The Watchers (12 page)

There was no hand holdin
g
when Mia and Tom walked along the track towards Stonehenge. They didn’t do that. So said Mia!

Since Tom had planted himself firmly in front of her campfire, and after her initial reaction of annoyance had worn off, he’d turned out to be quite pleasant company. At night they’d talked through the canvas with him on the outside and her within, both of them wrapped in sleeping bags with the tops of their heads touching through the canvas.

Mia hadn’t relived her dream since that night before Tom had arrived. It had terrified her so much, she preferred to put it out of her mind and move on. She’d explained it away, saying the heat had affected all rational thoughts. Maybe she’d had a high temperature. Then when she sneezed a couple of times the next morning, that had pretty much confirmed it.

Mia and Tom had spent hours talking about the Watchers. They’d exchanged stories of their experiences so many times that Mia knew every part of what had happened during the siege in New York, and Tom knew every last syllable Uriel had spoken to her that night at the Henge.

The aftermath of the incident at the fracking site in Devizes was the most surprising. Its forced closure had reached the news desks of America and now environmentalists were jumping all over the fracking companies, worldwide, claiming that if the Watchers knew the process was destroying the planet, then the government should stop fracking everywhere, and stop now.

Now, the day before the eve of the solstice, on their stroll up to the stones, a dark-haired woman wearing a beige cable-knit sweater walked ahead of them, blocking their way. Without discussing it, as if they were in-tune with each other, Mia and Tom and Charlie stepped onto the grass at the side of the path and went past her until they were in front. There they continued their walk without further obstacle or delay.

Mia wondered if she should have asked Jesus to accompany them on their visit to the stones that night, but with the tension between him and Tom as it was, she could do without any more pressure.

Jesus had kept his distance the whole time Tom had been there, only coming to talk to her when Tom was off the scene. He was respectful and protective of Mia but with Tom, his distaste for him was more than clear and the feeling was mutual, so claimed Tom.

Arriving at the end of the path, they ambled amongst the stones, where by habit, Mia turned her thoughts to the reason she was there.

It had been a fortnight since she’d arrived with her camping gear in hand and a whole heap of determination, but still nothing had happened to bring her closer to the Watchers. She’d spent every waking moment meditating, worshipping the stones, trying to get in-tune with the earth and her surroundings, she’d even used her faithful dousing rod, attempting to pick up a connection to the Ley lines, but still…
nothing
. Now she’d resigned herself to the notion that tomorrow, after the eve of the solstice, she’d be going home.

She spotted Jesus. He was sitting on the grass a short distance away from the crowds with his back facing the stones. His legs were crossed beneath him and he wore a leather Stetson on his head as if it was a shelter. There was something glowing in front of him. A camping light, she guessed. “There’s Jesus,” Mia shouted, as she turned away.

Tom spluttered as he looked about to see if anyone had heard. “Shush…don’t speak so loud?”

He followed her with his camera in hand, clicking every movement she made. His compulsion to photograph everything he laid his eyes on was starting to annoy her. He had taken at least a hundred snaps of the stones, and the tourists, and the travellers camping in the field. He was obsessed and it was grating on her nerves.

When they reached Jesus, Tom said, “Howdy, JC.”

Jesus moved slowly as he looked up to acknowledge him. He placed two fingers on the brim of his hat as if in salute. Then he spoke only to her. “Hello, Mia.”

She sat on the grass next to the gas lamp burning in front of him and put her hands over it. The evening was wonderfully chilly as the clouds above them had turned grey and ominous. “I think it’s going to rain.” She’d said that so many times over the past two weeks she’d forgotten what it meant.

Jesus shook his head as he took a long drag on his rollup. “It won’t rain.”

“What are you doing over here?” Mia pulled an apple from her coat pocket and offered it to him. He declined so she took a single bite and kept it in her hand as she chewed.

His eyes looked weary as if he hadn’t slept in a week. “It’s too crowded now, amid the stones.” He looked back towards the monument and the people surrounding it. “It will be worse tomorrow.”

She watched Tom linger with his hand on the camera hanging from a strap over his shoulder He looked like a gunslinger. “Why don’t you sit down?”

“Excuse me.” The voice came out of nowhere. It was the lady in the beige cable-knit sweater who they had passed on the path up to the stones.

“Can we help you ma’am?” Tom offered.

Mia rolled her eyes. Stoney was so...American!

The woman was about thirty-five or thereabouts. She was well turned out, wearing dark navy blue trousers over closed toe comfort sandals. She was about five-eight, very slim and her dark hair on her shoulders hung with abandoned curls. “You’ll think I’m rude, but I saw you over here and I felt compelled to come and join you,” she said. “It’s such a strange sensation, I can’t even describe it. I’m sure you’ll think I’m being very presumptuous. So please, do tell me if I am disturbing you.”

Jesus spoke. “You’re not disturbing us. We’ve been expecting you.”

All heads turned towards Jesus. “What?” The woman moved around the group to stand in front of him. She bent at the waist to see his face under his hat. “I’m sorry. Did you say you were expecting me?”

“I did.” He glanced up and looked at her face. “Yes, it is you.”

Mia wrinkled her nose. “Jesus, I don’t...”

Tom chuckled as the woman’s eyes darted towards Mia when she said the J word. “I beg your pardon? Is this some sort of joke?”

“Oh, no! That’s his name...
Jesus
. He had it changed by deed-poll in the eighties.”

Mia turned back to her Kudos friend. “You said we’ve been expecting her. What did you mean by that?”

With a swipe of the hand, he motioned for the lady to join them on the grass. Even Tom looked intrigued. He sat alongside her until the four of them were grouped in a circle around the lamp. Charlie was sitting on Mia’s lap with his head leaning on his front paws.

“I’ve seen you here for the past two years and I was expecting you again this year, that’s all.”

Mia was disappointed. Was that it? Why then did she get the feeling that Jesus was lying? Did it have something to do with the Watchers? She addressed the woman sitting next to Tom. “I’m Mia Lake and this is Tom Stone. You can call him Stoney if you like.” Mia tugged at some blades of grass so that she could play with them in her idle hands. “And of course, this is Jesus.”

The woman gave a respectful nod. “I’m Keri. Keri Rains. It’s, uhm, nice to meet you all.”

“So what are you doin’ here, Keri?” Tom asked. “You don’t look like the type, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“Oh, no, of course not. I realise I’m not suitably dressed, but I promise you I am here to worship the stones and the summer solstice, just like the rest of you. However, I must admit to having a further agenda.” She leaned forward and plucked at the grass. “It’s silly really...”

“It’s not,” Jesus said, without looking up at her face. “You’re looking for something...or someone. You were with a man the other times you were here.”

She bowed her head. “Yes, he’s my husband. But he couldn’t make it this year.”

“You came alone?” Mia asked.

She nodded. “It’s my little girl’s birthday on the day of the solstice. She’ll be twelve...”

Everyone remained silent. Mia could tell there was something ominous about Keri’s story about her little girl. She could see it in her eyes.

“She was taken from us...Kidnapped! She never came home.” Keri’s voice cracked as if her throat was sore from too much talking. She coughed as her hand covered her mouth. “We... I come here to pray. Since my daughter was born on the solstice, this is a good a place as any.” She looked at the crowds surrounding the stones. “I feel close to her here. I can’t explain it.”

Then something happened that none of them could explain.

Mia placed her hand on the back of her neck as she felt a shiver run up her spine, like the feeling of someone walking over her grave. Her eyes were transfixed on the lamp in the centre of the group, blinding her with a white glow. She felt as if she’d been turned into a statue and that she was locked in a room that belonged to just the four of them. They all seemed like they were in a trance, yet they were still awake and aware of everything that was going on. Mia could see rings of energy circling the group, only just visible, turning like a force of their own and fighting the darkness outside. The hoops whipped and spun about their four bodies making them feel nothing in the world existed apart from them, as if they were the circle of stones, powerful and strong, connected to one another, charged with light and force, transcending time and space.

Mia watched the others stand as she too stood by no accord of her own. Her limbs began to move as if they were being manipulated by something other than her own will. Her head felt light, as if she was a little drunk. Her whole body felt warm, as the heat of the circles embraced and soothed her making her feel as if she never wanted to break free. And all the while an odour alerted her senses. It was the smell of freshly mowed grass mixed with new soil and lavender.

The four of them walked together as Mia held Charlie in her arms, looking as if he too was mesmerised. She could still feel the grass beneath her feet, but she felt like she was gliding over it, as if she was balanced on a surfboard on a green ocean. Together they went over the brow of a hill towards the woods and it was right at that moment Mia knew without any doubt that the Watchers were finally there.

When The four were released fro
m
the confines of the rings they found themselves standing within a glade surrounded by long established trees, looking as aged as the stones in the Henge.

The motley crew were momentarily stunned, looking around the area as Charlie barked at nothing, turning and turning as if he was chasing his tail. Tom too spun in a circle with his head going from side to side, as Keri hugged her sweater tightly about her, protecting her body from any further violation. Jesus had fallen to his knees clutching his hat to his breast like a shield. In the moonlight, the strands of his greying hair looked as if they had been spun with silver thread.

Keri spoke first. “Where are we? What just happened? What was that?”

Mia wanted to know the same thing, but even normal questions were hard to answer when none of them could fathom what had just taken place. There was just was no explanation for it.

“It’s the Watchers,” Jesus said ominously. “They have brought us here.”

Mia whispered, "Where are they?" She couldn't decide if she was pleased they had been summoned, or afraid for their lives, yet she knew she shouldn't be frightened, not when it was exactly what she had been hoping for all that time.

It was getting dark as Mia strained to see beyond the small clearing. Above them, between tall trees in the distance, she could see the sky fading grey. The clouds had vanished, and no rain was had. The sky held a tint of fading blue, turning dark so quickly it seemed as if someone had switched off a light. There was no moon to light the way, nothing to guide them. She wondered how they would ever find their way back if that was what they should do. She turned about and looked towards the ground when the sound of metal against metal struck the silence. Jesus still had his gas lamp. "You brought the lamp?"

He glanced up at her and shrugged. “I suppose I did. I don’t remember exactly.”

As they all huddled together, down on the ground and on their haunches, Charlie remained at Mia’s side, looking as bemused as the human travellers. The white glow of the lamp made the outside of their circle seem darker and colder, whereas inside, offered them warmth and comfort as they crouched in a circle on the trampled foliage.

They waited in silence, with only the sound of nature singing her song. A bird swooped down above their heads and all of them, except Jesus, yelled with fright. It was a white owl, graceful in its quest for voles. Mia offered a nervous giggle. “Perhaps we’re over-dramatizing this,” she said.

"Are you serious?" Tom whispered with a knife-edged tone. "How can you over-dramatize something like this?"

She saw his point. "I just think maybe we should be doing something. After all, they're not here, are they? And how long should we wait? For one thing, we'll run out of gas soon."

Jesus nodded. “I think she’s right. Perhaps they want us to do something.”

“Wait a minute,” Keri cried as she visibly trembled.

“Who are you referring to? What do you mean ‘they’?”

“Listen, Keri. Have you ever come into contact with the Watchers before?”

She scowled and shook her head. "No, never. I don't even believe in them….is it them, the so-called Angels! Oh, God help us. They're killers," she rambled.

“No, that’s not true,” Mia said. “I’ve met them, They’re…beautiful. As Keri looked at her as if she’d lost her mind, she went over an idea in her mind. “Okay, so, guys, if the Watchers brought us here, why did they bring Keri? We’re all Kudos, but she clearly isn’t,” she offered Keri a pat on her arm. “No offence.”

Keri pulled the collar of her sweater around her neck, even though the night was warm. Mia supposed she needed to feel wrapped up and safe. “Kudos?”

“True of heart,” Tom said to clarify.

Jesus looked directly at him, which was odd because more often than not he ignored Tom completely. "You're not Kudos. Only Mia and I have met them and pronounced Kudos."

“I’ve had two encounters,” Tom spat.

Mia interrupted. "Well, there's a reason why we are all here and I for one, think we should do more to find out why." She noticed a ring on Keri's finger and for some reason, she thought it meant something. "Wait! Keri, where do you work?"

“I don’t see…”

“Just tell us, please.”

She hesitated as she looked at her strange new allies. "Actually, I work for the government."

Mia gasped. “You’re the one.” She recalled the conversation she’d had with Uriel that night at the Henge. He’d told her she would connect with someone… “You’re going to help the Watchers save the planet.”

Keri gasped at her outrageous claims. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Jesus interrupted. He knew the story, which Uriel had told Mia, but he didn't think that was the time to discuss it. "Look let's just drop it for the moment." He looked to the trees circling the glade. "There is folklore..."

All eyes turned to him, even Charlie looked up as if he was waiting for an explanation. Tom wasn’t as patient as the others. “Well?” he said sharply. “Come on, JC. Spit it out.”

Jesus ignored him, preferring to stare into Mia’s eyes. His own eyes were dark and full of suspicion beneath the brim of his hat. He looked as if he was just about to tell a ghost story to three terrified kids on Halloween. “There are stories about sacred springs and Holy wells.” He stroked the grass in the centre. “It’s a fact that underground streams run below the Ley lines and it is said the wells are doors to the otherworld.” He coughed. “It is written that the Celtic goddesses of Holy wells, Covetina and Sulis are honoured by people casting silver coins into their waters; silver representing the moon their mistress, who reigns over all beings of water and waves.”

A hush ensued.

Jesus was trying to recall the passages in the books he had read about folklore and legends. “Visiting sacred waters at the full of the moon is a powerful ancient practice. The vision of moonlight on the water was used by seers for access into the otherworld.”

“Go on,” Mia said. Thank God for him, she thought.

He scoured the perimeter with glazed eyes. “Perhaps the Watchers want us to find them! A task bestowed upon on us as a test of our courage and worthiness. Maybe, if we found a well here...somewhere, we could wait for the moon to cast its glow over the water.”

“Is there going to be a full moon tonight?” Mia asked as a hush amplified the tension.

“No...”

Tom guffawed “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

Jesus ignored him again and carried on. “But there should be a bright moon and a clear sky. And I reckon if the Watchers are guiding us to seek them out, they’d already know that. Look, why don’t we try it? If it doesn’t appear and if we don’t find the well, perhaps we can come up with something else.”

"What do we do when the moon shines on the water?" Mia was mystified by the whole thing, but frankly, after meeting the Watchers and taking that trip from the stones to the trees nothing surprised her anymore.

Ominously, Jesus said, “Legend says we befriend the nymph.”

"The nymph!" Mia whispered, "How do we do that?"

Jesus shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Great!” Tom scowled.

As they all began to scour the area for a well, Tom collared Mia as she grappled on the ground tearing at clumps of grass. He pressed her for a reason why she was listening to pagan theories dished out by some crazy person who called himself Jesus? “The old guy is clearly nuts, but you seem to trust everything he says and does.”

Mia pushed him away and he caught his foot on a stone and tripped. It was the funniest thing she’d seen all day. It served him right.

They all worked together as they searched for the well, even Keri who must surely be wondering what the hell was going on. Everyone scoured the ground on their hands and knees, scraping the grass and the soil with their bare hands, uncovering foliage and branches; anything that may conceal an opening.

After a few minutes, Mia yelled, "I've got an idea. We should find a dousing rod. One that has fallen from the tree. We can use that to find the well."

“I’ve seen one.” Tom hurried back over some ground he had already covered and picked up a two-pronged stick. “Got it.”

Mia reached over and took it from him. “That’ll do.” She knew she should have been more appreciative, but he’d just have to get over it. She stood up as Jesus hung the light high above their heads. Tom looked at his watch. It was nearly 9 o’clock.

In the same way she’d used the rod to communicate to the Watchers during the New York siege, Mia closed her eyes and began muttering words of prayer as she held the rod with both hands allowing the stick to protrude in front of her like a witch’s fingers covered in warts.

It began to tremble almost immediately.

Keri gasped as Mia moved and stumbled over natural debris littering the clearing within the woods as if a force was tugging at her belly. Then, when the sparse clouds were blown away by a God-given gust of wind, the moon came over the clearing and glowed upon them as if a light had been turned on.

The rod vibrated in Mia’s hands, leading the way as everyone followed her to a tree at the side of the clearing. It was a great oak that must have been four meters in circumference. The rod quivered wildly below the trunk, prompting Mia to discard the branch and fall to her knees. She tore at the grass, pulling tufts away in great lumps, moving twigs and stones and wild flowers growing around it. She leaned on one hand and suddenly her arm disappeared into the earth. “Agh!” She lost her balance and fell on her side until she pulled her arm from the hole to show the others that her sleeve was completely soaked. “This is it,” she shouted. “This is it.”

They used their hands to grapple at the grass to clear the ground, and as everything was taken from the hole, a small well was revealed just six-inches in diameter and filled with water to ground level.

Tom leaned against the tree with the back of his head on the trunk. “That’s that then. What a waste of time. Why don’t we just get out of here?”

As if the moon heard his words and now challenged his doubts, it cast a glow onto the water in the hole.

Jesus gasped. They could all see the reflection of the moon floating on the surface of the water like a perfect round silver coin, even though the moon wasn’t full.

"Well you were right about that bit," Tom snarled, "but I don't think any of us are going to fit into that hole anytime soon."

As they all stared into the pool of light, Tom pulled up his hand to smooth the back of his hair and as he turned his head to the side, he saw something on the tree that made him jump. “Whoa!”

“What is it?” Mia said impatiently.

“I...I don’t know. There’s something on that tree.”

She turned to look at the oak. “There’s nothing on that tree.”

"Stand where I was and turn your head sideways."

Mia tutted as she moved into the same place Tom had stood. She was in the process of rolling up her wet sleeve. She put her head back and turned it to one side. At first, she didn't see it, but as she moved her head to a slightly different angle, she caught sight of something.

She jumped and moved away. Just as Tom had. “Oh, my goodness!”

“Told ya.” Tom moved back into position aside the tree so that he could get another look. The illusion was incredible. As he turned his head side-on, the tree looked like it had several layers, bark over bark, like pages of a well-read book with its leaves loosely bound. Without taking his eyes from the trunk and using the muscles in his back to steer himself, he sidled one step into the space between the first and second layer of bark.

Tom heard Keri scream when he stepped back into the clearing. It must have looked like he'd disappeared, as the Watchers had when they blended with the trees in Central Park.

Mia was in awe of the illusion.
They all were
. Layers upon layers of bark, only revealed at side glance when the moon was shining upon it. It was simple and yet incredibly clever. Jesus ran his hands across the bark. "It's a spirit door. The druids regarded the oak as the most powerful and significant of trees...its name, dara, or duir in Gaelic, means door.” He looked at Mia as he said. “This could be a way to the otherworld, to where the Watchers dwell.”

And all the while Mia felt something or someone watching them.