the triviality of words. The boy is happy, and he wants to stay here forever. He wants to stare into the girl’s eyes for eternity, for those pale blue eyes led him to discover this magnificent land in the first place. But the boy knows that good things never last.
The girl blinks, and with that, the boy’s feet are planted once again into the dull world of humans and trivialities. The girl points to the left with her eyes, indirectly asking the boy to look in that direction. He turns his head and sees the remnants of what once used to be a tall building- or maybe multiple tall buildings. The girl then looks to the right, and the boy follows her gaze. To their right, there’s a withered tree, and a crow sits silently on one of its branches. Above, the desert sky is grey and clear, yet the sun is nowhere to be seen. The girl still has a smile on her face, and her eyes are still fixed on his. The boy wants to lose himself in the depths of her pale blue eyes again, but the shrill scream of a woman startles him. He loses focus and tries to find the source of that horrid sound. It is coming from every direction now: south, north, east, and west.
Suddenly, flames begin to consume the withered tree, yet the crow remains silent and refuses to fly away. The remnants of the buildings scorch up in flames, and she keeps on smiling. Tears well up in her eyes and her hands begin to shake, yet her smile does not fade away. There she stands, in the midst of the sweltering flames, smiling, holding the boy’s hands, and looking into his eyes. Suddenly, she puts her hands on the boy’s shoulders, pushes herself up, and brings her mouth closer to the boy’s ear and whispers, “Admit it, you are lost. You do not know your place in this world. You could easily turn around and run away. Behind you, there’s a door, and behind that door, heaven awaits you. There’s a beautiful garden, the sky is blue, birds are singing, and life is much more beautiful. Run away and save yourself. I do not want you to burn with me.” Then, she retreats to her previous position, looking at the boy with a mournful gaze. She is not smiling anymore, but there are still tears in her eyes. The boy’s ears are filled with strident screams, his mind is occupied with conflicting thoughts, and his body is stuck in place. Should he leave or should he stay? The boy knows what to do right away: he bends down and kisses the naked girl on the lips.
Thus the boy stays, and when he looks into her eyes, nothing matters anymore: destinations, goals, purpose of life, emotions, and even life itself become nothing but trifles. He sees truth in her eyes, feels passion in her smile, and senses honesty in her words. Captivated by her beauty and mesmerized by her pale blue eyes, the boy follows his heart. He leaves his past behind him and pays no attention to the future, for present is treating him so kindly. This is where he truly belongs, in the midst of the flames. He holds the naked girl in his arms, and they keep each other close, until everything is engulfed by fire.
3
“Happiness”
The boy in the bright blue jeans opens his eyes. He is back in his cell, but something feels different. He has a strong urge to stand, and he feels the flow of energy in his legs. After a little bit of a struggle, he manages to stand on his feet. He smiles. The image of the brunette girl with pale blue eyes is the only part of his fragmented past that he now cherishes. Gradually, she takes over the boy’s mind; the middle-aged man with grey hair, the fat naked boy, the dangling corpse, and the crying woman all begin to fade away. As those bitter images leave his mind, the full picture of the times he had spent with the girl begin to come together. The boy remembers holding the girl in his arms, kissing her lips, whispering words in her ears. He remembers how he used to caress her skin and stroke her hair, and he remembers how much he used to care about her. A tear rolls down his cheek. He wishes that he could hold her in his arms one last time, and tell her that if the whole world was on fire, he would stay by her side to protect her from the flames. Even if he could not protect her from the flames, he would burn with her. He sighs and thinks to himself that present isn’t so kind to him anymore. It is his past that comes to his aid in his hour of darkness: the image of the girl with the pale blue eyes, the only clear picture in the maddening haze of memories. The boy in the bright blue jeans has now found true happiness. Thus, he lies down on his bloodstained mattress, closes his eyes, and falls asleep with a smile on his face.
****
The happy boy in the bright blue jeans is suddenly awakened from his slumber by a loud noise. As he opens his eyes, he sees that the metal door to his cell is wide open, and a small figure illuminated vaguely by the lamp light outside stands in the doorway. It suddenly vanishes, but only to come back moments later holding a lantern. At first, the mysterious figure stands still in the doorframe like an indecisive child, but then it begins to walk towards the boy. He listens to the echoes of the steps, waiting eagerly to see the face of the creature that opened the metal door - a door that hasn't been opened in years, if not centuries. After the eleventh echo, the figure comes to a halt a few inches away from the boy’s mattress. From where he's lying, only its feet can be seen, thus the boy looks up to catch a glimpse of the face. At first, darkness prevents him from getting a clear picture, but it doesn't take long for the lantern to irradiate the figure’s face, and the boy’s soul is once again pierced by the gaze of the girl with the pale blue eyes.
Unable to contain his excitement, the boy viciously flails his limbs like a lunatic, begging the girl to free him from this cell. The girl watches him. Then, with a smirk on her face, she bends down and puts the lantern on the floor. The boy, still shaking from happiness, notices that the girl is holding a key in her right hand, but as soon as he lays his eyes upon it, she hastily puts it behind her on the floor where it cannot be seen. She then proceeds to sit down beside the mattress, and she tells the boy in her soft voice that she will free him, but she needs something from him first. “Do me this one last favour, endure this one last painful moment, and I will promise that you will be a free man”, she whispers in a seductive tone. The boy, still in awe at seeing the girl again, nods his head violently in agreement. The girl chuckles and stares at the boy. Without exchanging a single word, she takes out a revolver from the pocket of her leather jacket, aims the muzzle of the gun at the boy’s head, and pulls the trigger. The gunshot echoes in the room, and with that, the boy in the bright blue jeans is now truly free. The girl puts the revolver on the floor beside the lantern, and looks one last time at the boy’s face. It seems like he died happily. Then, without turning back, she gets up and exits the room, slamming the metal door behind her and locking it with the key she was holding in her right hand.
The boy in the bright blue jeans now lays on his mattress, reduced to a motionless corpse �"a delicious meal for worms and maggots. His death will be mourned by no one, and no tears will be shed for him. The revolver beside his mattress will be a warning sign for those who end up in this cell after him, reminding them that their shallow pursuit of love will ultimately lead to their demise. The lantern beside his mattress will forever illuminate his immobile and scorched face, and the boy’s lifeless smile will tell the newcomers that he died a happy man, with one fragment of memory he relished most on his mind: the image of the girl with the pale blue eyes, his one true love and the warden of his cell.