The Fright Train

The Glow Part 2

"What do you..." Lucas stopped mid-sentence, losing his train of thought.

The old man at the door stood there, his clouded eyes flicking back and forth quickly, but never focusing on Lucas. Never focusing on anything, it seemed.

"Can I help you with something?" Lucas's voice came out weaker than he had intended. He shuffled back and forth in place as a chill drifted into his apartment. Fog hung still in the night air, glowing in the dim yellow illumination of the street lights at the end of the yard.

Something about the man didn't seem right. And also, more troubling than that, something about the man felt unsettlingly familiar.

"S-s-s-she's... she's..." the man stuttered, unable to get anything out past the single mumbled word.

"She's..." Lucas tried to encourage him on. The smell of bacon called to him, and his stomach rumbled. He never should have answered the door. Something was terribly wrong with this man. He looked homeless. The rags he wore hung off his thin, ghostly pale body like cob webs cloaking an abandoned room.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any cash on hand," Lucas finally apologized, preparing to close the door on the stranger.

The hinges creaked, but before Lucas could close the gap, the old man's arm shot out. His cold, clammy finger's gripped Lucas by the wrist, the sudden and intense pressure burning like ice.

And that was when he made eye contact. Lucas nearly leapt, but the man's grasp prevented him.

It was his eyes.

The area around the irises where the whites should have been glowed blue. Pale and haunting like a ghost.

"Jesus," Lucas hissed under his breath. His arm automatically went to peel the old man's hand off, but it was no use. The grip was as firm as a vice, locking Lucas into his gaze.

Suddenly it dawned on Lucas—why the man seemed so familiar. It was the woman that had come to the front gate the other night when he'd been on duty—clawing at the pedestrian entrance and trying to get in.

Lucas had chased her away. Told her to get lost. But her eyes... he couldn't forget her eyes. They'd seemed...no... they'd been glowing. He'd thought it was a trick of the light, perhaps some sort of strange cloud passing over the moon. But no... her eyes had been glowing!

"She's... she's..." the old man moaned again, inching into Lucas's foyer.

"Gah!" Lucas finally screamed. He jerked his arm away and shoved the man back. He slammed the door and latched it tight.

Panting, Lucas leaned with his back against the door and allowed himself to sink to the floor. His entire body shook. He rubbed his wrist. White pressure marks in the shape of a hand glowed on his tanned skin. Then, just as he was mustering up the courage to stand and check if the man was still there, a shrill scream echoed through the house.

The smoke alarm was going off...