Kate and The Watcher (Edit: AKA EM and the story of 1001 formatting erorrs)
“Here, something warm to drink,” a girl said as she held out a drink to the boy on the park bench. He took it in his hands, warming them, the thin paper of the cup the only thing between his hands and the scalding hot liquid inside.
“Thanks, Miss Kate,” he said as he blew over the aperture to cool it.
Kate sat down with an over-exaggerated sigh, throwing her arms over the back of the bench.
“How many times do I have to tell you to just call me Kate? Kate! I’m not that much older than you.”
He tried taking a sip from the cup, just as soon jerking it away, holding his tongue out.
Is it hot, Carol?” Kate turned her head to smile at him.
Carol turned away to bite the inside of his mouth. He mumbled a “No” between the skin of his cheek.
“You get used to it, after a while,” Kate said as she tipped her head back so that she could see her breath fog up. The way she blew made it look like she had been smoking a cigarette.
“Aren’t you going to get anything to drink?” Carol asked as he scooted around so that he could put his legs up on the bench, his back facing her. Kate shrugged. “I’m not really thirsty.”
“But aren’t you cold?” He tried to bring his jacket closer to chest for warmth.
Kate threw her arm around Carol and moved so that his head was on her shoulder next to her fiery hair.
“Nah, I’m really not cold anymore.”
Suddenly, neither was Carol.
Carol walked through the park to the place where Kate usually sat. He carried two cups in a cardboard holder and a paper bag with a muffin inside. Carol came up and leaned over the bench. Kate was lying down holding a magazine over her face, reading.
“Hey Carol,” she said without looking up.
He looked down at her and stammered “Uh, Mi—I mean, Kate, I got you something to drink… I don’t really know what you like so…”
Kate pulled the magazine down. Carol could see a gold butterfly necklace pool around her throat.
“What’d you get?” She sat up and he held out one of the cups.
“The same thing you got me yesterday, a tea. I got you some sugar too.”
Kate reached up to take the offered cup and grabbed two of the packets of sugar sitting on the cardboard carrier with the hand that held magazine. She turned off the bench to put her feet back on the ground. She tapped the seat beside her and Carol came and sat down. Kate started putting sugar packets into her cup. Carol did the same.
“So, warmer today? Looks like you have a thinner jacket on.” She took a deep drink.
“Yeah, much warmer.” His cup almost hid his smile.
“Carol you’re back. How was your walk?” Carols mother stood at the island in their kitchen, chopping vegetables.
“Fine, Mom,” Carol said, smiling. “I met someone who was, uh, really nice to me.” He pulled out a chair and sat down, setting his almost empty cup on the counter.
“Oh, who?” His mother put the vegetables on the island into a pot on the stove.
“A girl who doesn’t make fun of my name," he amended.
“Oh! A girl?” His mother said, becoming bright and cheery.
Carol ran a hand down the back of his neck, looking away. “Yeah mom, she’s great.”
“What’s her name dear?”
“Kate.” Carol turned his cup around in his hand.
“Oh that’s so nice dear; I just can’t wait to tell your father!” His mother turned away, already busy with another part of the meal.
Carol took his cup and went up to his room.
Carol set the tea he had bought on the bench. ‘Kate must not be here yet’ he thought as he leaned back.
Carol suddenly shivered, the air becoming cold. He was thinking about reaching for his tea, but he found his muscles felt heavy and unresponsive.
He felt a hand rest down on his shoulder suddenly, and he started.
“Kate!” He jumped up, turning around.
“Hi,” said a girl with white hair cropped into a pixie cut.
“Oh, sorry, I th-thought that you were s-someone else,” he stammered.
She smiled down at him. “That’s alright. Are you waiting for someone?”
“Uh… no, no one, really.” He looked away.
“Really?” her look slid from his face to the tea sitting beside him. “Oh no, it looks like you bought an extra cup for no reason then. Mind if I take one?”
“No that’s not…”
By the time he had begun to object, the girl was already walking away, cup in hand.
“Hey Carol!” Kate dropped her bag beside the bench and dropped next to Carol. Carol opened his eyes and moved as she sat next to him. “How you doing today? Anybody make fun of your name? I’ll beat ’em up for you, you know.” She smiled.
Carol couldn’t resist smiling back. He reached for the tea holder. “Here, I got this for you.” He handed her the cup and sugar.
“Where’s yours? You already drink it?” She set her cup on the bench and began pouring the sugar into it, mixing it with her finger. Kate’s golden butterfly swung on its chain as she leaned over to mix her drink.
“No, I wasn’t very thirsty.”
“Eh, that’s too bad I guess.” She looked up and noticed him looking at her necklace. “You like this?”
Carol looked up and nodded. Kate unclasped the chain.
“Here, tilt your head up.”
“Kate, I shouldn’t…” but she was already reaching her arms around his neck and fixing the clasp in place. She smiled approvingly.
“There, it looks great!”
“Kate, it’s a piece of jewelry, guys don’t wear jewelry!” His picked up the butterfly to look at it.
“Sure they do!” she took a sip of her tea. “Anyways, I think that it looks great. Who says that men can’t wear jewelry? I bet it’s the same people who make fun of your name, right?” Kate laughed as Carol tried to cover his blush with his hand.
“Kate?”
“Hmm? Yeah Carol?”
He fiddled with the butterfly on the necklace. “There was some girl here before. I thought that she was you.”
Kate looked thoughtful as she moved her tea around in its cup.
“Carol?” Kate said, looking him straight in the eye.
“Yes?” Carol said, looking expectant, though he didn’t know for what.
“That’s pretty weird.”.
Hearing the door bell ring, Carol sat up in his bed. He turned the butterfly necklace around his neck so that it was facing forward.
“Mom?” it was already late, and his parents were probably already asleep. “Are you going to get the door?” he called, even though he knew it was silly to ask.
The doorbell kept ringing. It rung at a steady beat, one chime after another. Carol felted eerily calmed by it, compelled to go see who it was. He stepped out of bed and pulled his black jacket from where it rested over his desk chair.
At the front door, Carol stopped to pull his jacket on and put some shoes on his feet, for warmth. He flipped on the light in the hall as the doorbell continued to ring.
“Hold on a minute!” He yelled at the door. The ringing abruptly stopped.
Carol finished tying the bow on his second shoe and stood up. He looked out of the peek-hole in the door, but it was too dark to see anyone.
“Must have been pranksters…” he thought out loud as he unlocked the deadbolt.
Carol froze. The night air ghosted against his face and neck where his coat didn’t cover. Standing on the front step of Carol’s house was the white haired girl, a slight grin splitting her face.
“Hello,” she said with a slight breath, even when the air in front of her remained clear and unclouded in the cold. Carol’s mind drew a blank.
“Hi…” the words died in his mouth. His brain was beginning to feel fuzzy, like someone had put cotton inside of it.
“I wanted to thank you for the drink.” The girl smiled and Carol thought briefly that for someone who looked so beautiful, she had an awful lot of teeth in her mouth.
“Don’t mention it.” The doorknob slipped from his hand, making him lean heavily on the door to hold himself up.
The girl took a step closer and said, “Yes. Kate told me where you live.”
At the thought of Kate, Carol’s head seemed to clear considerably. “You know Kate?”
The girl nodded and said, “Yes, she wants to see you. I can take you to her.” She gestured down the front steps of his house. Carol didn’t know how they would get to where Kate was, he couldn’t see any car, and he didn’t expect Kate to be in the park this late, no matter how close it was.
“Yes, I’ll show you where she is, come this way…” She backed down the front steps of the house, down the walk and onto the sidewalk. Carol felt compelled to follow, obediently stepping out and closing the door behind him.
Once he stepped down on the cold pavement, the landscape around him changed. The houses that had lined his street were suddenly gone, replaced by dark green trees whose ends reached up to blank out the sky above. All around him a soft glow illuminated the ground. Carol began to panic, looking around frantically.
“This way,” the girl said, suddenly coming close to him. Carol’s thoughts were quieted. He couldn’t remember what he had been worried about. She took his arm and led him deeper into the dark forest. “It isn’t much farther.”
Carol walked behind the girl until the light in the forest started to dim, and the landscape began to change. The girl let go of his arm as the scenery turned into a long dark hallway, walls covered with grime and red dirt. In the dirt rested rust and antique debris. Music boxes grouped together on the walls, tops open like gaping mouths, devoid of contents save the scratched velvet lining that might have once held silver or gold. Keys were stuck in rows, their ends pointing out at odd angles like the spines of an imaginary beast. Silver coins were pressed under and around object on every wall, one over another like scales.
Carol tried to look behind himself, but his head refused to move. He tried to reach an arm behind himself, but the air felt cold and rough against his the skin of his hand. His feet kept him moving, even if he was only going deeper into the tunnel.
“Where are we going?” Carol asked. He moved away from an area of wall covered in bracelets and forks.
“The Watcher wants to see you,” she replied without looking back.
“The watcher?” Carol said, baffled. He clambered over a rocking horse that had its head stuck in the wall. “What about Kate?” Carol put his foot down in a place where the mud became wet and runny. His foot stuck in the mud, and he moved to grab onto a large wooden puppet of a girl that was hanging beside him. He pulled the puppet halfway down the wall, where it stuck. Carol screamed as the puppet clung to him like a dead body, its face only inches from his own. It had a face that looked like Kate’s.
“Is anything wrong?” the white haired girl asked and he moved to face her, breathing hard. She had turned around, and Carol noticed that her eyes had become grey and dull in the dim light. He looked from her to the unmoving puppet and back, the puppet’s face now looked all too round and plastic, one of its eyes missing. It no longer looked like any person at all. He moved to push the puppet back, its head rolled back to sink into the wall, it’s remaining eye dropping into it’s skull. Shaken and scared, Carol continued to follow the white haired girl down the hall, the only way that seemed open to him.
The girl silently turned away from Carol to continue walking and he followed behind her. He looked at a group of mirrors that they were passing. Out of the corner of his eye, Carol thought that he could see a figure in a mirror that was not his own.
They came to a door and the girl stopped beside it, her hand resting on the rusted door handle. The door looked weather-beaten and cracked. Carol stopped short of the door, looking at her.
“Through here,” she said, turning the handle and pushing the door open. Carol went forward to look inside, scared of what he’d find.
Through the doorway was a large, circular room paneled with white with a dome-shaped ceiling that looked as if it had been patterned with gold leaf. The floor, a polished white stone, seemed to reflect the ceiling above it. In the center of the room, an unset silver table sat with two chairs on either side.
The white haired girl pulled one of the chairs out at the center of the room, even though Carol hadn’t seen her move from behind him. Carol moved to sit down in the chair. The girl moved away.
“The Watcher will be with you soon.”
Carol looked around and saw a door opening across the room. He couldn’t be sure if it was the door that he had come in through or not. A black wraith like hand came through the door, curling around a length of white paneling. The hand led up to a coat of floor length with dark feathers and multicolored beads. On top of the coat rested a great mask in the shape of the head of a huge crow. The figure moved to the center of the room to sit across from the stunned Carol. The beak of the great mask opened and Carol saw a red tongue, making him realize that the mask wasn’t a mask at all.
“So you are the boy,” the creature squawked, “That the little treasure has her eye on…” One of the creatures red disc-like eyes turned to look at Carol.
Carol sat frozen. The jacket he had put on seemed thin, letting the chilled air of the room worm under his nightshirt, making him shake, adding to the twisting feeling deep in his stomach.
“Do you mean…Kate?” Carol said as he tried to wrap his coat more tightly around his body.
The creature let out an inhuman screech as if in triumph, its coat shaking.
The wraith’s hand beckoned and soon the white haired girl was beside the table setting down cups and a teapot. “Please, drink. You must be cold.” Carol reached for the teacup, and, upon picking it up, discovered that it was warm in his hands. He began to raise it to his lips, welcoming the comforting liquid in such a strange atmosphere.
“I wouldn’t drink that, if I were you Carol,” a voice said behind Carol’s back. The cup promptly broke apart in his hand. Carol turned around to the speaker.
“Kate!” He cried hopefully.
“Hey Carol,” she said, smiling down at him. She wore a black cloak, and anything below her neck was covered in black.
The Watcher screeched, overturning the table. Kate moved to pull Carol up out of his chair and covered him with her cloak.
“Katherine, you have finally come. Now I can eat you up! But, how is it you are here without me having sensed it?” The crow spat in its gravely voice.
“You want me? You got me. But as for the kid you were trying to lure me here with,” she pulled Carol tighter in her cloak, making him feel as if he was sinking into it, “I was with him the whole way here. What did you expect me to do, walk through the front door? I’m taking the boy and leaving.” Kate began to move with Carol away from the over turned table.
The Watcher made a screech that sounded more like a roar, its black beak opening, exposing the blood red mouth. The gold of the room seemed to ripple and fade, the entire room changed to white. Carol couldn’t see the floor anymore, and clung to Kate, afraid that he would fall. Kate seemed to have a sure footing in the white nothingness, as did the Watcher. Carol felt as if water was filling up the room, even though he couldn’t see it. He felt it come up and soak his shoes, then his coat and then his clothes underneath. He held his breath as he felt the water come up past his head.
“It’s better if you try to breathe, Carol,” Kate said, breathing normally with her hair floating around her head as if she was swimming. Carol took a breath and felt like his mouth filled with water. He put his hand up to his mouth and coughed, but soon found that he was also breathing normally.
Kate reached below her cloak and pulled out a long, thin, silver sword. The Watcher screamed at them as Kate rushed forward at the Watcher with Carol under her arm. The watcher snapped at them with his beak and Kate tapped it away with a flick of her sword. The White haired girl appeared in front of Kate and swung a rusted sword at her. Kate hit her sword away as the white haired girl fell over onto the invisible ground. She didn’t move again.
Kate turned back to the Watcher, carrying Carol as if he was as light as a ragdoll. She held out her sword and began to run full tilt at the watcher. Her sword struck, embedding itself deep within the Watcher’s chest. A gurgling sound came through the creature’s beak.
“See you later, Carol,” Kate said, smiling down at him. As soon as he looked up, she let go. Carol fell out of Kate’s cloak, falling down past where he expected the floor to have been. The farther he fell away from Kate and the Watcher, the more light-headed he became, until he finally blanked out.
Carol woke up by falling unceremoniously out of his bed, landing on the floor. Light poured in through his bedroom window. He quickly pulled himself free from his covers and stood up. He reached towards his throat, feeling a heavy chain, and on the end of it, a butterfly.
Carol found his clothes, jacket and shoes and got dressed. He ran downstairs to where his mother was making breakfast. His father was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper. Carol ran past his mother to the door, and she looked at him as he hurried by. “Carol?”
Carol’s father moved his paper to look at his son. “Where’re you goin’ kiddo? Got an early date with your girlfriend?” He said, smiling. Carol’s mother had apparently told his father about Kate.
“Not really Dad. Look, I’ll be back in a little bit, save me some breakfast, would you? I love you both.” Carol gave his mother a kiss on the cheek.
Carol’s mother waved him out the door. “Be back soon sweetheart,” she said.
Carol ran down to the sidewalk, turning in the direction of the park. When he arrived, he looked for Kate at their usual spot. To his relief, she was sitting on their bench, her back facing him.
“Kate,” he said, coming up behind her.
Kate turned. The early morning light caught a golden crow berette that held her hair up. “Carol,” she said and stood up to face him.
For the first time, Carol noticed something about Kate. He noticed the silver beetle ring around her finger. He noticed the green snake-hoop-earrings that seemed to be eating their own tails. He noticed her brass belt buckle in the shape of a salamander.
“You doing alright Carol?” Kate asked. Carol also noticed how much healthier and bright Kate looked today than she had any other day.
He moved to unclasp the necklace at his throat to give it back, but Kate stayed his hand.
“Keep it. It might come in handy someday,” Kate smiled and reached out to pull Carol into a hug. “Stay positive, Carol. Don’t let people put you down,” she said. “Bye Carol, I’ll see you around.”
Carol watch until Kate was far out of site.
