The All-Seeing Eye Socket

I was browsing through adolescent themed websites earlier this week when I saw an image so horrifying it stopped me cold.

I skipped the video's of amateur back-yard wrestlers and skate-board fiascoes, scrolled directly to the still photos. The thumb-nail was pretty unappealing, a human head with two hands holding an eye open. I cannot imagine what possessed me to click on the link.

The eye must have been removed from the socket for some time. There was no blood or fluids in the socket. The background flesh had a dark orange color. There was a pinched yellowish circular ring where the optic nerve once had been. The sides of the socket were covered with what I can only describe as buds. They too were dark yellow, like slightly burned corn. They rose from circular bases to a pointed tip, like tulip bulbs almost ready to bloom.

The hands obscure most of the face, but you can clearly see the mouth frozen in a desperate scream.

The image faded from memory that night and I slept. After waking the next morning, the image jumped into my head. I was dizzy and a little queasy.

Until Monday I was fairly sure that I had seen so much in my three dozen years that I was jaded beyond feeling fear or disgust. I could not have been more wrong. I still feel intermittent panic attacks thinking about what I've seen. Now I know the power of real horror.

I can only guess that H.P. Lovecraft felt the same way when he tried to describe the soul-shrinking elder gods he saw in his dreams. I can only hope that writing about this helps exorcise the image of the all-seeing eye socket.