Real Eyes

  When my real eyes realized real lies, I pooped my pants."The hell, you say?", I whispered, deep into the screen of my phone. The blood drained from my face as sweat beaded in my eyebrows, and the room began to swirl around me with a blur. A single tear dropped upon my knee before it buckled, and then everything went black... 

  I awoke nestled in the bosom of my Fairy Godmother. "The time has come", she said shakily, lifting me upright on her lap."Now that you know the truth, you know what you must do."

  A thunder rolled through the ground from every direction. My Fairy Godmother trembled, almost losing her teeth, and then vanished, leaving me to plop butt first onto a family of daisies."Save yourself", whistled the smallest, as it ripped in a whip of wind. A requiem hummed from the elder flowers beneath me. I lifted my weight gingerly from the dear crushed creatures. I had every intention to collect them to put in some water later, but they assured me that their home was here, in this enchanted clearing, now, on the day of the prophecy. Their stems weaved together against the earth to spell the words,"They're coming", as the thunder drew too near for their delicate voices. 

  I looked to the sky for the approaching danger, but the coast was clear and starry. Yet, the wind pressed stronger from such a perfect circumference, as did the roar in my ears, I was surely in the center of some doom. 

  There was a flash of pink in a swatch of moonlight between trees that stood far in the distance. And then blue. And then there were patches of every color pouring in from every distance. Whatever they were.. they were coming. 

  Towards me, they rushed. Colors from the darkness, into the clearing to reveal their forms before they attacked. I began to see that the colors were carried by legs, with shoes. There were wrist watches and glasses, and pocket protectors, and pocket protector protectors. There were buttons all buttoned on bright buttoned shirts charging like a furious rainbow.. They were geniuses. 

  A stampede of geniuses. Their feet stumbled and kicked up grass as they squealed their opinions in a panic."To my knowledge..", chanted from my left."Theoretically..", echoed from my right. Ahead of me, they pushed and trampled and fought one another over who should decide what to say. Behind me, I think they spoke chinese. I had nowhere to go, and nothing to do but fear the collision closing in on me. 

  When the moment came to crash, they suddenly stopped. On the daisies, and only inches away all around me. My personal space instantly became a tomb of panting breath with the stench of gummy bears and graham crackers. 

  The rosiest one bent forward to meet me at eye level, and spat,"Tell us what you know", between gasps."It's theoretical", hissed over my shoulder, from another."Tell us!", repeated the first genius with no patience, causing an uproar among the thousands in the compacting crowd."Kill her!", some shrieked above the others as I stood dumbfounded, mute and defenseless. 

  The rosy cheeked leader shook me, demanding answers."They want you dead, do you understand me?", he gestured at his comrades,"They can't let you leave here knowing what you know." The feel of his touch brought a sickness, and I was captured in his sniveling stare. A desperate rage sank into my stomach, putting everything into perspective. 

  My Fairy Godmother was right. I knew what I must do. Before, it would have been wrong. It would have been out of the question before, but now I knew the truth. The truth, I remembered, getting as dizzy as when I first heard. 

  I pulled myself together just in time, while I still had my life. I tightened my jaw, and closed my fists, and met the genius's stare with a smile."Tell me", he smiled back, relaxing himself to listen. I didn't like what was going to happen next, but if I didn't act now, I would die.

  I punched him in the face. 

  Cries of terror and disbelief  thundered in a wave of retreat. This stampede now wise to a fear beyond any nightmare their enchanted world had imagined. 

  The wind blew away and went calm. Bunnies and fawns and bluebirds in song, came free from secret safe places. Fairy Godmother materialized with a shimmer, kneeling over the dead daisies. She nudged them all with her wand, and with a "poof", they looked as good as new (later she would tell me they were never quite the same again). What she said before sending me home was,"Your work here is done, but what you saw today is only a fraction of what challenges now lay ahead. You must never share what you've learned, or this world and yours will crumble. You are the chosen one. You're like the smartest person ever. I sent you a friend request." We said our goodbyes, and everything went black again. 

  This time, I came to in the shallow end of a public pool, wearing six pairs of wings and a ball gown. I hurried to my apartment to find my phone on the floor, with the same caption still glowing, waiting to haunt me anew. I exited the screen, and deleted my history. The future of everything was in my hands. My importance was almost too painful to comprehend, but I had a strength now, a power, and a new sense of well deserved confidence. I was the chosen one. 

  This world may never have real enough eyes to realize the lies that I had to face that day, but when it does.. I'll be ready.