The Watchers (32 page)

From the front room I could hear nothing but silence now, but when I went into the hall I saw the Watcher again, its broad shoulders, wide chest and one enormous gloved hand extending between the bars and pressed against the rattling window. And I saw Dr Caxton and Frobisher. Their eyes were fastened on the giant like a magnet, their feet taking small steps towards the window.

‘Both of you get out!’ I yelled into the sitting room. ‘Take your eyes off it!’

Then I lurched forward with the same urgency I had experienced on the roof at the hotel. I felt feverish, the way you do when you have a terrible shock, and without thinking I held up the paper on which the incantation was written, thrusting it towards the glimmering Watcher as though it was a weapon. I did it without thinking, as though unseen hands had done it for me, and I screamed the words, ‘
Gha D’rcest Cthasska, Gha D’rcest Cthassiss
.’

I didn’t pray to God but put my faith in the power of the document between my fingers. I called on the power and knowledge within those words, crying aloud my defiance of evil, and before my eyes the enormous Watcher seemed to fade. I struggled to focus on it, uncertain for a few brief seconds whether it was even there at all.

Suddenly there was a blinding white flash, and even as I shielded my eyes with my right arm I knew what was about to happen. When the light dimmed and I looked again, I saw that I was right.

The figure had vanished.

*

My hands were shaking as I dialled Father O’Riorden’s number. When he answered, it wasn’t just his panicked voice I could hear. Somewhere in the background were voices and cars. Sirens.

‘What’s happening?’

People are leaving their houses, heading for the beach. They all look so dazed.’

‘Something’s influencing them,’ I said. ‘Something’s trying to take control of them. Have you seen Randall?’

‘No, why?’

‘Father, we need your help.’ I shot a glance at the nearest window into the yard.
That Watcher is still out there and it could come back at any moment
. ‘Ravenstone Farm. Come now!’

‘What do you expect me to do?’

‘Pray. We can defeat the Watchers with faith.’

A pause. Then Father O’Riorden said, ‘My God, I can see them. In the sky. Thirteen. There are thirteen of them! They . . . they’re so beautiful.’

‘Don’t look at them,’ I said, ‘not even for a second.’

‘You were right, my son. Dear Lord,’ he said, his voice a shuddering whisper. The line crackled and went dead. I banged the phone down.

Frobisher had appeared at the study door. His face was naked with shock. ‘Rob . . . she’s disappeared. She’s gone.’

The thought that Tessa had been stolen from our protection made the bottom drop out of my stomach. ‘That’s impossible. There’s no way Tessa could have got out.’

‘Not Tessa,’ Frobisher said. ‘Araceli.’

– 49 –

Despair made me freeze. And that paralysis was hardened by fear, the same fear that was growing in the eyes of the gruff journalist who blocked my way into the hall.

‘So what next?’ Frobisher asked.

I didn’t speak. The only answer was one neither of us wanted to hear.

When the Watchers are seen, disaster surely follows
.

Finally I found my voice. ‘We have to do something . . . We have to get away from here.’

A shuffling sound made me turn my head towards the door. Dr Caxton stood there with Tessa at his side. Her eyes were sharp with interest, or suspicion.

‘Who did you just call on the phone?’ the child asked. She didn’t seem in the least distressed that her mother had vanished from the house. And that was alarming.

‘The police,’ I lied. ‘Where did your mother go, Tess? What happened to her?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said.

Too calm
.
She’s way too calm.

‘So when are they coming?’ she asked.
Her body was perfectly still, arms rigid at her sides, but her voice had an edge.

‘Soon.’

‘When are they coming?’

The nearest light bulb popped. It was the bulb fitted in Grandfather’s desk lamp, and it didn’t just pop, it exploded.

‘
He
did it,’ Tessa said. Her gaze pierced me.

‘We all need to remain calm,’ Dr Caxton said, glancing warily at the window. ‘It’s a little power surge, that’s all.’

‘That doesn’t seem likely,’ Frobisher said. ‘The other lights are fine.’

‘Let’s go into the kitchen, where we can keep warm next to the Aga,’ Dr Caxton suggested. I promptly agreed, though Tessa was still looking at me doubtfully.

‘When are the police coming?’ she said again.

All along, from the first encounter – the ‘flying football’ that had chased Tessa and Araceli in their car on a lonely country road – to the UFO landing at the primary school, the phenomena had targeted this child. And now she wanted something from me. What?

Perhaps Father O’Riorden would have the answer. If he made it here. Grandfather had said we were dealing with demons. Well, weren’t Catholic priests empowered to defeat such forces? I had very little time to find out.

‘The police station is about the same distance as your mummy’s hotel,’ I said to Tessa, trying hard not to betray my rising fear. ‘They’ll be ten minutes. No longer.’

‘Do you think I am stupid, Robert Wilding?’

‘What?’

‘The kitchen?’ Dr Caxton said again, his voice tight with tension. ‘I really think—’

‘Because that’s what it feels like to me,’ the child said sweetly. ‘It sounds like you, Robert Wilding, think I am a gullible little
bitch
.’

Dr Caxton shot me a glance that was alarmed enough for me to read his concern.

‘Tell me who you really spoke to on the phone,’ Tessa demanded. ‘Was it your drunkard boss, Robert?’

The sneer in those words stung me.

‘Or did you phone your filthy murdering grandfather?’

‘Why don’t we put Tessa back to bed,’ I said, hearing the strain in my voice.

‘Or why don’t you tell us
what you are up to?’ She gave me a razor-sharp smile, keeping her lips together. Then her gaze dropped to the jagged remains of the light bulb.

There was a long moment of silence.

Abruptly, Tessa pinned a stare on Caxton and Frobisher. Their eyes were rolling back in their heads then closing as if they were going to sleep standing up. Suddenly their eyes snapped open in unison. Both men faced me, their faces masks of agitation.

‘Why don’t you answer her, Robert?’ Frobisher said.

‘Frank, now wait a moment. Let’s go into the kitchen and—’

‘I’d like to know too,’ Dr Caxton said.

The light above us flickered.

‘I was talking to the police.’

‘That’s what you said,’ Frobisher responded. His eyes were sharply scrutinizing. ‘I wonder, are you lying? What other lies have you told?’

‘I think we all need to sit tight and remain very quiet, all right? For all we know that . . . silver giant is still out there.’

‘And for all we know,’ Tessa said in a delicate voice,
‘
you
are on its side.’

I faced the child. It was clear that there was very little of the old Tessa behind those eyes, but I could think of nothing else to do at that moment except try to reason with her . . . or it. ‘I’ve already explained to you, I’m trying to solve this. The Happenings have nothing to do with me.’

‘But these events occur when you’re around. You can’t deny that,’ said Frobisher.

‘Frank, you’re being unreasonable. Something is disturbing your judgement.’

‘You’re not above suspicion either, Frank,’ Dr Caxton said.

‘Or you!’ Frobisher said, wheeling to face Caxton.

Just then a burst of static made us all jump. All except Tessa.

I turned my head to Grandfather’s radio set by the window. It was the old square sort from the ’60s, with a protruding rectangular handle, two dials and a slatted front.

‘The Met Office has issued a severe weather warning,’ said a husky voice from the radio. ‘Areas particularly at risk include parts of Pembrokeshire near St Brides Bay in Wales. In other news, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan has declined to comment on rumours of his imminent retirement.’

I pulled the radio’s power cord from the wall just as I registered what had been said. I realized my mouth had fallen open. ‘Harold Macmillan was prime minister in 1963!’

Frobisher took a step towards me. ‘News broadcasts out of time – whatever next?’

‘I have no idea how it did that,’ I said. ‘I swear!’

‘This is madness,’ Frobisher shouted.

‘You’re right,’ Dr Caxton said. ‘Madness is precisely what it is.’

I raised an apprehensive hand. ‘Look, we need to stick together. Whatever the hell is out there could come back at any—’

Another burst of sound from the radio. We all stared at the power cord on the floor. Unplugged.

‘Officials at the Ministry of Defence as well as the RAF have confirmed that unusual aerial phenomena have been reported in west Wales and that this activity is not attributable to any military operations. Reports are also coming in of strange lights and objects over London which are not visible on radar . . .’

‘Whatever you are,’ I said to Tessa, ‘however you’re doing this, just stop.’

A foul odour filled the study. The radio buzzed.

‘I don’t think you look very well,’ Dr Caxton said. It took me a second or two to realize he was talking to me.

Frobisher was nodding at me. ‘Doesn’t he look shifty?’

‘Yes, he looks strained too,’ Tessa said in a sweet voice. ‘I imagine this
is
a great strain – for such a forgetful man.’

I doubt my heart really missed a beat, but I thought for a moment it did.

We went somewhere
.
We went somewhere
.

‘All of you keep away from me!’ I said, backing against the wall.

On the radio the newsreader said, ‘The sky watchers have gathered. Fire will be produced from heaven in the presence of men.’

Whatever power was controlling the lights was also controlling the radio. And the child, and Frobisher, and Dr Caxton. I had no doubt that together they would make this remote and lonely farmhouse my prison. The safe, certain, knowable world that I had craved for so long couldn’t have been any further from my reach now. Fantastic forces and materializations. Grandfather gone. Araceli gone. Tessa, Frobisher, Caxton –
gone
.

‘Frank,’ I tried again, ‘think about what happened to the other children, the adult witnesses. You too, Dr Caxton. Tessa’s mind was susceptible; her defences were down from the day she saw the craft at the school. Your minds are stronger. You both need to stop listening to her. We’ll get away from here, warn the base, try to evacuate the village.’

‘I think you need to calm down,’ Dr Caxton said.

‘No! You need to listen to what I’m saying! Very soon everyone gathered at Giant’s Point for the sky watch will be victims. And if the military open fire on whatever appears, the whole world could fall victim. It’s our duty to help them.’

At the window the wind screamed as if offended, and almost at once the farmhouse roof began clattering. Tessa raised her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Stones,’ she said flatly.

The barrage intensified, and I thought the roof would surely collapse.

Tessa looked at me and smiled. ‘Chuck him outside.’

Both men gave me a long, cold look.

‘Don’t think about it,’ Tessa said. ‘Just do it!’

‘Listen to me!’ My voice rose to fever pitch. ‘We know what the Watchers are capable of. Their appearance always precedes disaster. We have a chance now to avert that disaster. If there’s evidence in this house drawing them here, we must destroy it.’

‘He’s lying to us like he lied from the beginning,’ Tessa said in a menacing but somehow amiable voice. Her eyes were on mine, narrow and mocking. ‘Throw him out.
Now!
’

I bolted for the door into the hall but they were too quick. Time slowed. I saw Dr Caxton lunging, seizing my right arm, felt Frobisher pulling on my left.

I wish I hadn’t looked at Tessa’s face just then, because I saw the impossible: her features twisting, contorting, hatred turning to pain then back to hatred. And then her face
changed
. Suddenly I was staring at a child’s body with an adult’s face. Selina’s face.

‘No! No, this isn’t real! Grandfather, help me,’ I shouted, but the stones on the roof just fell harder. I kicked wildly, straining against the two men as they dragged me towards the door.

‘It was your fault I died,’ Tessa said horribly. Not in her voice at all, but a malign impersonation of my friend’s. ‘Your fault, Robert. Your sin . . .’

I caught the edge of the desk, tried to hang on.

‘And you know what happens to sinners . . .’

Frantically I grabbed the door frame.

‘They are rendered powerless and devastated by the will of the Lawless One . . .’

I hit out at Frobisher.

‘For he alone lives in unsleeping matter, our king of phenomena . . .’

Dr Caxton pushed me hard, and I went crashing into the closed front door. Frobisher unlocked it.

‘No!’ I yelled. ‘Help me!’

‘And he welcomes you to drown in his sea of fire!’