#eye fixation

If I’m yours, it’s because I see something in your gaze. Hunger. Love. Sacrifice. Focus. Understanding. Something pure and potent pouring out of your soul through the windows.

“Excuse me, Mister. Hold this for me, will you?”

He didn’t realize who said it or why because as soon as the words registered with him a silvery chain slid between his fingers. Perplexed he watched as with firm grip fingers wrapped around his wrist, pulling his hand up. Which involuntarily led his eyes along the shiny metal of the chain down to a violet crystal that spun at its end. It looked expensive. Surely too valuable to place in the hands of the first random person one came across? Yet the mysterious voice sighed in relief. “Thanks, sir. You really saved me here. Silly me for picking up only the prettiest things whenever I go out shopping. I end up having my hands full so easily. And surely you have an idea just how helpless that would make innocent little me. But can anyone blame me? Just look at this stone. So pretty. So shiny. I had to have it so I took it. Yet it’s clear when looking at it how it can get so heavy to hold after a while. Can you see how heavy it is?” The voice chuckled and he was oddly taken by it. It was hard to place where it came from. Was the speaker moving around him? He wanted to look but the crystal looked too precious. And goodness, with his hand raised up so high it dangled freely in plain sight for all around! He didn’t dare to look away out of an irrational worry someone might snatch it before the unknown speaker had finished whatever it was they needed to free up their hands for. So he just mumbled a vague reply that could easily be anything as he waited for the speaker to introduce themselves or explain in some way what was going on.

“It looks so pristine and solid, doesn’t it? A real marvel, some might say,” the voice offered instead of an explanation, “But after looking at it for a while I found out that deep within there are so many things to discover. Cracks and bubbles, traces of minerals that break the light when it falls upon the polished surface and reflect it with dozens of new, fascinating colours.”

Be that as it may, he was puzzled as to how that should be relevant. Yet somehow the voice was pleasant to listen to so he patiently smiled while examining the smooth crystal a bit more.

“After focusing on it for a while I managed to find patterns in the colours, only to lose them when the stone sways back and forth. Every time it changes a little yet again. It seems even rocks are subject to powers far stronger than them. An influence that cracks them and slowly gives them a new shape. And if that applies to rocks, can you imagine how easily it could happen in much the same way to something softer? How it could be changed by a power beyond its control into a new form, a new state of being?”

He merely mumbled something that he hoped sounded sufficiently vague because to be honest, he hardly listened. Whoever they were, they clearly were going off on their own monologue and he knew from countless hours in the office that the only real way of not losing his mind at such times was indifferently nodding along until they were done.

So instead he watched the stone as it spun in smaller and smaller circles on its chain. Interesting how it was still spinning even though he was sure that he was holding still. Was there a breeze flowing that caused it to move? He almost gasped in surprise when the steady concentric movement changed and the stone began to sway from side to side. He could have sworn he didn’t move a muscle and felt no wind, yet somehow the longer the voice talked the easier it was to just watch the stone and be fascinated by its shimmer whenever it caught the light at just the right angle.

The voice was right, he noticed. There were a lot of curious patterns in the crystal, almost like swirls of colour rather than one even tinge. And even though it might just be his eyes playing tricks on him he couldn’t help but smile when it looked like those swirls were flowing in ever new directions as the stone dangled this way or that one.

So he barely cared when firm fingers locked around his jaw, one hand steadying his neck as the voice spurred him on: “Look a bit closer.”

Blinking, he realized how big the crystal seemed all out of a sudden. A wave of dizziness washed over him but the voice didn’t allow him to fall. Their hands were there to steady him when his muscles grew close to giving out until he felt like a mannequin in their grasp. Words flowed around him and seemed to reverberate in the back of his mind but he knew they were nowhere near as important as the crystal.

With a chuckle the voice floated through his mind, a single fingertip sending shivers up and down his spine when it traced his face and slipped down around his neck.

“It might be a bad habit of mine that when I see something pretty I want to pick it up. But I couldn’t resist this pretty stone. And neither can you.”

He let out a long sigh. It felt far too tiring to try and explain that he could easily resist. Wasn’t the voice perfectly happy just talking to itself? So why waste that breath when instead he could happily study the crystal. And just look pretty for a while. The thought had something amusing as he focused on it. Only the way the stone shivered and bounced at the end of its chain told him that his feet began to move while the voice never changed, cheerfully matching the pace of his steps: “You’ll see that I truly treasure everything I bring home with me though. All of my lucky finds are so happy when I get my hands on them. True, you might be a bit bigger than the rest. Can’t exactly keep you on a shelf. But don’t you worry your pretty empty head about that. You’ll fit right in with my toys, you’ll see!” He frowned a bit. What an odd habit this was to talk to mindless inanimate objects like that. But then the crystal spun on the end of its chain and his thoughts dissolved once more in swirls of sparkling colour. Whatever the voice wanted was not so urgent that he would actually have to think about it. He could just nod his head and look pretty. On a day like this it was exactly the sort of pick-me-up that he needed.

***