Staring Competition

Thought of and drafted in the English period. Ideas taken from Alice in Wonderland and Scooby-doo!

Alnet is a boy. He is lost in the woods.

The canopy of the stupid tall trees ensured that no light would pass through.

It's pitch black, he walks pointlessly in no particular direction.. Till he reaches a place were he can make out shapes in the dark. Still no colours, only vague borders of trees and bushes (well, he hoped they were only trees and bushes) in shades of extremely dark grey close to the ultimate black. He moves further in that direction; pitch black again, he carefully retraces his steps.

Alnet looks up despite having decided not to, for the last time he did he was overwhelmed by panic on seeing more darkness closing in on him, this time he sees tiiiny bits of light. He's not happy, he's still doomed. But being doomed in a place where there is a bit of light is better than being doomed in the blackness.

He legs ache horribly so he sits.

One might think it impossible but after some time Alnet is bored. Initially when he got lost, there was panic and fear. Everything he saw, rather didn't see, intensified his hysteria. The air was, still is by the way, filled with sounds made by creatures that survived in that colourless word and any small addition or subtle change in the pattern made the unnaturally attentive Alnet jump. Alnet is bored, but not bored or stupid enough to chance the forest again.

He sits and imagine shining eyes in the bush. When bored and lost in the forest, imagination goes into hyper-drive. He sees florescent eyes in bright green, orange, blue... They appear and vanish to the rhythm of the forest dwellers. One pair of eyes around which the others dance, didn't disappear..

The music changes, it's faster now to better suit the staring competition taking place between the Boy and the Eyes. Both unblinking, totally into the game. The Eyes smile and blink, like a father losing to his 5 year old in arm wrestling after putting up a "good fight", and like the 5 year old, Alnet (FYI, who is not 5) is overcome with the same kind of achievement and grins widely.

The music has changed again. The Eyes blink again, the entire moon is exposed sending a small stream of brilliant white light through the leaves, it grabs the absolute attention of Alnet. He looks up. He snaps back to the real world. Eyes. He looks back to the bush where he had seen the eyes. Not there anymore. He is suddenly aware that he did hadn't imagined them.The moonlight subdues too soon leaving Alnet in the midst of another panic attack. The music of the forest is still playing but he can't hear it anymore. He hears movement near him, he jumps up on alert. Now the light is gone, completely gone. It's more black than ever before. For a reason that can not be explained, he steps back.

He hits a tree. His hands fly to his mouth just in time to stop a scream from escaping. He whips his head around psychotically, searching, not seeing anything. The white light cuts through the black again... two meters in front of him is a huge tiger. Alnet sees nothing magnificent or beautiful in the creature. It's sheer size makes Alnet stop breathing. Another dreadful staring competition starts, the boy unable to look away from the powerful, emotionless eyes.

This time, Eyes doesn't bother humouring the boy; the tiger leaps, a clean bite on Alnet's neck. It's all over in a matter of seconds. The moonlight having witnessed the evens unfold quietly makes an escape. And oblivious to the whole scene, the music continues.