eyes wide shut

***

The black strands covered his clenched eyes entirely. A violent twitch made them open up in a flash and stare at the old lady next to him for about three long seconds until he was able to recognize the aircraft he boarded just a couple of hours ago.

"Are you alright?" the woman asked the tall, handsome man looking at her.

His almond eyes clenched one last time as he nodded.

"Yes.. yes thank you" he mostly mumbled and slowly got up with a short bow. He wobbled through the narrow space until he reached the white toilet door. He took a discreet long breath and pushed its handle without haste. He entered its small place and stared at the mirror. He couldn't remember how long it was since he started having that dream. It was always the same: the glass shredding in thousands of pieces, the blood touching his boot, his hand closing that woman's eyes. He clenched his eyes once again, hoping to chase away those images, but they came back even more powerful. Before he knew it, a soft shiver took over his body. He quickly grabbed the small sink when his feet were about to leave him too. Even though he was quite a tall man, he somehow managed to curl up in between the toilet seat and the small sink thanks to his slender figure. His dark brown eyes lost focus and almost started following the trembling in his head. He quickly covered them both with the bridge of his palms. Yet again, the blood swallowing his black boots made him release them in a flash. He violently blinked several times until the image of the white door came back. With shaking hands, he took out a small Marlboro pack from his chest pocket. He emptied its contents on the floor to search with the tip of his fingers for something else inside. He took out two small pills glued together with some white tape.

A short knock on the door sent new shivers all over his body.

"Hello... could you hurry up please?" a female voice could be heard from behind the door.

Without thinking it twice, he swallowed both of the pills closing his eyes. Everything turned quiet in his head. He could now only hear the woman behind the toilet door trying to calm down a whining boy.

Suddenly the white door opened making the woman's words to hung aimlessly in the air. She was mesmerized by those lively, dark brown eyes staring at her and she almost lost her ability to spell words when those rosy, full lips smiled at her asking for forgiveness and inviting her and her impatient kid to pass by him. The little boy did so, hurrying to the toilet seat, lowering his pants while his mother eye-followed the tall, well fit man, gently walking back to his seat as if he was actually floating on white, puffy clouds.

"MOM!!" the little boy chased away the fairy tale. "Close that door!" he shouted standing - in front of the toilet seat.

"Are you..." the old lady was about to ask if he was feeling better when she felt her flight partner approaching, but her words remained unspoken. The man smiled at her so brightly that she instantly turned herself into one big smile too.

"I'm truly sorry" he started "I was having a really bad dream about this flight crashing" he spoke in the deepest, iest voice, but keeping on the prettiest smile.

There were about another 5 hours he'd be spending on this flight, so he thought he might at least try to make them pass by a little faster, without allowing that horrifying dream come back. He started talking with his old flight partner feeling better and better about the decision he took to leave Korea and get back to his second home, this unknown country in Europe. He had the best and warm smile, even though all he truly wanted was to understand his wife who left him after 16 years of marriage without any word what so ever... He truly, desperately wanted to understand what was that dream hunting him over and over again, who was that woman... he wanted to forget her terrified eyes... as far as he could remember he never did something out of the ordinary... merely he could've been a role model for his students, but nothing more...

***

The young reception clerk took a long sigh checking the messages of his friends tweeting that they were ready 'for the time of their lives' next to some airport pictures. The bottom right corner of the laptop screen caught his attention and brought even a bigger, deeper sigh - it was only 2.45 in the morning, his shift ending at 8 a.m. He grabbed his chin in one palm using the other to surf more on Twitter and Facebook.

The big, glass hotel’s doors opened up with quite a quarrel. The boy behind the reception desk smiled. Without taking his eyes off of the 4 noisy girls he took out from a drawer a couple of keys.

"Good morning, girls! he joyfully waved, emphasizing on the word 'morning'.

" Mornin'! " they all answered each in their own time.

"Your teacher's been asking for you" the boy devilishly smiled.

" Attendant, actually” one of the girls cut him off.

“Yeah, whatever! If you say so!” the boy laughed ever louder stretching over to hand them the keys.

“Thank you” one of them shyly smiled back at him.

“Good luck!” he whispered to her and she answered back through an involuntary small bow.

“Will you hurry up, Anna??” the most arrogant of them yelled before entering the elevator.

“Yes, I’ll be right over!” Anna replied.  Her long, rich brown hair only left a strong floral fragrance as she quickly apologized to the man she almost hit when she ran towards her so-called friends – the other three girls wearing way too much makeup and way too short dresses for their age. Her sparkly blue eyes were only covered by a little mascara and a shiny pink lipstick concluded her ‘girls’ night out’ outfit.

“Honestly, Anna” the arrogant one began as she was searching for a gum inside her red purse. “14 days …and nights by the sea and you’re still single” she laughed.

“Ah, Veronica, but I’m only 18” Anna smiled right away impersonating an old British woman. “I’m not in a hurry,” she said totally ignoring the ‘theory of what a girl must be when she turns 18’ and started almost seeing herself graduating magna laude this last year of high school. She already wrote all the application letters for the best universities out there and she already decided that when she’ll finish college she’ll move to the United States and start her life in there, so she really wasn’t bothered at all by the girls next to her who most definitely saw themselves marring of to a very old, rich sugar daddy and ride his limo all day long. Anna smiled for herself.

“What’s so funny??” Veronica asked a little annoyed.

“You” Anna replied ruffling Veronica’s hair simply because she knew she hated it so much.

They weren’t really the opposite type of best friends – Anna was the smartest kid in class, Veronica was the most popular off the entire school, so they both reached a silent agreement that they needed each other to get through high school, and quite honestly, and quite secretly they started caring for one another.

                “Stop doing that!” Veronica started chasing her until they reached the door of their room. Anna opened it at once but almost fell on her if Veronica wouldn’t have been behind her to catch her: their form master was inside their room, arms crossed over her chest, angrily stomping her foot.

                “Get back here!” she ordered when the last two girls attempted an escape.

                “H-hello teacher…”  they all greeted forgetting that they were supposed to be bad, independent women.

                “Is this a way to get outside the room??” she poked Veronica’s too revealing top shirt. “Aren’t you ashamed?” she turned to face Anna.

                “A little... but she wouldn’t listen” Anna mumbled almost stealing a smile from her teacher but she wouldn’t give in, she had to stick to her serious face, so she frowned a little more: “Silence!” she screamed. “There have been 14 days, tomorrow’s the last! Must I really keep an eye on you like you’re some kindergarteners?? I also intend to have a good time `till the very end! I don’t want to wander around worrying for some… muddle-heads! Is that clear??” the teacher really tried her best to sound angry. “You two, get to your room right now!” she pushed away the other girls leaving Veronica and Anna alone in their room, but not before reminding them that their flight back home was at 11 o’clock that night.  

***

                His black, almond eyes analyzed everyone on the street from his 10^th story. He had nothing but the white sheet wrapped around him hoping that the cold morning breeze would help calm down. He was afraid to even blink because every time he’d close his eyes, the dead woman would stare at him… He loved the sea ever since he was a little kid so he figured that taking a short detour to the seaside would help him… but nothing had changed so far: the same dream, the same noises every time he dared to close his eyes.  He was now resting his head on his arm, watching the people below… The sun was almost up and he didn’t have had any sleep yet. He took a deep breath and shuffled back inside the room. In less than 10 minutes he found himself in front of the elevator; his eyes were again alive and shiny; his smile was present too and his hair carefully gathered into a small pony-tail. The elevator’s door opened up and a strong floral scent invaded his personal space.  It felt so familiar… He quickly lifted his eyes to check on its source.

‘Oh, the girls from last night’ he thought and smiled for himself when seeing their extravagant swimming outfits; only one of them stood out by her oversized colored t-shirt and three-quarter length jeans. He watched them as they noisily got out of the elevator and gently smiled when only one of them turned around for a brief second to take a second look at him: for an unknown reason, Anna’s response to his smile was an unconscious blush and a rushed smile. The elevator’s door closed with a ding that brought her back to earth just in time so her friends wouldn’t notice the silly grin on her face. She shook her head and followed them silently.

The red sun looked like a fireball on the extremely clear sky, coloring everything around in a warm shade of pink.

‘This is it’ Anna thought getting up from her lounge chair ‘the last sea bathe of the year. See you next year… I hope, my wonderful sea’ she kept talking to herself plunging in the water.  She enjoyed several swimming styles until she chose to relax with a little back swimming. After she threw her arms behind a few times, she hit something. Fearing that it could’ve been a child, she quickly turned to face it:

“Oh my God, I am so, so sorry! Are you o…. “ her words got lost when the dark, almond eyes blinked at her.

“It's ok. I’m ok…” he answered but his words turned into a soft smile when the floral scent veiled around.

He quickly rushed to save her from a group of kids playing water tag and he pulled her closer so they won’t splash all over her.

“Sorry!” all of the kids yelled, getting further.

Anna still couldn’t spell any word and the same feeling she had this morning ate her all up; she was staring at the water drops sliding on his forehead trying to reach his eyes and sooner than she realized she found herself wiping them away. Her hand froze up in the air and her eyes doubled as he leaned over to kiss her. She aimlessly blinked twice but instead of breaking the kiss, she actually deepened it, taking a really good taste of his salty lips.