Candy Man(Five minutes freewrite)

On mornings like this, with low-hanging clouds, bloated with the downpour to come, it is nearly impossible to spot his hiding place. He could be anywhere, under the trees, the alley by the butcher’s place or even under her own balcony.
On mornings like this, she feels like crawling back to bed, under the thick woolen blanket, eyes firmly shut and hands over her ears. But that does not keep him out. Quite the contrary. If she failed to be on the street by eight, he’d come up and no door and no locks could keep him out. She’d tried, more than once, but not anymore. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide in her tiny bedroom and his eyes, his horrible glass eyes, bore into her head, conjuring pictures she’d give anything to unsee.
She’d often wondered how he managed to be always after her with those beady eyes, the unmoving eyes of the blind that don’t see anything no matter how hard they stare. He did, though. He always did.
Maybe if she took that black umbrella she could lose herself in a sea of identical plain umbrellas. Maybe for once he’d end up chasing some other woman.

When she steps out of the house, it is already raining and she walks quickly down the street, searching for a cab even though she knows it is hopeless, there never are any. And the few people on the street steer clear of her, no chance of hiding among them, they wouldn’t have her, they wouldn’t mess with the glass-eyed man. Or maybe they are running from their own monsters.
If only she could get to the coffee shop, where it is warm and cozy, she could spend half a day there and there is nothing he can do, for he is not allowed to show his face in there. She quickens her pace, but so does he, his lack of vision never seems to stop him. She breaks into a jog, charging through puddles and slipping in the mud, anything to get away, but there he is, still on her heels, skipping over the obstacles effortlessly. From time to time, she stops a few seconds to look behind her, like in a bad movie, when you feel like screaming ‘run, idiot, run, he’s right behind you’. And he is, his glass eyes locked steadfast on her.

There, time to turn right, if she could only make it to the candy store. She can hide in there. She usually makes it there, but what if one day she doesn’t? This thought had kept her awake on many nights - what would happen the day the gray man with the glass eyes finally catches up with her. She can feel his bony hands on her neck, climbing up above her lips, brushing over her cheeks until they reach her eyes and his cold fingers feel their way around the eyeballs… Enough with this now, she must reach the store!

The Candy Man is there, behind the counter, and his eye lit up when she barges in. He’s been waiting for her. In all the world he’s the only one who knows about Glass Eyes. He believes her and he cradles her into his arms, like the kindly uncle she never had.
‘Help me’, she begs and he pats her on the back. ‘Help me find Mom. And Penny’.
‘Penny is dead, you know that’. She nods, true, she remembers now. Although she wishes she’d stop remembering the day they found Penny lying naked in the tub, covered in that pink cold foam, her eyes staring at the ceiling, forever.
‘Can you take me to Mom, please?’ He doesn’t answer, but his eyes have that admonishing look. She knows what he’s not saying - ‘come one,Cynthia, you know very well, Mother has moved to the glass house, where you cannot go. You’re too clumsy to set foot in that place, you might bring down the walls and where would Mother be then?’
Without a word, he reaches out to a jar and hands her one yellow candy which she puts in her mouth and waits for the sweetness to engulf her and still her shaky legs. The Candy Man watches her patiently, like he has all the time in the world. She tries to walk to the door to see if the gray man is still there, waiting, but she stumbles, her legs won’t carry her. The Candy Man takes the lid off another jar and offers another candy, a red one, her favorite. That one warms her up on the inside, like new blood running through her veins. She feels alright now and the Candy Man smiles.
‘See you tomorrow!’ he says.
Pumped full of the magic in the sugary pills, it is with a steady hand she opens the door and walks into the bright spring day. The Candy Man has worked his miracle again, keeping the glass-eyed man away for another day.
It is only late at night, when she cannot sleep again, that she thinks of the gray man who is after her. And the Candy Man? What if she cannot reach him one day, would she end up like Penny?

Story written for @mariannewest's freewrite challenge, today's prompt was: pumped! Check out her blog and join our freewrite community.

Thanks for reading!

Original image source, plus some editing.