Golden Eyes- An original short story

"I'm looking for the Balios."

He had been surrounded by a crowd of tourist guides half a second before, but they had retreated as soon as he had ellicited the name. 

"Don't get involved with that, son."

"You ain't going with me."

"Who's gonna go with him anyway?"

He had no idea what the Balios was, he had only been told that it was in the old city, an ancient underground labyrinth. Everyone he questioned about it either ignored its excistence, or refused to speak about it.

His master's words echoed in his mind.
"If you want your complete freedom, then find the Balios. If you do, you will be freed from my care." His laughter had given chills to Tom.

He cursed and kicked a stone, hands in his pockets. He ignored skillfully the judging stares of the guides, and started walking hasardly through the streets. The air was scorching, and the sun was at its summit; few people adventured into the narrow streets of Livion. 

"I'll do it." He jumped.

 From seemingly nowhere a young girl had appeared in front of him. She didn't look older than fourteen,was scrawny and small. Her body faded into shadows; her golden eyes stood out like embers in the night.

"I'll bring you to the Balios."

He offered her a smile.

"Thank-you."

"Don't thank me."

He held out in his hand two gold coins.

"Is that enough?"

She just shook her head and pushed his hand away. Her skin was cold.

"Follow me."

She moved silently and fast. He had trouble keeping up with her, let alone keeping her in his sight.

When she stopped ten minutes later he was panting heavily. He leaned on the ocre wall for support.
A thought kept nagging his mind: her eyes. He had seen their identical twin somewhere. But where?

She was standing next to a beaten up wooden door. She pushed it open, revealing a stone staircase. Torches illuminated the staircase and garffiti covered the walls.

"Why don't they just illuminate with lamps?" Tom wondered.

"They would if they could." She answered.

They reached the bottom of the stairs after ten minutes of walking. They were in a massive circular room, which seemed to be the meeting point of many corridors and staircases going up and down. The dome ceiling was covered in swirls and foreign letters. 

"Take a torch from the staircase if you want to see in the next passage."

He obeyed.

Without hesitating she went towards a  corridor on his left side. It was plain and covered in graffiti, but she stopped after thirty strides, pressing her hand against the wall.. Golden sparks flew from her hand and the ground trembled. What looked like a panel slid down and another staircase appeared. It went down into darkness.

The steps were run down, some of them missing. The air smelled like the past, and  the only sound he could hear was the crunch of his footsteps.
His torche's light barely helped the dread forming in his stomach.  He noticed a dent in the wall and stopped. He brushed it with his fingertips, the dust making him cough. On the wall he saw two eyes, and a crown on top of it. The colours had faded away, but you could also guess discern some writing. The eyes seemed to be looking straight at him. He could have sworn they had blinked.

He shook his head and paced to catch up to his guide.

At first he thought it was his imagination, but he sometimes thought he saw golden eyes gawking at him in the darkness. They seemed to get nearer and nearer. He cried out when he felt a small bite on his ankle, and another on his thigh. It felt like small daggers digging in his calf

He agitated his torch around him, hearing hisses.

"Leave him alone. You'll get what you want later." Said the girl, her voice irritated.

He didn't dare ask what they wanted. His heart was pounding and his hands were trembling.

Were they insects? Then why was she talking to them? And why did they seem to listen to her?The shadows left him alone after that, but he could feel their presence, it gave him goosebumps.

The air was getting colder and colder.

"What's the Balios?"

The girl stopped. and started laughing. Her voice sounded like a woman's suddenly.

"That explains it."

"What?"

"Why you are seeking it. You wouldn't be if you knew what it is."

"What is it?"

Her expression darkened.

"It comes from your worst nightmares." He shivered." When it's strong, then the whole shadow city is strong. When it's weak, we are nothing. That's all you can know."

The moment she finished her sentence, he glimpsed the end of the staircase and a dark room, before a strong wind knocked him down and estinguished his torch.

He couldn't move, couldn't breathe.

"You brought a human?" Another set of golden eyes shone in the darkness, but these were bigger and their colour was weaker."It has been a century since my last proper meal."

Tom would've screamed if he had any air in his lungs.
The golden eyes. He knew where he'd seen them before.
His master. He had the same eyes.

"Stop it, Aiges. He needs to be alive for Balios."
The eyes widened and suddenly air filled Tom's lungs.
He screamed and shot up, blindly searching for the staircase. He needed to escape. It didn't matter if he would never be  free. This was too much.

His torch lit up again and he saw the staircase had disapeared. He turned around in horror and saw "Aiges". He looked old, crumpled likeand old piece of paper. The room had been magnificent once, but its arches and tapestries were worn down and had claw marks. Aiges was sat on a stone throne, covered in cobwebs and dust.

"Oh,  even better than food." His old eyes twinkled with exitement. "How on earth did you  convince him, Loki?"

His panic intensified.

"Please let me go. I'm done. Let me-"

His air supply was cut off again.

"Could have thought about that before." Aiges crooned.  He lazily extended one of his arms and a doorway appeared.

Tom's body was thrown into it. He landed heavily on a sandy ground. He opened his eyes and saw two golden eyes watching him.

"Hello." An ancient voice purred.

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What did ya think? Okay, this is a little more action packed than my other stories and also longer, so what do you like best? Thank you so much for reading this, don't forget to subscribe (my next short story is going to be Allegory wooo, I can't wait). For more short stories click here.

I hope you are okay in these dark times. I think it's important that we all keep our heads high and pray for the ones of us that are not so lucky.

Yours,

Juliette