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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Wild-Tea-9242 on 2024-09-25 20:12:54+00:00.

Their reflections had no eyes.

Just empty, black sockets. It wasn’t a split second frame either, every moment where the camera catches their reflections, they appeared to have no eyes.

The reality began to set in.

I had been suspicious, but I hadn’t known it was truly that bad. If anything, I thought the real Bryce and Zack were somewhere hurt, and these were just copies. The truth was, they were eyeless wraiths, just like the four victims of the Eye Ripper, their spirits corrupted by the evil here.

'Soullessness hurts,’ that’s what Zack had said. Zack fell victim to that boy in the basement, then Bryce fell victim to Zack when we left them alone together. They wanted to lure us outside so they could jump us and take our eyes like their eyes had been taken. It was like a zombie infection type of thing, if your eyes were ripped out in this ghastly place, you ended up a monster as well. Forced to haunt a limbo, looking for something you may never find, driven to mutilating living people despite it not doing anything but spreading the torment like a virus.

I was determined not to end up like that.

I wondered if, if any of us had looked at the mirror at any point, would we have seen the lack of eyes in the reflection or was it only visible on camera? We were so distracted, of course we didn’t look at the vanity. I shuddered as I imagined what it would have felt like to discover such a horrifying thing with Zack and Bryce still in the room with us.

But… where were their bodies? If Zack was truly dead, why hadn’t we found his corpse in the basement? Same with Bryce, why hadn’t we found his corpse in that room?

Whatever the case, after seeing this, I wasn’t willing to waste another moment sulking or grieving. I was going to gather everyone and look for more eyes. I had a feeling I knew how, too.

I stood up from the corner with the intention of rousing Vanessa to ask her questions about the Eye Ripper case, when something caught my eye.

The window.

The curtains that covered it had a small sliver of space open between them, where I saw a pale nose almost flush against the glass pane.

Fear struck me like a lightning bolt and I yanked one side of the curtain open to reveal a different ghost boy. The one in the basement had black hair, this one had brown hair and a little blood smudged under his nose. His head immediately shifted ever so slightly so his hollow eye sockets were facing me. His little hands were pressed against the window. He looked like he was in a crouching position.

It suddenly hit me that we were on the second floor.

“I-I’m gonna find your eyes,” I desperately tried to reason with the thing, “so please, leave me and my friends alone until then, okay?”

The boy stared at me with an emotionless face. Then, his lower jaw unhinged, turning his mouth into an O shape, and a puff of vapor ghosted from between his white lips and fogged the glass. Slowly and mechanically, he used a finger to draw a pair of eyes in the window. They were shaped like lemons with big irises and little pupils.

I nodded eagerly, thinking I was getting somewhere with this. “Yes. Yes, your eyes. I’m gonna give them back to you.”

Then, with his finger, he erased the details off the eyes he drew, including the irises and pupils, until it looked like two darkened ovals. Mimicking empty eye sockets. I frowned. I knew the implication, but I wasn’t sure if this was a threat aimed at me or if he was showing what had been done to him.

I shook my head, not knowing what to say next. The boy simply crawled up and above the window, towards the roof, scaling the wall like a spider. I closed the curtains again, feeling myself tremble. That interaction didn’t instill me with any hope at all. I could hear him crawling on the part of the roof above the room we were in and it freaked me out, but I tried to ignore it as I continued my course of action.

Could they get into the house? Yazmine said locked doors don’t deter ghosts, but maybe she was wrong or these were a different type of ghost. She told me about ghost categories in the past, some of them follow the rules of the physical world, like being able to be hurt with blunt force. In any case, they clearly knew where we were.

I woke Vanessa up and said, “We need to start trying to escape, I have to ask you some questions about the four kids.”

She rubbed her eyes and sat up, loosening her hood. “Like what?”

“Millie’s eyes were hidden in her teddy,” I began to explain as I paced the room, “so I began to wonder, are the other eyes hidden like that?”

“I dunno.” She shrugged.

“Was her teddy noted as missing in the report?” I asked.

“Yeah, the articles and news reports all mentioned she went missing with her stuffed bear,” Vanessa replied.

“Did the other kids go missing with any objects?” I chewed my lip in thought.

“Yes, actually.” Vanessa perked up. “Peter, the black haired boy in the red shirt, went missing with his school backpack. Oh, and Sarah’s little purse she got for her birthday was with her when she was kidnapped and wasn’t found anywhere.”

“What about the other kid, William?” I began to grow hopeful.

“Ummm…lemme think.” I could see the cogs turning in Vanessa’s head. “Damn, I don’t think I remember William going missing with anything other than the clothes on his back.” She sighed.

“We’ll figure that out later,” I waved her worries away, “right now, we’re gonna be on the lookout for that backpack and that purse. It’s like you said, serial killers keep souvenirs. Those items were what the kids were last seen with, so he kept them for himself, and I guess he saw their eyes as souvenirs too, so he placed them inside those things, if my theory is right. I hope I’m right, at least.”

“So, you think they’re in the basement?” She looked nervous.

“That should be the first place to check.” I nodded. “After all, the last time we went, we didn’t know exactly what to look out for, and that basement is like the inside of a hoarder’s house. Do you remember seeing anything like that down there?” She shook her head no. “What’s the color of the backpack and purse?”

Vanessa fought hard to remember. “The backpack was a dark color, something from back in the day, and I don’t remember the exact color. The purse was pink, it matched her shirt, I remember that much at least.”

“Great, we just gotta get Yaz and John and go back there, then we’ll only need one more set of eyes.” I marched towards the door, Vanessa hot on my heels. First, I went to John’s room, and opened the door. He was lying on his side on a twin bed, facing the wall. It looked like it had once been a little boy’s room, but the boy in the old photograph on the floor wasn’t any of the victims.

Vanessa saw me looking at the picture. “The neighbors moved out not long after the murders,” she elaborated, “they were very hush hush about it and wouldn’t answer any reporter’s questions. I think they started to realize that this place was becoming…like it is now.”

“John,” I called to him, walking over, “we know how to find at least four other eyes. We just need to go back to that basement. I know it’s scary as all hell, but we made it out just fine last time and this is the only way to escape with our lives.”

He didn’t answer me or move a muscle and I sighed, wondering how I was gonna get him to comply. Vanessa pointed, “Shut that window! Why’s it even open?!”

I looked over to see that, indeed, the window halfway obscured with dark blue drapes was wide open.

“Dammit.” I went over and shut it, fairly fed up. “John, be a man and get your ass up!”

I started to feel uneasy as he refused to move. I exchanged a nervous glance with Vanessa. His stillness was reminding me too much of the ghost children, and I could feel the air thicken with tension. What if one of those entities had entered through the window?

I slowly crept over to his bedside, steadily reaching my hand out then…

I yanked his arm towards me, pulling his body onto his back.

I expected to see him emotionlessly staring at me like Zack and Bryce had, but instead I saw red rimmed eyes, a snotty nose, and cheeks glistening with tears. He wasn’t a ghost, he was simply crying and ashamed.

“Leave me alone.” He pulled away from me.

“Don’t you want to get out of here?” Vanessa asked with frustration. “Stop wallowing and get up!” I thought she was being a hypocrite, but I didn’t say anything.

“Fine,” John pushed himself up and wiped his tears away, “but I’m not going back to that basement.”

“Then where are you going?” I asked as he stood up.

“You know those other two roads?” He asked me. “The ones that don’t lead back to town. I’m gonna try one of them. Even if they don’t go back home, maybe they go somewhere far from here.”

I groaned. “You can’t be serious. You think only that one road was affected by the curse here? You’ll just end up right back here!”

“You two can go hunting for rotten eyes as much as you want!” He snapped. “But I can’t stay here! I can’t, man!” He rushed past us.

“Wait!” I called after him. “Zack and Bryce, remember?!”

“I’ll go through the back door!” He called back.

“Whatever,” my face felt hot from anger, “let’s go get Yaz. She won’t abandon us.”

Vanessa and I went to the room where Yaz had run to. She was standing at the window, peeking out through a crack in the blinds at the front yard and street outside. The moonlight made her brown eyes sparkle along with her tears, and…

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