“What do you think?” Jeff asked.
“I think nobody lives here.” Will scanned a worn-out sign with his beam of light, “could be the perp chased her here. Do you remember if dispatch said who called it in?”
“Anonymous tip, you should pay more attention to the radio.”
Will stepped in carefully, “I catch all the high points. Besides, that’s what I got you for kid.”
The interior was dark with rubble and building materials left scattered about. The first floor was empty, but as they were investigating the stairway they heard something that pierced them to the bone. A woman’s scream. They bolted up the stairs.
More often than not, these cases turned violent and the intensity always escalated. By the time somebody calls for help, it can already be too late. Talking down the aggressor was dicey at best.
They got to the third floor and found the door to the stairwell ajar. Drawing their weapons, they entered. What they found was hardly what they expected. Two attractive young women in torn clothes and a lady that could be their mother were huddled in a corner, sobbing. The only Illumination was by light from scattered candles. In front of them were the bodies of two men covered in knife wounds with the blades still in their hands.
Jeff positioned himself between them and the bodies. “Are you girls alright?”
“Jeff!“ Will kicked the leg of a body. “Get over here!”
“What? Why?”
“These bodies are cold kid.” He pointed his gun in the direction of the women, “They’ve been dead for hours!”
When Jeff turned around, the two girls were already standing close to him. The breeze from a broken window playing with their hair and tattered clothes.
“They tried to hurt us…” one of them said.
“We were so scared,” the other finished.
Jeff’s vision began to blur around the edges. Who could ever harm these beautiful creatures? One of them stepped forward and hugged him. His body was filled with a strange warmth.
“Mam, step away from him. Now!” Will’s voice said.
Jeff turned back to see his partner with his weapon pointed at them. He couldn’t understand why Will was being so hostile; these girls were the victims here. He looked down and noticed that both of the girls were clinging to him, their bodies pressed firm against his.
“Will, relax,” he said.
“I don’t think so, kid. Get away from them.”
One of the girls pulled on his collar, bringing his face into a waiting kiss. The other looked him in the eyes.
“All we want to do is have a little fun...” her eyes were almost glowing.
“But he wants to hurt us too,” the other young woman said as she pointed at his partner.
Will.
Why was he acting like this? What was wrong with him? Jeff rubbed his eyes. Everything was so hazy. When his vision returned, he saw the truth.
It wasn’t will.
Will was on the ground, covered in knife wounds, and standing in front of him was one of the perps with his gun and wearing his uniform. The bastard even had his badge on while pointing his partner’s weapon at him and the girls.
He leveled his pistol at the perp.
“What are you doing?” He heard Will’s voice say.
What was he doing? He was keeping the streets safe. He was the thin blue line between order and anarchy. And this perp just killed his best friend.
He pulled the trigger.
The perp fell to the ground.
He could see everything perfectly now. He had kept them safe. All three of the young women now clung to him. He didn’t see the old woman anywhere. Was there an old woman? He couldn’t remember.
“Car forty-two, what’s your twenty?” His radio blared.
A girl ran her fingers along his jaw. “You found nothing.”
“Forty-two, here. Nothing but an empty building. Must’ve been a prank.”
“Copy that.”
The girls pulled Jeff to the floor. One of them began cutting into the dead bodies with a bronze sickle while the others took off his shirt. She murmured something and placed a piece of severed flesh on his chest. On contact it turned pitch black.
“Now,” the girl with the sickle spoke as she removed her shirt, “we can have some fun.”
* * *
Julia woke with a start. She wished it had all been a nightmare, she was disappointed when she rose to find herself still scraped and dirty. She snuck her way to the hallway bathroom. On entering the shower, she noticed that the cuts were more superficial than she had thought. Not only had they closed, they were already healing. Unfortunately, the cut on her forehead was still clearly visible, and there would be no hiding it. She let the warm water wash over her body. Taking a bar of soap she carefully got to work, still feeling quite sore. It was amazing to her how comforting it was just to be clean.
She put on clean clothes, a loose T-shirt and jeans. After psyching herself to prepare for an onslaught of parental scolding, she reached for the doorknob and headed into the kitchen. The smell of French toast was stronger than ever before. When she got there, her father was standing by the refrigerator with a stern expression that changed to one of concern. Her stepmother was flipping the toast and adding extra sugar and cinnamon on the finished side.
“Well young lady…,” she began before turning to face her. “Oh my lord!” She said as she dropped the spatula and shaker on the counter and rushed to her.
“It looks worse than it is,” Julia assured them meekly.
“Well…” Her father adjusted his glasses. “I was about to give you the obligatory lecture about staying out late and not calling, but I guess that can wait till later.” His wife glared at him. “Until tomorrow.” She raised an eyebrow. “I mean uh, or the end of days. If that’s a better time for you.”
“Okay, daddy.” Julia smiled weakly, going along with it. She had no idea why were they being so easy on her. This was weird.
“Alright, come ’ere, pumpkin.” She went to her father’s welcome arms. “Just as long as you learned your lesson.”
“I did. I’ll never stay out late again.”
Her stepmother started placing slices of toast onto plates. “We’re just glad you’re home, now get your brother to the table and we can eat.”
She walked down the hall and paused outside her little brother’s room. She looked back towards the kitchen then knocked on the door.
“Come on Josh, breakfast!”
She heard a rustling indicating that he was getting up so she headed back to the kitchen. She sat down in her usual seat across the table from the empty chair that was her brother’s. The sun was shining bright through the window but there were dark clouds on the horizon.
Her brother came to the table in his Spiderman pajamas that he was probably getting too old for, still rubbing his eyes and yawning. Her father said grace and they dug in. She had never tasted anything so delicious as that French toast. She thought it was because of the previous night’s happenings but the flavor was so intense that she began to wonder why.
It’s because of me.
“I’m sorry, what?” she looked around the table.
“Nobody said anything.” Her brother answered.
I did.
Her strange expression while realizing the source of the voice she now recognized caught the attention of her younger brother.
“What happened to your head?” He said with that casual bluntness common to children.
“I, I scraped it. It’s fine.”
“Josh, leave your sister alone.” Their father scolded.
While she was grateful that he wasn’t angry, his lack of concern was also disturbing. She still didn’t know why he wasn’t being harder on her.
That’s also because of me.
“You?” She said aloud, making her brother jump.
Well after you were so kind as to let me have sanctuary I couldn’t let you get into trouble for it.
“What�
�s wrong with you?” Josh’s curiosity wouldn’t let him drop it now.
She said nothing but thought intensely about asking why whatever it was doing to her parents wasn’t working on her brother.
Please stop shouting, I can hear you just fine.
“Sorry.” She said aloud again.
Her brother looked at their parents and saw no reaction. “Am I the only one who sees Jules talking to herself? She just did it again!”
“Don’t shout. Just finish you breakfast, dear.” His mother’s words got him to be quiet but he still stared at her with narrowed eyes.
Children are too innocent to be manipulated by one as weak as I.
A disturbing idea then came to her. If this voice could manipulate adults but not the “innocent,” then could it be something evil?
It laughed.
If I were, I wouldn’t have asked for your protection.
She guessed not, but what was it?
Little ol’ me? I’m your guardian, a lot of people’s guardian, actually. I just haven’t been doing as good of a job as I should be.
The hint of remorse in the voice inspired sympathy in Julia.
Don’t worry, a little more time in here and I’ll be fine again. Then I can get back out there and find out why things got so out of control.
So the thing that came after her the night before wasn’t a hallucination. It was something unusual.
Highly, it was something I’ve never seen before either, and I’ve seen a lot. Actually, the only reason you saw it was because I was there.
Julia realized that if it had not been there she would’ve ended up like those men. A small shiver crept up her spine.
I am so sorry Julia. I couldn’t protect you or them. We got lucky.
She took a deep drink from the glass of orange juice on the side of her plate. Now that she had the time to think about it, she couldn’t remember exactly how they had gotten away.
It was someone I didn’t expect to be there.
Who?
Someone you can’t depend on.
Chapter 4
Tracy’s mom dropped her off at the mall and she walked to the usual place by the fountain. Julia was already there and she couldn’t wait to hear how her big date went. Derrick was a major cutey and his dad was some kind of fancy lawyer.
“So, how was last night?” She asked immediately.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I don’t even believe it.” Julia looked away.
“Oh Em Gee!” Tracy’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t!”
“Didn’t what?” Julia must have been faking her confusion but she did it well.
“You and Derrick, you know… ”
“What? No! He’s a total asshole.” Julia seemed actually offended.
“Alright, how was I supposed to know.”
“That wasn’t even the worst of it.” Julia stared off at nothing for a moment. “I mean, he left me stranded when I wouldn’t, and then I got chased by hoboes, and this semi almost hit me. It was awful. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
“Jeezus, are you alright?”
“I scraped my knee and got this.” Julia pulled back her hair to reveal a thin scratch on her forehead. “But at least it doesn’t hurt anymore…thanks again”
“For what?”
“What?” Julia repeated.
“That last thing you just said? Thanks for what?”
“Oh,” Julia stammered. “Thanks for being here for me to talk to you…about all this. I know I can always count on you, Trace.”
Some cute guys were walking by on their way out of a movie.
Tracy smiled while following them with her eyes. “Of course you can, I’m not your BFF just because of my great taste in men, and clothes, and…Oh Em Gee, we should get you a new pair of shoes!”
* * *
Then I met another human that would shape things to come. Gerard Donne was a graduate student at the University of Colorado. He had been there for more than a year, but it still didn’t feel like home yet. He was a world away from his native Manchester. England was beautiful this time of year, despite the rain. Even though these people spoke the same language, it just wasn’t the same. He was the top in his class with an Astronomy degree from Oxford, and had applied to several programs around the world.
He received a letter of acceptance from one he had never applied to.
The world-renowned astronomer Dr. Suriel wanted him to participate in a project that could change the face of modern physics. Gerard could hardly refuse such an offer, especially when it came with full funding and a healthy stipend. It was like winning the academic lottery.
When he arrived, he found the professor to be quite brilliant and amiable. The man was slightly shorter than average, and his short-cropped hair and goatee had gone white ages ago. His favorite pair of glasses were very old-fashioned, antiques even, with perfectly circular lenses. One would expect a man of his reputation to be pompous and demanding, but to the contrary, he was a great man with no shred of false pride. The man was downright humble.
Today they were scheduled to review some deep space telemetry and new images of the Orion Nebula from a probe launched seven years ago. A probe the professor had designed with technology that won him the Nobel science prize. The pictures were amazing and Gerard thought he had found a previously unknown trinary star system. When he got to the office, the door was already cracked open and voices could be heard inside.
“Too bad Samyaza isn’t here, he’d make a poultice that’d have you back on your feet in minutes, little brother.” It was the professor speaking. “Probably made from grass and leaves or some such, too.”
“Can you do anything about it?” He didn’t recognize my voice but correctly presumed I was the professor’s younger brother.
“Well I can patch you up, but whatever kind of trouble you’ve been getting into could just as easily have taken your head off if it could do this!”
“I think it was an Emim,” I said.
Suriel was silent for a moment. “Are you certain?”
“Pitch black, eyes ablaze, and it was ape-like…sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“I think it was made of people.”
“Ah,” the professor’s voice relaxed. “That explains it, they can’t exist in this world normally so someone had to make them a body.”
“Is that so much better?”
“It means the worlds aren’t collapsing in on themselves.”
“True, but it means a mortal is bringing them here and making abominations for them to inhabit. I think that actually saddens me more.”
“You’ve never suffered from a lack of faith in humanity, little brother. None of us did…There, forty-six percent good as new. If you stay off it for a while, you might get back full functionality.”
“Excellent, I have work to do.”
“Next time you find something monstrous, call it to the attention of a Guardian. They have the Light and the Flame to help them. Our duty ended during the Jarad.”
“I did call a Guardian there.”
“What happened?”
“After lecturing me, she went after it.”
“And?”
“And there was something else there. It was too much for her to handle so she ran. The Emim followed”
“Poor thing. How’d you get involved?”
“She wasn’t going to make it, so she hid in a human girl.”
The professor chuckled.
“How is any of this funny, Suriel?”
“I think she sensed your presence. ‘The one thing none of them can resist,’ that’s what she must have thought. She had to have been desperate though. You know what happens when we…they bend the rules.”
“Either way you have a bigger problem than I do.”
“How’s that little brother?”
“Your student, Gerard Donne from Manchester who listens to classical music and likes romantic comedies and is twenty-four years of age, is out
side the door and has been listening to our entire conversation…and he doesn’t feel like talking about those pictures of yours, which came out nicely.”
Gerard gulped.
“Show off,” the professor admonished.
The door opened all the way. Inside Dr. Suriel sat in his chair, alone, with the most innocent of faces. The large window was open and the curtains were waving in the fifth storey breeze.
“Can I help you, Mr. Donne?”
* * *
Julia and Tracy were just outside the mall when they noticed the old man. He was standing on a wooden crate and covered in dirt. Even so, he was drawing a small crowd.
“Repent! The end is nigh! Evil walks among us and in the air!” He pointed to a place in the sky above the city. Some people laughed as they followed his finger’s line but saw nothing.
Julia was not one of them.
“Witness your DOOM!” He was almost frothing at the mouth.
Oh no, that shouldn’t be there.
Above the nearby stadium was a large silver oval of a rusty metallic texture. The object had to be the size of a building. Julia stared at it in disbelief until Tracy touched her arm.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
“I, I’m fine.” She wasn’t. “I just thought I saw something.”
“Come on Julia, let’s go.”
Before they could take three steps the man was in front of them, eyes too wide to be sane.
“You SEE it!”
“No.” Julia looked to the ground, doing her best to ignore the object. “I don’t see anything.” She was extremely uncomfortable with the crowd now watching her as well.
“But you do!” He analyzed her with his wild eyes. “And you’re glowing!”
That would be my fault.
Tracy had had about enough and placed herself between them. “Leave her alone, she doesn’t want to catch your crazy.”
Eyes of the Watchers (Codex Grigori Book 1) Page 2