All Eyes on Me

Adian Gordon sat at his desk editing his most recent video. He had been exploring an abandoned farmstead. He removed the long silences between finding the odd pile of cans and phallic graffiti he had to censor. Despite how much he hated the tedious routine that came with editing, he loved the exploration and the attention that came with it. He knew that he wasn’t a huge face online, only having a few hundred people consistently watching him. But he didn’t care because even if they only watched for a moment those eyes were on him and only him. His attention was pulled away from his unfinished video when he heard a notification.

It was an E-Mail from [email protected].

“Want to be the first to see?”

Attached is a file named Directions.PDF. The email has no body text. He opened the Directions and it gave him the location of a building with a box of text that says “I couldn’t find any videos covering this place. If you’re the first it could get you more fans.”

He sat there, reading it over repeatedly. He contemplated going. If this was just a joke he might just waste a few hours of his life. If it’s telling the truth, he could become relatively famous. He decided to sleep on it.

He woke up, went about his morning, and went to work. All day he thought about the building. Tomorrow was his day off, and he’d done dumber things to pass time. That night he packed a bag. Gloves, a respirator, flashlight, batteries, portable charger, his camera and a bottle of water. He left before the sun was up the next morning.

The building was large and circular with barred windows spaced evenly and circling it. The inside was too dark to make out with any accuracy. Adian circled the building enticed by the odd trick and the single short corridor that jutted out. He walked up to it and stared blankly at the graffiti on the door. He made sure to record all of it before walking up to the corridor. He stopped as he saw the graffiti on the only entrance to the building. All eyes on you, the letters large and bright red. He watched a bead of paint run down the door leaving a single thin red line going from the phrase to the ground. He watched as bead after bead fell, unsure about what exactly was causing his interest in what was simply odd graffiti. Suddenly he realized what was so captivating.

If it was still wet, that meant it was recent.

He felt a chill on the back of his neck. He took a deep breath before slowly pushing open the door. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim light, the dust Stirred up slightly by the small breeze. The corridor was Clean, he expected cans, debris, broken bottles may be just a couple obscene drawings but it was, aside from the layer of dust, pristine. He walked slowly down the hallway, watching his feet to make sure he didn’t miss any hazards. This hallway was narrow enough that if he spread both arms wide, they could reach the walls. At the end of the hall he saw a door sitting Slightly ajar, the thin line of light Stretching across a portion of the hall. As Aidan reached the handle of it, he heard the door he came through creak closed. He ran to try and catch the door before it closed, but a moment before he reached it, it shut and locked with a click.

He banged against the door for several minutes. His hands were red and stung by the time he stopped. He sunk under the ground, put his head in his hands and showed it along string of obscenities. He grabbed his camera to see if it had been recording, the light blinked repeatedly. Aiden stood up and sighed “all eyes on me” he walked back down the hall. Another chill ran up his neck, he ignored it.

He pushed open the door hesitantly, slowly stepping into the main room of the building. The room was large, round and had three floors circling the central tower that sat in the middle of the Rotunda. On the inside he saw doorways wrap around him on every floor. He entered the first doorway on his right. Inside there’s a metal bed frame bolted into the wall, the toilet in the corner, a sink next to it and a mirror. He walked out of the room and went to the right of it. It looked identical. He kept moving to the right. Room after room was the same metal frame bolted into the wall, a steel toilet, a sink and a mirror. He finished circling the first floor and passed a staircase that led to the second line of cells. He ignored it. “Probably more of the same.” He mumbled defeated. He entered the first cell he had examined again. He stared into the mirror, “all eyes on me” he mumbled. The man in the mirror stared back and looked defeated. His hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in days and he looked back at Aiden with a mix of anger and regret. A chill ran down his spine lingering a moment longer than it had before he felt his fist ball up.

Small shards of glass lay at his feet. Mirror in front of him shattered, cracks emerging from where his face was reflected, a single line of dark red moving down, flowing between the cracks. His hand felt cold and the near silent drip… drip… dripping cutting through everything else in the building. The chill lingered again this time. Wiped his hand off on his shirt and looked at his broken reflection one last time before stepping out of the cell and looked at the central tower again. A large Stone monolith with a door at its base. He noticed something up top. So he struggled to make out the shape for a moment, then it hit him. It was someone watching him. He pulled on the door. It was locked. The chill came back. “All eyes on me” the words carrying a weight to them as they broke through his lips.