Wall-Paper Eyes

• Kai Pietrass-Wong, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2022

Audrey couldn't sleep. For hours she’d lain awake and hadn't gotten an ounce of rest. It didn't help that her rooms wallpaper looked uncannily like staring eyes. Audrey pulled herself under the covers to escape the glaring eyes. It worked for a short while, until her warm breath filled the air pocket, forcing her to escape the blankets confines with gasping breathes as if she’d been underwater. Sitting bolt upright in bed, she realized the wallpaper-eyes had been awaiting her…

In frustration, she moaned and flopped backwards onto her pillow, starring up at the inky-dark roof. She could make out her fish mobile slowly spinning in the air. How does it spun when there’s no wind. Audrey squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to sleep again. But a slight crack in the wall caught her attention. She stared at the slit, wondering where it came from. It certainly wasn't there before.

Slowly it started widening as Audrey peered into the crevasse. She saw only pitch blackness. But out of the darkness an eye formed. Audrey was equally puzzled and terrified. More wall-eyes appeared to stare at her, emerging rapidly from new slits appearing randomly across the walls, one after another…. until the walls were encrusted in eyes.

Suddenly, the wallpaper-eyes seemed friendly. But the real wall-eyes now made sleep impossible. The walls began to close in, and the eyes stares felt like daggers. Audrey dove under the covers again, hoping for the best. She waited in terror, expecting to be crushed by the converging wall... but it didn’t happened. Audrey waited a bit longer. Still nothing happened. She waited longer still, holding her breath and still nothing. Cautiously she peeked out from under the covers.

Expecting to see the eye-covered walls close enough to crush her, she was startled to be greeted by a sunny field of lush grass, rolling hills, fluffy white clouds, chirping birds and a bright sun.

What just happened?

My room disappeared and was replaced with this… place. Something wasn’t right with her new surroundings. The sun wasn’t warm, the air felt cold. Glaring at the sun, Audrey’s eyes didn’t hurt. The grass was a bit too green, straight and tidy. Clouds resembled cotton balls, and strangely she could hear birds though none were in sight. A around there were endless green fields.

“Hello!” Whipping around to confront the yelling source, Audrey spotted a robotic skeleton wearing a tattered scarf wrapped around its body. Only its head was exposed, the cranium split into two hemispheres with each half shaped like a curvy, pointy moth wing. Three eyes on each side of its head trained exclusively at her. Occasionally flakes of grey dust fell off the its face, floating down to its feet. “Long time no see”, it said like it’d known Audrey its whole life. DING!!! Audrey realized it was her friend Somnia. “I can put you back to sleep, just close your eyes and think about me!” So Audrey did and never slept better… Now she was sleeping for all eternity.