Eye in the sky
It shot at him. His health was running low, but he was so close to defeating it.
One last shot and he would be able to do it …
“AIDAN WOO! I CAN HEAR YOU ARE STILL AWAKE! GO TO BED RIGHT NOW! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP EARLY TOMORROW!”
Aidan groaned as the eye attacked him again, and the giant red “Game Over” appeared on his computer screen. He yanked off his headphones and set them down, sighing.
“Okay, Ma!”
Aidan shut down his computer and turned off his bedroom lights. He got into bed and wondered how amazing it would be to finally pass that level. He imagined striking the eye until it was dead.
He smiled and gently drifted off to sleep. While Aidan was sleeping, someone else was awake.
Quite far away from Aidan’s neighbourhood was a factory. It produced video games; among them was the game Aidan had so much trouble beating. A security guard was working the night shift inside. In a room within the factory was a giant screen. It was used for programming and testing the games. No one was there and it was very dark.
After the security guard checked and left the room, the giant screen flickered. A bright green light illuminated the room and lines of code appeared on the screen, moving upwards like someone was scrolling through them.
The light from the screen kept getting brighter. Then, the security guard rushed into the room. He stood there in awe, mesmerised by the glow, trying to make sense of what was on the screen.
Before he knew it, the roof of the room was blown apart and the screen turned black. The security guard was about to yell for help when a bright white light shone out of nowhere.
When the light faded away, the guard was gone.
Aidan bolted awake. The incessant beeping of his alarm clock startled him. He quickly got ready and then ran downstairs to have his breakfast. His mum was usually there to serve him breakfast and see him off. However, today was different.
He looked around but couldn’t see her. It wasn’t like her to not be in the house this early in the morning. It was only when he peered out of the kitchen window that he saw his mother standing outside, her head tilted back, eyes locked on the sky. He also noticed his next-door neighbour, Mr Yap, doing the same thing.
He found that weird.
“Maybe they’re looking at an interesting bird?” he thought to
himself.
Aidan went outside to see what it was that had caught their attention.
“Ma, why are you looking at the... ”
He stopped mid-sentence. As soon as he saw it, he gasped.
It was an eye. It didn’t look mechanical, or man-made. It was real. But … no. An eye was not supposed to be there. It stared down at everyone, looming over them. It was so unnatural, yet it seemed to fit in with the sky, like it had always been there.
Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from ‘Eye in the sky’ by Jeeapreet Kaur. It is part of a series of short stories – The Eye: A Young Writer’s Anthology. Priced at RM31.90, the book is available at BookXcess. All royalties go to Yayasan Chow Kit, a non-profit organisation serving the needs of children and teens in the Chow Kit area of Kuala Lumpur.
To give the younger generation an avenue to express themselves, Twentytwo13 has a dedicated space called Young Voices. If you are a young writer (aged 17 and below) and would like your article published on our news website, send your contribution to editor@twentytwo13.my.
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