The Eye Doctor (Featured WDC Newsletter)

FEATURED in The Writing.Com Newsletter: Mystery: Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Editor's Picks, September 1, 2010

Esmeralda arrived at the eye doctor on time. She was always on time, never late for appointments, for meetings, for work, even living in such a big city as Curitiba, Brazil where transit was completely maddening. She hated to be late and people that were late. She was overall healthy yet she was there to have her eyes checked. Lately, she felt her eyes burn at night, really burn, hurt and ache, as if her eyes wanted to pop out and become someone else's. And since last year, she felt insisting thoughts of searching for an eye doctor.

And so, there she was. She waited in the doctor's clinic for her appointment with Dr. Demiyan Reficul. He was considered to be one of the best in town; a friend had told her so. She knew that it would be expensive as she could see by the plush furniture and red, leather sofas but she needed to know what was going on with her eyes, especially at night - and she couldn't forget to ask him why it only hurt... at night.

Greta, the tall German nurse, had told her that she would be checked on her peripheral vision. Her visual acuity would be seen by using a chart of random letters of different sizes called the Snellen Chart, and that there would be usage of eye drops or an eye dilator to check the inside of her eyes. All this would help determine the cause of her vision "changes." Greta also told her that she was the last patient of the day and schedule her next appointment as she would not be there when Esmeralda left the room. Greta would have to leave some minutes before she did. She felt comfortable and relieved now, and eager to enter the doctor's room. She would finally know what was wrong with her after six months of torment and sleepless nights.

Esmeralda walked into the doctor's office. He was sitting behind his enormous and elegant mahogany desk, but when he saw her he immediately stood up, smiled uneasily, looked shocked then surprised and, then, looked at her as if he had somehow recognized her. She thought that this was extremely upsetting and impolite; nevertheless, she forgave him because it was a pattern reaction of men when they met her anywhere she went. She was stunning. Sometimes this embarrassed her very much.

He smiled openly, romantically, and even sensually, trying to get closer, touch her, and be around her and... in her... if she had permitted this intimacy. Yet, this man's smile was deeper, more intense than the usual ones. She crossed her legs after she sat down and observed his eyes flash to her perfect, round knees. He somehow... seemed familiar, though. How come?

Dr. Demiyan was very tall, average built, with long legs and strong arms, had big hands and long fingers for a person that performed ophthalmic exams. He had a darker completion than hers and had funny looking ears. He had long, black hair tied up in a yuppie ponytail neatly kept under his white doctor's coat and he had deep green eyes; a wide and handsome forehead. He was extremely sensual. He was stunning. She couldn't keep her eyes away from him so, she calmly smiled and waited.

His suit looked kind of old-fashioned and his tie was actually... a bow tie. He was charming and attractive...as a matter of fact, very attractive now that she observed him closely. And, sexy, really sexy. Somehow her eyes felt better now. His voice was deep and soothing and he spoke carefully, pronouncing the words as if he didn't want to be misunderstood. I wonder where he's from, she asked herself in curiosity.

"From Lithuania."

"Oh... Excuse me! Are you a mind reader, Doctor?"

"No, I'm not... Well, maybe. It's just that this is the first question my patients ask me...where I come from...I thought you had asked me this right now."

"No, no, no... But I was wondering about this, though."

"I'm from Vilnius, Lithuania"

"Oh ... Have you been in Brazil for a long time?"

"I come and go."

"Oh...the closest I've been to your country was in Ljubljana, Slovenia."

"I imagined so... I... We lived there before the... "Big Mission"!... I lived there once...too."

"You did? What did you just say?"

"Oh Nothing. Sit here, please. Relax. Let me put these eye drops in each eye now...  As soon as I put the eye dilator I'll need to check your eyes immediately so keep your eyes open please, here, put your face in this space right there and maintain your forehead pressed against this black device, OK?" Please look into my eyes now...

"Yes, doctor." Your hands are so soft.

"I've read your Patient Information Sheet and observed that you are complaining about a burning feeling in your eyes...at night and it's only... this problem, correct? Do you feel anything else?"

"Yes, correct. No, nothing else, Doctor." I can't stop looking into your eyes, Doctor, why is that?

"Hum...Let's go, Madame." You need to remember...

"Madame? That's so formal, so French, like Madame Bovary!" Remember... what?

"Well, the term Madame is used as a form of a very polite address for a woman and is used as a title for women in artistic or exotic occupations, such as musicians or actresses and I think it's very becoming... for you!" Remember the past, our past...!

"Yes, Doctor, but it also means a fortune teller or woman who manages a brothel!" What must I remember...?

"Hum-mm...That was not my intention...!" You do look a bit different now ... but more beautiful and exotic. I can feel you. I know you're in there! Wake up! "Please, put your head right there."

"What's wrong with me, Doctor?"

"Nothing is wrong with you... physically."

"What do you mean? Something must be wrong! Listen...I can't sleep at night and I have terrible, dark visions, my eyes are always burning, irritated and blurred as if I had other eyes inside my head or inside my own eyes, like someone else was moving my eyes... do you understand this?" But now... these visions seem somehow kind of familiar to me... Did I ever meet you before, my Doctor?

"Something certainly was "wrong" with your vision Madame, as you were not "seeing" the reality too well." And for obvious reasons, my dear. "Your sight is trying to define itself, Madame." You are becoming your real self, your hidden long gone inner self is begging to come out and become free from this peel, this skin...from its prison...and finally go back... home!

"Define "trying to define itself" Doctor... You are scaring me." And... At the same time, you're not! I kind of feel much better now...!

"You will understand... Look through these lenses, please." And look at me... my Madame, look into my eyes... "Now! You need to keep an eye contact with me... look at my eyes!"

"I feel an intense... heat... Ohh I feel that I am burning alive! It's happening again. See, I told you that something was wrong with me!" Oh... I am remembering ... things...now...

"Look through the lenses... quick! You must remember!" It's our last chance... your sub conscience... will recall... through your open eyes... by looking at mine! Hurry!

While Esmeralda, sweating and burning, was putting her head closer to the  phoropter and while her eyes were getting closer to the lenses she suddenly was able to see bigger and smaller images of half of a man and half a... a red man. It was a Demon! It surprised her but... she wasn't afraid! Why not? She saw a Devil right there in front of her but... and she wasn't scared! In reality, she liked it!

He was red and handsomely "mean" and he had yellow-green, ugly eyes and two, thick, enormous, twisted, horrible horns on each side of his wide forehead. He had large, yellow, pointed teeth and a long, slimy, red forked tongue and he was drooling. He was surprisingly menacing but... magnetic; evil but... tempting; monstrous but... sensual; he was naked and he was softly moving his long, thin, red tail while looking directly into her eyes and... smiling! She remembered! She knew!!! There he was!

"Satan? Is that you?"

"Yes! Finally!"

"My... my Satan... my Demiyan Reficul?"

"Yes, my Satan-Dame, my Madame... We finally found each other after centuries of search... My dear Mistress and my Satan Wife. Why did you take so long to find me? We parted in the Big Mission centuries ago fighting against our Religious Enemies. Remember now? It's so good to see you! Oh my love, my adored red one!"

They threw one another in their arms and passionately kissed. Their wild, noisy, diabolical, dreadful and disgusting lovemaking was so ferocious and so full of fury that the big red Persian carpet on the floor became burnt, full of fumes, smoke and half destroyed. There was a gooey and stinky smell of sulfur in the air that ignited more lust and sex and those two condemned lost souls found themselves perfectly at home. Finally, they were going... Home.

When the German nurse arrived the next day she didn't find the Eye Doctor sitting behind his desk, as usual but saw with disgust and horror, two non-human horrifying animal shapes, imprinted on the Persian carpet and on parts of the shinny wooden floor of the big room. While she slowly moved the red carpet with her foot she nearly fell into a deep, dark, long and endless pit that could have taken her all to the way to the underworld of everlasting torment, damnation and heat. Horrified, she instantly knew that this was a downright open hole to hell and, to the furnace of fire, where the wailing and gnashing of teeth could be heard from the dark underworld below, all the way into eternity.



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