She who Watches
An old man is sitting in the living room of a small farm on the outskirts of a village somewhere in
The Great Plain, stroking his beard whilst listening to the joyfull ramblings of the children playing catch all around him. The fire in the chimney outlining his figure on the chair, grant him a rather shrewd and mysterious look.
"Grandpaaaa.... please, wont you tell us a scary story, playing catch is soooo boring inside the house" a small boy asks the man, sulking after loosing another round of catch to his older silblings. "Yeah, what a great idea" the other two kids tune in from behind him.
"Kehehehe, carful what you whish for Damien you know you can´t sleep to well afterwards and you´ll have to help out tomorrow, when we bring in the grain." - amused the old man leans forward shooting a glance at their mother in the kitchen, who rolles her eyes and nods approvingly.
"Awww comon im gonna sleep just fine, im not little anymore" - Damien protests "Well... alright but no complaining tomorrow then, let me just stuff my pipe anew"... "Yaaaay, the kids cheered as they gather in a half circle near the chimney looking at the old man expectantly.
"Ahhhhh..."sighs the old man, after lighting his pipe once more and blowing a huge circle of smoke into the chimney. "Then how about i tell you about the grey man?". "Nooo, you have told it so many times now tell us something new" - the kids complained. "Alright alright pipe down will ya, i´ve got something, have you ever heard of the
Plains Walker´s?"
"Our story begins in a small village, much like our home here in
The Great Plains, there once lived a small boy about your age Damien. And as all boys that age have in common he also never went to bed on time, his mother would tell him one thing and he did the other. Arhem..."
"Anyways one night the boy made plans with his friends to sneak out and raid the local in for sweets, he thought himself very clever as he pretended to sleep as his mother came to check on him, just to slip out the window as soon as she left." The old man now spoke in a lower register and looked at Damien intently through his bushy eyebrows. "Little did he know, that she who Watches came to town that night... their plundering a success a honeypie in hand they strolled snickering through the backstreets, it was a clear night when they set out the streets lit by the moon. However after leaving the inn it got darker, clowdier and the wind picked up, some thunder could also be heard in the distance, this of course did not deter our adventurous boys. They got to their favorite alleyway on the edge of town not far from the boys home..." "as they heard a screech" The old man intonating the voice fo a small girl - "they whirled around looking back into the alley, the boy even dropped the remains of his pie, a shadow approaching crying out, it was lydia the daughter of the boys neigbour, a monster amonster she screemed repeteatly" - "as the shock slowly faded and as he recognised the girl the boy breaks out laughting, "A monster, yeah right" he says, thats excactly why we didn´t bring you along, the other two chime in with the mockery and they all have a good laugh out out of it, even lydia calmed down somewhat she probably just imagined it anyways right? After they all stopped laughing, silence befell the town once more, none of them talked anymore a brezee rustling some fallen leaves through the alley and brought with it the chilliness of autumn, "brrr lets go home guys lest our parents catch..." the boy could not finish his sentence his eyes following the leaves blown to the entrance of the alleyway, there he spotted it... long dark fingers clasping the edge of the wall, he blinked and rubbed his eyes but they were still there, he looked up a little further" the old mans voice barely a whisper by now, the kids leaning in to understand him "there he saw her.. or it a long crippled neck and a large bulging eye peering over the roof of the house he froze, then staggered backwards as the long dark shadows of the alley start reaching towards him, he wanted to scream but couldn´t, run but couldn´t, all he could do was look on, his friends vanishing from his peripheral vision, with all his might he managed to rip his head away from the creature, he looked to the left, before his eyes lydia starts turning into a shriveled up mummy extending her arm to him, her eyeballs falling out of the dried up skull, a blood curdling scream and plead of help rose from her lips and then, silence as she broke down crawling in the boys direction muttering helplessly, in an attempt to get away the boy tripped over the corpse of another one of his friends, tears in his eyes he started to kick, stumble and thrash about just trying to get away, he got to the other side of the alley the creature not moving an inch, he ran and ran, but whenever he turned around the creature was one alley away from him clasping the edge and watching, just watching why was it just watching. His house now in sight the boy already panting heavily sprinted the last bit and jumped up to the window of his bedroom, he looked back out again... the creature not to be seen, crying he hid under his blanket, this has to be a dream right he thought, he closed his eyes trying to escape this nightmare. But he could not sleep the voice of lydia burned into his mind the sight of her falling apard shrivveling up in front of him, and he still constantly had the feeling of being watched, cold sweat running down his back. The air beneath the blanket got stuffy quick, his irratic breathing not helping, until he couldn´t bear it anymore, the boy gathered all his curage and ripped the blanket away staring out his window... " the kids held their breath as the old man paused dramatically "and he saw... nothing, even the sun was coming up already, somewhat calmed the boy turned away" "and BAHHH" - the old man screamed "Ahhhhhhhhh" . the kids joined in. "The eye... a black disfigured creature standing at the foot of his beed peering down on him, and... nothing but dust was left... " "had he just kept his eyes closed, like his mother had told him." the old man ended, clearing his throat "Damian, Marsha, Kilian... thats enough its already late" their mother called from the kitchen. This ripped the kids back into the living room, the fire in the chimney no more than gleaming ash filling the room in a red pulsating glow, as they got up and hurried to bed swearing to themselves to keep their eyes closed for the whole night leaving a smiling, content grandpa, enjoying his pipe in the living room.
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