The Red Eyes

The Red Eyes

by Mickel Prince

How long has it been? Almost nine years since I think I joined the U.S Army. Why though? I had a lot of op, why the Army? Oh right, as a kid I used to be bullied a lot for being shorter than most of the other boys and I wasn’t the kindest either but can’t blame me. I had an anger problem—when the teacher asked how they could help me I just replied, “You can’t, it’s something I got from my dad.”

I say that as an easy way out of counseling, I used to get suspended a lot back then. I mean it’s a common scene of a kid with an anger problem and bullies are not compatible. But as I got older, I got over it. As I came out my thoughts, I heard:

“Sergeant? Sergeant Prince?”

“What is it, second in command, Sophia?”

“Did you hear the mission?”

“No, sorry, I was lost in thought, can you go over it again?”

She stared at me with a disappointing look in her eyes.

“You need to take your commanding job more seriously. You have 50 men under your command and if you don’t take this more seriously you’re gonna get them killed.”

“I think you’re gonna kill us before me with all that nagging you do.”

“Shut up, I’m going to go over the mission,” she replied with a slight smile. I first met Sophia in the 9th grade. At first we hated each other and argued a lot with each other but due to me having anger issues and a superiority complex, which I did blame her for. She was too smart for her class, so that caused our classmates to avoid us and we were forced together most of the time for group activity. We unconsciously slowly grew on each other and eventually became best friends. I’m grateful to her even though I don’t say it; without her I wouldn’t have even been here or graduated high school for that matter and I didn’t have any goals or ambition but she made me join the military with her even though I didn’t—and look at me now, platoon sergeant and the salary is good too. I came out of my thoughts again to hear Sophia

saying: “So you understand now?”

“Yeah,” even though I haven’t heard a single word.

“If you heard, then, what is the mission?”

“You know I didn’t hear a word you said.”

“Are you ok, you’ve been spacing out a lot today.”

“Ahhhh, you’re worried about me?”

“You’re not worth my time to be worried over, whatever, I’m not gonna explain the whole mission again so basically, there’s been a number of reports from a small village in the Amazon forest about four beast-like creatures appearing out of nowhere every night and they wipe out three of the four platoons that Brazil had sent in one night and the one that survives that night did so with the skin of their teeth. So our platoon has been assigned to investigate it with five more 100 men platoons. We will be deploying at sunrise.”

“Why us though? They have six more platoons.”

“Yeah, they do but we have been performing better than all of them, so that shows us how important this mission is.”

“Whatever, we are just investigating, should be easy enough.”

“I hope you’re right, I think you should get some sleep, we are leaving early tomorrow.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” “Good night, Sergeant.” “Yeah, good night.”

In a blink of an eye, it was morning, I had a hard time sleeping last night for some reason, but I have a feeling that this mission is gonna be a long one. As I was about to board the transport plane:

“Sergeant, the major general has ordered you to go to headquarters immediately, sir”

“Okay, I’ll be right there. Second in command Sophia, accompany me there.”

As I entered the room, the atmosphere there was so serious that you could have seen it in the air.

“Sir, you requested me?”

“Yes, Sergeant Prince, I want you to know that this mission is very important and I want you to avoid fighting if at all possible. You are one of, if not the best commander, in all the U.S Army force. I still wonder why you keep refusing to be promoted to a high rank?”

“Personal reason, sir.”

“Okay, Sergent you may leave now and be a care Sergeant,” he

said with a kind of worried look.

From that moment onward I know that the higher-ups were keeping something very important about this mission.

It had been four hours since we had left for Brazil and Sophia asked me a question that brought back old scars.

“So how is your love life?”

“My love life huh? Nothing new, just me being single. So how is married life going for you?”

“Frank is away on a job, so Elizabeth is with her grandmother until I get home.”

Oh yeah, I forgot she had a kid now but I guess it’s best that I didn’t know that, I guess seeing her happy is enough for me. Ahhh life is a jerk.

“I think you should retire and find a life for yourself outside of the military,” she told me.

“Okay, only if you promise to retire as well. I mean you have a kid now and you should be in her life more.”

“I hate you, but ok I promise,” she replied with a slight smile.

It was a long and quiet journey after our conversation but we eventually arrived at a small village in the Amazon forest and were greeted by villagers that opened their village to us and offered us coconut water and smiled at us even though you could have clearly seen that they were suffering. Still, it was comforting to see there are still nice people in this world. As I was taking a look around I passed by the graveyard and I saw that they were still burying their dead. It really makes you wonder what’s the point of doing good things in the world, if you just get death, pain and sorrow in return. As much as I want to help them, I can’t disobey orders to just investigate. The plan was to prepare ourselves before nightfall. After we finished preparing I went to meet up with Sophia. I couldn’t talk to any of the villagers because I didn’t know their language so I was relying on Sophia because she was the only one who spoke the language.

“Hi commander, I think you should know this about this mission,” Sophia said with a worried look on her face

“What is it, Sophia?”

“Well I was talking to one of the elders in this village and he told me a kind of folklore about a tribe that used to use magic years ago.”

“Well, let’s hear it,” I replied.

“Well four hundred years ago there was a peaceful tribe that used

witchcraft, they were called de duivel kinderen which means the devil children in Dutch. Due to that they were shunned by nearby villages and were avoided most of the time. But later on the deadly plague hit a tribe that was the nearest to the de duivel kinderen tribe. The plague killed everyone in the tribe, so the people started to believe that the gods were punishing them because of the de duivel kinderen—due to the fact that four tribes came to get slaughtered, the whole tribe but one little boy from the tribe that survived that night and has come back for vengeance on anyone, person, or thing that they cross path with.”

“If this is true, Sophia, tell me how is he still alive if it was hundreds of years ago?”

“Hi, I’m as confused as you are.”

“Okay, whatever, it’s just a story anyway, we have two more hours to go before we head out, and please prepare our troops, I know that we are just investigating but we must prepare for the worst. Whatever is out there wiped out four platoons in one night.”

“Sir, yes sir.”

Those next two hours passed like two seconds and we were now in the middle of a dark forest, and the sound of trees shaking from the cold night breeze and with our guns and night goggles. All of a sudden:

“Sir, my night goggles don’t work anymore,” one of my men whispered to me.

“Yeah, mine aren’t either.”

My men started to panic because our night goggles stopped working and the forest was pitch black but I had to plan ahead.

“Stay calm. Sophia, hand me the flashlights and we will head back to the rendezvous point.”

At the rendezvous point there was an open space with no trees.

“Sir, what is that?” one of my men asked me with a terrified look on his face.

When I look at the direction the soldier was looking at, a pair of red eyes gazes towards us, the sight of it would send a person who is not used to guns firing at them mad.

“Soldier, aim,” I said, trying to be brave for my soldier even though I was terrified as well.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“You will pay, you all will pay for killing my tribe,” a voice replied

in a pitch-black forest.

“Commander, there is a pair of red eyes at three o’clock, another at nine o’clock and there is one more at the rear.”

All of a sudden we were surrounded with nowhere to run.

“Commander, what do we do?” men are screaming at me.

“Hi, whoever you are, let’s talk, ok?” I said to the pitch-black forest as a way to prevent conflict.

But as I turn my head to the right I see one of my soldiers’ fingers shaking from fear on the trigger and before I can say stop:

“Bang!” the guns fired.

And there was this brief moment of silence before I heard “Kill them all,” the voice shouted.

And we started to hear growling at us from every side like a pack of wolves had found their dinner and did not plan on leaving leftovers. As the red eyes started to come out of the forest onto the open space and the moonlight shined on it, we saw an eight or maybe nine-foot monster and its skin was so rotten the slightest touch would make it decay and the blood lust in their eyes it would make any man regret being alive at that moment due what those eyes say that was about to happen to us and suddenly they attacked with superhuman speed.

“Fire!” I yelled indicating a shot.

And all I could hear were the screams of my soldier and the gunfire.

“Commander, bullets seem to not affect them, sir,” Sophia said.

“Try RPG,” I replied.

“Sir, yes sir.”

As I was looking around to try to make sense of things I saw a purple orb in the forest glowing, so I quickly grabbed the flare gun from my gun holster on my right leg and shot it to the orb. I saw a person in, like, a navy blue gown and then he started to run after me. He realized that I saw him, so I grabbed my handgun and the flashlight and when I was about to chase him I felt a hand grab me.

“Where are you going?” Sophia asked.

“I saw someone in the forest.”

“Well wait for backup.”

“I can’t or he will get away, just trust me please.”

“Okay, just please be careful, I won’t forgive you if you let that jerk out run you.”

“Like he would,” I said with a smirk.

After running for a while he trips and falls, giving me time to get closer to him. He tries getting up but I tackle him and punish him before he could. He tried to grab the orb but I punished him again and grab it.

“No, give that back, that’s the last magic power my tribe gave to me,” he said.

I immediately smash the orb hoping that something would happen and all of a sudden the gunfire sound stops from a distance.

“What have you done?” he yelled and rushed at me. But I punished him again and he fell to the ground.

I grab my gun and point it to his face.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Kill me if you want to because that’s all you people know to do,” he replied.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t act dumb like you don’t know what I’m talking about, you all will pay.” Wait, could the story the village elder told Sophia be true?

“Commander? Commander, come in,” I heard from my radio.

“Sophia, is that you?”

“Yeah, are you ok?”

“I’m fine, what about the monster?”

“I don’t know but they just dropped dead.”

“Okay, that’s good to hear.”

Before I turn around to tie the man up, I feel something sharp pierce my back. I turn around and realize that he had stabbed me with a knife and he was laughing.

“That knife had poison on it, so you will soon die,” he said and kept laughing.

I pistol whip him to his face sending him unconscious. I pulled the knife out my back and started to make my way back and use the trees to hold myself up as I slowly felt myself lose consciousness. But I kept saying in my mind, “I need to see Sophia, please let me see Sophia,” knowing that I will soon die.

But I couldn’t and fell and sat down resting my back on the trunk of a tree, and I suddenly heard Sophia’s voice.

“Kevin, Kevin!”

“I left the guy unconscious a little more that way,” I said before coughing up blood.

“Stop talking.” “I have been poisoned, so I’m already dead.” “No, you’ll be fine,” she said as the tears ran down her face. Tell her! Tell her you love her, tell her, you idiot, before it is too

late.

“You know you’re ugly when you cry.” “Please stop talking, Kevin, please don’t talk, you need to live please.”

I remember in high school whenever she looked down I called her sweet Sophia and it always made her mad but at least she wasn’t sad. With the last strength I found in my body, I gently touch her cheeks and say, “Don’t cry, my sweet Sophia,” before I breathe my last breath and my eyes forever see darkness.