The Nightmare Watch - Hour 0: The Watch

Hour 0: The Watch

I rolled out of bed with a groan, not wanting to leave the warmth of my blankets. However, an annoying ringing told to tell me it was time for school. My eyes opened finding that it was a bright sunny day just like any other in Brightsdale. Always sunny, always happy. Never a rainy day. The only way to see any gloom and doom was to either look it up on the internet or turn on a TV, which was a rare occurrence as it was. Everyone took their joy in playing outside, gardening, having town events, which is all well and good if it weren't for nothing ever changing. Our town was untouched by any horror. When a person grew old, they moved away so we wouldn't have to experience the horror of their death, I supposed. They always said that they were moving away and just couldn't come back, but not to be sad that when they too grew old we would see them again.

I put on my uniform sleepily preparing for the day of smiles and laughter at the school. Everyone couldn't figure out why they shouldn't be unhappy in the happy-go-lucky town of Brightsdale, but I knew very well what was wrong. I'd had a taste of the outside. When it was my grandfather's turn to leave me... I followed after him. I was only seven at the time so I didn't get very far. I got far enough. As my grandfather walked from the town, I saw him shot by my own father who was waiting on the outskirts of the town. As his body buckled and fell to the floor, I ran to my grandfather. My father's eyes widened in shock as he watched me trot up to my grandfather shaking him.

“Wake up, Papa! Wake up! Why did you fall down?” I asked, the blood pooling about my knees.

My father walked up to me placing a hand on my hand his eyes colder than I would ever see them again. “Papa isn't going to get up, sweetheart. He's... He's dead. Something you will learn about when you are much much older and have children of your own. For now, it's something that you shouldn't worry about.” His voice was grave. Much older than the kind man I knew as my father.

When I was twelve, I decided that I was ready to understand what dead was. So I used the dictionary, searching through the words until I found what I was looking for.

Death. The termination of all biological functions or lack of life. Death is usually caused by old age if no outside influence should interfere. Such outside influences can include but are not limited to: disease, war, suicide, and homicide.

My mind still wasn't sure if old age or one of these outside influences so I continued to look up definitions.

Disease. An infection from the inside that impairs or ends biological functions.

I knew what I had witnessed was not something that had killed him from the inside, because there had been too much of that liquid I would learn to call blood seeping out so I moved to the next one.

War. A period of armed conflict between two groups of people.

Daddy wasn't a group against Papa. So, that couldn't be it either, although I could assume later that the town was a cold war zone that none of us could escape from. I went for the next word.

Suicide. The act of voluntarily taking one's own life.

I moved onto the next word, unsure of how that could have applied to my Papa.

Homicide. The act of a person taking the life of another.

That was the word that struck me cold. Homicide. My father had committed homicideby killing my Papa. This was where my quest to understand the truth behind my town began. Unlike most of my peers, I spent most of my time researching about the outside world learning what I could to help me understand that which was kept hidden from me by the rest of the town. Most times, this kept me up late as I tried to keep it from my parents.

It was difficult to figure out how Brightsdale worked because there were no records on the outside about it and on the inside, well it was difficult to get any real information unless you were an adult. My life became a waiting game until I was at last an adult to learn this town's secrets. At least so I thought, little did I know that my life was about to change and I was to learn more than I ever imagined.

The sickening yellow uniform seemed to make my skin turn a similar color. I suppose that the parents felt that it gave us a healthier glow and for those with darker skin it worked nicely. I, on the other hand, was pale due to my many days spent inside researching. My father called from the bottom of the stairs for me.

“Come on, Vera honey. You're going to be late for school if you don't hurry.” I peered down the stairs at him, the anger of my Papa's death returning for the briefest second.

I bit my lip. “I'll be down in a minute,” I answered and grabbed my bag filled with school books and my own notes of observations is the town. I picked up a light green sun umbrella and moving down the stairs giving my father a kiss on the cheek. Routine. That was all it was. In my heart, I hated him for what he had done as I hated this town for it's secrets. He led me out walking me to the school as we did everyday. Routine. Nothing more.

An endless cycle repeating until I was my parents age and I could learn what I yearned to know. The knowledge of why my Papa had been sacrificed for the town's idealized world. For it's wish to keep death from our sights as we grew. We came to the school.

The building was made of brick, standing shortly with a path of willow trees leading up to the wooden doors. The stone benches were aligned symmetrically from one another with a blossoming tree hanging over them providing shade from the sun. Eternal spring, eternal happiness, eternal lies. That was all Brightsdale was, and I wondered at the magic of it all. What had made up this lie?

“Have a good day, dear. Try to stay out of trouble,” my Father repeated his daily mantra leaving me to enter into the school.

I kept my umbrella open to protect my pale skin from the rays of the sun until I was safe under the awning. I took in a great big breath and pulled open the wooden door to enter the school. My eyes were met with the pale rose colors of the halls with white lockers lining either side. The sight always brought some kind of untamed horror at the tackiness of them. The doors were made of a sort of light wood. Everything in this place was about light, deception, lulling you into that false sense of security. Girls passed me on either side and I smiled back dully.

“Hey, how's it going?” a girl named Samantha from my class asked, “Are you okay? You look paler than usual.”

“I'm fine,” I replied and walked past quickly. I did not want to sit in idle conversation. I had too much to think about. My feet dragged across the ground as I trudged through the halls waiting for the bells to sound. My eyes were downtrodden not wanted to face the people that would be happily chattering and neatly standing on the edges of the wall. My foot then caused something to skid across the floor. I paused in my walk and looked down at the object.

A watch of some sort. I walked over to it still staring down at it. The wrist was made out of a substance. Leather? I picked it up. No... skin. This was dried up skin. I ran my fingers over it in awe and soon someone ran into me. Quickly, I stashed it into the bag for later study and turned around.

“Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry,” I said my eyes turning to meet the smiling face of our principal. I smiled back nervously hoping that he had not found my new macabre artifact.

“Vera, is it? You should watch where you stand. That's a good way to get run over there.” His gray eyes were vacant as moved on through the halls repeating that to the next person he ran into inserting their name where mine had been, and now I took to darting through the hall way.

“No running now, Vera!” the principal cried as I slunk past and into the classroom placing my bag on the desk to block the initial view from my desk. In I reached and pulled out the watch from my bag fingers tracing over the skin band. I looked at the obsidian back, my eyes wide as I saw my own name carved onto the surface. I turned it over a cap covering the face. There the words 'Here Answers Lie' were carved upon the cap and I opened it. On the inside of the cap it read, 'Put me on' and there the face stood staring out at me with a sharp bone hand pointing at the first number.

I bit my lip in hesitation tracing over the numbers. One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve.... Thirteen. My eyes darted between the face and the inscription before I began to slip the band on.

“What are you doing?” a voice jarred me from the action and I jumped dropping the watch into my lap. I looked up and saw Lloyd, standing above me. His dark hair was cut short and he had a grin on his face. “I say, whatcha got there?”

“Nothing.” My voice came out far more startled than I had intended. He knew that something was wrong with this town too. He witnessed his mother killed by his father due to disease. I had been the one to tell him about homicide. That his father had committed homicide just as mine had. It had bonded us together for the past couple of years and he yearned for the answers as much as I did.

“That doesn't look like a nothing on your lap,” he replied flatly, “You know that I'm about the only person you can trust here. Show me.”

I stared up into those brown eyes and he ran patted my head sitting next to me as I withdrew the watch from my lap. “I found it, yet it has my name on it. Whoever, this is from knows my daily routine enough as to leave this in the middle of the halls,” she answered.

Lloyd's lips pursed as he ran his own fingers over where my name was traced. “So you found it during the morning trudging... mind if I take a closer look?” he asked staring at me hopefully.

My hands relinquished the object and he traced over it just examining it carefully. Lloyd's look of concentration only grew as the time past. Soon, class would begin. He handed it back to me digging around in his own bag.

“It seems that you and I both have a mysterious benefactor. The handwriting is much the same so I can guess it's the same guy. I found it on the way to school. You know, my trek through the backwoods on the edge of town after I split off from my sister. Oh, where is it?” Lloyd continue to dig around before he withdrew a piece of paper and an earring.

“Are you sure this guy didn't get us mixed up? After all, I am the girl.”

“Ah, but my dear Vera you don't have an ear piercing, now do you?”

“And you do?”

“Oh yes, an... experiment for my dear sister. Had to be sure it was safe.” he answered, and reached out handing the note to me. I read it aloud quietly noticing that other students were beginning to crowd in.

Dear Lloyd,

A gift for you in your coming of age. It is time you find the answers that you and your friend have sought. Do not give up. The answers will soon be yours.

A Friend

The writing was neat just like on the watch. I handed the note back to him. “A steady hand our friend has. In any case, what do you make of them?” I asked, as he glanced back over the note biting his lip.

“Well, Option A is we get rid of these items and pretend we never came across him. That would be the safest idea. Or... we could go with Option B and say to heck with it and put them on to see what answers our 'friend' has lying in wait for us. Personally, I like Option B myself.”

I shook my head. “You might be smart, but you've always put caution to the wind.” My hand traced over the watch once again thoughtfully as I mulled it over silently wondering who our mysterious benefactor could be. A bell chimed over head and quickly I pulled my bag off of my desk and Lloyd put the earring and note back in his bag reminding me to do the same with my watch. Class began, but my concentration was elsewhere as I began to try and write out what all I was thinking about this 'Friend'.

He knew our routines. Well, I suppose he could be a she. Neat handwriting... androgynous. Yet, he made sure we were alone. Are we the only ones? I thought and looked out among the rest of my peers, yet as usual they were intent on the lesson. All but Lloyd and I. We must be. Or our 'Friend' would have ensured any others would have found us. Wouldn't he? If that is the case, then the quest for answers is mine and Lloyd's alone.

My fingers groped the watch and I began to slip in on. Lloyd watched me with an absent curiosity. I fumbled with it getting it to make a nice click with the obsidian around my wrist. My hand lay on the release lingering, I'm not sure why. Then, fire crept up my wrist and flared throughout my body as though I were being torn apart from the inside. A scream welled up and I...

***

WHOOOSH!

“VERA!” I cried as the papers whirled at her disappearance.

“Lloyd! Sit down this instant!” Mrs. McBerry's shrill voice commanded me as she strode over to me, taking my hands giving them a sharp thwap with her ruler. I gritted my teeth giving her a dark glare. “You should know much better than to make such an outburst.”

I looked around at the blank looks upon everyone's faces awestruck, and then turned back to Mrs. McBerry. “But, ma'am Vera she...”

“Who? Oh, god not your imaginary friend again, Lloyd we've been over this several times. This Vera character isn't real at all. Just someone you dreamed up after your mother left your father. Goodness,” She rolled her eyes.

My mouth was left agape at the blank faces as in seeming unison my peers turned back to their now empty desks as the papers were left strewn about the room from her disappearance. I picked up my bag and stormed out. Mrs. McBerry came back out of her classroom.

“Lloyd! Lloyd! You get back in this classroom this instance. Lloyd!” she shrieked as I shoved open the doors into the courtyard. I began to run straight out into the woods. My only safe place in this madhouse.

***

My eyes were left clenched shut until the pain passed and my eyes opened. The walls were left bleeding. No longer the calm, placid rose but a putrid reddish brown like that of blood set to dry. My desk was crawling with spiders as the room darkened and people disappeared from sight. Alone in this room, I could feel the clasp beginning to disappear. Quickly, I clicked it off and once again the rose walls appeared and back in the classroom I was. The desk next to me the only one left empty. The bell rang for lunch.

I walked up to Mrs. McBerry. “Excuse me, Mrs. McBerry. Did you see where Lloyd went? Is he all right?”

Her face contorted into a scowl. “I don't know what is wrong with that boy. He stormed out of the class exclaiming you had disappeared when you were asleep on the desk. In any case, have a good lunch Vera. I'll see you this afternoon.” With that she walked out shaking her head muttering under her breath.

I knew that Lloyd would have only gone to one place to cool off, the forests. They were his comfort whenever he was angry or sad. I left the school building as many students did during lunch and went out to the forest finding Lloyd curled up on a stump in the middle of his favorite clearing. In his hands, he held the earring and was staring at it.

“Lloyd?”

“Vera, where did you go? I was so worried... you disappeared and no one noticed. It was like you never existed to anyone but me. I was afraid. Where did you go?” he asked turning to face me. I could see the fear in his eyes, consuming as though he were all alone in the world.

I came over and hugged him tight. “I... I don't know where I went. It was a strange place but I think if you wear your earring you'll go too.” He pulled away from me holding it in his hands.

“Well, let's find out, hm Vera?” he answered as he began to put the earring on.

I grabbed his hand. “Wait, there's something else you should know. When I went, I almost couldn't come back. The clasp was fading the longer I was there. We should prepare first, don't you think?” I asked looking hopefully at him. He needed to calm down and think this through rather than being as impatient as I had been.

He gave a small sigh. “You're right. I'll get some things and meet you tomorrow at the school, and we go together this time. You understand me, Vera? You don't leave me alone in this place. Don't you dare. Okay?” his voice grew with worry and intensity.

I nodded and smiled at him. “I won't. I promise. I'll see you in the morning. Get there early please?”

He gave me a small nod in return and together we walked back to the school. Tomorrow our search would at last begin a lot sooner than we expected to ever get.