Monster

2. The Pocket Watch

1825 October 19th

Eight O'clock in the morning

The Pocket Watch

Elsa had shared breakfast with her father on that warm morning. They ate biscuits and sipped hot tea silently. After ten minutes too long of this, Elsa said, "Father, that gadget you had at the fireplace last night, what is it?"

Borys hesitated for a moment. "For the SKS. A weapon to kill those beasts."

He said the last word with such venom she almost flinched. "What exactly is the Safe Knight Society?"

He took a deep breath but said nothing, only ran his finger around the lip of his teacup.

"Father?" she pressed.

There was no answer.

She continued, "You are a part of it."

"I am, for many reasons."

"So tell me a reason. Have you ever seen one?"

"Why are you asking me this, Elsa?"

She pushed a lock of hair behind her shoulder impatiently. "Because I do not believe they are real!"

"You need to understand—"

Elsa nearly spilled her tea. "Just tell me! At least if you told me you saw one for yourself I might believe it. Until then I think this town has gone mad. And—"

"Your mother was killed by one!"

This shut Elsa right up, and she stared at her father as if he'd just splashed his hot tea in her face. His eyes were fixed on hers, cheeks a raging red, jaw clenched so tightly she could hear his teeth grinding together in the silence. She finally looked away, down at her own tea as she tried to collect herself, folding and unfolding the handkerchief on her lap. She took an unsteady breath and fought back the sudden heaviness in her eyes. Without looking at him she said, "All this time. For almost six years you've kept the truth from me." Then she looked him in the eyes. "You said she died of a sudden sickness."

He let out a long sigh. Slowly he reached into his pocket and pulled out his pipe, lit it, and inhaled through the mouthpiece. Elsa watched the smoke swirl out of the bowl like ghosts. She then pushed her chair back and stood up so abruptly, the surface of her tea rippled,the cup clicking against the saucer it sat on. Gathering her skirts,she stormed outside, past Matilda, who was watering the flower garden. "Miss, is everything alright?"

She received no answer.

Elsa sat by a tree on the hill behind their house and cried. She could not believe her mother had died because of something she believed for years were no more than folklore. So they were real. She patted her face dry with the hem of her dress and leaned into the tree like a shoulder of bark, closed her eyes and took deep breaths as dead leaves broke from the branches above her.

After being sad she suddenly felt angry. She finally understood why her father was the way he was; lost in his workshop making new weapons,always had that resentful gleam in his eye when anything having to do with the monsters or his dead wife were brought up.

Elsa was going to go outside that night. She was going to take one her father's weapons and walk the streets, hunt for the monsters, as well, and maybe kill one. If she had felt prepared for such a mission that morning, there was no stopping her now.

When Elsa made it back to the house her father was at the fireplace again.She began to escape toward the stairs when she heard, "Elsa, wait." Taking a deep breath, she turned back to face him, but he was staring at the dancing flames of the fireplace. "Come sit with me."

She hesitated but walked over and planted herself in the chair opposite him. Instantly he began talking. "Your mother was a curious woman. Brave. Smart. A bit stubborn." Elsa's heart skipped a beat or two at those words. Borys offered a little smile. "It's why you remind me so much of her. It's not just your dark hair, your smile, your eyes, even."

Elsa swallowed.

"She was wearing this when they found her." He held up a pocket watch. In the firelight the brass gleamed and for a moment it looked like a small sun dangling from a chain. He dropped it gently on Elsa's palm and she automatically closed her shaking fingers over it. Just as she unclenched her hand to take a better look, a tear or two dropped from her eyes onto the clock face, the time reading eight minutes after eleven. When she realized it wasn't that late in the day yet, and that the second hand wasn't moving, she looked at her father for an answer. "That's what time it was when I arrived to see her... I stopped the time. I could not believe that the world was going to keep on spinning without her."

More tears built in Elsa's eyes. She bit her lip until she tasted blood.

"I just want you to know that your mother loved you. She'd want you to understand why you cannot leave the house after dark. Elsa, they are real." He finally looked in his daughter's eyes. "I cannot rest until I find her murderer. I have to kill it."

Elsa's voice was breaking when she next spoke. "Let me help you."

This seemed to surprise him, and then he gave her a sad smile. "I would not be able to live with myself had you shared your mother's fate."

"I lost her, too, you know," she said. "I was twelve with no mother. I do not enjoy the idea of her murderer out there roaming around, either. Please."

"No." He said the word with some finality. "You shall stay indoors when there is no daylight."

Elsa said no more, but stood up and gathered one side of her dress with the fist not clutching her mother's watch, and stormed up to her room like she'd planned to do when she had arrived back from the lonesome hill and its leafless trees.

Despite her father's orders, the stubborn Elsa would follow her own plans.She admitted to herself that hunting with the SKS would make her feel safer, so she'd sneak after her father and stay close to them.

But first, she'd need one of his weapons from the workshop...