The Watchers

by Reakes, Wendy

  The four of them walked together as Mia held Charlie in her arms, looking as if he too was mesmerised. She could still feel the grass beneath her feet, but she felt like she was gliding over it, as if she was balanced on a surfboard on a green ocean. Together they went over the brow of a hill towards the woods and it was right at that moment Mia knew without any doubt that the Watchers were finally there.

  Chapter 23

  When The four were released from the confines of the rings they found themselves standing within a glade surrounded by long established trees, looking as aged as the stones in the Henge.

  The motley crew were momentarily stunned, looking around the area as Charlie barked at nothing, turning and turning as if he was chasing his tail. Tom too spun in a circle with his head going from side to side, as Keri hugged her sweater tightly about her, protecting her body from any further violation. Jesus had fallen to his knees clutching his hat to his breast like a shield. In the moonlight, the strands of his greying hair looked as if they had been spun with silver thread.

  Keri spoke first. “Where are we? What just happened? What was that?”

  Mia wanted to know the same thing, but even normal questions were hard to answer when none of them could fathom what had just taken place. There was just was no explanation for it.

  “It’s the Watchers,” Jesus said ominously. “They have brought us here.”

  Mia whispered, "Where are they?" She couldn't decide if she was pleased they had been summoned, or afraid for their lives, yet she knew she shouldn't be frightened, not when it was exactly what she had been hoping for all that time.

  It was getting dark as Mia strained to see beyond the small clearing. Above them, between tall trees in the distance, she could see the sky fading grey. The clouds had vanished, and no rain was had. The sky held a tint of fading blue, turning dark so quickly it seemed as if someone had switched off a light. There was no moon to light the way, nothing to guide them. She wondered how they would ever find their way back if that was what they should do. She turned about and looked towards the ground when the sound of metal against metal struck the silence. Jesus still had his gas lamp. "You brought the lamp?"

  He glanced up at her and shrugged. “I suppose I did. I don’t remember exactly.”

  As they all huddled together, down on the ground and on their haunches, Charlie remained at Mia’s side, looking as bemused as the human travellers. The white glow of the lamp made the outside of their circle seem darker and colder, whereas inside, offered them warmth and comfort as they crouched in a circle on the trampled foliage.

  They waited in silence, with only the sound of nature singing her song. A bird swooped down above their heads and all of them, except Jesus, yelled with fright. It was a white owl, graceful in its quest for voles. Mia offered a nervous giggle. “Perhaps we’re over-dramatizing this,” she said.

  "Are you serious?" Tom whispered with a knife-edged tone. "How can you over-dramatize something like this?"

  She saw his point. "I just think maybe we should be doing something. After all, they're not here, are they? And how long should we wait? For one thing, we'll run out of gas soon."

  Jesus nodded. “I think she’s right. Perhaps they want us to do something.”

  “Wait a minute,” Keri cried as she visibly trembled.

  “Who are you referring to? What do you mean ‘they’?”

  “Listen, Keri. Have you ever come into contact with the Watchers before?”

  She scowled and shook her head. "No, never. I don't even believe in them….is it them, the so-called Angels! Oh, God help us. They're killers," she rambled.

  “No, that’s not true,” Mia said. “I’ve met them, They’re…beautiful. As Keri looked at her as if she’d lost her mind, she went over an idea in her mind. “Okay, so, guys, if the Watchers brought us here, why did they bring Keri? We’re all Kudos, but she clearly isn’t,” she offered Keri a pat on her arm. “No offence.”

  Keri pulled the collar of her sweater around her neck, even though the night was warm. Mia supposed she needed to feel wrapped up and safe. “Kudos?”

  “True of heart,” Tom said to clarify.

  Jesus looked directly at him, which was odd because more often than not he ignored Tom completely. "You're not Kudos. Only Mia and I have met them and pronounced Kudos."

  “I’ve had two encounters,” Tom spat.

  Mia interrupted. "Well, there's a reason why we are all here and I for one, think we should do more to find out why." She noticed a ring on Keri's finger and for some reason, she thought it meant something. "Wait! Keri, where do you work?"

  “I don’t see…”

  “Just tell us, please.”

  She hesitated as she looked at her strange new allies. "Actually, I work for the government."

  Mia gasped. “You’re the one.” She recalled the conversation she’d had with Uriel that night at the Henge. He’d told her she would connect with someone… “You’re going to help the Watchers save the planet.”

  Keri gasped at her outrageous claims. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  Jesus interrupted. He knew the story, which Uriel had told Mia, but he didn't think that was the time to discuss it. "Look let's just drop it for the moment." He looked to the trees circling the glade. "There is folklore..."

  All eyes turned to him, even Charlie looked up as if he was waiting for an explanation. Tom wasn’t as patient as the others. “Well?” he said sharply. “Come on, JC. Spit it out.”

  Jesus ignored him, preferring to stare into Mia’s eyes. His own eyes were dark and full of suspicion beneath the brim of his hat. He looked as if he was just about to tell a ghost story to three terrified kids on Halloween. “There are stories about sacred springs and Holy wells.” He stroked the grass in the centre. “It’s a fact that underground streams run below the Ley lines and it is said the wells are doors to the otherworld.” He coughed. “It is written that the Celtic goddesses of Holy wells, Covetina and Sulis are honoured by people casting silver coins into their waters; silver representing the moon their mistress, who reigns over all beings of water and waves.”

  A hush ensued.

  Jesus was trying to recall the passages in the books he had read about folklore and legends. “Visiting sacred waters at the full of the moon is a powerful ancient practice. The vision of moonlight on the water was used by seers for access into the otherworld.”

  “Go on,” Mia said. Thank God for him, she thought.

  He scoured the perimeter with glazed eyes. “Perhaps the Watchers want us to find them! A task bestowed upon on us as a test of our courage and worthiness. Maybe, if we found a well here...somewhere, we could wait for the moon to cast its glow over the water.”

  “Is there going to be a full moon tonight?” Mia asked as a hush amplified the tension.

  “No...”

  Tom guffawed “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

  Jesus ignored him again and carried on. “But there should be a bright moon and a clear sky. And I reckon if the Watchers are guiding us to seek them out, they’d already know that. Look, why don’t we try it? If it doesn’t appear and if we don’t find the well, perhaps we can come up with something else.”

  "What do we do when the moon shines on the water?" Mia was mystified by the whole thing, but frankly, after meeting the Watchers and taking that trip from the stones to the trees nothing surprised her anymore.

  Ominously, Jesus said, “Legend says we befriend the nymph.”

  "The nymph!" Mia whispered, "How do we do that?"

  Jesus shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Great!” Tom scowled.

  As they all began to scour the area for a well, Tom collared Mia as she grappled on the ground tearing at clumps of grass. He pressed her for a reason why she was listening to pagan theories dished out by some crazy person who called himself Jesus? “The old guy is clearly nuts, but you seem to trust everything he says and does.”

  Mia pushed him away and he caught his foot on
a stone and tripped. It was the funniest thing she’d seen all day. It served him right.

  They all worked together as they searched for the well, even Keri who must surely be wondering what the hell was going on. Everyone scoured the ground on their hands and knees, scraping the grass and the soil with their bare hands, uncovering foliage and branches; anything that may conceal an opening.

  After a few minutes, Mia yelled, "I've got an idea. We should find a dousing rod. One that has fallen from the tree. We can use that to find the well."

  “I’ve seen one.” Tom hurried back over some ground he had already covered and picked up a two-pronged stick. “Got it.”

  Mia reached over and took it from him. “That’ll do.” She knew she should have been more appreciative, but he’d just have to get over it. She stood up as Jesus hung the light high above their heads. Tom looked at his watch. It was nearly 9 o’clock.

  In the same way she’d used the rod to communicate to the Watchers during the New York siege, Mia closed her eyes and began muttering words of prayer as she held the rod with both hands allowing the stick to protrude in front of her like a witch’s fingers covered in warts.

  It began to tremble almost immediately.

  Keri gasped as Mia moved and stumbled over natural debris littering the clearing within the woods as if a force was tugging at her belly. Then, when the sparse clouds were blown away by a God-given gust of wind, the moon came over the clearing and glowed upon them as if a light had been turned on.

  The rod vibrated in Mia’s hands, leading the way as everyone followed her to a tree at the side of the clearing. It was a great oak that must have been four meters in circumference. The rod quivered wildly below the trunk, prompting Mia to discard the branch and fall to her knees. She tore at the grass, pulling tufts away in great lumps, moving twigs and stones and wild flowers growing around it. She leaned on one hand and suddenly her arm disappeared into the earth. “Agh!” She lost her balance and fell on her side until she pulled her arm from the hole to show the others that her sleeve was completely soaked. “This is it,” she shouted. “This is it.”

  They used their hands to grapple at the grass to clear the ground, and as everything was taken from the hole, a small well was revealed just six-inches in diameter and filled with water to ground level.

  Tom leaned against the tree with the back of his head on the trunk. “That’s that then. What a waste of time. Why don’t we just get out of here?”

  As if the moon heard his words and now challenged his doubts, it cast a glow onto the water in the hole.

  Jesus gasped. They could all see the reflection of the moon floating on the surface of the water like a perfect round silver coin, even though the moon wasn’t full.

  "Well you were right about that bit," Tom snarled, "but I don't think any of us are going to fit into that hole anytime soon."

  As they all stared into the pool of light, Tom pulled up his hand to smooth the back of his hair and as he turned his head to the side, he saw something on the tree that made him jump. “Whoa!”

  “What is it?” Mia said impatiently.

  “I...I don’t know. There’s something on that tree.”

  She turned to look at the oak. “There’s nothing on that tree.”

  "Stand where I was and turn your head sideways."

  Mia tutted as she moved into the same place Tom had stood. She was in the process of rolling up her wet sleeve. She put her head back and turned it to one side. At first, she didn't see it, but as she moved her head to a slightly different angle, she caught sight of something.

  She jumped and moved away. Just as Tom had. “Oh, my goodness!”

  “Told ya.” Tom moved back into position aside the tree so that he could get another look. The illusion was incredible. As he turned his head side-on, the tree looked like it had several layers, bark over bark, like pages of a well-read book with its leaves loosely bound. Without taking his eyes from the trunk and using the muscles in his back to steer himself, he sidled one step into the space between the first and second layer of bark.

  Tom heard Keri scream when he stepped back into the clearing. It must have looked like he'd disappeared, as the Watchers had when they blended with the trees in Central Park.

  Mia was in awe of the illusion. They all were. Layers upon layers of bark, only revealed at side glance when the moon was shining upon it. It was simple and yet incredibly clever. Jesus ran his hands across the bark. "It's a spirit door. The druids regarded the oak as the most powerful and significant of trees...its name, dara, or duir in Gaelic, means door.” He looked at Mia as he said. “This could be a way to the otherworld, to where the Watchers dwell.”

  And all the while Mia felt something or someone watching them.

  Chapter 24

  Tom went first. It was his discovery so it was he who should lead the way. Everyone agreed that was fair. Besides, no one else wanted to go first, through what they were now calling ‘the tree door’. Tom took up his position against the giant oak and with a cocky wink to Mia before he left, he sidled one step, and then another, until his whole body disappeared from view. Tom had vanished. Just like that!

  Mia’s head was spinning. The whole event of arriving at the clearing, finding the well and then travelling through a tree was suddenly too much to deal with. None of them knew what to expect on the other side. For all they knew they were going to walk to their deaths.

  After Keri went next into the tree, Mia carried Charlie in her arms as Jesus went last. There was no reluctance on her part, not after she’d resigned herself to the notion that if they were walking to their deaths, better that than dying in some boring hospital bed. She lined herself up against the trunk and stepped sideways, all the time praying she’d enter the world of the Watchers and see Uriel again. This was what she’d been waiting for…hadn’t she?

  The tree door was even more curious than their invisible, spiritual transportation from the Henge. When she'd taken her first glance, it had appeared as if only her hand would slot between the layers, but now, as she sidled in, even with Charlie in her arms, there was plenty of room for her body side-on. It was an incredible optical illusion, made more wondrous when she found herself fully inside its wooden walls, where she placed her free hand on the bark. It was just like the outer layer, rough and brittle as if the tree had turned in on itself. Perhaps this was the spiral, Jesus had mentioned. She reminded herself to ask him later.

  Moving further in, Charlie scrambled up to her shoulder and perched there like a baby hanging onto his mother. The walls became more of a blur of brown and black, roughly textured and smelling of damp soil and oaky mushrooms. She kept going, like a knife cutting through the skin of an apple. She was becoming disorientated, as if she was walking through a maze, unable to find the next avenue. She saw a beige colour amongst the darkness of the bark. It was Keri’s sweater. Mia reached out her hand and touched the wool and suddenly she was on solid ground again, in a place that was literally out of this world.

  Behind her, Jesus stepped out of the spiral layers, and like Mia, he too had lost his bearings and was now focusing on the place they all found themselves in. There was a hush as all four stood in what could only be described as a chamber, like an anti-space. It gave Mia the impression of standing inside a human heart with the openings of rounded valves leading from it. She could feel air coming through the tunnels as if the heart was pumping oxygen for them to breathe, and there was light, somehow…somewhere. It wasn’t a light any of them could distinguish. It was just there, like a light of life inside the tree.

  Mia watched Keri hesitate. She was looking behind her at the layers of bark they had just walked through. “I think I’ll go back. I really don’t know what I’m doing here. I don’t understand any of this.”

  Tom swung about and faced her. "No, don't go back. Please. None of us understands any of this either, but as long as we all stick together." He gave her an encouraging smile which served to validate his constant support whilst
she was in his company. She nodded her agreement of his unspoken terms. "Right! I suppose we take one of the tunnels," Tom announced. They all put their trust in Tom's instincts, as he opted for the largest valve out of the chamber. No one disputed his choice. As far as they were all concerned, it was a good a tunnel as any. They had to stoop to go through, even Mia, who was the shortest. One after the other they proceeded, in the same sequence they'd formed when they had come through the tree door; Tom first, then Keri, Mia holding Charlie and Jesus at the flank.

  A few meters along the tunnel, they were able to stand upright, even Jesus, the tallest of the group. The tunnel had offshoots, smaller than the main one. Mia recalled the story of Alice chasing the rabbit, as she was shrunk to a minute size in order to fit through the door. Mia was Alice now, chasing the white rabbit through a tree to a place she could never have imagined.

  After a few minutes, they came upon a chamber like the first, but instead of being lined with bark and roots, the walls were formed of grey stone, like a cave. The ground was scattered with sprigs of purple heather and over the walls, vivid green ivy climbed in neat spirals, as if it had been tamed and used to decorate the blandness of the rock. It was beautiful and strange and as they touched the swirls they all smiled at the uniqueness of it.

  From there, two more tunnels branched off. As one went into darkness to their left, there was another, on the right, which seemed to connect to a chamber that glowed pink. That was the tunnel they took.

  Chapter 25

  Keri Rains had resisted the urge to turn around and go back. Despite her better judgment, which she normally based on sound logic, she was now putting all her trust into the boy walking ahead of her, a young girl with a dog in her arms who was coming up her flank and behind her, an ageing hippie who called himself Jesus. She wondered how she would explain it to Harry if in fact, she had to explain it all, and the way she was feeling at that moment, she couldn't care less what he thought.