The Eye of an Angel

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The tingling of the hairs at the back of her neck wouldn’t go away, no matter how much she rubbed it; someone, something, was watching them, concealed by the darkness and the tall trees lining the path. The shadows between the trees appeared to move with them, like they were keeping an eye on her.

“Hey, uko sawa?” Her boyfriend asked, shaking her gently with a hand at the small of her back. He adjusted his thick cotton blazer on her shoulders.

That little nudge brought her back to reality, and she found herself standing facing the darkness between the trees lining the dirt path they were walking.

“Oh, sorry, babe,” She said with a smile, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I just can’t shake off the feeling that someone is watching us from these trees.”

Her boyfriend turned on his phone’s flashlight and shone it into the trees. The small white light sent the darkness scampering further into the recesses between the trees, bringing to light the indifferent tree barks of the eucalyptus and the gnarly form of the African Olive trees. Creepy as they looked with their twisted, ugly barks, though, they were nothing terrifying. He shone the light low to the bushes by the roadside. A seemingly endless stream of fireflies floated in and out amongst the trees. Crickets chirped from all around them, and a gentle wind danced delicately on their skins. But nothing stirred among the trees.

But she could feel it. It was close, right there behind the thick tree trunks, carefully concealed by the shrubbery and forest overgrowth. She could feel its intense gaze upon her. She cleared her throat and forced a smile. He always cared too much, Elvis, and she didn’t want him sick with worry, so she smiled and said she was okay.

“Let’s just walk on.”

“Is this about your father, Alice?” Elvis suddenly asked.

Alice’s body went stiff, and color faded from her face as though she had come face to face with a ghost.

“Do you think that he has people out there watching your every move?” Elvis pressed on, putting a reassuring hand around her trembling shoulders. “I mean, I know he is overprotective, but I think that would be too much even for him.”

“Haaa. Then that shows you don’t know my father because you absolutely can’t put it past him to do that,” Alice replied, chafing herself as she glanced around at the dancing shadows of the tall trees, looking extremely worried. She squirmed underneath Elvis's blazer, which made her feel warm and protected - at least a little bit.

“I know, I know,” Elvis replied. “But I don’t think he has done that. I mean, he doesn’t know you are here, with me. So how would he know to send people this way?”

“Kwani, you are forgetting he is the village pastor with feelers all around the village. Everyone wants to show him sijui oh how they are good ‘Christians’…” as she said, Christians, her face contorted in disgust, as if the thought of these ‘Christians’ made her sick. “They will do anything to please him. It happened with Grace. People would watch her every move and report to him. Do you know even after she moved to Nairobi, she still calls kuniambia that she can’t do things freely because she still feels as though he is around the corner, watching her.”

Elvis nodded, then sighed and shook his head. He looked around the whispering trees, dancing under the sparkling August night sky. There were no clouds, the pearly stars shimmered delicately as if serenading them with a soft love song, while the crescent leered down upon them irreverently, as though in desperate desire to expose them under that hazy grey light.

Alice groaned and turned back, looking down the path that they had come from. She rubbed the back of her neck and pulled up her shoulders. Even in the darkness, her eyes betrayed what she was trying to hide with that forced, plastic smile that now just made her look like an AI character trying to look human. Then, she ducked. Elvis reacted fast to hold her up, looking lost and shocked.

“Did you feel that?” She asked, looking at him with fright that stretched her eyes out of her sockets. “It’s like, there was a sudden gust of wind.”

“No,” Elvis said, shaking his head. “Okay, twende. Let’s rush and get back home, sawa?”

He took her by her hands and started leading the way. He was a large man, and so his large steps meant that to keep up, Alice had to jog a bit. For that moment, for that particular moment, she let herself get lost in her fantasies and just enjoy the moment – just her and the man that made her feel like a lilac-breasted roller in the open savannah – flying, living, exploring the wild. As he led the way, she looked at him with a look filled with pride, yearning, desire, lust. All these feelings washed over her like water at the baptism pool.

“Elvis!” She called. “Elvis, let’s stop for a while, please?”

Elvis immediately stopped and turned to her, putting his hand around her shoulders.

“Are you tired –

Before he could finish his sentence, she planted a long, wet kiss on his lips, and the two, surrounded by sparkling stars and gold dust, got lost in the moment. Nothing else mattered. Not even the gust of wind that was picking up, nor the large orb-like thing rising from behind the trees, could break them from this moment of pure, unfettered bliss.

She pulled back and looked down the road from where they had come. Then she looked down, then back at him again. The look on her face had changed again, from desire to fear.

“I don’t want to go home,” Alice said.

“W…well, we can just tell your father that the we got delayed because I had a medical emergency.”

“No. Like, I don’t want to go back home – ever,” Alice said, her eyes burning with determination.

“Alice, what do you mean?”

“I can’t go back there. Nafinywa!”

“I understand you totally,” Elvis said. “But would it make you feel better if I said that your parents have the best intentions?”

“No!”

“Okay, pole sana. Sorry, I said that.”

She began touching the back of her neck again. Then, chafed herself looking around nervously. She folded her hands over her chest. Elvis turned back and looked down at the road, tilted his head into the grey night, trying to see what was causing her so much discomfort. The crickets chirped away in soothing unison. A gentle breeze rustled the leaves on the trees. Loud music sounded faintly in the distance. It was a chilly, silent night with nothing unusual stirring in the darkness that stretched for miles.

“What do you hear?” He asked, rubbing her shoulders underneath that thick cotton blazer.

“Not hear,” She replied, her voice trembling. “Feel. I feel something is watching us. I feel it is what is blowing the wind strongly right now.” Then she shook her head. “It’s probably nothing.”

He pulled her closer and kissed the neatly plaited cornrows on her scalp.

“I am here for you,” He said lovingly.

Then, he took her hand and the two began rushing home again.

“Hey, maybe you could go back to Khetia’s Supermarket. I know that job was eating you alive, but I think having something to do could do you a whole lot of good. Maybe take your mind off what’s going on at home.”

“Oh, so now you are an expert on me, eh?”

“No. No, I am not THE expert on you. Just an expert on you. I know you will sink into that dark place the longer you go without something to do. So, why not? Especially considering that this brilliant mind of yours literally gave me this shirt I am wearing.  Actually, speaking of the shirt, maybe I could ask Aunt Lilian if you could apprentice for her in her tailoring shop. You are great with the needle and yarn.”

“Oh, stop it with your flattery.”

“Make me.”

She turned to him, pulled him closer, and, standing on her tiptoes, kissed him delicately.

Standing in the middle of the path, they kissed on for a while as the trees around them whispered, at first softly, but then louder as the wind grew stronger, making the trees rustle more and sending small swirls of dust down their feet. Then, they giggled, rubbed their noses together, and started walking again, her hands around his waist, his over her shoulder.

Once again, she stopped abruptly. That concerned look came over her again. She was now visibly restless. She could not pretend anymore. She turned and looked around, rubbing the nape of her neck. Her skin tingled, her chest felt tight, and her heart started palpitating.

“Are you sure you aren’t feeling that?” She asked again. “Someone or something is watching us from behind the trees. It’s not in my head. This feels too real.” 

Her eyes widened in horror as she looked behind him. 

“Look! There!” She screamed, pointing at the trees behind him. Elvis turned to see the top of a large dome-shaped silhouette rising from behind the trees.

“Fuck!” Elvis cried in fright. “Twende Alice!”

He took her by the hand, and the two broke into a sprint down the abandoned dirt road.

Behind them, the dome-shaped silhouette continued rising from behind the trees, and the more it rose, the stronger the wind blew. The trees creaked and groaned as they began swaying as though they would break as the wind turned into a gale. The gust completely flattened the roadside bushes. A thick cloud of swirling dust, dead leaves, and other debris overtook them as the wind kicked everything not held in place down the road.

Then, it fully revealed itself. Floating above the trees came this giant sphere about the size of a hot-air balloon, shimmering with iridescent purple, pink, and blue lights, surrounded by a pulsing, blinding, white light.  Suddenly, the shimmering purple, pink, and blue lights spread out like wings and revealed a giant eye, whose blinding light quickly overtook the lovebirds and made them hide their eyes as they ran.

It looked down on them with a deep, furious gaze, as though their chatter had awoken it from a slumber. The center of this sphere was a black void in which spiraled long, thin bars of light. The night sky then surrounded this centre, collapsed into these circles with the twinkling stars stretched into long rods of light as the rest of the sky became this black, endless chasm. Even the ambient sound of the night was gone. With each pulse of light surrounding it, the creature drew closer. With each pulse of the light, a violent wind blew across the land, stripping the trees of their leaves and scorching their barks as it bent them until they were almost horizontal.

The two lovebirds sped down the road, partly carried by their feet, partly by the strong wind that threatened to lift them off their feet.

But then, Alice started to slow down.

“Alice, unafanya nine?” Elvis asked, clutching desperately at her as he tried to hold them down by reaching for a hanging tree branch on the roadside. “What are you doing, babe?”

Alice shook herself free, leaving him with the jacket in his hand. The strong wind was almost blowing her off her feet, but she kept steadying herself, determination in each of her defiant efforts to keep standing. She was crying as she looked at Elvis. Then, she made as if to turn around and face the creature and its blinding light aura.

“No!” Elvis shouted. “Don’t look into the light. It will blind you!”

“I am tired of running, Elvis,” Alice shouted back amidst the deafening howl of the wind. “Tired of hiding. I mean, aren’t you?”

Elvis could hardly see her face because he was trying not to look directly into the light, while at the same time, he was also trying to stop the wind from carrying him down the road as he held for dear life on the swaying tree branch. All he could see was her silhouette against that strong backlight, standing, looking at him.

“Alice, p…please,” Elvis pleaded, his shirt covering his face as he held out his free hand blindly for her to catch. “Let’s go, okay. It's fine. You aren’t going home. Come home with me, we will figure something out.”

“No!” Alice shouted amidst sobs.

The gale blew harder, and the debris around them became a choking cloud of dust that had them breaking into fits of coughs. The eye drew ever closer.

“I want this, Elvis,” Alice said, suddenly breaking into fits of laughter even as she continued to cry. “I want to be seen –

“Tafadhali, Alice. Just take my hand. It will all be okay –

“It won’t. I can see things won’t be okay.”

“Alice, please!”

She turned around with no warning and looked into the blinding light from the giant eye in the sky. She let out a loud, ear-shattering scream as her eyes bulged outwards. They turned a blood-red colour as they swelled, as if pressure was building inside her head and forcing them outwards. Then they popped, and all that was left in the eye sockets was a stream of blood and pus.

All around her, dust, debris, and all the trees, everything on earth, was swallowed up in this raging, violent whirlwind reminiscent of a nasty, violent storm. She started floating, her arms stretched outwards. She floated above the trees, as if lifted by an invisible force, her loose blue maxi dress flapping forcefully in the strong gale. Dead leaves and dust rustled and swirled around her like a protective cocoon. Then, she was gone; just like that, sucked into the black void that was the pupil of the giant eye in the sky.

And as it had appeared, the eye disappeared. The stars and the moon, the normal night sky, came back. The night resumed its previous stillness. The the fireflies returned, and the crickets started chirping again as the wind gave a soft, gentle breath and made the trees whisper tenderly. A restless stillness fell over the land. Elvis stood there, wide-eyed and stunned, covered in dust, his clothes ripped, still holding the branch on one hand and the jacket on the other.