Ikarus - Part V (fiction)

in #fiction5 years ago

There are four parts before this. One, two, three, four.

She had the most intense eyes he’d ever seen. Warm, amber eyes, something like molten honey. And she looked at him with those eyes and for a moment, Ikarus forgot what he’d been saying. For a moment, he kinda wondered why he hadn’t been stalking this girl, instead.
‘So then, why were you following this guy?’
‘Fucked if I know. Sorry, I mean, he was… interesting, in a weird sort of way, you know? He’s just so different from me.’
‘And now, you’re pretending to be him for a week?’
She had a voice like she didn’t quite believe him, which was remarkable, because she really didn’t.
‘Well, not pretending as in… pretending. I don’t wear his clothes. Except I do. This is his suit, but that’s only because I don’t have one. Anyway, I don’t talk or act like him or anything. It’s just an experiment.’
‘And he’s over at your house, pretending to be you right now?’
‘Well, I highly doubt he’s at my house, you know. Knowing my dad, they’re probably scaling a skyscraper as we speak.’
The woman with the amber eyes grinned, shook her head. ‘This is by far the craziest excuse I’ve ever heard. So, points for the creativity, creep, but I think I’m gonna go.’
‘No, wait,’ he said, coming after her as she headed for the door. It was most strange, he’d never chased after a girl before. And he’d never seen Eric chase after one either. Most strange, indeed.
‘It’s not an excuse, it’s real. I can show you this guy’s house and everything.’
‘Right.’
‘Come on, you’ve seen him. He always sits in the fifth row, usually on the third seat, you know? He always has a big Coke. I swear I’m not stalking you.’
‘Sure, because you’re just pretending to be some really boring guy because you’re this… what, this eccentric millionaire or something? Is that it? Nice try.’
‘No, listen. I can show you. I can take you to meet Eric and you’ll see. He’ll confirm everything.’
She seemed to consider this for a moment. ‘Yeah, okay. Let’s go.’
‘Well, not now. I mean, we’re not supposed to see each other for a week, I told you. What’s your name, by the way?’
‘Amber.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘Not at all, why?’
‘Well, your eyes, they’re… amber.’ He shot her an embarrassed smile.
‘Oh, they’re contacts.’
‘They are?’
‘I figured it would be an opportunity too good to miss.’
‘Huh. Good thing your mother didn’t call you something like Vermilion or Topaz or something.’


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Photo by Aman Ravi on Unsplash

But the girl wasn’t listening anymore. She’d taken this opportunity to step around him and the next thing he knew, she was out the door.

‘Hey, I was thinking. Would you like to, I don’t know, have coffee or something?’
‘Ha, good one. So not only you stalk me, then make up some ludicrous story and now you’re asking me out?’
‘Well, it’s what normal people do, ain’t it?’
‘Don’t know, doesn’t sound like this Eric did much of that. Otherwise, maybe you wouldn’t have stalked him and ended up switching lives with him and everything.’
‘Good point,’ he said, too soon. A quick glance at the girl assured him she’d been joking.
‘Okay.’

The word was so simple, so out there that at first, he thought he’d just imagined it. He stared at Amber, who had the most mischievous grin on her face.
‘Well, how many chances of going out with my stalker am I gonna get?’
‘I thought you were angry.’
‘Are you kidding? Being stalked is the most fun thing that’s ever happened to me.’
‘Uhm, but…’
‘And making up all that bullshit story about this other boring dude? That was a nice touch, really. I loved it.’
She was practically jumping up and down with excitement by now.
‘Okay. Tomorrow, then?’
Amber nodded and laughed and it occurred to him just then, she was utterly, utterly bonkers.


‘I said “amber”, not ember.’ Lionel Wilty was saying. ‘And besides, these are most definitely not ember.’
‘They are so.’
The other voice, the low one that sort of sounded like it might strangle you if you listened to it wrong was Barney, Wilty’s nephew and Ikarus’ cousin, the one who’d started all of this madness. And at the moment, his voice sounded even less pleased and a great deal more menacing. And when it came to swishing around in a high-powered speed boat with someone extremely unpleasant and menacing, Eric would have rather passed, thank you. Except no one had actually asked him, and here he was now, in the middle of a really large, and by all accounts, really deep, lake, in pitch dark.
‘No, ember is the thing with the coals, my dear boy. One of those glowing, hot things, you see. If anything, an ember’s red, or in the general vicinity of red, which would be a lot closer to amber than this.’

It was odd. Even though he’d only known Lionel Wilty for a few hours, Eric felt as if they were long-time… acquaintances. Which is what made witnessing this whole exchange even more shocking. Half an hour ago, he could’ve never imagined the man angry, or even moderately upset with something. And now, here he was, shouting his head off.
Personally, Eric didn’t see what the big deal was. It was just a pair of eyes, but they seemed to matter a great deal to Lionel.


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Photo by Ludde Lorentz on Unsplash

‘Okay,’ the low, menacing voice (Eric was having trouble in thinking of it as an actual person, even though he’d met Barney just ten minutes ago) said. ‘If they’re not ember then, what are they?’
‘Well, once again, my nephew, they were supposed to be amber. But what I think you were going for is emerald. These are definitely some warm, emerald eyes.’
The man peered into the little plastic box again, then puffed in disgust.
‘They’re nice eyes, though,’ Eric interrupted, hoping (in vain, as he would soon see) to reestablish the peace. ‘Surely, they’re not so bad.’
‘Not bad?’ Lionel Wilty yelled, picking up one eye, in a flash, and swaying it around at Eric. ‘Do these glow in the dark, dear boy? No. They absolutely don’t. Which means our entire plan will be ruined. What’s the point of having a scarecrow if it doesn’t scare crows at night?’
‘But what’s the point of having a scarecrow in the middle of the lake, anyway?’

It was here that the family resemblance became rather evident. Lionel Wilty and his nephew stared at him in petrified silence and Eric honestly worried he might not make it back from this little boating trip.
‘The point is there are crows above water, yes? It’s unprotected, so someone must. And that someone must. Now, hand me that power cord.’
The man stooped over the sack of barley and held out a hand. ‘Did you bring the superglue?’ he inquired of his nephew. ‘Well, thank God for small miracles.’

Then, he set about tying the head of the scarecrow (an old frying pan covered in grease) to the barley, muttering something about doing it right. ‘Eric, bring that raft here,’ he said, once he’d finished tying and gluing things. It was true – by the faint light of the moon, it did sort of look like a scarecrow. Good enough for what they wanted, anyway.
Eric looked around desperately for a raft and found a… well, he wasn’t sure what it was, exactly. Or perhaps, he didn’t want to know, but the fact was it bore a striking resemblance to a raft made of stitched together wine corks. Or maybe, superglued together.
He picked it up carefully and held it, as the two others fixed the barley on. They’d tied it to an old cross they’d found God knows where and had then shimmied the cross in between the corks. And it wasn’t as if the raft could’ve gone anywhere or that he saw the point of making a scarecrow for the middle of the lake, but as he watched the thing, swaying gently in the night breeze, Eric felt sort of pleased with himself.


to be continued

Today's prompt was 'warm amber eyes' :) Or perhaps 'warm ember eyes'. Thank you @mariannewest for the words and the inspiration.

Thank you for reading,

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