Tom shrugged. “We just wait, that’s all. We just wait.”
Chapter 8
Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England
Being alone in the dark at an ancient megalith such as Stonehenge was something Mia had never experienced before. It was a daunting prospect, leaving her wondering if she should turn back. She’d considered it more than once, but each time she’d opted to head back home to the warmth and safety of her own bed, she knew she would not. Could not.
What was she thinking? If her parents had an inkling she was there at that time of night, they'd have a blue hissy fit. She'd made no sound when she'd sneaked out fifty minutes earlier. She'd kept her headlights off at the front of the house and along the drive and let the car crawl along until she was far enough away to put her foot down. Her old blue Fiesta didn't get much of a run out those days, but her dad worked for Shell, so he put in a gallon in it every month ‘for emergencies'.
Tonight was an emergency indeed.
At ten minutes to midnight when she arrived at the rear of Stonehenge, her hesitation to leave the car and step out into the night did nothing to calm her fear of what may be out there in the dark. She was off the beaten track and away from any form of assistance should she need it. Nevertheless, with a whole lot of true grit, she alighted from her vehicle and stepped onto the grass verge next to the high fence.
Ahead of her, Stonehenge protruded from a moulded circle of grass, like a crown on a monarch's head, silhouetted against the dark blue sky and lit by the half-moon, like a smoking halo. She had only ever seen the monument by day, but now, shrouded by the night and despite the chills running up her spine, she thought it looked pretty spectacular.
The site was closed to the public now, with just a few ‘Friends of the Henge’ keeping watch on the occasions they did open it, like the summer solstice. That was when the people arrived in their droves to worship the stones and pray for a miracle.
Mia glanced at her watch, aglow in the dark. It was her grandfather’s, an old Smart Watch which still kept time, despite nothing much else functioning on it. Apple was gone now. They went awry just before the stock market crash of 2019. Their losses had made a big dent in the computer industry and now they were just a by-product of Samsung. Mia didn’t know much about Apple, but she’d heard it was pretty big in its day.
The hour was approaching. It was time to get over the fence…Just before she found a foothold and pulled herself up, she briefly wondered if it could be one of those solar powered fences. It wasn't.
Dropping down the other side, she crouched on the grass and rubbed her ankle. She'd been stung by something and now it was itching like hell. From that moment on she decided to stay away from any more fences. Two fences in two nights were enough for any girl. As she trotted along the grass towards the stones, her heart began to race in anticipation of why she was going there. Not only that; she was alone…in the dark. She suddenly wished she'd brought a friend or Charlie.
Inside the stone structure, she pulled her fleece down over her hips as she briefly wondered from which direction they would come. Feeling a chill in the air, as she pulled up the zipper, to her chin, the noise of it ripped through the silence. Her eyes darted around the perimeter, worried she’d woken the dead.
When she looked back, an Angel was standing right in front of her.
She screamed and fell backwards onto the grass. Her heart thumped in her chest so hard, the whole of Wiltshire must have heard. The Watcher looked down at her from his towering height and for a moment she pondered why she wasn’t entirely petrified of him. Yes, she was a little fearful, that was true, but in the scheme of things, there in the middle of nowhere, standing inside an ancient monument, alone with a man with wings, shouldn’t she be passing out…or at the very least, running for her life?
A movement to Mia’s left made her remove her gaze from the Angel and face the stones. Another Watcher stepped forward from one of the vertical columns and on his right, came another. As Mia’s head spun about, two more appeared until there were seven Angels, all of them once hidden within the stones, like chameleons. Mia pondered the notion of them being there the whole time she’d been waiting. That freaked her out. Or maybe…it didn’t. Maybe she felt strangely comforted by it. That was what it was like with them, she could never explain her feelings.
The lead Angel faced her while the other six stood beneath the lintels of the ancient stones, like royal guards inside the recesses of a fortress. Their wings were at half mast, alert but relaxed. “My name is Uriel,” he said.
“Hi,” she responded with a quivering voice. She put the flat of her hand against her chest. “My name is Mia.”
“We know who you are, Lakey.”
“Lakey? No… Hey, wait. How…?” Then she realised it didn’t matter. They’d picked up her on-line name. So what? It didn’t matter. Nothing really mattered while she was with them. “Where are you from? Heaven?” She found herself hoping he’d say yes.
He closed his eyes and opened them again. “In the beginning, but us…” he looked at his fellow Watchers. “We were born of the earth.”
Mia shook her head as if she was trying to organise his words in her muddled brain. “What? How is that possible? You can’t be.”
He didn’t respond…He simply smiled before he sat down on the grass in front of her.
The darkness Beyond the stones made her feel like she was looking out of a window where blackness engulfed her safe haven. The moon filled the area inside the circle with a comforting warmth, leaving the night out there, dark and vast. Hardly a sound could be heard except for crickets and whispers and the odd break in the silence of something in the distance that was simply there. A truck went by on the A303 running alongside the site. Its headlights were on full beam, lighting the route ahead. When it passed, silence and darkness reigned once more.
The Watcher called Uriel spoke. "You are permitted to ask me questions, Lakey. What would you like to know about us?" His voice was low-toned and smooth, with a slightly foreign, continental slant to it.
Mia considered the prospect of having exclusive access to the Watchers. If Tom had been there, he’d be snapping away with his camera right now, but without him, or anyone else to back her up, she felt it was her responsibility to ask specific questions, where the answers that could be reported back to the world. At least, that was her take on it.
“Who are you and why have you chosen me to meet you here? Why do you trust me? What is it you want…?”
There was silence before Uriel responded. “We have come to do what we did a long time ago; to help man get back on track. Since man is lost, and the level of social conscience has dropped so far it is time, is it not?”
“I guess.” She thought about that for a moment. Man? Their moral ethics we’re certainly out of hand, she’d always said that. Racial issues, politics…? Lost indeed! And religion, ISIS, the refugees, human rights, technology…the ice caps melting…Maybe Uriel was right. They really were lost.
"First, you must understand, that it is the planet, predominant in our thoughts and our actions. Not man!"
Mia got that. Man had done everything in its power to destroy the planet, why would the Watchers want to protect them? She wouldn’t! “You said you were from Earth.” She looked to the others standing inside the ancient stones.
“Earth is our home. It is where we were born, where we have evolved, where we die.”
It was hard for her to believe they could be of their planet? They weren’t human! Angels were from heaven, weren’t they? “How can that be? And if it is true, why have you only just revealed yourself to us?”
“We have always been here, but before now, the concept of us would not be accepted by modern man, not in the real sense. Even now, they consider us a threat to their planet, when it is plain that the contrary is true. We have made our existence known in the past, but your people still have not connected it to us”. He smiled a beguiling smile. “Our arrival was foretold in the scriptures
, and there is much evidence in the old and new Testament that tells of our existence.”
Mia placed her elbows on her knees and rubbed her eyes. “I’ve read a lot of literature about Angels but it’s not all clear,” she said.
It was true Mia and Tom had researched evidence of Angels from the moment they had heard about the Watchers. She recalled a quotation from Genesis…but she couldn’t remember how it went.
He must have read her thoughts when he said, “Genesis 6:4 ‘There were giants on the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men who were of old, men of renown.’”
Now she remembered. How was it possible that she was speaking to these Angels about the content of the bible? The whole concept was crazy. Someone should pinch her. Right now!
“When God’s sons,” Uriel said, “called Ben Eloha or Fallen Angels - numbering several hundred, saw the daughters of men were fair, they were so smitten by the beauty of human women, using their new material bodies, they took them as wives and had sex with them.”
With a picture in her head she wouldn’t want anyone else to see, Mia blushed.
“This incurred Yahweh’s wrath and the consequence of this miscegenation between the Fallen Ones and mortals led to the creation of half-angelic, half-human offspring; the Watchers.” Uriel smiled as he recounted their history with fondness.
“Further on in Genesis 5 and several generations later, Enoch is named as the son of Jared, and it is during his lifetime that the Watchers incarnated human bodies.”
So ‘The Watchers’…” Mia said. “That’s the correct term for you?”
“In those days, the Ben Elohim were also known as Watchers, the Grigori and the Irin. The title ‘Watcher’ simply means ‘one who watches’, ‘those who watch’ or ‘those who do not sleep’. The titles reflect the unique relationship between the Watchers and the human race since ancient times.”
“Unique relationship…?”
“We are an elite order of beings created by God to be earthly shepherds. It has always been our task to observe and watch over the emerging human species and report back on their progress. We were confined by the divine prime directive not to interfere in human evolution. Unfortunately, today, we have no choice but to intercept man’s claim to the wealth of the earth.”
Mia interrupted with a thought… “But how were we supposed to know this? Where does it say…”
“Most of the information you have about us and our activities comes from the banned Book of Enoch. The Catholic Church banned the Book of Enoch, which spoke of ‘the Watchers’ who had transgressed God’s law. The church ruled that prayers should be directed to the three archangels; Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. But there are thousands of us now. The church won't recognise that because they deem us supernatural and that cannot be preached."
Mia’s head was aching; about to become a constant throb. She placed the palm of both her hands on her brow to cool her skin. “Why have you chosen me to tell this stuff to? I don’t understand. I’m no one. Why me?”
Uriel closed his eyes and suddenly Mia's headache was gone. She felt well, actually, really well. "There is a reason we chose you, Lakey, which you will find out soon, but for now, I can tell you we only communicate with the chosen ones. We call you Kudos."
“Kudos?”
He tilted his head in one simple nod. “Only Kudos may connect with us. We allow no others. We must have boundaries if our whole existence is to continue on earth.”
“But why now? Why, if you have been here all along…wherever that is…why are you coming among us now?”
“We are coming among you now to protect you. It has not been easy for us to show ourselves, to go amongst you, but evolution is important to our father, and man’s greed has left us with no choice.”
“You mean because we’re destroying the planet?”
He had a look of sadness on his face as his wings slowly dropped to the ground behind his back. “No. The earth is all powerful. She will fight back. Man could never take something from her without suffering the consequences himself.”
“Why do you refer to the Earth as Her?”
“She is the mother? She will destroy you before you destroy her. Men are arrogant if they think they are capable of destroying the earth. They can destroy themselves but never her.”
“Then why are you here? If... the mother can fight against us, why are you here now?”
“That discussion shall be had later. At that time, we will meet with your leaders to offer them one last chance. That time will come soon.”
“Time?”
“Your people are about to commit the ultimate sin against mankind and the planet earth. We shall work to prevent that most destructive action.”
His comment shook Mia to her core. “And if you can’t stop them? What then?”
“Then a new cycle in earth’s evolution will begin.”
She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. “Are you saying that soon it will be the end of the world?” Mia held her breath while she waited for his answer.
Uriel smiled. “No, Lakey. The beginning.”
Mia could feel the dampness of the grass seeping through her jeans. She pulled the collar of her sweater over her neck. She was cold now, but surely her rising panic should be heating her up?
"Why are you telling me all of this? I'm not sure I can deal with the responsibility. I'm no one. I'm just an average teenager! A nobody. What do you expect me to do with this information?" Since her headaches had vanished, her thoughts had become very clear and she was more than clear about the absurdity of her situation.
“You will have a connection to the leaders of the world.”
“What?” She laughed at the irony of his statement. He’d mixed her up with someone else. He must have. “No, I’m sorry, but you’ve got the wrong person. I have no connection to anyone important. I’m just a kid!”
“The connection has not yet been made. You will know when it happens. We will help you.”
“Connection…how?”
“Soon you will know.”
Was this some crazy dream? “Look, why don’t you just do this without me? You don’t need me.” It was a good question. They had God on their side, right?
“We need you to make the connection with someone who is unavailable to us within such close quarters.”
The statement was far beyond the realms of Mia’s reasoning. She didn’t know what to make of it.
“Can’t you just save everyone. Save them and let them learn from their mistakes."
“We can only save the chosen. Most of the humans who are threatened by the leaders are not Kudos. If we are to save our planet, we can’t save them.”
“But how can you choose…”
"We choose the true of heart. Those who are good and worthy. Unfortunately, the good of mankind does not outnumber the bad."
She contemplated his words for a moment. “What about children? They are true of heart aren’t they, and priests…people in the church…what about them?”
“We will save the true of heart. The priests…they are not all true and many of the children…we have seen their futures. They will grow to adulthood. They don’t know God. He doesn’t know them.”
A notion crossed her mind. “A little girl was taken this week from her parent’s home in Taunton. You can save her. You could kill the person who took her and return her to her family.”
“We know about Sarah.”
Her eyes were like orbs “You do? You can rescue her then?”
He sighed as if his heart was breaking. “She is within a structure. We cannot infiltrate structures. We can only destroy evil in the open so that we may send them back to the earth. That is our way. Their remains are used to nourish the planet, to feed plants, soil and trees, minerals, and natural products in the ground, used by your people for fuel. It is redemption for your people, allowing them to give their
bodies back to the earth.” He lowered his head. "Sarah and other innocents around the planet are compromised within structures, so we cannot reach them. It is our single regret. It hurts our spirit to allow it to happen…”
Mia remained silent. She thought about the little girl, Sarah. The whole country was looking for her.
Uriel’s wings began to rise as his emotions became engaged. “Today, in America, there are innocent hostages, held by men who would hurt them. They too are confined.”
“So the people in America; the hostages, you can’t help them?”
"No," Uriel said with a look of regret in his eyes. "No, we cannot."
Sarah
SOUTH of England
Ted downed his glass of stout and placed the glass on the bar. The landlady called after him as he walked towards the exit. ‘You going already, Ted?’ He grunted and kept on walking. Three minutes later he pulled out of the car park in his blue truck, turning left on the main road towards home.
The police were everywhere.
It was just a matter of time now.
They were going to come and take his little Sarah away from him. He’d only had her for two days. It wasn’t fair. She was just starting to get used to him and now she would have to be taken care of.
He felt tears welling up in his eyes as he drove, thinking about his little angel. She looked just like the other little girl he brought home in ’69. She had to die too, but he was younger then, fitter and more able of getting rid of a body so that it wouldn’t be found. She was still there; buried under the rough ground inside the aviary. It comforted him to know she would always be protected by his beloved birds.
Ted turned into the rough track leading up to the farm, wondering how much time he had before the police came.
Chapter 9
The Watchers Page 5