Haunt || Matty Healy

One.

"He's looking at me like he wants to eat me alive or something," I mumble, shifting further from the stage.

Kelsey Miller rolls her dark eyes in retaliation, "More like eat you out, am I right?" She chuckles at her own innuendo, watching starstruck as the band before us practices for their show. "Nila, my love, you're not wearing your glasses. How can you possibly tell anyway?" I scowl at my best friend, but granted, she did have a point. I'm blind without my glasses, and even then I had trouble focusing.

It wasn't something I was born with, it was something that sort of happened with time and it was near close to legal blindness. But it's different tonight. Every time I so much as glance towards the lead singer, I find myself completely focused on him, my vision seems clear and almost beyond perfect but then the space around him blurs together. I try to explain this to Kelsey, but she only grins, her red stained lips stretching widely, "You're in looooove," she coos.

I flick her arm because she's being rather ridiculous, maybe infatuation but definitely not love. And even infatuation is pushing it. The lighting is just messing with my sight. I excuse myself to go to the bathroom near the side of the stage. The bar is rather small but tonight all the seats are filled for the set. The band isn't exactly big, but a good handful of people seem to know them.

I stumble my way to the front, trying to shrug the gaze of the lead singer off of me. I'm not facing him but there's a pressure at the back of my neck and I'm utterly hyper aware of his gaze. I bite my lip and chance a glance to the stage. I'm a lot closer than I expect and suddenly in complete tunnel vision. My heart pounds harder than the bass; I can hardly hear the lyrics as the tall man holding the mic fluidly bends down to my eyelevel at the side of the stage.

He's dressed in all black and his hair curls wildly, flipped to one side. He tilts his head as if questioning me with his lyrics, but his dark eyes are what hold me in, I can't tear my gaze away. He winks and the connection is broken.

I feel myself gasp for air I hadn't realized I've lost and I blink rapidly, my surroundings starting to glower around me. I had lost my glasses a few days ago, but my vision was never this fickle; I hadn't thought I'd needed it much to hear an indie band my best friend was quite fond of in a local pub.

I take a step back stumbling a bit, my sneakers catching in tangled wires. Someone catches me, fixing me right, "Watch where you're going," he says gruffly. I blush; my mouth is dry from my chance encounter so when I try to apologize, it's meek and hoarse. I fumble towards the bathroom, feeling my way to the back. I swallow thickly, rubbing at my eyes and trying to settle the beat of my heart.

My head is pounding; when I can't see him, can't focus on him, everything sans my sight seems to amplify, my hearing especially. I clutch my ears, groaning as a piercing screech resonates in my head. It's as if bad feedback from the microphone had pierced through the walls of the bathroom.

I move forward to one of the sinks, turning the faucet on. The metal feels worn and rusty beneath my fingertips and the dial croaks as if it hadn't been used in years. I frown at the thought, wondering how my Friday night turned into this.

I let the water run cold as I stare into the musky mirror. I know this bar isn't exactly some sort of glamor club, but the least they could do was clean the bathroom every once in a while. I lick my lips, wincing when a chapped section starts to peel off. It stings slightly but I can hardly see the damage in the mirror. I try to focus on my lips, wonder that perhaps if I can focus like I had been with the lead singer, then maybe my eyes would do that tunnel vision thing. I can't really see the fullness of my lips, I can only tell its pink and plush from all my biting.

When I glance up to my eyes, I have to squint and it nearly defeats the purpose of me attempting to catch a glimpse. They had always been brown, nearly matching my hair, but Kelsey had let it slip one night the my corneas are starting to cloud and that absolutely terrifies me.