The Watchers

by Lynnie Purcell

  “Yes.”

  He pushed open the door. Tall pine trees were across a short, empty, gravel lot. I wasn’t sure of the lot’s real purpose, but it was certainly useful. I could hear the thoughts of kids who had sneaked out back to smoke, and Coach, who was hiding in his car, so he could drink his whiskey. Daniel’s feet were silent on the gravel. I tried to be just as quiet but failed miserably. Luckily, the others were too interested in not getting caught to be curious about the noise. It took only seconds to reach the safety of the woods.

  “I thought I wasn’t allowed in the woods,” I said as the shady branches arched above us. They were a canopy of protection against the bitter blue sky.

  “Alone,” Daniel clarified.

  Pine needles created a thick carpet to our steps, allowing us to pass virtually unnoticed. Daniel set the pace for our walk, his long legs eating up the distance. We walked for about five minutes, but it was five minutes too long. Even though I was with Daniel and knew I was safe, I couldn’t stop my sense of fear. My eyes scrutinized every fallen tree and odd limb for the dog-like shape of the Nightstalker I had learned was every Watcher’s worst nightmare. My encounter with the living nightmare was still too fresh for comfort.

  “Here we are,” he said releasing my hand.

  I looked around. The trees had thinned, but this part of the forest looked like every other part. What was special about here? Rope stairs descended from a tree almost in response to the thought. I looked up. Oh… Jackson grinned down from an artfully concealed structure. “A tree house?” I asked. “Do I need a secret password?”

  “No. Passwords are too easily learned. We have retinal scanning up here,” Jackson said.

  I squinted up at him, trying to decide if he was serious.

  “He’s kidding,” Daniel said. “Jackson likes to think he’s funny.”

  “He’s about as funny as getting hit in the knees with a baseball bat,” I replied.

  Margaret appeared behind Jackson, her beautiful face bland and unemotional. She didn’t look at me. “Did you tell her?”

  “I was about to.”

  Daniel held out the stairs for me to climb. I clambered up feeling as if my childhood dream of having a tree house was falling short. I could have never imagined a tree house this cool looking. Jackson helped me up on the platform then held the wood door open for me. Daniel followed quickly, walking on my heels as I entered. My jaw dropped at what I saw inside. The tree house was beyond ‘cool’. It was elegant. It was expensively decorated, complete with a small sofa and two chairs. There were paintings on the walls and thick carpets on the ground. The roof was tin and arched over the decorations with a strange grace. This was the Better Homes and Gardens of tree houses.

  Daniel laughed at my stunned expression. “Impressed?”

  “Totally.”

  “I figured if I was going to come here every day, I might as well be comfortable.”

  He gestured for me to sit on the couch.

  “Does this make Margaret and Jackson the angry leprechauns?” I asked as I sat.

  He snorted with laughter as they followed us in and sat down. The room got warmer as they sat, like someone had turned up the sun. I relaxed into the sofa, the tension from clenching at the cold leaving my body.

  “Thanks, Margaret,” Daniel said.

  She nodded at him and took Jackson’s hand. Thanks for what? Glaring?

  “I think I have some answers about who is tracking you,” Daniel said to me. “Some answers and infinitely more questions.”

  My eyes stopped roaming around the room. “Are you sure they’re not after one of you?” I asked hopefully.

  “Gee, thanks,” Jackson said dryly.

  “Definitely, you,” Daniel answered quietly.

  “Oh, just show her,” Margaret said. “She’ll just keep asking stupid questions until you do.”

  “Sixty years old, and she still hasn’t learned patience,” Jackson joked, kissing her hand. I watched as all Margaret’s irritation melted, and I knew that she didn’t have to learn. He was her patience.

  Daniel moved closer to me and put out his hand, palm up, as he’d done yesterday. I took a deep breath, still a little uneasy with the visions and thoughts I had encountered so far. They seemed so foreign and vast, like a whole ocean, compared to the baby tide I was used to dealing with. I placed my hand on his and closed my eyes. His thoughts were immediate. This will look funny, because I saw it through her distorted memories, and she was on pain killers at the time, he warned me. Just…Just try not to freak out about what you hear.

  Okay.

  Everything went dark then blurred with color.

  I was in the forest. I could feel the wind, which was crisp and bitter as it beat against my face, but everything was slightly distorted as if I was looking through cellophane or water. There was a moment where I felt separated from Susan then there was a strange merging of thought.

  She bent down and touched a leaf that was dripping with slime and drool. Next to the leaf was a footprint, a human one. She investigated it closer and realized there were more. Next to the human footprint was another print. It looked like a cougar, but it was too big, the toes too far spaced, the claws too large. She followed the direction they were pointing, noticing two more tracks on the bed of the forest about five hundred yards away. They were the same and were very obvious, like whoever had made them didn’t care if they were seen. She bent down to examine the tracks further, and as she did she heard the sound of arguing. She froze, and I could hear her thoughts of interest and curiosity. Setting her pack down, she started to creep forward, her first instinct one of caution. She stopped at the crest of the mountain she had been climbing.

  In the distorted haze of color and movement, I saw three human figures and two Nightstalkers. Two of the three human figures were exceptionally tall and lean. The third was stooped but broad shouldered – a result of years of hard labor and unyielding hard knocks. Their faces, because of the distortion, and the distance, were fuzzy and difficult to see. I thought one of the tall figures had to be a woman, because of her curves and the blonde hair down to her waist. The other tall figure appeared to be a man with short brown hair. The stooped man had his back to us, and I couldn’t see anything beyond his shoulders and short grey hair. Susan held her breath and listened.

  “Marcus doesn’t care about your excuses, old man. Marcus cares about results. Selene had to kill that man because of a moment of carelessness on your part, and now more humans are on to us. You have risked everything we’ve spent the last two years building. Two years of following the girl almost ruined! You have yet to prove to us that your promises of capturing and learning more about the girl are real. Is this how you repay the gifts we give? Or have you simply outlived your usefulness?”

  The voice was smooth and honeyed. It was a poison that tasted sweet until the bitterness of death consumed you. It was issuing from the blonde woman. She shifted like a lion on the prowl as she spoke, her anger obvious. From the way she moved I could tell she was a Watcher. Her grace was too alien, too precise, to be human.

  “Lady Cassandra, she is being protected!”

  A sliver of fear the Forest Ranger didn’t know went through me. I knew that voice! It was the voice I had been hearing all over the place. It was the voice that hungered for my death.

  “Enough with your excuses! If we find out the fire at that school was you, we will not be happy,” the brown-haired Watcher said. “You were sent to watch – to find a way to get close to the girl – not to extract your own form of justice. You had best remember that.”

  “I am loyal to our cause,” the old man said. He shifted his weight uncomfortably. “I would never risk what we are working for in a moment of anger.”

  The old man must have had some ability to block them out at will, or had learned it, because they obviously weren’t reading his thoughts. From the tone of their voices, this fact irritated them. But then why had I heard him? More importantly, why did he hate m
e so much?

  “You had better be certain of that,” Lady Cassandra warned in her viciously sweet voice.

  “I am, Lady! Most certain!”

  There was a pause in which the demons behind the Watchers shifted hungrily. Their red eyes trained on the old man with a blood lust that chilled me to the bone.

  “Mistress, can I ask…why are we watching her or bothering to learn about her at all? Why not just kill her? I heard Marcus say…”

  “You do not speak of Marcus!” she hissed. “You are not worthy to even utter his name in your most desperate hour!”

  He flinched. “Sorry, my lady.”

  She started pacing like a lion trapped in a metal cage. “Marcus has his reasons. He has a reason for everything, even if he doesn’t choose to share it with you. Your job isn’t to question that purpose, but to obey. That is the price you pay for the gifts we have given you.”

  She didn’t know either. This Marcus didn’t give her explanations, just orders.

  “Of course,” the old man said. From his tone of voice, I knew he wasn’t fooled.

  “Now go!” Lady Cassandra commanded. “I want a way to get close to her by tonight. Do not fail me…”

  “I won’t fail.” The old man bowed low then walked off through the woods. I cursed the memory I was in, wishing I could see his face. See the face of my enemy.

  “What would he say if he knew where we had gotten that blood from?” Cassandra’s counterpart asked with mocking laughter in his voice.

  “He is not to know,” she hissed.

  “I know that,” he retorted, his veneer of malice replaced by petulance and a bitter sarcasm. “Do you really think he will find a way? He’s crazy…and not to be trusted.”

  “We have our orders to stay back and not get involved. Marcus said to trust the humans in this.”

  “Perhaps, the old man was right…can’t we just kill the girl? She doesn’t seem that special to me. More like a hassle than any kind of ‘new beginning’.”

  “Are you questioning Marcus?” Her anger increased. “Are you questioning me?”

  He bowed mockingly. “No, my Lady Cassandra.”

  One of the Nightstalkers nuzzled the woman. She touched it fondly, stroking it on the snout. Her anger disappeared at the touch. “Quite right, Selene,” Cassandra said.

  “What does she say?”

  “She says we should stop arguing, and let her have the human at the top of the hill.”

  “Of course. We let it linger here too long. And I know how your mother loves a fresh kill.”

  The man was laughing at the thought. That beast was Cassandra’s mother?

  I couldn’t see their faces, or any other form of precise detail, but I could see Cassandra’s eyes when she looked up at Susan. The Ranger’s memories were strong on that point. They were coal black and deader than the darkest pit of hell. They were the only vivid thing on her face. They burned into my brain, etching lines of terror into my memories. Susan scrambled away from the ground and started running. She didn’t understand what was happening but knew that death would arrive on swift wings if she didn’t get away.

  Daniel dropped his hand and I gasped. My return to the present was not as smooth as previous ventures into the past. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I warned.

  Susan’s fear was just too immediate, her emotions having merged too much with mine. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and my muscles tensed around the churning in my gut.

  “Take her outside,” Margaret demanded.

  Daniel rushed me to the door. Pulling me into his arms, he leapt to the ground and gently set me down again as soon as he landed. I immediately collapsed to all fours and threw up.

  When my lunch was on the carpet of pine needles, I sat back on my haunches. I turned to stare at Daniel, appreciating his dark features, taking courage from the pain he had endured over long years. Needing comfort, I pulled him into my arms. He held me tightly creating a shield against the world.

  “They’ve been hunting me for two years! What if they hurt Ellen…what if they hurt you? They’re going to figure out all they have to do is threaten you to get whatever the hell they want.” I pushed him away. “I can’t let them do that!” Backing away, my eyes wide with fear I continued, “I won’t let them hurt you! We can’t be together anymore…if they see how crazy I am about you…”

  I felt a weight in my chest, and I wondered if I could follow through with what I was saying. A part of me doubted it. But another part, a part that wanted to do everything I could to protect him, told me that I would at least try. Daniel grabbed my arms to stop my retreat.

  “I didn’t have to show you that, but I thought you should know. I thought we could decide what the best thing is to do. I thought I would give you that chance. If you leave me, because you’re afraid they’ll hurt me, you’ll end up killing me yourself.”

  Some of my fear lessened at my skepticism. “You won’t die from heartbreak, if that’s what you mean. That’s ridiculous.”

  He ignored my comment. “We know they want you, we know that they are willing to do anything to get you. But we also know they want to study you rather than sell or kill you. That gives us time to form a plan to take them out first. If we can figure out who this stooped man is, what his weaknesses are, we can find a direct line into what they want.” He shook me in frustration, and I felt my brain rattle. “You can’t be Ms. Independent and shut me out, not now. Not after I finally found you.” His usually melodic voice was rough with anxiety.

  I reached up and touched his face, surprised by the hint of dark stubble. He was letting his normal look of perfection slip a bit. I rested my hand there for a moment then gave him a light slap, knowing it wouldn’t hurt him.

  “Don’t shake me like that again,” I warned.

  He started laughing. “I’ll take that to mean you’ll help me figure this out, instead of running away?”

  I thought about it, trying to decide what was best. “Yes...Thank you for being honest with me.”

  He shrugged. “I respect you too much to lie, and keeping secrets only keeps you ignorant. And keeping someone ignorant isn’t protecting them.”

  “Amen,” I agreed. “What’s our first move? How can we make sure everyone stays safe? How do we find out what these people want without letting them get close?”

  “They aren’t the only Watchers in town,” Daniel said emphatically. “Whereas they only know how to hunt and use people for their ends we know…” he picked up a rock off the forest floor and made it disappear, “magic.”

  Jackson and Margaret dropped down behind Daniel. “Beatrice and Han have also agreed to put away their science and watch over your mom and the other humans you have befriended, until this situation is resolved,” Jackson said to reassure me. Pretending to swing a bat he added, “So, we’ve got all the bases covered.”

  “You’ve got to go back. The bell is going to ring in five minutes and thirty-two seconds.” Margaret said.

  “I know,” Daniel agreed.

  Jackson gave me a funny little wink before he and Margaret walked off in the opposite direction of the school. I spotted two four wheelers in the distance and was instantly jealous about their mode of transportation.

  “Five minutes and thirty-two seconds?” I asked sardonically.

  “Internal clock,” Daniel said. “You have no idea what a century is like with an internal clock.”

  I shivered at the thought.

  “How do you know them? Jackson and Margaret.”

  “Ran into Jackson during the 1940s. Literally. The first time we met he knocked me down. Accidentally, of course. He’s been a good friend. He found Margaret a little later. They help me protect people; call me when strange murders happen elsewhere and they need help... or don’t have the time to look into it. They don’t stay here very often. They prefer cities. But…”

  “They’re helping you protect me,” I finished for him.

  “I can’t be everywhere at once. And I
trust them to do what needs to be done. I trust Beatrice and Han with my life, but they’re pacifists. I hate to ask them to fight.”

  “Pacifists? Really?”

  “They don’t like violence,” he said.

  “I can see why,” I replied.

  “Non-violence is good, but sometimes you have to fight…if the cause is a good one,” he said firmly.

  “I know,” I said.

  He smiled and put his arm around my shoulder. I glanced back at the tree house, wondering how such an assuming structure could house so much change. As I stared, a strange feeling of familiarity settled into my stomach.

  Our thoughts on what lay ahead, we walked back to school – and our very normal literature class – where scary monsters and terrifying demons didn’t exist. Not for real, at least.

  Chapter 14

  We got back just as lunch was letting out. We merged quietly into the chattering crowd, no one noticing we hadn’t been there all along. Daniel kept his arm around me possessively as the others swarmed around us. It was obvious he was worried about my earlier reaction, worried that I might run off and leave him. To be honest, I was still considering it. It would solve so many problems. But deep down, I knew that running was the wrong thing to do. Not only would it put me in danger, but it would endanger everyone else I cared about. The only thing that made sense was finding more information…then deciding whether or not running was right.

  I thought about the conversation Daniel had stolen from Susan as we walked. As I did, another conversation came to me. I ducked out from under Daniel’s arm as he stopped to buy me a soda from one of the vending machines. I took the soda then grabbed his hand, lacing our fingers together, so we could talk privately.

  Impressions of my face and him holding me in a dark room swirled around my brain. The image shifted to us out in the forest, under a starlit sky, the moon very close as we gazed up. I knew it was either a daydream or a vision of the future. Either way, I wasn’t complaining.

  Daniel? I asked tentatively.

  Yes, Clare?