Work Text:
"This is going to be a terrible night", the thought bounces in your head as you make your way across the empty park. There were, of course, no plans to spend a Friday night like this, but when your friends cancelled the hangout you'd been looking forward to all week, you found yourself falling back into the old habit of wandering.
Maybe you should be more scared of being here alone at night; however, for some reason, you can't bring yourself to go home, even as the feeling of being watched mercilessly plagues you the entire walk. The cold wind and the drizzle lower your fears, along with your temperature. It just doesn't strike you as a good day to mug or kidnap someone, right? You'd have stayed inside for today, if you had been thinking of commiting a crime. The thought amuses you; criminals probably have way better common sense than yourself.
A small group of stoners occupies the sheltered tables near the center of the park. Two of them shoot you a glare when you enter their field of vision, which you ignore; none of you have any business with each other, after all. You're still a little annoyed about the taken space, for there goes all hope of hiding from the droplets soaking through your poor choice of clothes... Oh well.
Your peripheral vision catches a brief flash of red, but what they're playing on their phones is still not your business.
The dim lighting of a new establishment catches your attention from afar, the prospect of a warmer and drier place sparks your interest and, without much consideration, you're moving toward it.
Something warm, possibly a hand, touches your shoulder. You turn around to greet... air?
There's no one there. The stoners are gone, too.
Did you just... imagine that?
Are you imagining that it's suddenly a lot colder than before, too?
Don't be stupid, real danger wouldn't be playing horror movie-like mind games with a potential victim... right...?
Shoving your hands into the hoodie's pockets you hasten your step, regardless of your imagination's fertility or lack thereof. You were never the best at quieting down your superstitions, not when it matters.
A very strange, very... organic noise - as if someone were manipulating raw flesh, or blood, but not quite either - rings out from behind you.
You decide you don't want to know what that is, drop your pride and start running to your destination.
...well, you try to, that is. As soon as the acceleration begins, a hand wraps around your arm and pulls you backwards.
You're pretty sure you can feel the sheer power of inertia yank your soul out of your body, and this takes your breath away for long enough that you don't immediately realize that's not a hand oh my god-
Someone... something holds your body before it can fall to the ground. Color drains from your face as you see and, worse, feel the fleshy, pulsating tendrils supporting your weight with ease.
You look up.
A single huge, unsocketed eyeball has its glowing red irises and disturbingly dark pupils laser-focused on you.
Your brain seals the deal for you for now, and your vision turns to black.
It felt like you only blinked for a second. Safe to assume it's been a bit more than that, however: you're sitting on a chair, slumped forward so deeply, your knuckles graze the floor.
You quickly sit up and look around to locate your surroundings. Just outside the establishment you were going to. An eye...? Oh no, too quick. Another dizzy spell threatens to take over. You close your eyes, trying to maintain consciousness.
"Are you awake?"
You manage a groan as an answer, before your eyes open back up and... Okay, that was no dream.
The whatever-that-was from the park is staring you down from just a few feet away. Not like a gigantic eyeball can do much else, but the way this thing is honed in on you is really creepy.
You stare back, a primal discomfort washing over you.
"If you're going to faint again, now would be, like, flawless timing", it says.
No. It didn't say that, more like a recording was played inside it, in a highly characteristic male synthetic voice. And, even though it's slightly more dynamic, it sounds a lot like...
...google translate's text-to-speech tool.
The absurdity of it all dawns on you at the same time you process the sentence, and you laugh, as if this situation weren't straight out of a particularly freaky bad trip.
It looks down and away.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" you get out between giggles, realizing since this is a conscious being, you're probably being rude to it.
The iris glows brighter and redder and redirects itself back to you, its shape a little... arched upwards? There's no telling what this means, but it puts you at ease.
"Sorry for the scare. You just dropped this."
Your attention is drawn to the many long wriggling tendrils attached to the eyeball, each seemingly having a mind of its own, which produce a small object and tentatively hold it out for you.
Doing your best not to appear disgusted or too hesitant, you reach out and take what you recognize as your ID card, the warm flesh of the tendrils brushing your fingers as you do.
It feels as slimy as it looks, but no fluid is left on your hand after contact is broken. Your face involuntarily twitches; you hope your... eye friend didn't notice, but judging by the way they look away again, you're pretty sure they did.
"Hey, don't worry, I'm used to it."
"No, no, I--"
"You want the secret to the smoothness of these appendages. It's Dove hand cream."
Their sclera moves inward to pinch the iris only on one side, in what you'd guess is a winking motion. Even as your brain struggles to get acquainted with this odd image, the smooth delivery earns a chuckle from you.
"Ah, thanks for returning it! And for bringing me over here. I can't really repay your kindness, but you've saved me a lot of trouble..."
"Hmm, here, take my number and text if you ever think of a way to... repay me."
The tendrils extend and drop a piece of paper on your lap. You watch as the pupil dilates and iris arches once more, fascinated by how even the weirdest monster species can be this expressive.
"(xx) xxx-xxxx
~ Ret"
"Gotta say... I accept payment in the form of a cute human's company."
With that, they turn around and disappear in the blink of... an eye. Your cheeks heat up at the unexpected flirting from such an unexpected source.
...you will definitely consider that repayment, just to be fair. that's all.