The Watchers (4 page)

“
I’m not sure.”

She glanced out the window next to
their booth. It was the next day during lunch, and they agreed to
meet so she could tell him what happened the previous day. She’d
been shaken up when she called and he’d offered to come over to see
her, but she decided to wait until today. She had needed time to
process what happened at the capitol, and even after twenty-four
hours, she still couldn’t fully comprehend it. She didn’t even dare
tell him about the angel or demon. He’d think the rest of her story
was unbelievable. She needed something concrete, something solid to
tell him.

“
The governor was there?”
Alex asked.

She nodded and wiped her mouth with
the napkin. “He looked scared. He knows something we
don’t.”

“
Obviously. But is that a
surprise? I mean, he is a politician. There’s a lot they never tell
us.”

“
True.” She couldn’t argue
that point, especially when she was pretty much ordered to “forget”
what she heard, but how could she forget? “Whatever they’re
planning, it’s not going to be pleasant. I guess all we can do is
hope that it’s not serious.”

He tapped his fingers next to his
empty plate and asked, “Do you think they’re doing this in other
places?”

“
What? Planning some kind
of diversion to keep our attention off of what they’re
doing?”

“
That and sending out the
sound waves. Maybe that’s why everyone seems to be accepting that
the aliens are good guys. They’re being subliminally
manipulated.”

“
Most likely. It can’t just
be here.”

“
I wonder how deep it goes.
Do you think it has anything to do with the talk of a one world
government?”

Or maybe it went even deeper than
that.

Their server walked up to them. “Can I
get you anything else?” she asked.

Autumn shook her head. “No thanks.
Well, I guess a to-go box.” She motioned to her food.

The woman nodded and looked at
Alex.

“
I’m fine.” He glanced at
his watch. “I should get back to work.”

“
Okay.” The server handed
them their checks. “I’ll take your cards when you’re ready and get
that to-go box.”

Once she left, they set aside their
payments, and he let out a low sigh. “You got more than I did. I
can’t come up with any answers.”

“
I don’t think I got
answers. I just got more questions.”

The server returned to collect their
money and handed Autumn a to-go box. She glanced at Autumn’s money
and smiled. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but we no longer accept
cash.”

“
But I always pay with cash
when I come here,” Autumn replied, surprised.

“
Well, starting last
Monday, the new policy is that we will only accept debit or credit
cards.”

Autumn reluctantly took back the cash
and stared at the bills in her hand. “But this is all I
have.”

“
I got it,” Alex told her.
“Just add her check to mine.”

The server nodded and took their
checks and his card.

“
I can’t believe it,”
Autumn muttered. “Cash should be good anywhere.” She set the money
in front of him and thanked him.

He shook his head and gave it back to
her. “Don’t worry about it. Friends help each other out.” As she
dished the remaining lasagna into the styrofoam box, he continued,
“You might want to think about converting from paying cash for
everything to using a card.”

She sighed. He was right. It was time
she got with it and got a debit card. She couldn’t deny that it’d
be more convenient, especially in situations like this. “I guess
that’ll be put on my To Do List for this week.”

“
Why have you held off all
this time on getting one anyway?”

“
Because when I was in
college, I ran into some serious credit card debt. It took years to
dig myself out of it too.”

“
Well, a debit card isn’t
like a credit card.”

“
Maybe not, but the
temptation to overspend if I don’t have physical money is
better.”

“
So do what I do. Have a
savings account to hold most of your money and transfer over
whatever you need for the day. If you go over, the cashier will be
very happy to remove an item from your cart.”

She wryly grinned at him. “I see
you’ve had experience with that one.”

“
Once. And once is all it
took.”

She closed the box and looked at him,
noting that when he smiled, he was handsome. It wasn’t the drop
dead gorgeous handsome but a boy next door appeal. She could see
why her sister was attracted to him.

The server returned with his card and
a receipt. “Thank you and I hope you both have a good day.” After
she handed him the items, she left.

He turned his eyes to Autumn who
blushed and focused on collecting her purse and box. “At least you
get to go home and take a nap,” he said as he stood up.

She followed suit. “Yep. No Hampton to
give me grief today.”

“
How is the new hire
working out?”

“
She’s right out of high
school, perky and blond, and since she must have a social life,
Hampton’s making me work weekends now because I’m too old to have a
life.”

He laughed. “You’re not
old.”

“
Compared to an eighteen
year old, I am.”

They left the restaurant and he
glanced up. Curious, she also looked at the clear sky.

“
Have you seen the way the
alien craft looks as it hovers over a big city? I hear those things
span a good three miles.”

“
I’ve seen the pictures. I
don’t get it though. Why would they hover there?”

He shrugged. “The gods have returned
to watch over the affairs of men?”

“
Or so they
say.”

“
Whatever they are, they’re
not friendly.”

She shot him a good look. “Is that
alien still watching you at night?”

“
I’ve tried going through a
night without the pills, but I woke up and couldn’t move. It felt
like I was back at Area 51.”

Her jaw dropped. “Alex, why didn’t you
tell me sooner?”

“
Nothing else happened. It
took me five minutes before I could move, and you bet the first
thing I did when I could was swallow one of those
pills.”

“
That’s awful.” Hearing
this made her experience with Devon seem minor. She couldn’t
imagine having one of those things hovering over her like that. And
as she scanned Alex, she didn’t detect anything sinister around
him. “I wish we hadn’t gone to Area 51. I should have insisted on
it.”

Alex smiled and patted her on the
back. “That thing was by my bed before that incident, remember?
This isn’t your problem. It’s mine.”

“
It seems like there should
be something you can do to stop it.”

“
That’s what the
psychiatrist is for. I have an appointment with him this week. The
prescription he has me on helps.”

“
Does it?” Could it be that
simple? A pill and all the problems went away? At least until it
was time to take the next one?

“
I just take it one day at
a time. I’ll see you around.”

She said good-bye and watched as he
went to his car. She focused on him, trying to detect a demon
lurking around him, as she’d seen around Devon on a couple
occasions. True, she didn’t see the thing hovering around Devon at
the capitol, but there was something seriously wrong with him. But
Alex was a good guy. He didn’t go around telling governors they
might want to harm people to get the masses to
cooperate.

The masses. That was how Devon and
people of his ilk saw normal, everyday people like her and Alex.
Like her and Alicia. They were just numbers. Easily expendable.
Like sheep for the slaughter. She shivered. The masses not
cooperating? Send a diversion? Send out sound waves to lull them
into a false sense of security. And if they start waking up to what
was going on, find a way to get them back in line. She wondered
what the governor was going to do.

She watched as Alex drove past her. He
waved and she waved in return. There was nothing unusual about him.
No dark shadow. No creepy feeling. He turned out of the parking lot
and onto the main road. She shook her head. What was she missing?
What was it she didn’t understand?

Chapter Five

Alex tried to move in his sleep but
couldn’t. His eyes flew open and the alien was sitting on his
chest, its cold bony fingers wrapped around his throat. He
struggled to breathe, but the fingers dug into his skin, cutting
off his airway. He unwittingly recalled the three aliens at Area 51
who hovered over him. They held something over his nose and mouth
so he couldn’t breathe.

Unlike then, he wasn’t strapped to a
metal table. No. He was home in his warm bed, and this alien was
trying to kill him! Fear gripped him and held him securely in
place, and as much as he wanted to fight back, to defend himself,
he couldn’t. All he could do was stare into the alien’s
eyes.

It wanted him dead, and yet, it wanted
him alive so it could continue to torment him.

All Alex could do was stare at it,
feeling more helpless than he’d ever felt in his entire life. And
then...mercifully...everything went black and the pressure around
his throat was gone.

***

The next morning, Alex sat in the
waiting room and checked his watch. He hated to go into work late,
but he needed to see Dr. Reyes. After what happened last night with
the alien... He shivered. It never attacked him before. It had
watched him. Yes, it freaked him out. But it never touched him, and
it certainly never made a move to kill him.

He closed his eyes and took a deep
breath. He just wanted the alien to leave him alone. He wanted to
be able to get a good night’s sleep again without having to take
pills.

The office door opened and the
psychiatrist waved Alex in. “Good morning, Alex.”

Alex nodded and went into the nice
spacious room. He headed for the beige chair and sat across from
Dr. Reyes. Wiping his hands on his pants, he wondered if Dr. Reyes
would confine him to the mental ward of the hospital after he heard
what he had to say.

“
I heard you had a rough
night,” the older man said as he set a notebook and a pen on his
lap.

“
Yes.” Alex shifted in his
seat. The man was going to think he was loony. No one else had been
through this. Maybe some questioned the aliens’ motives, but no one
had their own personal alien trying to kill them. Taking a deep
breath, he said, “I saw the alien again.”

The doctor frowned. “Have you been
taking those pills?”

“
Yes. Well, I admit I
didn’t one night, but I wanted to see if I could get through the
night without help. You know?”

“
It’s very important you
take those pills.”

“
I know. I’m sorry.” Alex
felt like a child. He shouldn’t have to apologize. He was an adult,
and if he wanted to see if he could manage one night without the
pill, that should be his right.

“
Well, don’t worry about
it. What’s done is done.” The doctor smiled and scribbled something
down in his notebook.

Alex hated it when he did
that. It made him feel like he was being written up for bad
conduct.
Relax, Alex. Dr. Reyes is here to
help you. He’s not giving you a bad grade.

“
Why don’t you tell me what
happened last night?”

The man with graying hair gave him a
kind look that made Alex feel easier. “I did take the pill last
night before I went to bed. About two hours after I went to sleep,
I felt a need to panic. When I woke up, I couldn’t move. The
alien...it was sitting on me and trying to strangle me.”

The man frowned. “I see no marks on
your neck.”

He absentmindedly touched
his neck. It wasn’t even sore. “I can’t explain it. I felt it. It
was real. I know I was awake.”
Here goes.
He’s going to say I’m crazy and have me locked up.

“
So what happened while the
alien was doing this?”

“
Nothing. I couldn’t stop
him. I tried to move but was frozen in place. Then I blacked out.
When I woke up, it was gone and it was daylight.”

The man nodded, said and “um hmm” and
wrote something else down. Glancing up at Alex, he said, “What you
experienced is called sleep paralysis, and it’s not all that
uncommon.”

He blinked in surprise.
“Really?”

“
If you gathered together
six strangers into a room, at least one has been through it, though
not as extreme as what you experienced. Sometimes people just wake
up and feel terror that goes away as soon as it comes. Some people
see an old hag or a hooded figure in the room with them. Then there
are those who swear they see things like goblins. There have been
studies done on it.”

Alex immediately felt better. So he
wasn’t the only one. He dared to ask, “What about aliens? Has
anyone seen aliens?”