Green eyes

By: Aaron hill

You enter a child’s room brightly decorated with cartoon animals on the walls and toys littering the floor around a chest, a small bed sits in the corner, neatly made and waiting. The sun’s rays shine in through the window filling the room with the light of mid-day.  A tall, thin, but beautiful woman dressed in a black dress and a red apron around her waist stands in the center of the room, her hair in a bob fashion and ruby red lipstick decorating her gentle smile. Her green eyes twinkle in the light as she smiles to greet you.
“Hi!” she said happily, “I’ve been waiting for you, dear” she suddenly clasps her hand to her mouth in shock. “Oh, and look at you! You’re so big! You’ve grown since I last saw you, I know it!”  You feel like you should know her, like a feint but fond memory, you just can’t figure out why, she’s just familiar.
“I was just cleaning up. A very messy little boy lives here, yes he does” she said with a doting tone as she began picking up the toys and placing them in the chest. “Please, come in out of that doorway, I shouldn’t be much longer.”
You awkwardly move deeper into the room, you look to the door as it creaks closed behind you, when you look back to the woman , she’s standing in the center of the room again, looking at you with soft green eyes and a bright white smile.
“It’s been so long, you were only this high when I last saw you.” She said, holding her hand just over her knee.  “You probably don’t remember me very well, it’s been so long . . . but don’t worry. . . I remember you just fine, dear, how could I not, after all, what kind of mother forgets her child.” you try to correct her but she interrupts.
“It’s just been so long.” a tear runs down her cheek, her smile dulls but quickly adjusts itself “but now you’re here, home, with your mother once more”. The room begins to darken, you want to leave but you’re frozen in place.
“We can be a family again.” She said, her expression unwavering as the room gets darker. Ten bright blue orbs of light appear in a circle around the woman, they begin to slowly circle her, and all you can do is watch.
“Look! Your brothers and sisters are here to greet you!” she exclaimed as the orbs begin to grow and shift in shining wisps of blue smoke,  slowly taking the form of ethereal children holding hands and dancing happily around the her, their mouths move as though they’re singing but no sound comes out.
“Such beautiful music, children” she begins humming along to the kid’s nonexistent song “the itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout” she began to sing softly, the room begins to shift and reality begins to churn around you and the woman.
“Down came the rain and washed the spider out” she continued.  Her features begin to shift; her smile grows from ear to ear, revealing long, sharp, dog-like teeth. Four more eyes appear on the sides of her head and her body begins to grow and change, becoming thinner and taller, her arms and hands become long and bone-like. The children begin circling her faster.
“out came the sun and dried up all the rain” a long tail twists out from behind her and rests on the ground around her feet which are now hidden by a long black dress.  The woman’s once caring and beautiful face has extended to become like an animal’s, and her hair has turned into a crown like crest around her head with a bright red ruby on her forehead.
Four long spider like legs sprout from her back and plant themselves firmly on the ground as her skin turns to a shiny black. A large hour glass shaped ruby on her chest. The children continue to circle faster and faster, their forms begin to thin and become skeletal. The room continues to shift, but begins to settle.
“Then the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again,” she finished singing just as the room finally took form. What was once a child’s bed room was now a web filled cave, the ground littered with small bones and the walls decorated with child sized cocoons. The children dancing around the woman stop and turn to look at you. What were once the ghostly faces of singing children are now the hollow stares of grinning skulls
“Welcome home, dear” she said, walking past the now completely skeletal children. She bends down to look you in the eye, her own eyes now completely blood red. She grabs your chin with her long, cold, bone like fingers.
“You’re just in time for dinner”.