Crazy Eyes

Crazy Eyes is a spooky story about a teenage boy that goes to school with a quiet, weird-looking kid who has disturbing, bugged-out eyes and an unsettling way of staring at people.

When I was in high school, there was one boy in my class who was very weird-looking. Most of the other kids were afraid of him and everybody kept out of his way. He always kept to himself and never spoke to anyone. His name was Craig Igerson, but we gave him the nickname “Crazy Eyes”.

He had the strangest eyes you have ever seen. They were large, round, bugged-out and disturbing. They didn’t look human. It was as if they belonged to some sort of exotic reptile, like a chameleon or a lizard.

During class, he remained completely silent, never asking or answering any questions. I got the impression that the teachers were scared of him as well. All he did was stare at everyone with his bugged-out eyes, creeping them all out with that unsettling gaze of his.

One Monday morning, we had a media class. The teacher split us into groups and gave us the task of making a short film. Due to the luck of the draw, Craig was assigned to our group. While we gathered around and discussed ideas, he kept his mouth tightly shut and just stared at all of us with his big, bulbous eyes.

We eventually came up with an idea for a slasher movie. The plot involved a crazed killer who goes around a school stabbing people. Craig was so odd-looking that we unanimously decided that he should play the killer. His crazy eyes made him the obvious choice.

As it turned out, the movie was a big success. We managed to create a five-minute film that looked almost as professional as a Hollywood horror flick. Surprisingly, Craig did great job in his role as the killer. We shot hours of footage of him stalking the school grounds, running from tree to tree. He was armed with a fake knife that had a retractable blade. Then we filmed him stabbing a bunch of kids who were playing the victims. They were soaked from head to toe with fake blood.

Taking part in the movie really seemed to bring Craig out of his shell. He took to acting like a fish to water. When filming was complete, we all noticed a big change in his personality. Somehow, it boosted his confidence and although he still didn’t talk very much, he held his head up high and seemed more sure of himself.

On Friday, when we screened the film for the entire class, they loved it and started chanting, “Craig! Craig! Craig!” That day, he was the most popular kid in the class and he seemed to revel in the attention.

However, when Monday morning arrived, Crazy Eyes Craig was nowhere to be seen. He didn’t show up for school and nobody seemed to know where he was. For the rest of the week, he was absent from school.

That weekend, I was at home, working on an assignment for school. I overheard a report on the news about an attempted murder that had happened in our town. Shocked, I glanced up from my work and when I set eyes on picture they were showing on the TV screen, a chill ran down my spine.

It was Craig.

His humungous crazy eyes stared at me from the TV screen as the news reporter continued with the story.

Apparently, he had been stalking his next door neighbor. She was a 16-year old girl named Leanne. She, her younger sister and her mother had been home alone while her father was away on business.

The two girls stayed up late to watch a horror movie on TV – Nightmare on Elm Street. During the movie, they started to notice something strange. They opened a box of cereal and took two bowls into the living room to eat, but when Leanne went back into the kitchen, she found that the box was empty.

When the movie finished, the girls went upstairs to get ready for bed. Leanne opened her bedroom closet and found Craig standing there, holding a hatchet. He was dressed in her mother’s clothes and had makeup smeared all over his face.

He told her to be quiet and tied her up. Then, he fetched her mother and her sister and marched them back to the bedroom. He tied up them up as well and left all three lying on the floor. He told them he was going to kill them and he’d be right back so they had better start praying. The police said he went downstairs to ransack the house and steal valuables.

While he was gone, the youngest girl managed to wriggle free of her bonds. She jumped out of the window and ran to a nearby house to raise the alarm. Within minutes, the police were breaking down the front door. They ran up the stairs with their guns drawn and found Leanne and her mother lying hogtied on the bedroom floor. There was no sign of Crazy Eyes Craig.

The police freed the mother and daughter before conducting a search of the entire house. They combed the place from top to bottom, but couldn’t find any trace of Craig. It was as if he had vanished into the night.

In fact, nobody had any idea where Craig was and while he was still at large, no one in town could rest easy.

The incident was a huge shock for our small town. Before that, it had been a peaceful, idyllic little place. Nobody ever locked their doors. That night, I watched my father screwing two sturdy deadbolts onto our front and back doors.

On Monday morning, it was the talk of the school. None of the kids could believe what had happened and everyone was terrified. At the back of the school building, there was a huge forest and rumors spread among the kids that Craig was hiding in the woods, lying in wait for more victims. Some kids were too scared to show up for class.

Leanne and her family stayed with relatives for a few days, to get away from the house. In all that time, law enforcement combed the woods and searched house-to-hose, but nobody could find that crazy-eyed maniac. Eventually, Leanne and her family had to go home. As soon as they pulled into their driveway, they saw something that terrified them.

Craig was standing at an upstairs window, gazing out at them with a smirk on his face. The girl’s father started yelling. The neighbors came running over. The police were called and within minutes, they were surrounding the house. A SWAT team were readying themselves beside a van, loading their weapons and studying the layout of the house.

They searched the house from top to bottom, but they didn’t find Craig anywhere. Instead, they were confronted by a disturbing scene. Pennies were glued to the ceiling. There was strange writing all over the walls. All of their clothes had been cut to ribbins. The entire contents of the kitchen fridge were neatly arranged on the living room floor and the whole place reeked of urine and feces.

The police conducted another thorough search of the house, but it turned up nothing. Just when they were about to give up and go home, one of the cops mentioned that he thought he had heard a faint noise when he was in the basement. He said it sounded like it was coming from behind the washing machine.

The SWAT team immediately reorganized and descended cautiously into the basement. With their guns drawn, they pulled the washing machine away from the wall. Curled up in a hole behind it, they found Craig.

As it turned out, the truth was much more disturbing than anyone had imagined. Leanne and her family were horrified. For two whole years, Craig had been living in their walls. They found peepholes everywhere.

While Leanne and her family had been sitting at home watching TV, eating dinner, taking a shower, getting dressed, going to the toilet and sleeping peacefully in their beds, Craig had been there the entire time, silently watching them with his crazy bugged-out eyes.