The Watchers Wake

Chapter 42 - The Wake

Chapter 42 - The Wake

The lawn needed mowing. 

I stood looking at the house that I grew up in and this was my first thought.  I couldn’t quite grasp it.  The house looked the same.  The whole street looked unchanged.  Nothing looked any different.   How could that be?

I felt like a completely different person.  There was nothing inside me that resembled the Natalie Bovie who lived in this house with her neglectful mother.  I chuckled softly, I had thought myself so worldly and wise but in retrospect I was so innocent and naive.  And now, well now I knew what the world was really like.

Saying that, there were still huge chunks of information missing, I still didn’t know much.  The role we had inherited as watchers was still a mystery.  Exactly what it entailed would soon become clear.  After all we were the real deal now.  We were the Watchers of the Third Tower.  So the truth would have to come out now. 

Yes, I was no longer just a teenage girl in the final months of her Junior year.  My present and my future had been ripped from beneath me and I was now standing on a magic carpet that I had no control over.  My future was not my own anymore. I was no longer Nobody. I was now the Qaddis.  So it seemed right that everything around me should change too.

Not just the Qaddis, his voice smiled inside my head, my Qaddis.

I looked at Scott.  His eyes smouldered at me.  He knew what I was thinking.  Of course he did.  It wasn’t like I would ever have any secrets from him again. 

I sighed.  There was one part of me that was unchanged, still innocent.  Yes there was still one piece of me which wasn’t corrupted by everything that we had been through.  But that would change too now that we were living together.

Not necessarily Natalie.  I will wait until you are ready.

I am not sure I want to wait Scott. 

He reached for my hand but a sharp pain caused us to jump and turn.

Gabriel stood there with a scowl on his face and a short stick in his hand.  “You will behave in a manner fitting a Gentleman and a Young Lady while in my care.”

I blinked at him.

“Sorry?”

He didn’t answer he just strode into the house leaving us in his wake.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I guess we are about to find out.”

We were half way across the lawn when Jari’s motorbike pulled into the driveway.  I was about to continue my trek and ignore our visitor when a large truck parked casting a shadow over me.

I looked up.  What was this about?

“Natalie, we need to talk,” this wasn’t a question but a statement.

“You have a lot of nerve Jari.”

“Shut up Natalie, there is something you don’t know about Gabriel.  You need to...”

“Sariel!” boomed the voice from the front door.

“You are here already then,” Jari sneered.  “Remember the agreement Gabe.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” he growled back, “Have you forgotten?”

Jari huffed and rolled his eyes.

OK so these two weren’t best buddies then.   I looked between them but neither seemed to say anything, so I moved on.  Whatever their problem was it wasn’t going to be solved right now.  Right now I had other concerns.