“He’s the one, the hunters favorite throphy. Found in the deep woods of Poland, a Nöck, Nix or like the old high german word: nichessa. He’s a old and rare water spirit and guardian of rivers and lakes, son of the forest. The hunter has found him, trapped him and made him a part of his numerous collection of creatures, monsters and spirits he seeks after all over the world.
And here the Nöck is waiting in his prison of glass..” ____________________________________________________________
Well, I’m not a writer, but that was one of the ideas behind this work. Uff, it was a nice experiment.
THE NOCK
There’s something behind the glass.
From his cage on the opposite side of the wide hallway, Derek can’t see much. There isn’t a lot of light wherever the hell this place is. There are spotlights in Derek’s cell that are turned on whenever the guards come to feed him, or to clean out his cell, or when the people come to stare at him. Derek doesn’t like the spotlights. They’re bright and hot and hurt his eyes. It makes Gerard Argent laugh when he cowers away from them.
The lights behind the glass are different. They’re muted. And whatever it is behind the glass, Gerard Argent doesn’t laugh at it. Whatever it is, he is mesmerized by it.
Derek’s cell is divided in two. It’s three solid walls and a row of bars between him and the hallway. There’s another row of bars bisecting his cell, creating a small secondary section. He is shuffled into the small section whenever his guards require access to the main cell. It’s a secure system. When it’s time for food, or time for his cell to be cleaned, a magnetic lock disengages and Derek walks through to the smaller section of his cell. The door locks again behind him.
Derek hasn’t been within reach of any of the guards since they brought him here. Once, a woman in the hallway stood too close to the bars and Derek lunged at her. A blast of electricity from the shock collar around his throat brought him down before he could even reach her. He has learned not to get too close to the front bars since.
There is nothing to do in his cell except sit or pace. There is no way to judge the passage of time.
He sleeps when the lights are low. He cowers when they are turned on.
Whatever is behind the glass on the other side of the wide hallway must be more valuable than a common werewolf. It’s no cell behind that glass. It’s a habitat. It’s… it’s a terrarium. No, it’s an aquarium. There are rocks, and water, and lilies and plants.
There is a section of glass in front of Derek’s cell that is a window directly into the shadowy water. Derek catches glimpses of movement sometimes, but not enough to get any sense of what it is he’s looking at.
Sometimes he hears the faint splash of water and, once, a low keening sound that made him want to howl in sympathy.
Derek doesn’t know how long he’s been held in the facility (zoo?) when he finally finds out what the creature is. Gerard brings a pair of men in suits to stare at him first. One of the guards shoots him with a dart laced with wolfsbane. It’s not enough to cause any permanent damage, but it brings on his beta shift. The men in suits both step back and Gerard Argent laughs.
“Now, this,” he says, and draws them away from Derek’s cage and toward the glass, “is a true collector’s item. This is a Nöck. It’s an ancient water spirit. Cost me three years to locate, at least five million, and the lives of four of my men.”
The men in suits lean closer to the glass.
Derek feels a burst of envy for the Nöck, for killing four of Gerard’s men. At least it was taken in a fight. Derek was seduced by Kate Argent, and drugged in his sleep.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Gerard asks, preening, and Derek wishes he was close enough to see into the water.
He wonders what a Nöck looks like.
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