NightWatch

                              NIGHTWATCH

              By: Sage The Writer

     On a beach of white sand underneath a full moon and a starry sky, a giant wave crashed on the shore and spat out a tall twenty -something year old black man who had a short afro on top of his head, and he wore a soaked hospital gown on his body. He was also missing his left arm and on his right was a laminated paper band with the name London written in cursive. Just then a giant wave crashed over him like lightning, and he got to his feet with a small yelp of surprise, and like a frightened bunny, he ran further up the beach and entered a wooded area.

       He stopped running as soon as he entered the forest, then he took a deep breath in and out, slowly enjoying the cool breeze, the sounds, and smells of the woods. He took a few steps forward, but he suddenly stopped in his tracks, taking a few sniffs of the air, London crouched low to the ground and crept forward slowly. A few minutes later, London hid behind a bush, and he saw a very tall woman around his age sitting in a clearing. She was sitting atop a boulder in front of a raging fire poking a smoldering log with a stick. The woman wore a pair of black combat boots, blue cargo pants, and a white tank top.

       Her skin was the color of clay, and her hair was long and straight. The woman let out a long sigh as she looked. London stared at her amber-colored eyes, and his breath caught in his throat, ‘Those are the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen before.’ he thought. The woman placed the stick down, and stood up, London started to sweat bullets as the woman started to walk over to where his hiding spot was. Before he could get up to run, the woman said in a strong tone, “Hey, come on out now I won’t bite.” London stood up with his head down, avoiding eye contact with her. The woman chuckled softly at his antics, and she placed her hand on his shoulder, “My name’s Sonya what’s yours.” she said; her hand out for a shake for a few seconds. Then London’s stomach started to rumble, which caused her to giggle. She turned around and motioned for London to follow as she walked off toward the flames.

  Her and London walked past the fire toward a one-story brick house. The abode had a chimney, a metal roof, four stone steps with an iron railing that led to a wooden door. The woman reached inside one of the pockets of her pants and took out a brass key ring that had one steel skull key on it. “My name’s London.” he said as the woman unlocked the door and turned to face him, “Well London, welcome to my home.” She opened the door, and the two entered the cabin. Sonya reached on the right wall by the door and pushed a button that turned on a giant overhead light bathing the entire space in light. The cabin was an anomaly, seeming small on the outside but huge on the inside, in the middle of the room was a black couch, and in front of the couch was a small, circular, wooden table which sat on top of a black rug with the image of a giant tree in front of a starry sky. Two wooden doors were on the opposite sides of the wall, and an open entrance that led to a kitchen area was behind the couch.  Just then, his stomach started to rumble again, but this time with more power than before. Looking embarrassed, London mumbled a sorry under his breath, “Follow me.” Sonya said as she and London then walked behind the couch and entered the kitchen. Similar to the living room, the kitchen was huge; it had; four wooden chairs that surrounded a kitchen island with a faux marble top and in the middle of the island was a griddle. Hanging above the island were many pots and pans.

      On the wall across from  the entrance was a kitchen sink with wooden countertops.  Above the counters were two doorless cabinets, the one on the right was filled with plates, bowls, and cups and the left was filled with various spices, and a mini refrigerator was on the left side of the sink. Sonya walked to the fridge and London took a seat at the island, she opened up the icebox and took out many plastic wrap meat and a loaf of bread with food in hand. She walked over to the island and sat the food down. She then went to the sink and turned on the water. When steam started to rise from the sink, she opened a drawer that was underneath the right counter and took out a wrapped bar of soap and two white towels. “After I’m done here, you should come to wash your hands before we eat,” said Sonya. London stood up and made his way to the sink just as Sonya was going back to the island. London stood at the sink going through the motions of good hand washing while his brain raced with thoughts, ‘Why did she invite me a stranger into her house to eat. What is going on here.’ on that last thought, he turned off the tap and dried his hands with the other towel, and when he was done, he placed the cloth back onto the counter and turned around.

 

      What greeted him was the scene of Sonya sitting down in his original seat with two triple-decker sandwiches each topped with toothpicks in front of her. London walked back to the table, his stomach rumbling and his mouth watering. He sat down opposite Sonya, “Well, bon appetit.” She said, and London nodded his head, and he removed the toothpicks from the sandwich and immediately scarfed it down. He belched loudly causing him embarrassment which caused Sonya to giggle, “No need to feel embarrassed I take it as a compliment that you enjoyed the food, but how you ate, it seemed like you haven’t eaten in months.”

   London looked down at his missing arm and said, “You could say that.” “Do you mind if I asked what happened to your arm?” “I want to be alone,” London said, standing up from the island, he walked out of the kitchen and out of the cabin leaving Sonya there dumbfounded by his actions. 

     

          Meanwhile on the beach, a short, skinny, old, dirty, and naked pale skin man walked along the shore, muttering incoherent nonsense to himself. The man had long dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. The waves of the ocean lapped at the shore, washing up a small white egg, the man having spotted it wash up ran toward it as his stomach rumbled loudly. He stood over the egg, bent down and picked it up. The egg suddenly exploded with a little pop and a sticky grey sticky liquid splashed on to the man’s face which caused him to fall to the ground screaming and rolling on the ground trying desperately to wipe the liquid from his face. His efforts caused the substance to spread rapidly, covering his entire body silencing his screams and halting his movements leaving a giant pulsating grey mass. A few hours later, the mass started to rise and fall rapidly then it exploded, creating a giant crater of glass. In the center of the cavity, the mass was no more, in its place was a man who had splotchy grey skin, glowing red eyes, and giant muscles. He was tall around six foot two, and he wore a white suit, dress pants, and he had a cane in his hand. 

       He had a tattoo of a spider-web on his face, along with a calm demeanor he looked around, and with a tiny snort, he walked towards the woods with his cane over his left shoulder. A few hours after he ate, he sat on the same boulder that he saw Sonya on looking up at the sky, ‘I shouldn’t have acted that way toward Sonya, I mean if I was in her position, I would ask that same question and many more. I should go back and apologize.’ he thought to hop off the huge rock, “Oh, there you are, London you know it wasn’t nice to run away; we were just getting started on the fun.” said a high pitched voice, and London turned around and saw the man in the suit exit out of the tree line and made his way over toward him. London tried to run, but he couldn’t move his body, shook with fear as the man walked closer to him chuckling darkly. The man placed an arm around London’s left shoulder.

   “You know I should just kill you right now for making me come here to find you and not only that, you had to come to the one island with a beach bum, I hate wearing humans, but I especially hate wearing beach bums.” the man said he walked around to stare London in the eyes.

      The man reached in his pocket and pulled out a syringe of glowing black liquid. “Well, it’s time for your medicine boy.” “Back away from London.” Sonya said, standing behind the man, he turned around and sized her up and down and said: “Look here gargantuan, go back to whatever hole you crawled your big butt from and mind your business.” Sonya started to chuckle and said, “Better thought, why don’t you get out of here before you get hurt.” The suited man let out a sigh and vanished. Sonya let out a strangled breath as he appeared, floating behind her with his arms around her neck. The man stared at London over Sonya’s right shoulder with a look of annoyance, “You see what you made me do, London. Now I got to snap this woman’s neck because you don’t know how to stay put.” he said tightening his grip around her neck, and Sonya reached up and tried in vain to release his grip from around her neck. London stared to hyperventilate with beads of sweat dripping down his face“L...let...her...go.” London mumbled, and the man stared at him, “Que, I didn’t quite get that you have to speak up.” the man said licking the side of Sonya’s asphyxiated face, and London looked at Sonya who stared at him with her eyes filled with fear. The look on her face caused London to look down at the ground, he took a huge breath in, and let it out slowly. When he looked up, the fear was replaced by a cold demeanor, “I said, let her GO!” London yelled out, causing the man to lose his grip from around her neck, sending him flying far off into the distance. Sonya fell to her knees, gasping for breath, London started to go to her, but she put her hand up. “I’m alright just telekinesis that’s a neat treat.” said Sonya who stood up and popped her neck and said, “When the punk comes back let me handle him.”  

    London stared at her with shock, “Sonya, that’s crazy he almost killed you.” he said. Sonya chuckled, and reached up toward her head, “Two of the things; First, he caught me off guard is a mistake I won’t make again and secondly...” she grabbed her hair and threw it off her head to the ground revealing a shaved head her body was then covered in rainbow flame; the flame dispersed revealing an eight-foot-tall black creature, “ My name is Francine.” she said, placing her left arm out, a swirling ball of rainbow flame appeared in front of the palm of her hand. When the man returned to the clearing, Francine launched the blast toward him. As the fireball was a few feet from the suited man, he jumped over it, but it exploded covering his entire body in colorful flames. The man screamed in agony for a few seconds until there was silence. When the screams subsided, Franny returned to her human form. When she turned around, she saw London looking at her with a look of shock and anger. “You have questions.” she said as London let out a scoff, “You damn right I have questions, First why did you lie and second how did you do that?” He looked at her awaiting her answer as she stood rubbing the back of her neck, “To answer both of your questions, I am the same as you, and I lied because I didn’t know if you were the one I was tasked on finding or the one I just incinerated.” she said, motioning toward the still on fire pile of ash. 

     London looked at her with confusion and asked: “Tasked, what are you talking about?”  She held her hand out toward him, “Hi, my name is Francine Ire, and I was sent here by my employer looking for you especially to help in my mission to liberate others that are just like us.” London looked at her face, to her hand and to his missing arm. When he looked back at her face, he took her hand in his and shook it, “When do we start?” London asked, and Sonya smirked and said “Follow me, and you will see worlds you have only seen in your imagination.” with that she proceeded to walk back to the cabin, followed closely by London.

                              The End