Ohm's pov

I have heterochromia. Meaning one of my eyes is hazel and the other is grey. Apparently my mom had partial heterochromia, according to my aunt, so only a part of her left eye was a different color than the rest of that eye and the other eye. I always believed my eyes were the only interesting part about myself, I was average in everything else, looks, intelligence, grades, strength, etc. My eyes are really the only thing noticeable about me, and everyone who meets me always comments on them. Maybe that's a good thing, because for all I know, my eyes saved my life and possibly the lives of others.

The killings started my sophomore year of high school. A horny couple in the boyfriends car, it's was written off as an animal attack, due to the gruesomeness of the scene, their eyes were missing and their esophagus were ripped out and missing as well. Soon rumors spread around school that it was The Beast, which was a local mythical beast that is mainly used by parents to scare their children to keep them from staying out late. I went home that day and told my aunt about it, she laughed it off and told me there was a "Beast" when she was in high school as well, but the killings stopped soon after the first two, just when a bear was killed in the nearby hunting grounds. She told me to just hold off on making out with girls until it blows over. "Boys." I corrected, and she just smiled and nodded while saying, "Boys." And now every time we talk about people I like, she says 'boys' or 'guys' instead of 'girls.'

But the killings didn't stop after that, soon afterwards a senior was killed, and it stung a bit for everyone. I didn't know him that well, but my first day of school he helped me find my way to my classroom, even walked me there so he knew I got to the right one. I have to admit, it hurt me too, my best friend at the time, Atmey, even seemed hurt at the news, and I'm pretty sure they never had a full conversation. There was an assembly the day after his body was found, and multiple people were visibly crying, especially his girlfriend. They were that couple that we were all so sure that we're going to get married and live in a nice house with a white picket fence and a dog- if not a child, or both. There was another death a week later, but the Beast didn't kill this one, according to the report, the senior's girlfriend hung herself in the woods and the Beast had at her corpse afterwards.

That was towards the end of the school year, and that summer I came out on Facebook. I was met with tons of support, with a few people actually commenting Dude it was OBVIOUS. I wish I could say Atmey took the news as well as other people did. He unfriended me immediately and started spreading rumors about me to our mutual friends, which most of them didn't believe, or asked me if I knew what he was doing and supported me through it, but some did believe him. And I'm not going to lie, it hurt, a lot, hearing people you used to trust full heartedly now can't even say a sentence to you without saying 'Queer' or 'F*g.' But I'd make more friends, I sorta ended up becoming the dad of all the LGBT+ kids as our school, including a freshman named Jonathan who has heterochromia too, his left eye is a bright blue while his right is a smaragdine color, he's a pretty nice kid and is open about his sexuality, I have him seat with my friends and I at lunch now.

I never really believed that there ever was a Beast, though, not until my aunt saw it. She had set a curfew after the last killing, since it was pretty close to our house, I didn't mind, since I never really was out late anyways. I'd always hear her downstairs checking to make sure everything was locked before bed, then one night while I was listening to her do this, she let out a loud scream. I jumped out of bed and grabbed the baseball bat next to my bed before rushing downstairs, seeing her on the floor shaking, I ran over. "Are you okay??" "I-I saw it- holy fuck- fuck! Call the police! Now!" I think that was the first time I heard my aunt cuss.

I called the cops and they were at the house in a matter of minutes, she told them what had happened. She was checking to make sure the window was locked before bed, when she saw a thing out there, right next to the window. "I-It looked almost human.. but it had horns! I saw it's horns." She kept glancing at the window as she told the story. We fell asleep on the couch together that night, the curtain over the window. We didn't sleep peacefully for a week afterwards.

But that still didn't prepare me for what came next. I was walking home from the bus stop closest to my house when I felt someone grab my shirt to stop me, and before I could turn around to see who it was, I felt a cold blade on the back of my neck. "Act calm, and walk with me, f*g." I heard Atmey say from behind me. Well fuck was all I was able to think due to shock as he forced me to go to his car. He pushed me into the passenger seat of the car, and I watched the scenery go by quietly as he drives me to a shed in the woods.

Two of his goons were waiting outside it, mean looks on their faces. Atmey got out of the car and dragged me out of it soon afterwards, I didn't try to run, or be the hero and take the knife away from him. I'm not an idiot, Atmey is stronger and faster than me, I'm sure his goons are too. He pushed me into the shed and onto a chair as his goons tied me to it. "How many times did you touch me while I slept when I slept over, you fucking queer?" Atmey asked, my nose scrunched up at the mere thought of this, "Never, you're not really my type, dude."

"You fucking liar." He says, then I felt a punch go across my face, then another, and another. After a few more punches I heard Atmey say to his goons, "Now lets let the 'Beast' do its thing." Before feeling the cooling touch of the knife under my hazel eye. "Hope no one misses your creepy ass eyes!" Atmey laughs, a cruel and unforgiving laugh. I wanted to close my eyes, I wanted to scream, kick, do anything to protect myself. But I couldn't, my body wouldn't let me, I only look between him and his three goons.

Wait.

Three goons? There were only two outside the shed..

Apparently the Beast doesn't like copycats. I watched as the tallest figure bash the two goons' heads together, cringing at the crunching sound it made. Then the Beast knocked Atmey out of the way, the blade nicking under my eye as this happened, he hit the wall of the shed and I watched his eyes slowly close. I was sure I was next, that I'd die from an actual Beast attack. My vision blurred, from fear of from wounds I don't know, but I soon heard a soft voice say, "Eyes..." before I blacked out.

I woke up later in a warm bed, some food and a glass of water was left out on the night stand beside me. I sat up and looked around, seeing that I'm in some sort of cabin, and then I see Atmey through the open door and in the room across from me. His hands are tied up and he's hanging from a hook, his mouth has duct tape over it and he is wide awake, terror in his eyes. I blink as I saw a figure come out from the shadows in that room, I had a feeling I knew what was coming next and quickly shut my eyes. I heard muffled screaming for a bit before silence, I honestly don't know which was worse.

There was a presence in front of me soon afterwards though, and I didn't fear it, in fact, I relaxed at the presence. "Open.. Open your eyes.." I heard the same voice from before say gently, and I complied. I saw the Beast in its entirety, it's skin was red, like cartoon demon red, it's nails were black and sharp, it's teeth sharp, almost like a sharks, a scarred 'X' replaced one of its eyes, and it had horns on top of its head, but other than that, it looked like a human wearing old clothing, and honestly, was kinda cute. "Your eyes.. they don't match." The Beast placed a hand on my cheek, careful to not cut my skin on accident, "Yeah.. they don't.." I say, Play nice with the monster and maybe you can go home I thought. "My brother's didn't either.." The Beast smiled sadly, "He was human, like you, they took him away because they thought I'd harm him.." "Oh.." I felt bad for the creature, having to be alone out here.

"Do you have a name?" I let slip out, curiosity taking over as the Beast sat next to me on the bed. "My brother called me Luke. Said it suits me." "It does." I smiled at the Bea- Luke. ".. Why were those guys doing that to you..?" "Oh-um.. They're homophobic.." I looked away from Luke, and then felt arms wrap around me. I felt my cheeks heat up, "I'm so sorry, people are assholes.." "I know.." I sighed. We talked some more after that, his arms never leaving around my body. I ended up leaning on him, and I don't know how I fell asleep with a monster practically spooning me, but I did.

When I woke up I was surrounded by cops, apparently someone called 911 from my phone. They found Atmey and his goons' bodies and told me I was lucky to be alive, but I wasn't lucky, I just had mismatch eyes. They dropped me off at my house and my aunt hugged me and wouldn't let me leave her sight until it was time for bed. When I walked into my bedroom, I saw something on my windowsill, and I opened my window to grab it. It was a mussel shell, and now I find little 'gifts' at my windowsill everyday, and, being completely honest, I want to see Luke again, it's only been about a week since the incident, and there hadn't been a killing since.

Maybe I should find him again, just to make sure he's alright.

This prompt was based off a story on reddit in r/nosleep called 'Mismatched Eyes' by theoddcatlady and I 100% encourage you to read that story because it's very well written and one of my favorites to read.