Watcher

Chapter 17 Hidden Mystery

He’s speechless for a moment looking at a black silhouette standing in the dark without moving at all. He starts slowly walking backward but weirdly the silhouette is moving near to him.

“Damn! I cannot see that thing.”

He looked around and realize the silhouette near under the street lamp. He tries to lure it to move toward the streetlight so that he could see the figure fully and it worked.

“Ah, it’s just a little cat.” He breathes calmly and starts laughing. “I almost think that is something else.”

He walks closer to the cat and his hand touch the cat’s ears. It feels so soft and fluffy. He tries to pick up the cat and take it away, but suddenly something pulls the cat back into the darkness and it disappeared instantly.

“What… What is happening?”

His body is frozen, his legs feel so stiff, and his face is still tense as the events unfolded so quickly in front of him. He doesn’t know what to do now. The lamp street starts to dim and all of a sudden he hears a cat’s scream.

“I must go back to the orphanage now!”

His hands trembled endlessly and he quickly run to the orphanage. However, something wrapped around his leg prevented him from walking further and further. He falls with his face hitting the ground. Suddenly, his vision blurred and slowly his body is pulled. The fresh red blood soaked the surface of the ground and formed a groove.

“Bradley!”

However, there is the sound of someone’s stepping walking in his direction. It’s Madam Nigera. She holds something sharp in her left hand and cuts tentacles entangling Bradley’s leg. Not long after, a loud groaning sound hears and the tentacles writhed, releasing a strange, pitch-black liquid.

“Bradley, are you all right?” asked Madam Nigera curiously. “Hey, kid you must stay conscious.” She pats Bradley over and over. “Can you walk?”

Bradley nods his head. His consciousness is not regained fully, so Madam Nigera helps him to walk back to the orphanage. She quickly laid Bradley down in her room.

"Bradley, I will look for the red medicine. You stay here and don’t move.” Madam Nigera get out of her room and soon returned with a box of red medicine. " I'll put the medicine on your wound, but it’s gonna hurt.”

She takes a wet towel, cleans the wound with it, and drips the medicine on Bradley’s wound. However, Bradley wakes up and tries to scream. She immediately covers his mouth using another towel.

“Bradley, don’t make any noise.” She whispers to Bradley. “We don’t want to wake up Madam Theresa right?”

It feels so hurt, but he must hold the pain because they don’t want to make any trouble again. She asks Bradley why he does end up outside and Bradley starts to tell her everything. She nods hearing all of it and suggests to Bradley to be vigilant and cautious.

“You should take a rest here.” Madam Nigera walked towards the door. “I will lock this room from the outside, so no one will open this door except you.”

“Yes, Madam.” Bradley nods while holding his wound. “If I feel better, I will back to my room.”

“Bradley, don’t tell about this, especially about your wound to anyone.” Madam Nigera looks to Bradley with a serious problem. “the fewer people know much better.”   

Madam Nigera throws her room keys to Bradley and walks away, leaving Bradley alone in the room. He takes the key and lays back his body on the sofa and slowly his eyes feel heavy and finally feel asleep.

***

Strange dreams came back to his mind. He sat alone in front of the pool and looked at his reflection. His face looked fine and nothing weird happened. His hand touched the surface of the water and a small ripple formed. However, a few minutes later he felt something flowing from his nose. He touched his nose and saw a purplish-black liquid on his fingertips

“What … is… it?”

His hands did not stop shaking and his body was stiff. He looked back at the reflection of the water, but his face was nowhere to be seen in it. He moved closer to the pool surface trying to find his reflection. But, he found a pair of red-colored eyes and immediately pulled Bradley into the water.

“Oh my God.” He wakes up with cold sweat on his face. “The nightmare feels so real.”

Bradley trembles remembering all of it. He wipes the cold sweat off his face and quickly runs out of the room back to his room.  A few minutes later, someone knocks from outside.

“Brad, are you okay?” ask Caden curiously. “I hear a loud enough voice from your room, what is happening?”

Bradley knows if he talks honestly about what happened to him, Caden will not believe it and thinks he is weird.

“Oh, nothing. I just fell out of my bed. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay, be careful then.” Caden walks away back to his room with a yawn.

He breathed deeply as Caden's footsteps slowly fades away. He remembers exactly Madam Nigera’s word not to tell anyone about it.

"Madam Nigera will help me. I'm sure of it."

He walks over to the dark brown and fragile drawer containing Mr. Eugene's collection of stories. He opens the drawer and sees termites have eaten some of the papers. He quickly takes out the paper and slowly began to examine it.

Bradley loves Mr. Eugene’s stories, he thinks Mr. Eugene is amazing. Mr. Eugene's stories always amazed him because the scenes feel so real. Mr. Eugene used to love writing and always took the time to write often when he had free time.

“It seems to be around here somewhere.”

Bradley's fingers trace every line on the paper, and his eyes concentrated on every word on the page. A few minutes later, he suddenly finds something. A fragment of a sentence about a strange monster.

“A hidden monster lies beneath the dark, haunting the victims in their dream.”

Bradley pauses for a moment trying to absorb the words. A few minutes later, his face instantly tights and he takes conclusion Mr. Eugene maybe know the existence of the night catcher.

***